I’m no audiphile, but I’ve found Skullcandy to provide good value.
I have a pair of wired Hesh on right now. Great sound blocking.
I also have a pair of wireless Hesh 2s. Good battery life.
I got both for less than $100 each.
Sound quality is a very important factor when selecting a pair of headphones.
But as technology evolves, there is an overwhelming prevalence of smart phones and the factors involved in selecting headphones have changed as a result.
Other factors have become more and more important. I used those wired headphones that were actually fit inside the ears. At first, I found them incredibly uncomfortable and painful.
Then I bought a new smart phone from Samsung and they included the first comfortable pair of “inside the ear” bud phones. That was an important factor. I would very much prefer a painless pair of “inside the ear” phones to a pair of “over the ears” headphones with excellent sound quality.
But the more time I spent with these painless “inside the ear” head phones, the more awkward I found them to be. The cord was just not long enough and it continued to get stretched to its limit as the cord from the smart phone to the ears continued to be stretched to the limit.
Please understand the following is just my personal opinion and many of you may strongly disagree. I understand that and I respect your right to strongly disagree.
I tried a pair of Bluetooth cordless headphones (Sony MDR-ZX330BT). They sell for $100. The freedom and flexibility are magnificent. I would be happy to sacrifice some sound quality. The freedom from being tethered to a wire from my smart phone to my ears is a very important factor.
These headphones sell for $100 at Staples.
My point is that flexibility and freedom from being tethered to my smart phone is hugely important to me. It is worth more to some people than others. But I would be happy to sacrifice some sound quality in order to be free from that constrictive tether.
I don’t expect many other people will agree with me. But after trying cordless headphones, I would be ecstatic to use them over headphones with a cord - even if it means giving up some sound quality - which I’m not at all certain that it does.
The Sony MDR-ZX550BN sells for $120 at Walmart and offers several features that cancel noise and improve sound. They are identical to the MDR-ZX330BT except for a few noise supression features and sell for $20 more.
After trying both of them, I chose the less expensive ones as I could not tell the diff in sound quality when walking around in a noisy world. If I was in a quiet room, I might be able to tell the difference. But I really don’t think the noise suppression features would have much of an impact in a quiet room.
Nonetheless, the freedom from being tethered is amazing. I would never go back. I love these Sony headphones. They are one of the best pieces of equipment that I have purchased in a very long time.
Good luck to you in making your decision.
P.S. I walk around or drive around with my smart phone in my pocket and I can reach up to my ear and flick a switch to change to the next track or previous track or switch to the next Play List or previous Play list. I can raise or lower the volume or pause the player or Fast Forward or Fast Rewind. I can do all of those things without ever touching my Smart Phone. I love these headphones. They are truly magnificent.
The very best factor may be that the headphones are fully charged in just 4 hours and will then play for 20 hours continuously without needing any more charging. Isn’t that wonderful?
They are also extremely comfortable - very plus - soft plush leather. When I wear them, I feel like a Sultan or some other member of royalty. Try on a pair and you will see what I mean.
Here is a link to the more expensive Sony headphones:
I just spent several days researching this myself. I ended up with a pair ofAudio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones.
The M40x is right at $100, and is considered on of the best headphones per wirecutter. It has very similar frequency response to the M50x, but uses slightly smaller drivers.
I made this decision because I viewed a frequency response chart at this website.
As you can see, the headphones respond to frequencies ranging from the bottom of human hearing all the way to the top. (20 hz - 15 khz). There is only a few decibels of difference between the headphone’s response and a “flat” response where you get precisely the correct signal magnitude relative to the drive signal. And it’s elevated in the bass region and depressed in the “screechier” highers, which is supposed to be the right way to build a solid pair of headphones.
Due to this excellent bass but still accurate performance, and very low cost, it is supposed to be a popular headphone type used in studio mixing rooms. Of course money can buy better cans, but you have to spend $70-$300 more for some of the other headphones I considered. Ideally, you want headphones similar to the equipment used to mix the music you are listening to - things will be adjusted for that. For the same reasoning, you want a computer monitor tuned to sRGB and not wide gamut, because the artists, computer animators, film directors, and photographers creating the content you are viewing all used cameras and displays tuned for sRGB. (you could photograph for wide gamut, but it’s chicken-egg)
Habeed,
I looked at those headphones and they certainly seem to provide superb sound for $100.
Since there is no mention of the terms “Bluetooth” or “cordless”, I think it must be obvious that they connect to the source by wires.
I’d like to ask if you purchased the other two components that were offered in the “bundle”. It looked like a real good deal.
They were the portable headphone amplifier and the high sensitivity headphone microphone.
Both of these seemed to be priced very low when sold as part of this bundle.
I’d love to get a portable amplifier for my headphones. But I have never found any offered for Sony headphones.
Do you have any problems with the volume level on your headphones? Do you think you would get some help from a portable amplifier?
There are some tunes that I would really like to boost the volume level. Not many. But enough to make me want to get an amplifier.
Before I examined your link, I was never even aware that such a thing existed. So, I thank you for opening my eyes to that.
I purchased this device. I use the headphones with desktop and laptop PCs. So the power for a real amplifier and the digital files comes from the laptop/desktop. Since the DAC (digital to analog) and amplification is done in the box, and then the headphones plug directly into that box, there isn’t any hum or interference from graphics card, etc that I used to have with my old setup. (a nice sound card and a separate headphone amplifier)
That looks like an excellent product. I want something similar.
I use Poweramp on my smart phone and it has this option called “Limit” and what that does is if you turn the volume up very loud, many times it will begin to crackle. This option senses the crackling and prevents the volume from exceeding that level.
However, it seems to me that in order to turn it up REAL LOUD, this kind of amplifier would be excellent.
I never even had any idea that such a product existed. I have a feeling that I will really enjoy this.
Thank you very much for that info.