I hate the headphones I use to listen to music at work. After 15 minutes they start to give me a headache, so I continually have to readjust them.
Are there any brands out there that will be comfortable and not cost a fortune?
I have some fairly expensive Sony headphones that are hard to wear after a few minutes too. On my PC I have a cheepo ($10) pair I got from Radio Shack, give them a try.
I too was looking for new headphones…in addition to the comfort and reasonable price i’d like some that really “trap” the sound. People a few feet away from me can still make out all the lyrics of what i’m listening to, even when it’s not particularly loud.
Some excellent headphone:
- Koss PortaPro. They kick the ass of most portable headphones. I find them pretty comfortable at work, and they are quite small (and fold up nicely for travel).
If you want really comfortable headphones, I recommend the Sennheiser HD497 (or if you’re on a budget, the HD457s). Sennheiser’s open air headphones are some of the best-sounding and comfortable on the market.
Can you give me an idea of what a “reasonable” price is? For long-term wear you’ll probably want circumaural(surround the whole ear, distribute the pressure from the earphone onto the skull around the ear instead of the ear itself) earphones rather than ones which press on the ear(supraural) or press into the ear canal(intraural). This is an example of a supraural headphone which will probably become uncomfortable and is not intended for long-term wear. It also bleeds sound at a moderate pace and may disturb close co-workers at higher volume levels.This is an example of a intraural headphone which rests inside the ear and is very lightweight, although the sound quality of such sets is often low. It is unlikely, however, due to the design being very close in to the ear, to leak much sound. Both of these designs are available in reasonable quality levels for <$20 and selections can be found at your local Best Buy or Wal-Mart from manufacturers such as Sony. Most circumaural headphones are above that range, but if that isn’t where “reasonably” stops in your price range, I’d recommend a nice pair of superaural headphones like the Audio-Technica ATH-M40fs of which I own an pair and can say are extremely comfortable and have a fine sound. If you’re a real audiophile and want the best available, then you probably want Sennheiser and should expect “reasonable” to jump up into $300+ range. At this point you’ve probably entered “investment” range and I can tell you that you could still buy the Sennheisers with confidence even at that price. My father had a pair of Sennheiser headphones from his radio talk-show host days(early-mid 60s) that lasted 30+ years and through eight highly-musical kids.
Good luck in your search. Hope you find what fits you best.
Enjoy,
Steven
Ugg, sorry for the broken links. I pulled them from a google image search and I should have double-checked they were still active. I hope the descriptions made enough sense without the images to back them up.
Enjoy,
Steven
The Sennheiser HD600’s are great headphones (I own HD-580’s, which are virtually identical), but I wouldn’t recommend them for work for the simple reason that most MP3 players and most PC sound cards aren’t capable of driving them. They are low efficiency and have a 300 ohm input impedence.
The Sennheiser HD-497 or HD-457 headphones are low impedence, high efficiency, and lower cost. (Under $100, and under $50 for the HD-457’s). They both sound fantastic, and are very comfortable.
I’m happy with the Koss headphones called “The Plug,” selling for around around $20. They’re designed to fit inside the ear, using foam pads to seal the ear canal to improve sound quality and reduce outside sounds. One small problem - the foam pads included with the headphones do not work properly. You’re supposed to compress these pads, then insert them into your ears before the pads expand. I couldn’t get it to work, which seems like a common problem, judging by the web pages describing how to fix this problem. Solution: buy some “ear filters” (used to be called “ear plugs”) poke a hole into them, snip to fit, shove onto the buds. Noise isolation is very good, depending on the quality of the noise filters you buy. I use Hearos - $4 for 7 pair, and I’m still using my first pair after four weeks.
I have six pairs of headphones and actually use them in distinct contexts. For work I would recommend the Sennheiser PX100 model. Very light, foldable for your briefcase or pack, excellent audio quality, and about $40. The PX100 are over-the-ear type, so you can hear ambient sounds to a degree–which is useful in many offices. The PX 200 are also excellent, but tend to isolate the wearer from the outside a bit more. There is an ongoing debate which one is better of the two.
I find that most of the under $100 Sony models have excess bass and mediocre mids and highs.
The Koss portapros are also considered good–though I don’t own 'em.
Thanks everybody - this gives me a good selection to choose from. I’m going to see if I can find any of these in the local stores so I can try before I buy. I consider ‘reasonable’ to be in the $50 range - it’s definitely worth that much not to get a headache!
Most cheap headphones cause listening fatigue. I use an ancient pair of Sennheiser HD 450 II’s. They weigh nothing, they have an RCA to phono adapter, they are open air so that people can talk to me while my head is filled with music and they are very accurate even using a PC CD drive socket. The general rule of thumb with headphones is that good ones sound about as good as speakers that cost 10 times as much. So investing $200 in really good headphones is a bargain.
Don’t buy anything that goes inside your ear, in a few years when the articles appear about hearing loss due to crap portable headphones you won’t be one of the sufferers. As a former live sound engineer I am horrified that people subject themselves to this. Pay attention to how deaf many (not all - some people are restrained) people are after they unplug themselves from the walkman or whatever.
I have these as well and am VERY happy with them- I’ve used them for about 2 years now with no trouble at all.