Recommend headphone & earphone?

By "showy", I presume you mean....well, small or discreet, which kind of confused me because all the Sennheiser headphones I've seen (at least the more popular ones) have been bigger. I guess you aren't worried about price, though. I'd stay away from Beats. Apparently they break easy. I had a pair of Beats (in-ear) and they blew out within a few months. Sennheiser HD 280 PRO's would be your best bet. I've heard nothing but good things about them.

 

My home pair is a Sony MDR XB700. They're bulky, but they serve the job really well, and the sound quality is excellent. Some reviews say that they burn your ears, but that only happens if you wear them too tightly, and they are adjustable, so that shouldn't be a problem.

My "on the go" pair is a Sony MDR E10. The quality is by far the best I've heard in any earbud headphones (and since they're earbuds, they're certainly not too showy). For the price, they're extremely good.

 

Considering this is my job, I may be able to help xD

Do you want In Ear Headphones or Over the Ear headphones? (Or On-Ear for the matter?)

And what would your budget consist of?

 

I have a pair of Bose in-ear headphones and I love them. I have two Bose pairs, actually. First one I got a couple years back, and then I got a new pair a few months ago (they have a microphone so I can make calls with them as well). They're a million times better than the apple iphone ones.

 

I currently use complimentary headphones from Delta Airlines. Yeah, but you're looking for an upgrade, so I'll back off.

 

Sennheiser CX 400 II...is a nice in ear/earbud one HOWEVER...this was like $80 while i got another $20 dollar one from Dell EP-630...which sounds...like almost identical. These two are more bass heavy.

Otherwise, for a treble earbud...i had an UE (ultimate ear one...) sadly i broke it X_X.

As for earphones...i have no suggestions.

 

HD280s are nice for recording (I own a pair) but not the best for listening... they are decent, though, and very detailed for the price. What price you looking for for over-ears? Do you need sound isolation? (the 280s will block out just about any outside noise, which is why I use them for recording but a lot of the best over-ear phones are "open" which means they leak a lot of sound but sound overall clearer)

iPhone earphones... have you looked at the Klipsch Image S4s? You can get a pair with mic/controls for iphone use and they sound amazing. Shouldn't break the bank, either.

 

I have Studio Beats by Dr. Dre, and they're awesome =)

 

For in the ear ones, I use JVC Gumy, which are ideal for me since in-ear buds are too big for my abnormally small ears :/ They're cheep and high quality, have a gold plated jack, so crisp sound and they come in lots of colours :3

As for over-ear, I have a fab pair from SkullCandy, which have served me well for so many years, and they fold up tiny for easy storage.

 

For the earphone type - Sennheiser CX 300 II - work brilliantly for me - if you are in the UK buy them from John Lewis and keep the packaging and receipt.

As with all ear phones of this type they will inevitably give up the ghost in one ear after a few months (anywhere from four to fourteen IME), but John Lewis will swap them with no quibbles, and give you a new two year warranty to boot - I originally brought the CX300's and have since had a second pair of those and two CX300-II's just for the one purchase! I brought the first pair about three ago now.

Do NOT buy from Amazon marketplace - there are too many fakes about and they sound rubbish in comparison (can't compare with the Ipod ones as they don't fit in my ears).

 

skull candy all the way

 

*sigh* With the exception of one or two of their best models, SC is almost always not worth the price (sound quality is not too hot) compared to the products of more established brands like Sennheiser, Denon, AKG, Klipsch, Grado Labs etc.

Skullcandy cans certainly look flashy though, but honestly who buys headphones to look at them? (If that's the case then just buy a hat, or some buttons, or get a mohawk or something)

 

Sony's earphones have worked well for me for the last year or so. Not to mention great bonus for them having a volume controller..or at least the ones I get anyway. They're not that expensive either. The woman at Best Buy had said these and Skull Candy were the ones to go with when I bought my first pair.

