[CHG]

Can anyone recommend some decent headphones?

I'm looking at the Bose Quiet Comfort 15 at the moment, but also others.

I like my music, so don't want anything like the Beats by Dr Dre which in my opinion at just too bass heavy and not clear enough.

I'm also considering in ear headphones, as I do a lot of travelling.

Has anyone got any recommendations? Cheers

[Bungle009]

Senheiser are normally very good, and have excellent clarity which I think you will find the Bose lacks.

[jimmylimmy]

Bose seem overrated imo, I was looking for some new cans to replace my Grado SR80's for PC use and tried out various Bose and they arent worth the premium.

I've had Sennheiser before (various sets) and they are good value for money.

I ended up buying a set of Creative Labs Aurvana Live which are rebranded Denon AH-D1001's for the princely sum of £50 off ebay. The Denons were double that.

[Kerr]

Pretty much every bit of Bose equipment I've heard is vastly over priced for the quality on offer.

The beats by Dr Dre just put me off with the branding as do Skullcandy.

Some of the Ultimate Ears earphones are pretty good for the cash. Often good offers over at play.com

[briers]

Beyerdynamic dt250 (80 ohm version) - exceeds all expectations, love them.

However, no good for use in public.

Sure e2c were all the rage for in ears recently

[225_AB]

If you are looking for in ear then any of the Sure models depending on your budget would be my choice.

[MEGA]

Got to be shure for pure quality.

As I'm a bass head I currently have a set of beats on tour by Dre - superb headphones if you like bass...

I've had a set of soundmagic pl30's which were very very good for the money BUT build quality wasn't great. they died pretty quickly.

To be honest for overall sound quality from a non-amplified set of head phones there's no point discussing anyone other than shure though. Unless budget is a big concern in which case Sennheiser.

[nany82]

After checking out several Bose models, and the Beats, I went with the Bowers & Wilkins P5. The leather is soft and comfortable. The sound quality is great for a variety of music (from rap to rock to latin to pop/house). They also come with a travel case.

[CHG]

Thanks for the responses...

Mega - Knowing how much you love your music I can see your point of view. I like the Shure stuff, but i just find it slightly lacking on bass a tiny bit.

I can see why you have the beats.

Interesting comments on the B&W's - i've tried some and I wasn't blown away by them.

Ultimate ears are getting decent reviews so I might give them a shot

[Shadow]

I use Sennheiser HD650, Fostex T20RP (weird flat driver design) and Shure E5C (older model) with a mid-range dedicated headphone amp (Lake People G99/2), mainly because I do most audio on the computer. The amp is driven from the balanced outs on a TC Electronic Konnekt 48 firewire interface, which lives in a small desktop rack with my Pod XT. I've sold pretty much all the other gear as I'm doing everything in-the-box these days...

All these 'phones were chosen to be pretty flat, rather than exaggerate the sound too much. The HD650 seem to have the widest range, the T20s sound a tiny bit muffled by comparison which I put down to open back vs closed back design. The E5Cs are very unforgiving, and the choice of tips is vital to getting a good seal in the ear and good bass. They're also EXTREMELY sensitive to the extent that they WILL reveal poor design decisions in audio gear, like a noisy output stage with the gain control on the input. The attenuator you get with them goes some way to fixing this, but it's a faff with portable audio.

I've also got a cheap pair of Sennheiser earbuds (CX300 II I *think*, they're at work), they're the usual muffled bass-heavy crap you get 90% of the time. My advice, try several different types (hard with the in-ear jobs), and bear in mind the sound spill from open back types like the HD650 will be clearly heard by other people, if that matters.

HTH...

[Swiller]

If you are not bothered about sound leaks and only going to wear them at home...
http://www.gradolabs.com/page_headph...3af0dfe546af44

Real class for 110

[jimmylimmy]

they are the headphones I had recently - lots of good reviews but none seem to mention that the build quality is lacking

[p1tse]

i'm not a big music person, but wouldn't mind some half decent ones as will be travelling on the train a bit more going forward

currently using iphone boxed ones, which for me are actually ok, but would like something more comfortable, in ear still though

what's a good low budget set for my use?

