Another headphone advice thread, sorry!

MarcusP12

Hi all,

Earlier in the year i spent a bit of money on a good sound system as i was fed up with my bog standard system. The sound difference was amazing. So, recently it occured to me that i actually listen to music most often on the move (via xperia z1 compact if music source is of any relevance) and that maybe i should consider upgrading my equally bog standard sports neckband (i can't use in ear) type headphone for something more bespoke. So i need your advice folks. I'm going to assume that spending decent money is going to make the world of difference compared to what i use so thats not the question. I know there's plenty of threads already out there discussing headphones but what i would like advice on is as follows:

- I mostly listen to music on the go on the luas. I don't particular want to impose on fellow commuters so minimal noise leakage is key. Would closed back overhear be the right job? Would you bother with noise cancelling or would decent closed back be sufficient? I would still like to be aware of my surrounding shall we say.
- Are wireless headphones any use? is the sound quality loss noticeable?if you went wireless would you ensure there was a wired connection also as backup?
- Is there a big difference between on-ear and over ear? reason i ask is that senneisser seem to do the highly regarded momentum in both but the on ear is a bit cheaper. why one over the other?
- Are these pricey headphones reliable. reason i ask is that i usually only get a year out of the bog standard ones for 30/40 quid before one of the ears dies which is tolerable for that kind of money but i'd hate to think there was a good chance of the same happening for a pair i might pay up to 200 bills on! is it usually a cable fault which is why most come with a spare?
- I see from other threads thats there's no where decent to buy headphones or to test them unless you want Bose (maybe) or beats (defo not!). What are the best value sites. Amazon have a massive range of all the bespoke stuff at some good prices (AKG K550 for £99 i think for example). is there anywhere else i should be looking?
- Finally what are people's opinions as to the current best combination of sound quality, build, value and reliability? I have done a bit of research and the AKG K550 seems to crop up quite a lot (i like the look of them but are they obnoxiously big for cummuter listening?). Also senneisser momentum. Ideally my budget is 100 to 150 euro but i'd stretch to 200 if people thought it would open up the market to significantly better ones.

So, thanks in advance people. Apologies if i'm asking people to reinvent the wheel with their responses so feel free to reply with previous recent thread links....

K.O.Kiki

• Closed-back over-ear would be the best for noise ISOLATION.
  Noise-cancelling (NC) headphones have additional circuitry, but from most reviews it seems that with the NC turned on the sound usually gets worse.
  Of note, closed-back and/or NC headphones are NOT good if you want to be aware of your environment!
  Inner Fidelity High-End NC shootout
• There are some good wireless headphones, and you should definitely look for ones with a wired back-up (i.e. not Beats).
  The Wirecutter's Bluetooth headphone shootout is a good starting point on these.
• There is a pretty big difference between on-ear and over-ear, InnerFidelty explains here.
• If you're worried about this (as you should!), either buy a headphone with detachable cable, check the warranty, and/or look at their spare parts site to see how easy it is to fix yourself.
• Great starting point: Inner Fidelty's Wall of Fame

If you're in Dublin, I recommend going into Music Maker and trying the Audio-Technica M50x.

Also, I'd suggest a pair of Logitech UE4000 or UE6000 while they're still cheap on Amazon UK.

yimrsg

http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/shootout-113-portable-headphones-reviewed-alpha-design-labs-adl-h118-added-07-15-14

This guide is based with portability in mind, some headphones like the akg k550 are excluded on account of their long lead (which is more than the cut off of 5ft). Also there's a rating given to isolation and build quality so you can see how they fare compared to others.

If you're going to be using them on the go, I'd look for something durable and small or have some sort of folding ability. Sennheiser have replacable cables on a good few of their models so if you're worried about breaks in the cable or a faulty jack you've an easy fix. I think I saw the amperior/momentum in harvey normans or currys so maybe you can try there before buying.

