Good headphones that won't break the bank

[Shawn]

I'm in the market for a decent pair of headphones. Anybody know of some good ones in the $100 or under range?

Thanks.

[neveronfriday]

Right off the bat, I can only recommend headphones which cost around $180 or below, the Sennheiser HD 580, which are excellent. In Germany, they are only rivalled by the Beyerdynamic DT 931 (I chose Sennheiser for my stereo, but the Byerdynamic phones are excellent) for around the same price. No idea if any of those two are available around your place.

If you can still find the Sennheiser HD 570, they are quite a bit cheaper (at about $100) and are very good although voices are transmitted a bit too "thin" for my taste. Try eBay or some second-hand source.

My fave hi-fi mag (it's almost always spot on) raves (!!!) about the Philips SBC HP 890, which they say offer excellent value (!!!) for a price of around $100, but I have not had the chance to check them out and have no idea if they are available in your neck of the woods.

That's it from me, but I'm sure there are other great phones around. Some Sony headphones perhaps?

Cheers!

[wolff]

What will you be using them for?

What will be driving the headphones?

[SEK]

My Sony MDR-V6 (not to be confused with the quite inferior MDR-V600) have served me well for over 15 years and are still going strong. They are astonishingly "accurate" in their presentation, can be driven well by any home stereo amp. or receiver, a computer, TV, or a portable radio or player. They are quite comfortable (but not as comfortable as Sennheisers). The only possible downsides (for some) are their closed- (as opposed to open-) back design and their durable, non-detachable coiled cord.

The MDR-V6 is no longer made, but the virtually identical MDR-7506 (a "Pro" version) is still sold new at various places for as little as $90. That's just $10 more than I paid for my MDR-V6 many years ago.

When the original vinyl skin on the earpads started to flake off after about 8 years or so, I took some duct tape and removed the remaining vinyl bits, revealing the even more comfortable cloth-covered foam underneath. Others, at that juncture, have replaced the pads with some nice Beyer pads that are an exact fit, but I have not yet found the need to do so.

[king ubu]

I'm using one of these:

B&O U70. Any opinions? I don't listen with headphones all that often. Got these from my parents, who don't use them anymore.

ubu

[JohnS]

I'm not an expert and I haven't compared my Sennheiser HD 455 with anything else but they seem perfectly adeqaute for my occasional needs.

[neveronfriday]

Me again.

I've gone through so many headphones for so many different units that I have to say it really depends on the equipment and the listener, like with so many other things.

I have one pair of Sennheisers for my digital drum set, on which my twice as expensive other Sennheisers sound like crap (and vice versa), I had a pair of KOSS phones once that served me well for over 15 years (and shaped my listening curve in such a way that any other pair [no matter what the cost] sounded like cheap junk), I had top-of-the line Sony phones for a mixing board (on which anything else I had added too much trebble and narrowed the sweet spot too much), etc.

Of course it is good to narrow down the huge number of headphone models by ways of recommendations, tests or else, but ultimately you should test the phones you like on your own equipment. You'd be surprised how awful phones you liked in the shop can sound when you plug them into your unit at home. Believe me, I made some mistakes there myself in the past.

Cheers!

[WD45]

I just bought a pair of Sennhieser HD 202 cans for my daily abuse for $29.95. They are closed-ear, with pretty decent sound. For the abuse of going in and out of the work bag, and any from the gym they seemed like the choice for me.

My old pair of Grado SR-60s were nice, but the open-ear design didn't work for anything outside of the house. [That, and when I had touble with the cord, they charged me $25 to repair it!]