Ask Slashdot: Best Headphones, Earbuds, Earphones?

alexbgreat writes "What do you think is the best set of head-mounted loudspeakers for the money, with a cost of less than $50? Here are some featuresthat would be stupendous to have (in descending order of importance): noise isolation (not cancellation), flat/near flat response (I need to be able to hear bass, but I don't need my eardrums blown out), long-term comfort (earbuds usually hurt for me), and durability. Over-ear is preferred to anything on- or in-ear. Boom mics are permissible, as I may well use it as a broadcast intercom headset." If you have experience using headphones from different price ranges, feel free to share that as well.

Re:20 dollar sonies

[KingSkippus]

I know this will sound petty, but I'd rip my intestines out with a fork before buying something branded with Sony, given their recent history of putting out crap hardware, screwing customers over, distributing malware, suing music fans, losing online customer's data, etc.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. "But that wasn't their headphone division!" Still, I don't want that company seeing one red cent of mine. Sorry headphone division of Sony, but your parent company is scummy, so you have to pay the price of their shenanigans. I'm hopeful that there are plenty of alternatives for 20 bones that are just as good or better.

To anyone reading this, please remember all the times you've read an article here about Sony and though, "Wow, that's bad." Please don't fall into the "But their [whatever] is pretty good, so I'll make an exception and buy it." It's putting money in their pocket that they use to keep screwing people over so that we can see even more articles here about their spectacular douchebaggery.

Re:I know the answer!

[Anonymous Coward]

... except Grados all commonly have the mid-range boosted, with only some noticeable bass (not the reproduction of it, but rather impact of the bass), and weird treble characteristics. It's highly coloured, and it's not detailed. Bowl models, depending on your ears, are still superaural rather than more comfortable circumaural. It's good for rocking out without being fatigued for long wearing due to its light weight and easy potential for modding, but it's no replacement for a good home speaker setup.

Guy wanted flat response. Your response is entirely wrong from get-go.

What electronics can you buy new 28 years later?

[juventasone]

Koss Porta Pro [koss.com] don't just look retro, they're the real deal. They've been mostly unchanged since 1984, and Amazon has sold them since 1990 (up to 1,200 reviews now). It's nice to see a company stand behind a product instead of cycling them every 6 months.

Re:20 dollar sonies

[negRo_slim]

Sony is a large company and they put out many things. If you have a beef against them for whatever reason then more power to you. However the question was posed about sub $50 dollar head phones and I happen to have picked up a pair of Sony's for a road trip and I was very impressed with the quality, fit and portability. If your still upset about the rootkit and the removal of PS3 Linux that's fine. That doesn't apply to me however and I'm just giving advice and the OP can use it or lose as he or she chooses.

Re:You sound like you want some cheap DJ headphone

[Prune]

I used primarily the HD-580 for about seven years, until I switched to Stax electrostatic headphones (Omega 3, that cost about $5000). The 580 were around $250 when I bought them new on eBay and one could probably find them now for $200. Over this time period I auditioned several dozen headphones (I don't have speakers as I move frequently) and in the under $250 range there's nothing that compares. It's a sort of a sweet spot. Anything above that price point is an incremental improvement; most things below are a significant degradation. Even the $5K Stax are not that greatly better (but hey, felt good to buy myself a little present, and it was an excuse to build a high voltage hybrid solid state/tube headphone amp instead of plunking another $5K after one... http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/bluehawaii_moda1.png [northwestern.edu] )

Re:20 dollar sonies

[Anonymous Coward]

Just out of curiosity, is there a large (Fortune 500) manufacturer of consumer products that you think DESERVES your business and that of others here?

The point is that lots of people have a beef with practically every consumer-facing company, on the basis of product quality, or service, or policies regarding IP or customer privacy, or how and where they manufacture their goods, or the personality and character of the CEO, etc.

Re:20 dollar sonies

[mrchaotica]

At the risk of sounding AOL-ish, I'll throw in a "me too!" (Heck, I quit buying Sony when they were merely annoyingly proprietary -- when they insisted on putting MemorySticks in everything -- before they started being actively malicious to their customers.)

Besides, even if all you care about is getting a good product, there's probably still one by another brand that's at least equally good, so why not pick that one instead?

Re:you better stop watching movies & music too

[Nursie]

So we shouldn't even try, right?

Just sit back, drop another Xanax and keep blindly handing money to the people that are actively trying to screw us because, hey, it's unavaoidable, right?

You can take it that I disagree with your view of things.

Re:20 dollar sonies

[Sorthum]

I very much agree with you. The entire *reason* that those companies have so many divisions is that they want goodwill you feel towards one of their products (say, the Discman of old) to transfer over to other lines of products (say, their headphones).

However, what this means is that when one division (or, in this case, several) radically screw the pooch, a lot of people associate the negative experience with the company as a whole. Ergo, due to the CD / DRM issue almost a decade ago, I won't buy a Playstation, a VAIO, or a $20 pair of headphones that say Sony on them.

It's not just *GOOD* feelings that transfer over, Sony.

Re:They cost about $79

[catmistake]

Not as good as $200 Bose

Just something to consider... I know what you're saying, but "good" of course has different meaning for different applications. I've never heard Bose headphones, but I have heard other Bose audio, and while it sounds very nice, for what is popular today in what people want to hear, in my experience, Bose can almost never actually be considered having fidelity, that is, faithful to the actual audio that is being amplified... because I have discovered they are always incredibly bass heavy. In a studio, this might be fine for cans for a drummer... if an expensive option. For purely enjoying music, they are pleasant I have little doubt, Bose does some pretty incredible things. But you're hearing more than the artists intended, FWIW. I'm no Bose expert, haven't listened to any of their headphones, but I would expect if you tried to mix music with them, all your music would end up sounding weak in the low end... because you're mixing with a heavy bass handycap. If the music you listen to is traditionally bass heavy anyway, I wouldn't expect Bose to be considered good for that application, unless you just really love low end and don't mind that you're hearing more of the headphones and less of the music.

Again, I am no expect, but I would consider the best headphones those that faithfully reproduce music flatly, in all its gory sonic imperfection, and not try to boost any frequencies because the sound of it happens to be popular right now.

I like Bose radios for their compactness... big sound, small box... but I have no delusion as to whether the audio coming out of it is actually really what I am listening to... if that makes any sense (how much is the artist, how much is Bose?). Most people would hate the way studio monitors sound, but if Bose made such a thing in a compact box that didn't boost frequencies and faithfully reproduced the signal no matter what it was, I'd be all over it.

...just my uninformed $.02... YMMV