WRT over and on ear the key difference is that with on ear there's more pressure applied to the ear itself so you can get hot ears or feel uncomfortable wearing them for long periods as they clamp tight to give good isolation. I've the amperior which has great isolation but really does clamp hard to give you that isolation, you can get used to it but it is something to consider if you've a wide head. Over ear doesn't have that to the same extent though the headphones have to be larger to go around the ear but if you've a large ear and a small headphone cup you could still be in the same boat as if you've got on ear headphones.

MarcusP12

Hi guys, thanks for the responses.....it's an absolute minefield out there with so many options which is a bit of a mare for a procastinator like me. I've downgraded my budget to 100 quid and based on my research gives me a few options as follows:
- AGK k451 - highly regarded, and good value at 68 yo yos from .....on ear tho, will this give poor isolation?
- audio technica ath m30x - 69 yo yos from music maker in town...proper over ear but are they for on the go or more for home/studio?
- audio technica ath m40x - 99 yo yos....seem to be highly regarded and compare favourably to the more expensive m50x but are they worth 30 more than the 30s?
- Logitech ue6000 - over ear with ANC. 73 pounds on amazon. Mixed reviews regarding the ANC but seem to get good reviews generally and would be considered more trendy as over ears go....seem well discounted as appear to be discontinued....

So folks, any opinions on above? What would be the best for the commute to work? Im kinda edging towards the AGKs as they're a good price but part of me would ie to give the logitechs a go as they seem to be a lot of phones for the price......am I missing anything off my short list for around 100 yo yos? I think I'll pop into music maker in town and try the m30x and m40x. My concern with these are that they might stand out too much. I'll see what the m50x sound like compared to the cheaper phones but unless theres a significant difference I think I'll keep the budget to 100 as an introduction to quality headphones.....thanks in advance for the tips and opinions....

U_Fig

Personally I have the sennheiser HD 25-1 II. The old workhorse. I got mine for round 160 secondhand l of Amazon one time. I have since got them serviced so to speak with a few new parts and that. They are basically designed for all parts to be fully replacable although I'm not sure how easy it'd be to get parts. I had to send mine to germany. I find they have a more agressive sound than the momentum which has a wamer sound. Amazon have deals on headphones occasionallty keep an eye out. Prosiobally I'd stretch to the Audio Technia ATH M50s. The m50x has a detachable cable and will cost extra.
They are a great set of head phones for the price. Personally I have a small head and they are quite large compared and not are not so confortable but most people would have a bigger head than me and be ok I find the HD 25's which are lighter and more portable fit my head a lot better but of you have a larger head then they are quite tight yand might be a little uncomfortable. Also i listen to a lot of rock and metal and I have yet to find a better sound for those genres than the HD 25s.

Richersounds.ie: John

Declared interest first - I work for Richer Sounds Ireland

Just I was just following this thread and we stock several of the headphones mentioned and we despatch all across Ireland from our Belfast store - you can check out our site here:

www.richersounds.ie

Specifically we have the K550's in stock at a decent price - £99.95 / €136.99 ( the euro price includes ROI shipping):
https://euro.richersounds.ie/p-11777-k550.aspx

The K451 (excellent cans) at £49.95 /€67.99 ( again € inc. shipping):
https://euro.richersounds.ie/p-11865-k451.aspx


You can check out a sample of our current headphone range here:
https://euro.richersounds.ie/c-101-AllHeadphones.aspx?swapstore=1

or you can come over to our Boards forum which has been running for an age now over at http://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1105

Thanks again and keep us posted if we can ever assist,

ATVB,

John Mc & Crew

MarcusP12

Richersounds.ie: John wrote: »

Declared interest first - I work for Richer Sounds Ireland

Just I was just following this thread and we stock several of the headphones mentioned and we despatch all across Ireland from our Belfast store - you can check out our site here:

www.richersounds.ie

Specifically we have the K550's in stock at a decent price - £99.95 / €136.99 ( the euro price includes ROI shipping):
https://euro.richersounds.ie/p-11777-k550.aspx

The K451 (excellent cans) at £49.95 /€67.99 ( again € inc. shipping):
https://euro.richersounds.ie/p-11865-k451.aspx


You can check out a sample of our current headphone range here:
https://euro.richersounds.ie/c-101-AllHeadphones.aspx?swapstore=1

or you can come over to our Boards forum which has been running for an age now over at http://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1105

Thanks again and keep us posted if we can ever assist,

ATVB,

John Mc & Crew

Hi John and co....I seem to be having a problem asking a question in your RIchersound forum so hopefully you'll get this in this thread instead.

