Looking for Studio Quality headphones (Audiophilic)

hi..

its time to spend money as IT Fest @ Expo is starting here in Singapore...

Finally i am buying myself a great pair of headphones

Pls recommend me some great Audiophile grade headphones ... Brand preference is
Sony , AKG, Audio-technica, Sennheiser But NO creative!

The Cans should be reversable (DJ style)

And the headphones should be circum-aural .. i.e. they Cover the Ear completely.

Waiting for your advice.

 

I use the PC 151 http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=500922

I didn't have that much money to spend on a headphone set, but this is the BEST for it's price. I have only had to use two of these for the past 3 years, and they are really great for gaming.

Obviously you can spend more and get more of the feature for a headphones, but this is the best if you have a budget.

Thanks m8

 

The Sennheiser HD 280 is an excellent set. Not sure if its reversible though.

 

As with most purchases, your budget is a critical factor?

Also, could you provide an example of a 'circum-aural' (aka sealed) HP which is also 'reversible'. I have to admit, I'm having some trouble picturing this concept.

 

Basically i am looking for DJ Style headphones NOT Gaming .. Headphones which offer extremely good sound quality. Budget is USD$100-$120

 

The HD280 is a decent choice, but if I were to get some cans at that price, I would get the Audio Technica ATH-PRO5V. It's a slightly less comfortable, but makes up for it in amazing low end and clarity.

If you have the cash however, I would seriously recommend the next model ATH-PRO700 SV.

 

Open or Closed ? Price ?
Open: HD650, if you've good AMP, else HD595 =)
Closed: Audio-Technica L3000/W2002 or A900
DJ (Closed) <> Audiophile (Open) !

http://headphonereviews.org/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums

 

You can't get 'audiophile grade' for $100-$120, but you can get very good, perfectly acceptable sound. I can't think of anything to add to what's already been suggested, If I had to pick one I'd suggest the HD280.

You might want to check out Headroom ( www.headphone.com) they're an etailer with a very good selection and a lot of solid info. Also, there's www.head-fi.org if you want to wade through audiophile talk about headphones.

 

Oh, I didn't read "$100-$120" %-)

Open: HD555 / Closed: HD280 PRO

HD555 > HD280 PRO

 

I have the HD280 Pro silvers and I love them, they are great headphones. The cans are not reversible, they only rotate a little so that they can be folded into a smaller size.

The best headphones in my opinion are Beyer Dynamics, they are very expensive though. They are generally all made in germany, whereas my hd280's are designed in germany and made in Ireland.

I would recommend the Beyer Dynamic DT770Pro, DT880Pro and DT990Pro.
They cost alot, but they are made in Germany.

Here is the link to their site:
http://northern-america.beyerdynamic.com/en/music-performance/products/headphones.html

Here is a site which has their best headphones, the DT990's for pretty cheap ($170)
http://www.compuplus.com/i-Beyerdynamic-DT-990-Pro-Open-Stereo-Headphones-1008759~.html?sid=62764hs94v8s589

K-TRON

 

Hm...you guys are not very familiar with headphones around here...

For closed headphones I would look into:
Equation Audio RP-21, sitting around $80-100 with good neutral sound, closed, reversible.
Ultrasone DJ models - these are not going to sound as good, but they tend to have good isolation. Good for DJing, not monitoring. Their monitor models Proline 750/2500 are in the $240 ballpark (if you know where to buy).
Sony MDR-V6/v600/v700 - tend to be on the brighter side, clear sounding, but may have boosted midbass. Good for DJing/monitoring purpose, but not for reference when mastdring.

That is it for the cans that are closed, reversible cup, and have good sound quality in this price range - everything else sounds inaccurate or plain bad.

Some contenders if not needing total isolation or reversible cup:
AKG k271s (needs alot of power though so a recording/monitoring interface is beneficial)
AKG k240s (much friendlier with regards to power needed, sound fine even out of an mp3 player)
Beyerdynamic DT770 (unless you can provide the power needed, the 80 ohm version would be the best choice. You would need to hit the used market though).
Audio Technica ATH-ES7 (a portable headphone, closed but not circumaural. It is made for listening to music more than anything else, so judge what purpose you need it for).

To scrutinize some recommendations:

1. HD595 is worthless as a DJ type of headphone. It sounds good, very good for home music listening.
2. HD650 is absolutely only for home listening, requires amplification, expensive source. Be ready to march straight to head-fi.com for information.
3. L3000/W2002 - out of production, extremely expensive, and do not necessarily justify the price.
4. A900 - nice can, but whacky isolation. Would not consider them for reference due to recessed midrange, boosted lower treble, and boosted midbas.
5. Audiophile headphones DO NOT HAVE TO BE OPEN. Consider: Audio Technica ATH-W5000, ATH-L3000, ATH-ESW9, Ultrasone Edition 9, Stax 4070, Denon D2000/D5000. The only one on the list I would use for studio purposes is 4070, but they all make excellent music/movie headphones.

HD555 is very whacky sounding, the above mentioned Equation RP21 is superior in every regard.
HD280 sounds worse, but has very good isolation (20-30 dB, pretty amazing for a headphone, not in-ear monitor).

Both sound strange. They are made to reveal flaws in recordings, and are good at what they do (by boosting particular frequency ranges in treble/upper midrange), but I would not consider them to have excellent sound quality.

