Topic: Headphone Recommendations

[crossthreaded]

I have a 50$ gift card to crutchfield and am thinking about picking up these Sennheiser HD 485, they are 80 bucks.  I have some very torn up koss 20$ headphones now.


will I be able to find a better deal in this price range?  I have found nothing but good reviews about these headphones so far, seem to be about as clear of sound you can get without stepping up quite a bit price-wise.


here is the crutchfield page http://www.crutchfield.com/p_143HD485/Sennheiser-HD-485.html?o=p&showAll=N&search=headphones


I'm not an audiophile by any means, I just need some decent headphones to listen to music at the library with.  Can't stand earbuds so those are out of the question.

thanks for any help!

[BC]

Some good info here

http://www.headphone.com/

[pjdavep]

I was going to steer him to headphone.com too, but then I got promptly distracted by the Senn HD800's...*drool*... 

Going back again, I don't see the HD 485s on that website.  Not sure if they are newer, or headphone.com doesn't think enough of them to carry 'em.  Their impedence looks low enough so that they could be powered by stock heaphone outputs (in lieu of needing an amp).  I love the two Senn heaphones that I have (HD280 pro for home, HD 650s at work).

Later,
  pjdavep

[rastasean]

I was looking for headphones a couple weeks ago.
If you want to spend a lot of money, most people like any flavor of the AKG headphones but those are easily $200 and can go up from there.

For less than $100, or a little over, this is what I was looking at:
Sony MDR 7506 (there is also the MDR V6 which came after these)
and the Sennheiser HD 25sp.

What I don't like about the 25sp is the fact that it has two cords for each side. I prefer one cable when possible.
I settled for the 7506s and there are dozens of people on here who have had theirs for years and had no issues.

good luck!

[crossthreaded]

hmm, thanks for the recommendations but those are a bit more than I was wanting to drop.  I wouldn't be thinking about spending this much if it wasn't for the gift certificate I have to crutchfield.


I guess I'll give them a shot, didn't ready anything bad about any of the other sennheiser units

[Red Boink]

Hi, I bought a pair of low end sennheiser phones for my son and it wasn't long before the cords into the muffs pulled out enough to render them useless.  Could be the particular pair.  Sennheiser customer support wasn't much help.  I'd encourage you to look at the Sony Md7506. 

I just checked, my son's were the senn 202s, so they were much lower on the quality scale.. the 485s look good, give them a go and let us know.  They get excellent reviews at Amazon.

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD600s that I bought new from Amazon about three years ago for $199 shipped.  They're a good set, but I like some lower end headphones, too.  One thing is if they are high impedance you'll need a headphone amp to get the best out of them.  The 600s need one and I use a Ray Samuels Emmaline Hornet to push them and it is a very good combination.

Good Luck, let us know how you like them.

Best,

John

[George]

By the way, the Sony MDR 7506 are identical to the MDR V6.  They sound the same and look the same.  The only difference is that the V6's miniplug is nickel plated and the 7506's is gold plated and that the 7506's are marketed towards the professional audio market while the V6's are marketed towards the consumer audio market.  I highly recommend the V6's for $69, they will last you a hell of a long time and sound excellent and anything, and I mean ANYTHING, will power them properly.  I've also tried the Sennheiser HD 201's and liked them a lot. 

By the way, these are also awesome headphones:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=yamaha+headphones&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11113999328709153225&ei=U1DfScGEEJOotAOnsvSyCQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=1&ct=result#ps-sellers

They sounded great when I owned them, only problem was that the pleather padding started to crack and fall apart.  At least with the 7506/V6's you can swap out the pads with the velour pads Beyerdynamic uses on their DT250 series headphones.

[rastasean]

By the way, the Sony MDR 7506 are identical to the MDR V6.  They sound the same and look the same.  The only difference is that the V6's miniplug is nickel plated and the 7506's is gold plated and that the 7506's are marketed towards the professional audio market while the V6's are marketed towards the consumer audio market.  I highly recommend the V6's for $69, they will last you a hell of a long time and sound excellent and anything, and I mean ANYTHING, will power them properly.  I've also tried the Sennheiser HD 201's and liked them a lot. 

By the way, these are also awesome headphones:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=yamaha+headphones&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11113999328709153225&ei=U1DfScGEEJOotAOnsvSyCQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=1&ct=result#ps-sellers

They sounded great when I owned them, only problem was that the pleather padding started to crack and fall apart.  At least with the 7506/V6's you can swap out the pads with the velour pads Beyerdynamic uses on their DT250 series headphones.

Frequency Range
    5 Hz - 30 kHz
for the V6

Frequency Range
    10 Hz - 20 kHz
for the 7506

oh, and a two dB difference for max input.

