Weekend Open Forum: What is your favorite set of headphones?

Justin Kahn

Posts: 752   +6

Buying headphones always seems like an impossible task for me considering all of the choices and my unwillingness to try out pair after pair in a busy music store. Over the years I have tended to go for headphones from brands in the pro audio market like AKG, Beyerdynamic and KRK and have generally been pleased. Lately there has been a large number of options getting good reviews outside of the pro audio field, like say those from Logitech and Beats by Dre. While I will say they have a slick look to them and probably sound pretty good, something about the commercial nature of the Beats have kept me away. While there are options from both those makers at a fair price, I've yet to convincve myself to drop the cash on a brand of this nature.

Personally I'm interested in the over-ear options in the sub $500 range, specifically the AKG K 701 and Beyerdynamic DT-880 models (can regularly be found for under $400 now). Both sets sound great, and work for just about any application (apart from some forms of travel perhaps). For this week's open forum we want to know what your go-to set of headphones are and how you make a decision when it comes to buying a new set. Do you prefer to do your listening on earbuds, on-ears or the over-ear style? Are there any headphone makers that have let you down or surprised you in a good way?

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I bought my first gaming headset just a couple months ago, so they are my favourite. Super comfortable and no one complains about my mic quality.
-Razer Carcharias
 
Grado Labs SR80s. Had them for a long, then recently had them repaired. Just like new now. Excellent headphones.
 
I've spent well over $200 on mine, but heck it's a pretty good headset. It's obviously a bit fickle on some things, but I enjoy the external box for tweaking.

I can also mute my mic pretty quickly, or tweak my mic volume but only issue to me is the constant static hiss for a high volume. Other than that which is, for the most part removed on Skype it's pretty amazing.

Comfortable to the point of falling asleep with them on. Lightweight and pretty much doesn't bother me, being USB based is a bit of a downside to a lot of USB devices to use.

- Razer Megalodon
 
My current favorite is my Audeze LCD-2.2 followed by my SoundMagic HP100
 
I got two headphones sub 200 €.
The biggest feature of both of them is that u can replace the cable with any "standard jack-jack cable".
This is a must, the cable is something that is going to brake a day or another and u don't want to pay excessive prices for replacement with e.g. some AKG models or ofc the whole price of a pair coz the connection or the cable got snatched. Imho don't buy anything that doesn't have a replaceable jack-jack option.
Also they both have exquisite sound ofc.
- aiaiai TMA-01 : semi-open. very comfortable can wear it a whole day without noticing. sooo robust. U can flex it in any way. Smashed it on the ground several times without a trace done. Rocking this since 3+years and replaced cable at least 5 times using v-moda (with or without buttons-mic) and generic ones.
- V-MODA Crossfade LP : fully closed -> they are less "loose" then TMA-01 since more tight but less comfortable for me after some time. mb better sound but it's a close one.
 
Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee. The best of all the HD5x/HD6x headphones, without doubt.
 
Audio-Technica ATH-M50, after reading an article on TechSpot these headphones came up. I did my research and bought them, best headphones I've came across, the frequency response is perfect for my listening tastes.
 
I used HD555 for around 3 years paired with a Xonar DX.
Past 4 months I have been using Logitech Z623 speakers as I don't need positional audio anymore. I like the speakers a lot more and the subwoofer is mind blowing !
 
Sennheiser HD600
replaced the earcushions once.
haven't heard the HD650's but I'd buy the HD800's in a heartbeat if I had the cash.
When I think of how many hours of pure enjoyment listening...one of the best bargains around.
 
I've got the BeyerDynamic DT880-Pro, and they're quite good, not only in sound quality, but also in wearability. They do require a hotter signal, though.

One point that surprises me: why do people buy cheap audiocards and headphones? If you only game, I can understand it, but people spend quite some money on other hardware, yet listen to music on a $20 headphone straight from the cheapo built-in audio output. Why not spend a bit more and listen to the music they way it's meant to sound? Or is the music in reality not that important?
 
It will be my SteelSeries Siberia V2 Frost Blue edition. Guys on eSports love it, and so do I.
 
I was looking for good headphones about 3 years ago. So this information might be a bit out of date.
I went and looked at professional grade studio headsets (I'm somewhat of an audiophile) and ended up buying the AKG K240 MKII.
I am very happy with my purchase. I paid somewhere around the $250 mark for them.
They seem to be getting better and better as they age.
They are Circumaural (around ear) full size. Very comfortable for hours on end. I've worn them over 10 hours at a time and never had any problem.

Hope you find a great solution!
 
Audio-Technica ATH-M50s here...

they have replaced Roccat Kave (which I still think has better positional audio, but qua details, M50 is way better) - gaming wise...
 
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