 

Hah, you think Beyers are expensive and best... Stax SR-007 will run you $3000 to use, Ultrasone Edition 9 runs at $1500 MSRP (can be had for slightly over a grand for some retailers). At its prime Sony R10 and Qualia 010 went for around $3000 new, and their price is off the charts right now whenever one pops up for sale. All of these sound superior to everything Beyer has to say, but really...too expensive for all those that listen to the voice of reason.

Beyers are quite cheap on that scale =]

 

and +$7000 for Senn HE90 %-)

@nocturnal310: If you don't need to isolation, go for HD555
else A900, Beyerdynamic DT770-80 (a bit boomy bass), AKG k271s (suitable for studio not DJ), HD280 Pro (weak bass impact), Sony V6

AKG k240s is open

 

Anything over $200 is a pretty expensive set of headphones, considering most headphones are less than $50. Beyer Dynamics are very good, I have used them and I really enjoy them. I have not heard of those brands which cost upwards of $1000 a pair, because I am not in the music industry. Anyways, headphones over lets say $500 are pointless, because you are buying the brand name not the best product.

Plus, I do not think the original poster wants to spend over $300 on a pair of headphones, let alone $2000.

K-TRON

 

With regards to OP - yes we established that, I think there is enough recommendations here for him to ponder upon.

But, both of your arguments are a falacy with regards to sound quality and price. I understand that in your opinion Beyers are very good and there is no reason for you to spend over $500 on headphones (I agree they are good cans in their price range), but the fact that you'd paying for brand name is simply not true, especially when considering some of the manufacturers. I would also like to see an example of a 'best product' that is better than all the headphones I mentioned with very high prices, but costs less than $500.

With regards to sound quality and most headphones:
No, Beyers are not expensive on the basis that everything else costs $50. Beyers sound in the ballpark where things are adequate, while headphones around $50 are plain incompetent, and thus are actually cheap products. They will deliver the gist of things in the music for you, but they will generally leave out good portion of the bass work and there will be little difference between various instruments played together - thus you will mostly hear only stuff that is the loudest in the mix.
Beyers are competent because they do not lose majority of this stuff, but they are not capable of resolving / revealing everything in the record, which comes down to be a major issue when listening to alot of electronic, classical , and jazz records (Massive Attack, Daft Punk are very simple examples because about 99% of the headphones cannot reproduce the rhythm work that is oriented for sub-sonic bass of club systems).

So are the $500 headphones not worth it because you are paying for the brand name? Simply not true. Underlying economic reasons for high price:
1. Very high cost of research/design - time that went into design iBuds is about 1/1000th of time that went into design of Sennheiser HE90.
2. High manufacturing costs - due to much narrower margins on all the parts used, either alot of failed parts had to be discarded (the case with Sony MDR-R10 for example), or parts have to be produced under constant observation by the manufacturing staff, requiring much larger and more qualified staff.
3. Low demand (how many people can afford $1000 for a pair of headphones without withdrawing money from other leisurely activities?) - low demand implies that the fixed costs (machinery used for production) are going to be split between fewer products. This is on top of the machinery being more expensive because of high necessity for precision.
4. Many of these products did not have a brand name to pay for - people simply were not aware of them in the home audio market, and thus the brand name holds little class/style value. Examples:
- AKG marketed K1000 for home listening, at $1000 a pair, but AKG name is mostly known on the studio market since that is one of the very few products released for the home audio market. Note how their studio headphones rarely go over $200 in price (akg k701 is the only one more expensive). K1000 left the market about 2 years ago when it finally became unprofitable to manufacture anymore due to wear of the equipment (replacement had potential to not be covered within future sales). That and if I said 'my headphones are made by AKG', most people will reply with 'what? Not Bose? Why do you use that crap.'
- Stax is ONLY known in the audiophile market, and even then not very well. They are fairly well known in Japan (where they are located) - and the prices on their products there are LOWER. Exporting the product to USA/Europe and maintaining customer service here increases the costs substantially. The products use a different technology, which is superior for home listening - but people are always scared of something that is not widely advertised, which makes the sales even worse. Thus the high prices are simply to resolve the costs of production and attempt to make at least some profit.

Lastly - that does not mean there are no examples of paying for brand names:
most famous one: Bose. Sound quality of Bose Triport is equivalent OR WORSE than the Koss kSC75 (which costs <$10 on some days).
Noisecanceling abilities of QC2/3 series are worse than those of Audio Technica ATH-ANC7, as is sound quality once again, but QC series will run into 300s in price (ANC7 is around 200). ANC7 is also circumaural, substantially more comfortable.
Bose IEMs fail in terms of comfort and they have a tendency of falling out of user's ear. Comparably priced products that don't do that? V-Moda Bass-freq for example. And it sounds better, running for about $20 less than Bose.

But paying for brand-names is mostly plausible in the case of mass-marketed products, not high-fidelity products in a niche market. On top of that...music industry? Headphones used in music industry tend to be around $100-200, and their primary requirements are neutral sound, high comfort, and being indestructible so they don't get broken by pissed off musicians who have to play the same line for the 27th time to get it right. Noone really use headphones there for their potential sound quality because speakers are required for mixing (since majority of listening is on speaker systems anyways).