I'm really interested in the AKG K451 headphones. Do you have them in stock and whats your best price for them including delivery to Dublin? Out of curiosity, do you have the K452s (my phone is android)? I see on previous threads they were on offer before for £40 which would be a bargain. Do you still have them for that? Also, do you have the Y50s? I'd be tempted by these as they were whathifi product of the year recently and they were around the same price.

As a more general question, why would one go on ear versus overear? Note that i'd be using them for the half hour commute to work generally and my budget is up to €100...How soon would i receive them if i ordered today for example? Thanks....

Richersounds.ie: John

MarcusP12 wrote: »

Hi John and co....I seem to be having a problem asking a question in your RIchersound forum so hopefully you'll get this in this thread instead.

I'm really interested in the AKG K451 headphones. Do you have them in stock and whats your best price for them including delivery to Dublin? Out of curiosity, do you have the K452s (my phone is android)? I see on previous threads they were on offer before for £40 which would be a bargain. Do you still have them for that? Also, do you have the Y50s? I'd be tempted by these as they were whathifi product of the year recently and they were around the same price.

As a more general question, why would one go on ear versus overear? Note that i'd be using them for the half hour commute to work generally and my budget is up to €100...How soon would i receive them if i ordered today for example? Thanks....

No idea why you are having an issue across on our boards forum - apologies for that!

On the K451, yes we have lots of them in stock at the moment and they are currently €66.99 including delivery ( all the euro pricing on www.richersounds.ie includes ROI shipping) Have a look here:
http://euro.richersounds.ie/p-11865-k451.aspx


The K452 are now a finished line for us unfortunately and that's the end of them - even our display model is cleared now .

Y50's are currently out of stock but there is a large shipment of them due in within the next week http://www.richersounds.ie/p-200793-y50.aspx they will be £79.95 or €99.99 ( again inc. delivery to the ROI)

Also don't forget the excellent new Grado SR80e which are just released and no at €124.99..

On a personal note - I'd prefer 'on-ear' for commuting as you still have some small idea of what's going on in the real world - generally with over ear you are more isolated ( and you also stand the risk of looking like a plonker with large cans !) I prefer over-ear for late night listening when my better half cant take any more Stina Nordenstam...:o

In terms of ordering - stock permitting if you order before 12:00 you will get them next working day to Dublin - but we will generally call you and let you know if there are any stock delays,

Thanks again and keep us posted if we can assist,

ATVB,

John Mc & Crew

K.O.Kiki

Don't but Grados, their open-back design means your music will piss off everyone in a 10m radius!

MarcusP12

Richersounds.ie: John wrote: »

No idea why you are having an issue across on our boards forum - apologies for that!

On the K451, yes we have lots of them in stock at the moment and they are currently €66.99 including delivery ( all the euro pricing on www.richersounds.ie includes ROI shipping) Have a look here:
http://euro.richersounds.ie/p-11865-k451.aspx


The K452 are now a finished line for us unfortunately and that's the end of them - even our display model is cleared now .

Y50's are currently out of stock but there is a large shipment of them due in within the next week http://www.richersounds.ie/p-200793-y50.aspx they will be £79.95 or €99.99 ( again inc. delivery to the ROI)

Also don't forget the excellent new Grado SR80e which are just released and no at €124.99..

