Headphone advice?

[GSV]Lemming · 28 Dec 2008 at 10:31

I am after a good set of noise cancelling headphones for my wife and am looking for some advice.

We have listened to some Bose headphones, £99 reconditioned and thought they were fantastic. Now I know there are other makes/models out there, but also know it is not possible to get hold of them to listen to prior to purchase

Can anyone give me some feedback about models they own or have tried? Ideally I want a set with soft padding around the ears, if they fold up for travel thats preferred, but not essential.

-Ad- · 28 Dec 2008 at 12:09

If you buy BOSE I will burn your house down

No seriously !!!

Sennheiser HD25-II. Why would I recommend anything different, just got my pair for xmas and they are excellent. With around £100 they are fantastic, and sound better than every single pair of BOSE headphones on the market, especially the QC3 that cost well over £200. They are also built very well and are widely used by DJs because they sound soo great and can be thrown around without being damaged easily. Something I would never do with BOSE headphones, which are not made very well at all.

You don't need noise cancelling if the headphones are designed well and seal up anyway. With my senns on atm I can't hear the keyboard I'm typing on, my brothers loud PC, or even my mum standing outside the door shouting something at me.

Sound quality is great, and they haven't fully run in yet either.

Picture of mine in here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17956342&page=10

[GSV]Lemming · 29 Dec 2008 at 08:50

Cost of these seems to be around the £140-150 mark, with reviews saying they are more suitable for rock/bass rather than "gentler" music?

They are likely to be used more for movie watching and gentler music on the train so am thinking noise reduction may be a better choice?

n30_mkii · 29 Dec 2008 at 09:56

I got the "Sennheiser HD 25-1 II PROMO PACKAGE" for £117 they are excellent. They cancel a lot of noise and sound reproduction is great. I listen to all kinds of music including softer classical / orchestral which also sounds great. I think they would be great for you.

Pug · 29 Dec 2008 at 10:07

currently runniing in GOldring DR100. Costing £35, they got a what hifi 5 star, and were compared equivalent to the Grado SR60.

The Grado SR60 were pretty good headphones apparently, and cost ~£70.

My complaints with the Goldrings are that they are not loud - no matter how loud i turn up the input they are never loud enough for me (easily audible, i just like "immersive loud"

) also, the bass is a bit lack lustre - but that may come.

Beyond that the fidelity is awesome, everything is crisp, clear and sounds great.

[GSV]Lemming · 29 Dec 2008 at 11:01

Most use will be on a PSP my wife uses, but maybe a palmtop too. The audio output on the PSP seems comparatively low so I will be avoiding anything which seems to have low reproduction levels, thanks for your comment Pug.

-Ad- · 29 Dec 2008 at 12:19

[GSV]Lemming;13171858 said:
Cost of these seems to be around the £140-150 mark, with reviews saying they are more suitable for rock/bass rather than "gentler" music?

They are likely to be used more for movie watching and gentler music on the train so am thinking noise reduction may be a better choice?

I was actually lieing in bed last night relaxing to Imogen heap, Cardigans, and some Zero 7 and they sounded fantastic. I would always take reviews as someones opinion rather than YOU MUST ONLY USE THES FOR THIS !!!!!, people have different tastes and varying degress of hearing quality.

Why do you think noise reduction is better, it should sound worse as you are actually introducing more unnecessary sound into the music jsut to cancel out external noise. My HD25 will be used on the tube for my daily commute, and Im really looking forward to it as they cut out the external noise soo well. When hearing the BOSE QC2 and 3 in the BOSE store even with noise reduction they didn't cut that much out. Maybe they are better at cutting out train/aero sounds, but like I have said a good fiitting pair of headphone slike the HD25 will do as good a job as some fancy noise cancelling , and probably better.

Mine cost £126 the other week off a DJ store online and are great value. 140-150 is too much. O they have a nice solid steel cable and have a good quality 3.5mm jack on the end, so built very well indeed.

Pug · 29 Dec 2008 at 12:29

[GSV]Lemming;13172260 said:
Most use will be on a PSP my wife uses, but maybe a palmtop too. The audio output on the PSP seems comparatively low so I will be avoiding anything which seems to have low reproduction levels, thanks for your comment Pug.

well, dont be put off unnecessarily...

They sound great on my ipod touch, and go as loud as they do on my hifi amp,

Its not so much the power they need to drive them, but more to do with the fact the earphones wont go loud (to save damaging ears i guess)

[GSV]Lemming · 30 Dec 2008 at 08:48

-Ad- said:
I was actually lieing in bed last night relaxing to Imogen heap, Cardigans, and some Zero 7 and they sounded fantastic. I would always take reviews as someones opinion rather than YOU MUST ONLY USE THES FOR THIS !!!!!, people have different tastes and varying degress of hearing quality.

Why do you think noise reduction is better, it should sound worse as you are actually introducing more unnecessary sound into the music jsut to cancel out external noise. My HD25 will be used on the tube for my daily commute, and Im really looking forward to it as they cut out the external noise soo well. When hearing the BOSE QC2 and 3 in the BOSE store even with noise reduction they didn't cut that much out. Maybe they are better at cutting out train/aero sounds, but like I have said a good fiitting pair of headphone slike the HD25 will do as good a job as some fancy noise cancelling , and probably better.

Mine cost £126 the other week off a DJ store online and are great value. 140-150 is too much. O they have a nice solid steel cable and have a good quality 3.5mm jack on the end, so built very well indeed.

I have tried a few sets of headphones now and have noticed that the noise cancelling options seem to do a better job that simple headphones of blanking out external sound. I do not have details of the models I have tried , its just a general observation. Re the Bose you tried, I have to wonder if the batteries were flat that ran the noise cancelling?, I could not make out any non music sound when I tried them on!

Im off to the superstores and hifi shops tomorrow to poke about though, hoping to get some models tried that have been mentioned here and compared to the Bose ones.

Holwill · 30 Dec 2008 at 09:19

-Ad- said:
Sennheiser HD25-II. Why would I recommend anything different, just got my pair for xmas and they are excellent. With around £100 they are fantastic, and sound better than every single pair of BOSE headphones on the market, especially the QC3 that cost well over £200. They are also built very well and are widely used by DJs because they sound soo great and can be thrown around without being damaged easily.

I would have to disagree with you on the fact that they are great sounding headphones, I used to use these and so did many of my friends and colleagues at the time.
The reason we brought the HD25's was mainly, closed back, fold up ear piece for mixing, every part is replaceable which means not buying new can's after chucking them on the floor or in your flight case after a session. But in regards to sound quality they were not in the same league as HD580 Precision,HD595 or HD600.
To be totally honest I could not use them for home listening only whilst working. The sound is very muddy with the bass over powering every thing else, but that is fine in the environment they where designed for.
Just a users experience, so you have it from both sides of the fence so to speak.