Looking for good music headphones

I'm setting up a laptop with an audio interface to do audio recording, and I want to be able to have comfortable and good-sounding headphones to go with it. What kind of headphones should I be looking at? I would spend up to 200$ but the 150 range is preferable. Also, I won't be doing any DJing with the headphones.

Thanks,
Will

 

For just listening to then I'd go with some Sennheiser HD600's or something like that, but if your in the market for some recording headphones then maybe some AKG or Grado would be better. I personally use some Ultrasone HFI-780's but they've got a pretty big low end.

 

Bose QuietComfort series?

 

Bose - Buy Other Sound Equipment. For the price you can get much superior sounding equipment.

 

Oh my, yes. Definitely stay away from Bose. In my opinion, they're like the Razers of the mouse industry: overpriced and overhyped. I'd go with Senns, maybe Shure, Grado is good too. Depending on your listening tastes, in ear buds are far superior to anything that fits over your ear... what are they called, circumaural I think?

Anyway, notice I said "in ear buds", which are the ones that require a rubber or foam insert to fit snugly in your ear canal, not those cheap pieces of crap that just sit outside your ear hole.

 

...except for the fact that Razer mice are some of the highest performing and most comfortable mice ever made in the eyes of many people. Please, let's not start that thread again.

To answer your question, William, I recommend Sennheiser brand headphones. You will typically get more bang for your buck with those as opposed to similarly priced Bose models.

 

No, let's. I want to demonstrate that my brand of Kung-Fu is far more powerful than yours.

 

These 'in ear buds' your talking about are called "In Ear Monitors, or IEM" You can get much much better sound quality out of a full sized set of headphones for the price than you can out of IEM's. I had to spent 1k on IEM's to find something better than my 200$ headphones, maybe I could have done it spending 400$ or so on the IEM's but I just went strait to the top. And even then, the full sized cans do somethings better than my IEM's can.

 

I respectfully disagree. I have found that noise isolating "IEMs" are far superior in terms of comfort, audio quality and price when compared to cans that fit over my ears.

 

thanks a lot.. I'll check out those brands., just a question for syndrome though, just curious why some headpones are better for music listening and others for recording? aren't they pretty similar things? also, is there any headphone model you'd recommend more in the 150-200 range? thanks

 

Well, I'd disagree about Bose, but we got ours for free so I guess I don't have any comparison for price/quality...

If you want another brand, I've had good experiences with Shure.

 

Wow, I thought I posted this last night, maybe NBR's 404 caught me.

Some headphones are better for recording than others because some are 'neutral' while others have ramped up frequency ranges. If you record with headphones that aren't neutral then you might skimp on the area thats ramped up, so when you take that record to a neutral system it will be lacking that frequency range.

And about the IEM's being better, I had to spend nearly 1k to find something that I liked as much as my 200$ full sized cans. Its not even logical to say that IEM's are a better value, simply because of size they have to spend more money on them to get the sound out of them.

For suggesting headphones, you'll realize that they all sound different, each one has its own 'sound signature' so if you want them mostly for music listening then you usually want to pick something that matches the genre you listen to. For instance if you listen to rap or pop or something that needs bit of bass then get something thats bassy. As for suggestions my Ultrasone HFI-780's can be had for about 185 shipped to the conus, they're pretty bassy though.

 

thanks syndrome!
I guess bassy headphones like the Ultrasone HFI-780 would have me skimp out on the bass... would you know of any good neutral headphones in that price range? neutral ones would be great, as I will use them almost exclusively for recording (i guess i should have called the thread headphones for recording.. sorry for misleading title!)

 

Yes, you already mentioned that on the first page of this thread. So basically, what it's coming down to is personal opinion, nothing more. To the original poster, I highly recommend visiting a recording studio/store and trying out various cans and IEM's to find one that you like. Invariably, the people you ask here for opinions will tell you to buy the exact cans they're using right now.

 

Audio technica AD900....

 

I have grado labs sr 80 and shure in ear plugs both are awesome.
Some people don't like the in ear plugs, I like them when I want to cancel out environment sound.
Over the ear phones are mnore comfortable tho imo.
Both are awesome I'd go for a pair of grado's sr 80 isnt expensive at all for what they bring audio wise.
Some people don't like the earpad tho they feel a bit like spongy/hard if that makes any sense.
I'd recommend them tho.
Bose isnt bad imo but I do agree they are overpriced for what they bring, also they are often guilty of style over quality.
I do like my bose milkboxes on my ceiling tho

 

Do you wear glasses?

 

If you wear glasses then IEM's may be more comfortable, but I always though full sized cans were much more comfortable. That is until I got my custom fitted IEM's those are by far the most comfortable.

 

I have a pair of Shure SE210L's (IEMs) and they are great for all needs (MP3 (or for me FLAC), movies games, etc. They also block out 99% of outside noise (but this makes them not suitable for walking or running as your environmental awareness is dangerously reduced). I also have a pair of Sennheiser RS130s which are freakin amazing. But are not exactly portable.

 

Depends you want open or closed headphone, i owned Audio Technica AD700 an open headphone, very comfy and great soundstage.

or you can go for other great brands such as AKG, Sennheiser, Denon...