Headphone Recommendations

[RyZ]

I don't know much about this stuff but I do have a good friend that is a full out audiophile, he's a builds his own speakers from scratch in his basement for fun and sells them off kind guy.

He generally tells people not to touch Bose and Beats by Dre if possible. Not because they are awful audio equipment, but just because you pay double what the equipment is worth to get the name/logo on the equipment. Some people just want that equipment no matter what but 90%+ of people can probably get equipment that does what they want/need for far less $$$.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by RyZ

I don't know much about this stuff but I do have a good friend that is a full out audiophile, he's a builds his own speakers from scratch in his basement for fun and sells them off kind guy.

He generally tells people not to touch Bose and Beats by Dre if possible. Not because they are awful audio equipment, but just because you pay double what the equipment is worth to get the name/logo on the equipment. Some people just want that equipment no matter what but 90%+ of people can probably get equipment that does what they want/need for far less $$$.

Interesting. From the you tube clip above it sounds like Beats by Dre put most of their money into advertising rather than research & development. It makes sense though, I see them in ads all the time and many pro athletes endorse them

[afc wimbledon]

One of the things you learn, if you spend any time in an audio store that seems obvious but is ignored by most, is you need to spend time listening to speakers, headphones in a quiet environment, your home, exchanging one pair for another, listening to a bunch of different tracks, types of music, some quite some loud etc.
I would generally buy a couple of pairs to take home and test and try against each other, returning the ones I didn't choose.
The other thing you realize when you work in audio is most people are happy with whatever they buy no matter how bad it sounds as long as they never compare it to anything else.
It's like TV's, no one thought there was anything wrong with crappy 25' tube TV's 15 or 20 years ago, now they'd drive you nuts.

[YYC in LAX]

Anyone remember the thread that popped up this time last year about that sketchy headphone website?

Lol need to bump that.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by YYC in LAX

Anyone remember the thread that popped up this time last year about that sketchy headphone website?

Lol need to bump that.

Sketchy headphone site?

[Rhettzky]

I got these for work because the cord on my old Sony's was driving me nuts. On sale so the price was not too bad and they really sound great for wireless headphones. Over the ear and are very comfortable. Not noise cancelling though but they do contain sound very well.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...cb94efd4eeen02

The RS180's made CNET's top headphones of 2014 and the only real difference I can tell between the two are the closed backs.

http://www.cnet.com/topics/headphones/best-headphones/

[MrCallahan]

Here's an interesting project that's about to come out:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ted?ref=newest

I'm almost tempted to give that a shot.

[-TC-]

http://en-us.sennheiser.com/over-ear...omentum-stereo - over the ear

http://www.bose.ca/controller?url=/s...adphones_apple - in ear for gym


I love both...

[FlameOn]

Looking for a set of active noise cancelling wireless headphones? Apparently the Turtle Beach i30 is quite good for both audio quality and gaming. Noise cancelling is also excellent from the reviews so far. Picked up a pair online but haven't arrived yet.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming-...ce-i30-review/
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/05/tu...ralian-review/
http://portables.about.com/od/headph...Headphones.htm

They are being sold for $199
http://www.turtlebeach.com/product-d...-force-i30/392

Grado Labs SR60

Fantastic. Possibly to pricey but worth a look.

[DoubleF]

Bose isn't bad, but it really doesn't make sense to buy them unless at least a good 20-30%+ is lopped off the price. Think 30-40% overpayment for beats. Even then, there are things in that price range that will be way better. Bose and Beats have reasonably good performance. However, both are horrible in the "best bang for buck" department. I disagree with people saying Bose = crap. But I agree they're often bad value.

If you have no idea, for items sold in (let's say Futureshop) Sennheisers are usually a good bet value wise. Sony isn't bad either for bang vs buck. JVC and Koss, hit or miss, do research first.

Skull Candy... Same argument as Bose and Beats. Monster = Beats.

That's probably the best I can do for a generic suggestion. Many headphones are actually ranked on an individual basis and deeper audiophile circles put loyalty on certain headphones and not specifically brands itself even though certain brands put many popular high end headphones that audiophiles enjoy.

EDIT:
If you want to foray further, I would suggest researching the following headphones:

ATH M50 (Audio technica) Absolutely amazing bang for buck value headphones.
DT 770/880 pro (Beyerdynamic) <- EDIT again. Holy Crap, the prices have spiked in the last few years. The DT770 used to be similar price to the ATH M50. I prefer these to the M50s
HD 280 pro/380/598 (Sennheiser) Generally safe choices. But depends on the sound "style" individual may like.
SRH 440 (Shure) Heard good things. Not sure if I would go for this over M50, but depends on how much you want to spend.

None are noise canceling, some are noise isolating and some are open concept.

I unfortunately don't know much about ear buds... because I don't prefer them. I have a set of dual driver JVC ear buds and used to own CX200 (Sennheiser) but after good cans... I don't like going back. Check out the long and McQuade website.

Again, nothing wrong with Bose. You are just paying a premium for no reason.