Headphones Forum

[whoknows12]

Hey friendos,
Studying for exams in lib made me realize i need a good pair of headphones. I prefer an over-the-ear type (earbuds never seem to fit right). Also, I want to get a pair that doesn't let a lot of sound out and distract those around me.

Anybody have any good advice?

[evilxs]

Skull candy or Bose for over the ear style. Depends on your budget

[nealric]

Skull candy and Bose are garbage.

Check out the Ultimate Ears Tripl-Fi 10's. They block a huge amount of noise with the foam tips- and the foam means that fit is much different from most in-ear monitors. If you prefer over the ears, check out the Auio Technica ATH-m50.

Headfi.org is the best place to go for headphone advice.

[evilxs]

Your opinion. I love mine, I own them and actually use them in my library. The noise canceling bose works great and cant be heard by others. It is pricy but worth it.

And you follow up with an in-ear recommendation. I can feel the poster's pain, I hate in ear headphones. If you have advice mention a good over the ear set like he is asking for.

Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones is the number 1 ranked noise canceling headphone on that website. Go figure.

[nealric]

The audio technicas are over the ear. But really- the triple-fi's are MUCH different from the crappy in-ears most people have tried.

I should have been specific about headfi- read the forums. Everything else there is just an ad. Oh, and most headphone geeks will recommend against active noise canceling for library use. They might rank Bose as the best noise canceling, but that's because there aren't any really good noise canceling headphones out there. Noise canceling works great for low-frequency stuff like jet noise, but for human voices passive canceling is key. The problem is that you pay a ton of money for active noise canceling you probably won't use.

[teebone51]

+1 on the audio technica m50's. best law school purchase i've ever made. you can play your music as loudly as you want and the sound doesn't escape. the sound quality after you break them in after a month or two is really quite impressive. i've recommended these to a few of my classmates and they've been equally impressed. for 99 bucks on ebay these are a steal.

[iphone7]

Just don't get Beats. Then you'd be a tool.

[evilxs]

You did specify an over the ear set, my apologies. I need some more dang coffee. Torts final in T minus 22 hours and 5 minutes.

[kalvano]

Bose is overpriced garbage. Go with Grado.

[Gamecubesupreme]

Anyone who didn't recommend Sennheiser knows nothing about headphones.

[nealric]

Anyone who didn't recommend Sennheiser knows nothing about headphones.

Sennheiser makes some pretty decent cans, but they aren't the alpha and omega of headphones. Their best headphones are the HD650 and HD800 which I specifically didn't recommended because they leak sound, are expensive, and require a headphone amplifier. The HD280 would fit the ticket, but most agree that the Audio Technica's are a better buy at the $100 price point.

Bose is overpriced garbage. Go with Grado.

Grados are semi-open, which means they are not the best for isolation and will leak some sound. They are great sounding headphones for rock music though.

[SeymourShowz]

Only problem with grado's is they really start to hurt my ears after not all that much listening.. I like sennheiser's

[evilxs]

Exactly why I recommend bose. They are not over-priced for noise canceling headphones that no one around you can hear. They're meant for libraries and airplanes. Not for getting the most awesome of sound.

You have to decide what you want the headphones for.

[tourdeforcex]

depends on budget. and definition of good.

are you an audiophile or just regular d00d trying to study?

[nealric]

Exactly why I recommend bose. They are not over-priced for noise canceling headphones that no one around you can hear. They're meant for libraries and airplanes. Not for getting the most awesome of sound.

The audio technicas are 1/3 of the price, sound much better, and get rid of just as much library noise. Less fragile too.

[The Stig]

i have the sennheiser HD-280s, and they are great for use in the library (albeit as an undergrad ). I just picked up the audio-technica ath-m50s for my brother though, as they are comparable in price (maybe ~$20 more) and have better sound (aka bass) than my HD-280s IMO....

you can't go wrong with either of those models, but I will warn you that it is really easy to overpay for headphones (aka Dre Beats/Bose) which I had plenty of chance using at a previous job. The beats were not even close to being worth their price.

[dextermorgan]

Skull candy and Bose are garbage.

Check out the Ultimate Ears Tripl-Fi 10's. They block a huge amount of noise with the foam tips- and the foam means that fit is much different from most in-ear monitors. If you prefer over the ears, check out the Auio Technica ATH-m50.

Headfi.org is the best place to go for headphone advice.

+1.

Buy a good pair of headphones and you will never be able to go back to cheap, off the shelf crap again. Sennheiser is good for getting into good headphones. Definitely check out headfi.

[prismz]

Skull candy and Bose are garbage.

Check out the Ultimate Ears Tripl-Fi 10's. They block a huge amount of noise with the foam tips- and the foam means that fit is much different from most in-ear monitors. If you prefer over the ears, check out the Auio Technica ATH-m50.

Headfi.org is the best place to go for headphone advice.

+1 on the UEs

[whoknows12]

OP here. i'm a semi audiophile. don't really want to pay for noise-cancelling (they seem a little clunkier too).

m50's look pretty dank but are out of my price range. what about m35's??? they still look pretty dank too

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT ... 422&sr=1-1

[whoknows12]

and isn't this more fun than talking about exams??

[teebone51]

OP here. i'm a semi audiophile. don't really want to pay for noise-cancelling (they seem a little clunkier too).

m50's look pretty dank but are out of my price range. what about m35's??? they still look pretty dank too

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT ... 422&sr=1-1

i think as long as they collapse down, then you'll be fine. my friend got i think the m30's or something, which didn't collapse, and they cracked under the weight of all his school stuff after a few months. his fault, i know, but i think he could have avoided that problem if they collapsed.

[nealric]

m50's look pretty dank but are out of my price range

The M30s are a huge step down. You can get the audio-technicas for $100 shipped on ebay. The Sennheiser HD280 can be had for $80. Personally, I would just stick with el-cheapo headphones and/or some foam earplugs until I could reach that price point.

[bostonian]

Anyone who didn't recommend Sennheiser knows nothing about headphones.
Sennheiser makes some pretty decent cans, but they aren't the alpha and omega of headphones. Their best headphones are the HD650 and HD800 which I specifically didn't recommended because they leak sound, are expensive, and require a headphone amplifier. The HD280 would fit the ticket, but most agree that the Audio Technica's are a better buy at the $100 price point.

I have a pair of HD600s and they're awesome. They are expensive though (~$300).

Bose is overpriced garbage. Go with Grado.

Never heard anyone call Bose garbage before, although possibly overpriced. I know several people with Bose noise cancelling headphones and they swear by them.

[nealric]

Never heard anyone call Bose garbage before

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/362 ... about-bose

Problems with Bose:

They use flimsy parts in their over the ear headphones compared to competitors. Seriously, compare their Tri-ports ($150) to the ATH-M50 ($100) in build quality. The Tri-ports feel like you could snap the headband with two fingers. I've stepped on my M-50s and no problems. The headband has more than 3x as much material.

With Bose, you are spending money on advertising, not the headphone.

Bose's products have a frequency response that pumps up the midbass to make it sound "Bassy", but is nowhere near faithful to the original recording and actually loses most of the lower bass.

Yeah, they are better than the headphones that come with your ipod. But that doesn't take much.

[saladfiend]

I got these:

http://www.amazon.com/JBuds-Hi-Fi-Noise ... mentWidget

They are super-cheap, and I've been satisfied. Also, with Amazon Student (free Amazon prime), fee two-day shipping. These are less than $9. Get like 3 pairs.