If you want a small portable pair, check out the Koss Portapros. I have a pair of these and love them and they are around $25-35 and come with a little case.
PORTAPRO

The PortaPro by Koss is covered by Koss' No*Questions*Asked Lifetime Warranty.

[George]

By the way, the Sony MDR 7506 are identical to the MDR V6.  They sound the same and look the same.  The only difference is that the V6's miniplug is nickel plated and the 7506's is gold plated and that the 7506's are marketed towards the professional audio market while the V6's are marketed towards the consumer audio market.  I highly recommend the V6's for $69, they will last you a hell of a long time and sound excellent and anything, and I mean ANYTHING, will power them properly.  I've also tried the Sennheiser HD 201's and liked them a lot. 

By the way, these are also awesome headphones:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=yamaha+headphones&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11113999328709153225&ei=U1DfScGEEJOotAOnsvSyCQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=1&ct=result#ps-sellers

They sounded great when I owned them, only problem was that the pleather padding started to crack and fall apart.  At least with the 7506/V6's you can swap out the pads with the velour pads Beyerdynamic uses on their DT250 series headphones.

Frequency Range
    5 Hz - 30 kHz
for the V6

Frequency Range
    10 Hz - 20 kHz
for the 7506

oh, and a two dB difference for max input.

If you want a small portable pair, check out the Koss Portapros. I have a pair of these and love them and they are around $25-35 and come with a little case.
PORTAPRO

The PortaPro by Koss is covered by Koss' No*Questions*Asked Lifetime Warranty.

Uh huh:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sony-mdr-v6-mdr-7506-a-218888/

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sony-mdr-v6-7506-a-18803/

There's countless threads about the 7506 vs. the V6 on head-fi.  They are the same exact headphone.  There's even one thread where a guy purchased the 7506's and one ear cup has 'MDR 7506' imprinted on it and the other ear cup had 'MDR V6' imprinted on it. 

Lastly, it's laughable that you would look to the frequency specs posted by the manufacturer...I never look at that them because surely you don't think a headphone can reproduce that frequency (5Hz vs 10Hz for the bottom end of the spectrum), right?

Oh one more thing, the Porta pros color the sound too much for my liking (way too much mid bass emphasis). 

edit, unfortunately the pics are long gone:  http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sony-mdr-v6-vs-mdr-7506-beyer-pads-1378/

[rastasean]

Uh huh:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sony-mdr-v6-mdr-7506-a-218888/

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sony-mdr-v6-7506-a-18803/

There's countless threads about the 7506 vs. the V6 on head-fi.  They are the same exact headphone.  There's even one thread where a guy purchased the 7506's and one ear cup has 'MDR 7506' imprinted on it and the other ear cup had 'MDR V6' imprinted on it. 

Lastly, it's laughable that you would look to the frequency specs posted by the manufacturer...I never look at that them because surely you don't think a headphone can reproduce that frequency (5Hz vs 10Hz for the bottom end of the spectrum), right?

Oh one more thing, the Porta pros color the sound too much for my liking (way too much mid bass emphasis). 

edit, unfortunately the pics are long gone:  http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sony-mdr-v6-vs-mdr-7506-beyer-pads-1378/

very interesting find of the v6 vs. 7506.

Not everyone will like the portapros but I find they work for the music I listen to.

[jlykos]

I recently purchased the Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones and really, really like them.  Darker sound than the 7506 (which I previously owned) and fills in the lower midbass better than the 7506.  The high end is not as harsh or brittle as the 7506 either.  They are certainly worth a listen and I prefer them to the 7506 after having used them for a little while.

[Red Boink]

To be honest, I use the 7506 for monitoring in the field only.  And, often, it is voice, background, and folley.  I agree the sonys have flaws, but they are workhorses.  I can use them for music without any serious problems, more than can be said about some more expensive headphones, like the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones.  I bought a set of those and they sound thin and harsh across the board to my ears.  My son got those, as he liked them for gaming, listening to music, and net bouncing while in the noisy company of the rest of the family.  But, I just couldn't appreciate any thing about the way they sounded for music.

[George]

I think the reason why I like my 7506's so much is that their sound signature is so easy to remember and you know they never steer you wrong.  Every time I've used them to listen back to recordings I just made they were spot on on their "assessment."   

[noahbickart]

If I were in your shoes, with the $50 at crutchfield, I would buy these:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_143HD280P/Sennheiser-HD-280-Pro.html?o=p&showAll=N&tp=887

-Noah

[Chuck]

If I were in your shoes, with the $50 at crutchfield, I would buy these:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_143HD280P/Sennheiser-HD-280-Pro.html?o=p&showAll=N&tp=887

-Noah

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD-600's that I use for critical listening at home and I love them.

I use the Sennheiser HD-280's at work. They sound good, but are uncomfortable to wear (at least for me) over long periods of time.

As others have mentioned, the Sony V6's are very good as well. Don't buy the V600's as they are highly colored.