On a personal note - I'd prefer 'on-ear' for commuting as you still have some small idea of what's going on in the real world - generally with over ear you are more isolated ( and you also stand the risk of looking like a plonker with large cans !) I prefer over-ear for late night listening when my better half cant take any more Stina Nordenstam...:o

In terms of ordering - stock permitting if you order before 12:00 you will get them next working day to Dublin - but we will generally call you and let you know if there are any stock delays,

Thanks again and keep us posted if we can assist,

ATVB,

John Mc & Crew

Thanks for the reply John....just so you know,I ordered the k451 headphones today so hopefully they'll come on Monday!just curious,how come there's no free delivery when I try to pay in sterling?only reason I ask is amazon had them for the same price in sterling which equated to about 65.8 yo yos so slightly cheaper and as a result I tried to pay by sterling on your site but was getting stung for delivery until I swapped back to euro.only a couple of euro difference so stuck with ye out of loyalty!I got a good deal on a denon ceol and speaker package earlier in the year and was happy with the service so wanted to keep the business with ye!

Richersounds.ie: John

MarcusP12 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply John....just so you know,I ordered the k451 headphones today so hopefully they'll come on Monday!just curious,how come there's no free delivery when I try to pay in sterling?only reason I ask is amazon had them for the same price in sterling which equated to about 65.8 yo yos so slightly cheaper and as a result I tried to pay by sterling on your site but was getting stung for delivery until I swapped back to euro.only a couple of euro difference so stuck with ye out of loyalty!I got a good deal on a denon ceol and speaker package earlier in the year and was happy with the service so wanted to keep the business with ye!

Marcus,

many thanks for the post and the Biz - Ok the delivery issue is a little complex, generally Customers from the ROI pay in euro and over the years lots of Customers have expressed a preference to have delivery included in the price - with our old website we charged all deliveries at £12.95 which covered single shipments, but of course meant that headphones and accessories were way too expensive - we have reduced the shipping across the Board ( except for TV) on the sterling pricing to £6.99 per item but included it in the euro pricing.

So what's actually happened is that for example with your K451's the sterling retail of £49.95 + £6.99 shipping to the ROI comes out at £56.94 ( approx. €73) on the euro site it works out at €67.99 - generally on AV and audio kit on the .ie site you are better off purchasing it in euro ( if you see one that's way off, just drop me a PM or a mail!)

On the Amazon front, thanks for that, much appreciated, but just as an aside on that issue, I'm sure you know that when you do your final checkout and specify ROI delivery that they will recalculate the VAT to reflect 23% which will generally will make them more expensive than us ( and anyway we are just nicer than amazonians) :cool:

Thanks again - I hope the rambling makes some sense and keep me posted,

BTW - your K451's should arrive tomorrow, Friday - they made the Couriers today...

Thanks again for the biz - much appreciated,

John Mc & Crew

MarcusP12

Richersounds.ie: John wrote: »

Marcus,

many thanks for the post and the Biz - Ok the delivery issue is a little complex, generally Customers from the ROI pay in euro and over the years lots of Customers have expressed a preference to have delivery included in the price - with our old website we charged all deliveries at £12.95 which covered single shipments, but of course meant that headphones and accessories were way too expensive - we have reduced the shipping across the Board ( except for TV) on the sterling pricing to £6.99 per item but included it in the euro pricing.

So what's actually happened is that for example with your K451's the sterling retail of £49.95 + £6.99 shipping to the ROI comes out at £56.94 ( approx. €73) on the euro site it works out at €67.99 - generally on AV and audio kit on the .ie site you are better off purchasing it in euro ( if you see one that's way off, just drop me a PM or a mail!)

On the Amazon front, thanks for that, much appreciated, but just as an aside on that issue, I'm sure you know that when you do your final checkout and specify ROI delivery that they will recalculate the VAT to reflect 23% which will generally will make them more expensive than us ( and anyway we are just nicer than amazonians) :cool:

Thanks again - I hope the rambling makes some sense and keep me posted,

BTW - your K451's should arrive tomorrow, Friday - they made the Couriers today...

Thanks again for the biz - much appreciated,

John Mc & Crew

That's pretty impressive lads,next day delivery!fair play.....I'm off today but something to look forward to at work on a Monday for once! I would definitely recommend ye to anyone.it's a shame ye don't have a store in Dublin anymore...any plans to reopen? Thanks again for the personal service...