Headphones - 100-150ish reccomendations

[David A]

My old beyer DT311s are getting past their best. I'm in need of some decent headphones say around £100 to £150ish. Won't be used loud but I like to hear detail.

[Ruxpin]

A couple of years ago i was looking for some decent headphones for my wife to use on a digital piano. Budget was around £100. We only auditioned sennheiser and grado products but at that price range the difference in presentation to our ears was astonishing.

The grados made the digital piano sound like a real piano. The sennheisers sounded more like a keyboard - they had a much more "modern" presentation with lots of bass. I can see some people much preferring the sennehisers to the grado presentation for certain types of music but for use with the digital piano the grados were far more natural sounding to us. This feeling was consistent across the range of products offered by either company in the £50-£150 range.

So my wife has some grado SR80i for her piano (terrible build quality and perceived value for money given the finish and materials used...but sound is wonderful....what really matters??) and i have my sennheiser HD600s for general listening....

So its well worth auditioning a few and seeing what suits your listening and equipment eg the digital piano is happy to drive the SR80i's without a headphone amp but can't do justice to the HD600's at which point you are comparing £100 sr80's with £450 HD600/x-cans/cable...

[selym]

The SR80 are the same as my SR40; ie. semi-open? If so OP, prepare anyone in your proximity for enjoyment of the same music you are listening to.

[David A]

selym said:

The SR80 are the same as my SR40; ie. semi-open? If so OP, prepare anyone in your proximity for enjoyment of the same music you are listening to.

My DT311s are open back, I don't have it all loud just enough to drown out general office chitter chatter

[skelters]

Recently bought a pair of B&W C5
http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/Headphones/Headpho...

Also have a pair of these that are really good value for money Red 5 Audio RVH90....
http://www.red5audio.com/acatalog/Accessories.html

Although I should say I only use the Red 5 Audio Headphones for listening to stuff on the Interweb.

Edited by skelters on Monday 10th February 13:30

[JoeMk1]

I have a pair of Audio Technica ATH M50. Come in at around £100, and get very good reviews. I would certainly recommend them. I went for the coiled cable version, but in hindsight I would go for the straight cable version.

[Ruxpin]

David A said:

My DT311s are open back, I don't have it all loud just enough to drown out general office chitter chatter

The SR80i's are "very" open backed...to the point from the outside they sound the same on and off the head. Much more open backed that say sennheiser hd600s.

I wasn't necessarily giving a recommendation just trying to make sure you audition a few different headphones before stumping up the cash. My local hifi dealer loaned me 5 pairs of grado/sennheisers and still matched the best price i could find the grados on the web...(Tim at http://www.divineaudio.co.uk/ )

£100-£150 gives you a wide choice of some very nice kit.

[Parabola]

Love my Grado SR80i.
Can find them a tiny bit harsh sometimes.
A little headphone amp sorted that though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005HJWWW8/ref=cm_sw_r_...

I'd give a Fiio amp a go with whatever headphones you go with.