# Best over ear headphones



## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Whats out there for a decent buck and high quality


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

What's your budget? 

When I was headphone shopping recently I was impressed by the Beyerdynamic DT 770's (about $250)

I have been using a pair of AKG 501's that were about $150 ten years ago. They were discontinued but get rave reviews if you can find a pair used.

I picked up a pair of closed back Audio Technica M35's for work. They are very good for $70 and compared to other closed back headphones in the under $150 category were my favourite.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD555s that I really like. I got them off ebay for a very good price a couple years ago.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

For the wife for watching her iPad movies. Maybe $150 or so tops


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## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

grado SR 60, cheap and very, very good. doesn't block out room noise, noisy kids etc 

http://www.planetofsoundonline.com/p/Grado-SR-60i-Headphones
http://www.gradolabs.com/page_reviews_detail.php?review=55

I got mine at planet of sound, about $100


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

GuitarsCanada said:


> For the wife for watching her iPad movies. Maybe $150 or so tops


So. a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M50 Professional Studio Monitor Headphones with Coiled Cable will be great, and you can steal them to so studio stuff!

Or these & do something nice for the world.

http://www.sevenly.org/accessories/bag-tech-accessories/the-fillmore-headphones-1
:smile-new:


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

There really are so many choices. This is a great resource:

http://www.headphone.com/

I used it when shopping and ended up buying the Grado SR60. Fantastic sound!! My one 'knock' would be that Grado puts all of their resources into the sound so they often lack in looks AND sometimes in durability. If someone is going to baby them, then the Grados are the way to go but if they will be treated normally in real world conditions I would go with one of the Sennheiser products...but really, there are so many choices. If you can get the Solo Beats on sale for that price then she'd be very happy (and it pains me to recommend them).

The Shure SRH440 are highly regarded.
[h=2][/h]


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Good deal on these Sennheisers:

http://www.amazon.ca/HD-280-PRO-Headphones-Black/dp/B000065BPB/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

I have ATH M50's which are a bit above your budget. I have the Grado SR60's too, but they are not over ear.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

Grados sound good but hurt my head. I don't personally find them very comfortable.

Some of the worst headphones I've heard are BOSE. I was shocked at how bad they were considering their price and reputation.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

hardasmum said:


> Grados sound good but hurt my head. I don't personally find them very comfortable.
> 
> Some of the worst headphones I've heard are BOSE. I was shocked at how bad they were considering their price and reputation.



LOL 

I thought it was just me. I have Sony's that cost less than $100 and they sound much better than any Bose set I've tried.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

smorgdonkey said:


> There really are so many choices. This is a great resource:
> 
> http://www.headphone.com/
> 
> ...


The wife is rough on her gear so the Grado would be out. I got two sets of really nice Etymotic in ears for us last year. She had hers destroyed in 3 months. So durability is key for her.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Sneaky said:


> Good deal on these Sennheisers:
> 
> http://www.amazon.ca/HD-280-PRO-Headphones-Black/dp/B000065BPB/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
> 
> I have ATH M50's which are a bit above your budget. I have the Grado SR60's too, but they are not over ear.


I have the HD280 myself that I use when playing through the iRig etc. Very nice headphones for the price


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

I've heard good things about AKG 240's.

http://www.axemusic.com/store/product/7752/AKG-K240-Studio-Headphones/


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

zurn said:


> I've heard good things about AKG 240's.
> 
> http://www.axemusic.com/store/product/7752/AKG-K240-Studio-Headphones/


In the end though for me it's all about confort. You can have great sounding headphones that are really unconfortable. The only way to find the best headphones for you is to try them out. 


Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I have the Audio Technica ATHm40fs, the Sennheiser HD280, the Apex HP90 and a Sony Stereo Headphones MDR-XD200 and the one I'd recommend is the Audio Technica. It's within your budget, it is one of the most comfortable and it's durable. And very good sounding too


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

If she's only going to use it for listening to movies on her ipad, we're not talking about high stereophonic listening here. I would get her the hardiest decent pair you could find and I'm sure it would be way under $150.00.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

hardasmum said:


> Some of the worst headphones I've heard are BOSE. I was shocked at how bad they were considering their price and reputation.


As one of the hi fi PA guys said to me one time:

*"No highs? No lows? Must be BOSE!!"


*...but some of their old stuff (80s) sounded so good.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Steadfastly said:


> If she's only going to use it for listening to movies on her ipad, we're not talking about high stereophonic listening here. I would get her the hardiest decent pair you could find and I'm sure it would be way under $150.00.


That would be the main use, but she will also use them for music. Not heavy usage on the music side but some. I don't mind blowing some good coin but not going to push it. $80 to $90 would be great if I can come across a set for that.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

Ath m50 if you can find them on sale


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I am leaning towards something in the Sennheiser family


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

Sennheiser is slightly overpriced for what you are getting these days. They jacked up their prices a few years ago because they were the best bang for your buck. Don't get me wrong, they are still worth what you pay. 

The athm50 consistently gets better reviews that Sennheisers at much more money. In the same price range it's no contest.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

blam said:


> Sennheiser is slightly overpriced for what you are getting these days. They jacked up their prices a few years ago because they were the best bang for your buck. Don't get me wrong, they are still worth what you pay.
> 
> The athm50 consistently gets better reviews that Sennheisers at much more money. In the same price range it's no contest.


I don't know...the athm50 actually just got an upgrade and came down in price according to the headroom site..so, using their prices the Sennheiser HD558 is the same price.

This is the chart for the Sennheiser:










and this is for the Audio Technica









Now, the AT looks like a fine set too but when you start talking about quality in phones, I always want as straight a graph as you can get - that's just burned into my mind. The Sennheiser is very true and the reproduction from them would be very accurate whereas the AT would sound great as well but perhaps wouldn't reproduce as 'true' as the Sennheisers but whether or not a listener would even notice that is questionable. I just normally think as every fluctuation on the graph as an EQ tweak. So, the bass and the vocal reproduction on the Sennheisers would be outstanding. The AT units have a *solid "monitoring grade" ambient noise seal*.

Now, with that said, the Headroom people absolutely rave about the AT and have it in their 'top ten under $500' and one of the best bang for the buck. Both units have 2 year warranty. The 'what we think' tab is very helpful there. It would be nice if they had a rating for durability and you could choose just that. 

I would love to try both but I think I would make my decision based upon which ones I saw come up on sale first.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

Does someone local carry both? I saw the recent makeover for AT before I was about to buy the old ones. Hopefully I can get my dirty Mitts on them before my vacation next month. 

For what it's worth the graphs are only a representation of a certain style of listening at a certain level and don't always accurately represent a headphone.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

They probably just run a certain tone and use a spectrum analyzer. For the most part, what looks dramatic on the graph can be 'not so noticeable' when listening, particularly depending upon what you are listening to.

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I used to have a better version of this (IMO) but can't locate it now:


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

This one is awesome but it is more mix related for a simpler band set up. If people wanted to improve their mixes of their recordings, they would do well to reference this:











Extremely helpful when setting high pass and low pass filters and EQ in general.

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