Headphones for home use Options

[wodney]

I'm looking for some decent mid-range headphones for use at home with my PC or hi-fi to listen to a variety of music and mp3s. Any recommendations re. Sennheiser kit.

My home set up is: Arcam Alpha 8 amp, Arcam Alpha 8 CD player.
My pc is just a laptop with a Toshiba Multimedia USB external soundcard attached.

£50-£60 is my budget.


TIA.

[Kitsuned]

You could start with the Sennhesier PX-100 for the pc setup. Those go for less than $40 on amazon.com and are highly recommended. I like them very much. USB soundcard should have no problem with them.

Home setup...can't offer much there. Only thing I have is the Koss Pro-4AA's but those aren't for everyone. You need strong neck muscles for one thing.

Read some reviews online and see what comes up. Good luck on the search.

[Tristen]

I am a fan of noise cancelation/reduction headphones because I work from home and need to be able to concentrate on my work. I also appreciate good quality audio from my headphones. I suggest you take a look at the Direct Sound EX-25 headphones for $50 and also the Sony MDR-NC6 headphones. If you feel like going for the top of the line, check out the Audio Technica ATH-ANC7 headphones. They are the best headphones I've ever used - better than Bose and anything else I've ever tried..

[WmAx]

The Sony MDR-7506(A.K.A MDR-V6) is one of the best units in this price class for linearity/accuracy. It is THE best in this class for build quality, and better than most that cost 5x as much for build quality. You can find the MDR-V6, factory refurbished, for as cheap as $50 sometimes. Regular price is $70. The MDR-7506 is $100.

Is it perfect? No. It has a narrow dip at about 200Hz and has some slight treble resonance that is slightly audible/measurable. Also, it may be too flat for general music listening, where as a slight gradual treble taper is generally more natural sounding, according to perceptual research.

-Chris

[ds_t]

A few weeks ago I got a pair of Sennheiser 555 from Amazon UK for £55 delivered.
Going from onboard pc sound with Sennheiser mx500 earbuds to a external emu 0202 with the 555s is a complete quantum leap in sound quality.

They also sound great on my Sony NW HD5 mp3 player.

[indybrett]

The Sony MDR-7506(A.K.A MDR-V6) is one of the best units in this price class for linearity/accuracy. It is THE best in this class for build quality, and better than most that cost 5x as much for build quality. You can find the MDR-V6, factory refurbished, for as cheap as $50 sometimes. Regular price is $70. The MDR-7506 is $100.

Is it perfect? No. It has a narrow dip at about 200Hz and has some slight treble resonance that is slightly audible/measurable. Also, it may be too flat for general music listening, where as a slight gradual treble taper is generally more natural sounding, according to perceptual research.

-Chris

Bought the V6 for about $60 brand new a couple years ago. After I wore out the pads, I replaced them with the Beyer pads. I don't think you can get a better headphone for that price, unless you just hate the sound of them )which some people do). They sound the way I want my headphones to sound. Could use just a bit more bass though.

This post has been edited by indybrett: Jul 29 2008, 00:04

[WmAx]

The Sony MDR-7506(A.K.A MDR-V6) is one of the best units in this price class for linearity/accuracy. It is THE best in this class for build quality, and better than most that cost 5x as much for build quality. You can find the MDR-V6, factory refurbished, for as cheap as $50 sometimes. Regular price is $70. The MDR-7506 is $100.

Is it perfect? No. It has a narrow dip at about 200Hz and has some slight treble resonance that is slightly audible/measurable. Also, it may be too flat for general music listening, where as a slight gradual treble taper is generally more natural sounding, according to perceptual research.

-Chris

Bought the V6 for about $60 brand new a couple years ago. After I wore out the pads, I replaced them with the Beyer pads. I don't think you can get a better headphone for that price, unless you just hate the sound of them )which some people do). They sound the way I want my headphones to sound. Could use just a bit more bass though.

I'm pretty sure the Beyer pads destroy the tonal balance. The Beyer velour/velvet pads are substantially thicker - placing the transducer from the ear farther, compared to the OEM pads. I did buy some of these widely acclaimed Beyer velour/velvet pads and proceeded to install them on a MDR-V6, and also had another one of my MDR-V6 on hand with stock pads(I have several MDR-7506 and/or MDR-V6 on hand at any given time due to reasons not relevant here). The entire lower-midbass range sounded reduced in level using the Beyer pads. The tonal balance was much more even with the stock pads. It was not a subtle difference, but since I did not bother to measure the effect, I will contend that there is a small chance it was psychological/placebo effect since I did not measure. However, I have measured the response of other headphone models with different thickness pads on the same phone, and the measured result on frequency response was considerable.

-Chris

[indybrett]

The Sony MDR-7506(A.K.A MDR-V6) is one of the best units in this price class for linearity/accuracy. It is THE best in this class for build quality, and better than most that cost 5x as much for build quality. You can find the MDR-V6, factory refurbished, for as cheap as $50 sometimes. Regular price is $70. The MDR-7506 is $100.

Is it perfect? No. It has a narrow dip at about 200Hz and has some slight treble resonance that is slightly audible/measurable. Also, it may be too flat for general music listening, where as a slight gradual treble taper is generally more natural sounding, according to perceptual research.

-Chris

Bought the V6 for about $60 brand new a couple years ago. After I wore out the pads, I replaced them with the Beyer pads. I don't think you can get a better headphone for that price, unless you just hate the sound of them )which some people do). They sound the way I want my headphones to sound. Could use just a bit more bass though.

I'm pretty sure the Beyer pads destroy the tonal balance. The Beyer velour/velvet pads are substantially thicker - placing the transducer from the ear farther, compared to the OEM pads. I did buy some of these widely acclaimed Beyer velour/velvet pads and proceeded to install them on a MDR-V6, and also had another one of my MDR-V6 on hand with stock pads(I have several MDR-7506 and/or MDR-V6 on hand at any given time due to reasons not relevant here). The entire lower-midbass range sounded reduced in level using the Beyer pads. The tonal balance was much more even with the stock pads. It was not a subtle difference, but since I did not bother to measure the effect, I will contend that there is a small chance it was psychological/placebo effect since I did not measure. However, I have measured the response of other headphone models with different thickness pads on the same phone, and the measured result on frequency response was considerable.

-Chris

You may well be correct. I think you can easily test this with any headphone. Push them tighter against your head, and the low end increases.

The Beyer pads have since flattened out a bit since I put them on.

[markeau]

As has already been said: Sony MDR-7506