Good Headphones?

[woah]

There's an immense plethora of headphones available out there, and I've finally come to the decision to buy a nice set. I've been looking around a lot, but I am unable to find any up-to-date or broad-encompassing resources that can provide me with necessary information in making a reasonable and educated decision in my purchase. Searching on google these days (or any search engine for that matter) has become increasingly tedious as advertisements almost altogether obscure and suppress good resources (Gone are the days when the first or second link drawn in google are your intended desire). Therefore, in addition to spending hours sifting through ad-related crap in google, I was hoping that my fellow forum members could assist me in making a good purchase.

 

What I'm potentially looking for:

 

- Foremost: Exceptional Sound Quality and Bass : Bass is less important to me than the actual decency of the sound. I'm looking for something that is extraordinary with music, gaming, movies or any other form of audible media.

 

- Ease of Portability : One of my biggest concerns with headphones--or any portable device for that matter--are the difficulties and hassles that precipitate from lugging them around. I was hoping to purchase something not very burdening. But, if it comes down to it, I would not want to sacrifice quality over ease of cartability.

 

- Non-Earbud / In-Ear : They injure my skull contents and are extremely uncomfortable...

 

- Comfort

 

- Possibly Noise Canceling

 

- More than $60..

 

Even if your recommendation does not meet the above criteria (with the exception of the categories of Good Sound Quality and Non-Ear-Buds), I do not mind the posting of it. Recently released headphones are a plus, but--even though I prefer the former--I don't mind hearing about a 2-year-old set that is still working and "doing you well." I've had bad experiences with buying recommended, several year-old items, though.

[sparhawk]

It all depends on how audiohile you are. I have a headset from Sony which is pretty good. They were not exactly cheap (for my standards about 200 USD) but it was well worth the money. On the other hand, I had a friend who paid about 1500 USD for his headset and I certainly would never spend so much money on headphones. I also don't really see THAT much difference between my set and his and I always had the suspicion that his praise about his set was also to justify the pricetag.

[OrbWeaver]

I use Bose headphones.

 

http://www.bose.co.uk/headphones/triport/

 

I got them for about GBP 120 a couple of years ago. They have very good sound quality and fantastic bass (almost indistinguishable from listening through proper speakers). They are also extremely comfortable.

 

The only thing I don't like about them is that the connection cord seems a bit flimsy, and I am worried that I might tug it too hard and it will break (thus wasting 120 pounds worth of headphones just because of a broken cable).

[woah]

It all depends on how audiohile you are. I have a headset from Sony which is pretty good. They were not exactly cheap (for my standards about 200 USD) but it was well worth the money. On the other hand, I had a friend who paid about 1500 USD for his headset and I certainly would never spend so much money on headphones. I also don't really see THAT much difference between my set and his and I always had the suspicion that his praise about his set was also to justify the pricetag.

 

What model are they and when were they released for purchase?

[sparhawk]

I bought them about 15 years ago, so I guess they wont be sold anymore. But I expect that you get better for less today. I don't have them here right now, as I have them in the office, so I can't look at the moment.

[Ishtvan]

I wouldn't pay that much for noise cancellation unless you're in a place with a lot of white noise (roughly) or very periodic noises. It has some integration time and response time to outside noise before it can generate the signal to cancel it, so it doesn't respond that well to sudden, unpredictable noises.