Ok finally picked them up today. Fired up iTunes and thought “Ok these better be worth th-- MOTHER OF GOD!” They make LMFAO sound like the LSO. Insane. Loving the coiled cord - the other night I spent 15 minutes on the floor trying to untangle my regular-cord headphones from the wheel of my desk chair, my cable wire and and a cord I’m not even sure is plugged into anything. They fit super-snug and are awesomely cushy.
I initially felt like an idiot for spending so much money on headphones to listen to Big Time Rush but now I realize this is a “quality of life” issue, heh. Here’s hoping they last a long time.
The Audio Technica model. Less than the Beats, but still what I consider to be pricey for headphones, especially since I can’t justify buying them for a job, lol.
I’ve got beats audio on my new laptop, I don’t know if that is the same thing. I haven’t noticed any improvement over my old laptop wrt to music on the issue though.
These are still the greatest headphones I’ve ever tried. But all the models I’ve tried have been under $20. But still.
Hard to tell if those seal your ear canals. If they don’t, try a pair that does, The difference is almost jaw-dropping.
Headphones, and specifically earbuds, are one of the few products that seem to improve pretty linearly with price, though I’m sure there is some point of diminishing returns.
I bought a $20 pair of Koss earbuds (I looked and apparently they don’t make them any more) that were vastly better than the originals that came with my iPod.
I bought a $40 pair of Sony earbuds (the first ones I had that sealed the ear canals) that was so much better than the Koss that I threw the old those away, even though they worked fine.
When I bought a couple more things that I could use earbuds with, I first bought a $60 pair of Sony buds that were a little oversized because they had little bass amps on the outside, and they were much better still.
Finally, I when I was shopping for another pair, I found these Klipsch Image S-4headphones for $80 that blew everything else out of the water.
They’re what I use now and the next pair I get will be either the same model or the next one up, to see of the improvement continues.
You can get ones that look somewhat similar and also have the flat cords for about $4, although probably not as impressive as your official headphones by Justin Bieber or whatever.
$4 is still twice what I would pay for earbuds. I can’t tell any difference the audio quality between the $2 earphones I use now and the $100 Shure headphones I bought once. I go through headphones very quickly, the Shures did not last 50 times as long as the $2 ones and it was cheaper to just buy 5 or 10 of the $2 ones every year instead of sending the Shures back for repair every 3 months.
You mentioned unthread that you had not heard of Grado. Not too surprising as they’re not cell known outside of the headphone geek and audiophile community. It’s worth you while to try to find a pair to try out. I bought a pair of their SR125s several years ago, and my first listen was a revelatory experience. I owned many pairs of headphones and junked them all at that point, with the exception of my Etymotics, which I still use for travel. That’s the weak point of the Grados, in that they’re open-back, which means that they leak quite a bit of sound.
Sadly, they’re dying on me now. I plugged them into guitar effects processor with the volume waaaaay up and blew the left side. Now I get a kazoo effect on certain low notes, which is not something I’d ever say I was hoping for. But I’ll probably buy the same thing ahgain, for what that’s worth.