I am in the market for some over the ear headphones to listen to my mp3 player with. I am no audiophile, so I don’t need or want anything top of the line, and am only wanting to spend around $100.00 at the most, but I have no idea what’s good or what isn’t. I did check out some Bose headphones at Best Buy that were really nice and comfortable, but they were twice what I was comfortable spending. Does anyone have any recommendations for quality headphones in my price-range?
When you say over-the-ear, you mean traditional, full-sized headphones, right?
Be aware that there are two types of headphones: open-backed and closed-backed. (aka open or closed.) On open phones, the housing of the phones are perforated, so the sound that comes off of the back of the diaphragm (the side opposite your ear) just goes off into space. This means others around you can hear the music, and it means that open headphones provide no isolation whatsoever from outside sounds.
Closed headphones are what most people think of, where the housing is solid, so it keeps the sound from leaking and it isolates you from outside sounds. Open headphones generally give you better sound for the money, because the sound from the back of the diaphragm goes off into space instead of reflecting back off of the earcup and interfering with the sound from the front. However, open phones are useless in a noisy environment like an airplane, or if you have others close by (in a library etc) who you don’t want to hear your music.
I don’t have enough experience to recommend particular models, but some generally respected manufacturers to look at are Sennheiser, Grado, AKG, Beyerdynamic, and Audio-Technica.
Are you looking for open or closed phones?
There are headphone forums at http://www.head-fi.org/ . They’re very active, so if you search I’m sure someone has asked the same question before.
Right. Full sized headphones that cup the ear, and don’t just sit on them. And I want closed, I guess. I am particularly interested in noise cancelling models, but I apparently forgot to mention that in my OP.’
I’ll check out your link. Thanks!
The Sennheiser 280 for $80 is the best full sized headphone under $100 if you like flat, analytical headphones. They aren’t colored - they don’t distort the music like a lot of headphones are designed to do because people find various colorings to be pleasant - they’re more like monitor headphones. But they’re very accurate and very good.
You need a decent source to drive them. They’ll work off most portables but depending on which mp3 players you use you’ll start to notice the failings of the device - like most apple products have pretty poor sound quality and an unusable EQ. They also sound like ass when driven off my onboard sound on my computer but sound great on a simple audigy 2 zs.
I’m just parroting other people’s suggestions, but I’ve heard a lot of people recommend the Audio Technica ATH-M50, which is a closed can around $100.
I’m also in the market for phones around that price, but I’m probably going to get open phones. I’ve heard good things about the Audio Technica ATH-AD700, but it has weaker bass than most headphones at that price, so I’m not sure if I’d be happy about that.