Mine are in-ear by the way. The regular ear ones either hurt or pop right out. The other thing about my Sony ones was that it took a longer time for the left earphone to die. Usually it's like 6 months and then the sound goes dead. No idea why the one ear.

 

For earbuds, I use the Sony Fontopia earbuds. $10. They give good performance and good bass, and they're surprisingly durable. My current pair has lasted about a year.



>>>*sigh* With the exception of one or two of their best models, SC is almost always not worth the price (sound quality is not too hot) compared to the products of more established brands like Sennheiser, Denon, AKG, Klipsch, Grado Labs etc.

I've gotten several pairs of SkullCandy for one simple reason. I ended up with a large amount of store credit somewhere where one of the only things that interested me there were headphones...and all they had were SkullCandy. So I've gotten to sample several items from their line for (what amounts to) free. I don't recall the actually product names or anything, but I'll try to describe them.

Oddly, the priciest ones ended up being the worst. I got a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, thinking they might come in handy when I DJ at clubs. Ends up they don't. The noise-cancelling works fair-to-good, but it eats through the battery like nobody's business, and when it's on, it makes the music coming through sound really muffled as well. With that feature off, the music reproduction is only OK.



^ These are the ones I like the best. It has a "bass boost" feature, which I haven't used since I first tried them out. The sound reproduction is quite good with it off, and the cup design blocks out exterior sound better than the noise cancelling ones above. They're the ones in my DJ bag now.



I ended up doing an event a couple of times where one of the DJs was a pure amateur who had never DJed before. I offered to buy them headphones, since I had this trade (and it was free), and so they wouldn't have to use my always-sweat-dampened cans. I bought them both the ones above. I tried them out myself to see how they sounded. They were actually very good, if not excellent. The main issues seem to be that they're exceptionally light (and so they're ideal for accidentally knocking off the table when you reach for them, if you're as big a klutz as me) and they're apparently somewhat prone to breakage. If you tend to break your headphones, these aren't the ones for you.

Lex

 

Alright, I am a recording engineer. There's my background and why my opinion is credible.

First off, never get Skull Candy. Just never. NEVER GET SKULL CANDY.

Secondly, I own a pair of Sony MDR-V6's. They, too me, are the best sound for the price. I think they go for about $65 and they sound amazing for the price.

Other brands to trust are Grado and Audio-Technica. Shure and Sennheiser headphones can be good but overpriced at times. Koss, JVC, and Skull Candy are shit.

I'll refer you to this picture to help you as well:

Spoiler

 

>>>Alright, I am a recording engineer. There's my background and why my opinion is credible.

The thing is - most people aren't recording engineers. Many people can't discern a CD from an mp3, especially if they're busy doing other stuff besides listening. As such, it wouldn't matter if the tests show that Headphone X has more faithful reproduction than Headphone Y. If somebody likes the way they sound (and/or look), then seriously, that's the only recommendation they need.

Lex

 

Nice image, if the contents are a bit disorganized. "Ask on Head-Fi.org" is probably the best advice anyone could give anyone else who is looking at phones. Sorry for anyone's wallet if they follow this advice.

I'd have to disagree about you with saying JVC is bad... in one instance. The JVC HA-FX-66 Air Cushions are probably the best value in cheap in-ears that I've ever run across. In addition, they are easily the most comfortable in-ears I've ever tried. Now, the sound quality isn't too awesome (wonky sound signature that seems to be a JVC thing) but for your average listener they will do more than good, and won't break the bank to replace if you accidentally break 'em when going through a subway turnstile (yeah, that happened to me. ).

I've since moved on to the roughly $100 Klipsch Image S4i for portable listening. Almost as comfy as the air cushions but with really good sound that's only off in the bass department (they have a bit too much).

EDIT: How do you feel Senns are overpriced? I do agree that end merchants tend to really ratchet the sale price up - here in Toronto at Bay-Bloor Radio a pair of Sennheiser HD650s will run you about $700 (eek!), but I got my pair on mail order from the states for about $350 so.. well, I guess I just proved your point.