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Good headphones suggestions?

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Hey guys, I’ve finally decided to buy me a really nice pair of headphones to mainly listen to music and watch movies in the computer at its finest, etc.

Could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance.

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Budget?

Massdrop has frequent deals on headphones ranging from reasonably priced to stratospheric.

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MTFBWY…A

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Jay said:

Budget?

Massdrop has frequent deals on headphones ranging from reasonably priced to stratospheric.

I was trying not to cross the $330ish line, but we’ll see. I’ll definitely check out the link you sent. Thanks!

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At $330, they better have good sound. The headphones I usually use are less than $20.

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If you’re OK with open-back headphones, I can’t recommend the Sennheiser HD 598s enough. Very comfortable for long listening sessions, but if you like heavy bass, these aren’t for you. They have a more balanced sound.

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Typical to my biases, if you’re in the market for something completely unfashionable, cheap, but very good and damn near indestructible, I’d recommend the Sony MDR-V6. It’s truly the same damn thing as the MDR-7506, minus the gold stereo plug. Response is pretty flat (in a good way), detail is great, I use them for all my audio editing.

Oh, and anything can drive them, from some cheap knockoff MP3 player on up. And there’s a good chance the guy who mixed the audio you’re listening to did it using these headphones (well, the 7506).

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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I’m very happy with the Beyerdynamic DT 770. They aren’t the prettiest headphones you can find, but the sound is great, they are super comfortable and they are built to last. I have the 250 ohm version and my current laptop can power them without problems (but I’m using an external soundcard anyways), my phone and mp3 player both are a little quiet.

Since they are far below your budget of $330, you should also get a soundcard with headphone amplifier, if you don’t already have one, as you will notice the difference to cheap onboard cards (even more so if you spend all of the $330 on even better headphones) and the headphone amp will definitely power the 250 ohm (or possibly even higher impedance of more expensive headphones).

If you want more mobility, you can also get a version with 80 ohm. (There are also versions with 32 and 16 ohm, but generally, you’d want to go as high as possible and 80 ohm should be fine, even for phones, if you don’t plan to listen at extreme volumes.) In that case you’d still want a dedicated soundcard for your PC, even if you don’t need it for the volume.

Ceci n’est pas une signature.

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To be fair I’m trying to spend a lot less than $330ish, but that’s as high as I’m willing to go if it’s really really good and durable. Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I still haven’t made up my mind but you guys are super helpful, and know a lot more about this than I do! Hahaha.

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My point is that $300 headphones won’t necessarily sound better than $100 headphones, if you have a crappy soundcard. Instead of spending all that money just on headphones, you will get more out of it, if you buy a soundcard for $100 and headphones for $150.

EDIT: Or just buy $100 headphones, that’s also fine. Just be aware that other components also affect the sound quality and don’t overspend on headphones that you can’t fully appreciate.

Ceci n’est pas une signature.

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They might not be the best or the most expensive, but I have always liked Skull Candy. They sound pretty good, aren’t very expensive and are fairly durable, which makes them perfect for me.

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Warbler said:

At $330, they better have good sound. The headphones I usually use are less than $20.

At the risk of threadcrapping…this. I don’t get you fancy headphone people.

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It’s the headphone I’ll be using to listen to most of my music and to listen to most movies that I’ll be watching in the next few years, so I really want to know what to do and really want to get a good one.

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Frank your Majesty said:

My point is that $300 headphones won’t necessarily sound better than $100 headphones, if you have a crappy soundcard. Instead of spending all that money just on headphones, you will get more out of it, if you buy a soundcard for $100 and headphones for $150.

EDIT: Or just buy $100 headphones, that’s also fine. Just be aware that other components also affect the sound quality and don’t overspend on headphones that you can’t fully apprechiate.

Yes, I’ll look more into it, thank you so much.

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TV’s Frink said:

Warbler said:

At $330, they better have good sound. The headphones I usually use are less than $20.

At the risk of threadcrapping…this. I don’t get you fancy headphone people.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ceci n’est pas une signature.

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Ha, check out the giant headphones on that dude.

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TV’s Frink said:

Warbler said:

At $330, they better have good sound. The headphones I usually use are less than $20.

At the risk of threadcrapping…this. I don’t get you fancy headphone people.

And I don’t get earbud people.
I work with audio as a hobby, so sounds is very important. But even when I didn’t, I’ve always wanted to have the best sound possible from any listening device.

Frank has made some VERY good points on sound cards! And I agree that you don’t need to spend mega bucks for great sound.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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ray_afraid said:

TV’s Frink said:

Warbler said:

At $330, they better have good sound. The headphones I usually use are less than $20.

At the risk of threadcrapping…this. I don’t get you fancy headphone people.

And I don’t get earbud people.

For one thing, the right earbuds are comfortable. Massive headphones are not.

For the other thing, I don’t watch movies with headphones, I don’t work with audio (at least not in any way that really matters), and yeah I listen to music at work all day but I just don’t care about professional quality.

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To clarify, when I say “I don’t get you people,” I’m not saying I don’t understand wanting higher quality sound. I’m not even saying I can’t understand paying $300 for it. It’s not like I don’t spend money on my fanediting projects. I just can’t imagine spending that much on headphones myself.

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TV’s Frink said:

Warbler said:

At $330, they better have good sound. The headphones I usually use are less than $20.

At the risk of threadcrapping…this. I don’t get you fancy headphone people.

If it helps: in part, it’s because getting incredible sound from speakers is really effing hard. Speakers are (relatively) expensive, they are large, room acoustics are never ideal without major investment (build a media room!), external noises are hard to block out. So instead of all that, you blow $80 on a set of headphones and have the audio equivalent of a multi-thousand-dollar speaker setup, and you can take them on vacation with you!

So it’s the fancy speaker people I really don’t get. I’ve spent more on a day at the amusement park than I have on headphones, but speakers, sheesh, there’s a money pit with no bottom, because the speakers are just the cheapest component of the whole picture, and in the end you can’t even take it with you.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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$80, while still high, sounds a lot more reasonable to me than $300.

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Well, my $80 set is pretty unfashionable*. But it goes well with my overall very unfashionable wardrobe. And as with all audio stuff, there is a point of diminishing returns on audio (more money can yield incrementally better results, but is it worth it?)–but some people are willing to go further beyond that point than others. $300 for good headphones is still an excellent deal over an equivalent-sounding speaker setup, though.

* And it should be noted I’ve been called a cheapskate by quite a lot of people.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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I don’t use headphones. I use some nice old RCA stereo speakers, not even a subwoofer.

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TV’s Frink said:

Warbler said:

At $330, they better have good sound. The headphones I usually use are less than $20.

At the risk of threadcrapping…this. I don’t get you fancy headphone people.

Haha this, except I do have headphones, but I got them for like $15.