[E92Fan]

I'm using a set of Klipsch X10i in-ears that replaced a slightly muddy-sounding Shure 315, also in-ear. The Klipsch are frankly quite brilliant - very smooth tonal balance with clear but sweet treble, a very well-integrated and expressive midrange and an agile bass. The bass isn't very deep, nor would you call it lightweight either. Best way of describing it is that it has great definition and makes the bass of other in-ear 'phones sound over-blown and one-dimensional in comparison.

They're no match for my conventional Grados, but then in-ear headphones are always a compromise. The Klipsch are the least compromising IMO and whilst not cheap, I think worth every penny. £190ish!

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Klipsch-Image-X10i/

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/headphones...view-50000544/

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/aud...-921466/review

[MEGA]

I should mention I was mostly thinking of in-ear headphones in my previous post.

If you are going for full sized ones then beyerdynamics are in my experience superb and in particular the DT 880.

The only issue with them is they want quite alot of input. They'll run off of an iPod (although it'd be a total waste to pair these phones with something offering such poor output quality) but not get that 'loud'. You'll want a headphone amplifier to get the best out of these (or other similar grade) headphones.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by p1tse

i'm not a big music person, but wouldn't mind some half decent ones as will be travelling on the train a bit more going forward

currently using iphone boxed ones, which for me are actually ok, but would like something more comfortable, in ear still though

what's a good low budget set for my use?

I would look at a set of Sennheiser's or the Shure 115 at a little more money. Both will be an improvement over the basic Apple ones, and the Shure in particular are very good for the money. An alternative are the Klipsch S4i which are pretty decent and also incorporate an Apple-compatible microphone and remote that you can use with an iPhone. Around £45-50 though so not cheap though much less than they were when they first came out.

[MEGA]

Originally Posted by E92Fan

I'm using a set of Klipsch X10i in-ears that replaced a slightly muddy-sounding Shure 315, also in-ear. The Klipsch are frankly quite brilliant - very smooth tonal balance with clear but sweet treble, a very well-integrated and expressive midrange and an agile bass. The bass isn't very deep, nor would you call it lightweight either. Best way of describing it is that it has great definition and makes the bass of other in-ear 'phones sound over-blown and one-dimensional in comparison.

They're no match for my conventional Grados, but then in-ear headphones are always a compromise. The Klipsch are the least compromising IMO and whilst not cheap, I think worth every penny.

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Klipsch-Image-X10i/

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/headphones...view-50000544/

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/aud...-921466/review

Hmm, not heard of this brand! Showing up my ignoranice. The shure's are good so if these are alot better then I'll have to look into them.

I tend to go through 2 or 3 pairs a year due to being a clumsy ass. Currently have some cheapy £30 sennheiser CX300 II's for the gym and as said the (very bass heavy and arguably poor sounding unless you do love the bass: Which is why I like them ) monster beats on tour for my out and about pair.

[guru28]

Ultimate Ears...I got 'em through advice from a friend of mine who's a professional musician...best advice I got yet...sounds incredible. See all those singers with the in-ear monitors? They're most likely Ultimate Ears. Just my 0.02.

[gIzzE]

What you plugging them into??

That makes loads of difference, some of the headphones recommend are great, but won't run properly off say an iPhone, will be quiet at best and lacking any sense of weight and sound very bright at worst.


If it is an iPhone the CX300 Sennheisers actually work pretty well, the iPhone is very bass light and a bit bright, these actually warm things up a bit, plus they are very sensitive so will go loud enough, and they have decent buds on them so keep background noise out well and stop others from hearing your music too.

Sennheiser SP25's are my everyday headphone, take loads of stick, sound good and just about sensitive enough to be driven by the iPhone, the iPod struggles with them though.

If you're looking for something for the home then that is a whole different ball game.

I use an Airport express into a Beringher DAC/Headphone amp and then different headphones depending on music, but none of those are any good for the train.

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by guru28

Ultimate Ears...I got 'em through advice from a friend of mine who's a professional musician...best advice I got yet...sounds incredible. See all those singers with the in-ear monitors? They're most likely Ultimate Ears. Just my 0.02.

I heard their off the shelf in ears and was very impressed, trying to decide whether to order a pair of custom fit ones.

[guru28]

Custom fit is gonna run you beaucoup bucks!

[225_AB]

Tried ultimate ears and certainly at the lower end of the range I was a bit disappointed with build quality so went back to shure's.