£80 cans

amazingtrade

amazingtrade

Mad Madchestoh fan
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I have been workling quite a bit recently and I have a birthday coming up which = money. So I will have £80 to spend. I did originaly want to spend this money on a DAC but they seem hard to get old off for that money, so I will just get a better CDP probably later on next year.

Anyway that means I have £80 spare, i was going to upgrade my PC to a 2Ghz, but my 1GHz Duron has not crashed October and it was left on 24/7 when I went away with no problems so I don't want to temp fate by upgrading it.

I am not totally happy with my HD495's headphones I never have been, I love their openness compared to my old Beyer DT231's but the bass is too boomy which prevents slightly loud listening to levels. I am also think they sound a bit muffled, my sysem sounds better using my Eltax speakers but I can rarely use them.

So I am looking at some headphones for £80 max which will way outperform my current ones. The problem is that most shops do not allow you to audition headphones.

The obvious choice would be somthing from Grado but I have heared these are not comfortable. Here is my needs:

1) Replacable lead - My beyers failed due to a failed lead
2) Must be very comfortable ideally better than my HD495's, my Beyers were great for this
3) The sound must be fast, and the bass deep but not at all boomy, my system is not all boomy so I know its the headphones causing this atm.
4) The sound must be natural and sound open, and also offer extremly good resolution
5) I don't want too much sound leakage, although my HD495's are ok as longs I am using them at home!
6) They muse be brand new

Any suggestions? Somtimes I some decent Senhiesers such as the HD580;s for £80 but they never seem to be in stock.
 
The Grados are very uncomfortable. VERY. I'm currently working on new pads for my SR80s, which hopefully will sort them out...
 
Well if you want a detachable lead, you are virtually restricting yourself to the Sennheiser range. You could try for some HD580's, finding them is the problem though.

You could try the Beyer DT250, costs a little more, at £83, but I believe it has a replaceable cable, and offers similar sound to the HD580, but will sound better without amplification.

http://www.soundslive.co.uk/

Other than that, your looking at Grado's (SR-80), and possibly a set of vwap or Senn HD414 (IIRC) replacement pads.

Finally, I suggest you try the Philips HP890, which are reportedly a bargain for £50 @ Dixons. They got a 5-star review in hifichoice, are easy to drive, have good blasting bass and otherwise sound quite similar to Senn's flagships...
 
Originally posted by Isaac Sibson
The Grados are very uncomfortable. VERY.
Click to expand...

Respectfully disagree. I have 125s and I have no problems with them, even for long listens. Having said that, I would agree that they're not the most comfortable around.
 
You can change the leads on the beyers, you just need to be careful opening them up. I've had my DT990 opened up several times these have a bayonet type fitting ?.....but it should be obivous looking at them after the pads are removed.
 
The subject of comfort is very subjective, everyone's ears are slightly different, hence one mans comfort area is another mans squashed pressure point. Basically nobody can say what's comfortable, you need to try them for yourself and see how they suit your ears.

As for can's I had been looking at those Philips ones, the spec seemed good and they are huge but they are open headphones which means sound leakage. I very much doubt they can compete with the Senn 580's (at 1/4 the cost when new) but if you can find them try both and let us know, stranger things have happened. The trouble with be getting Dixon's to crack open a sealed box to let you have a listen....

Cheers,
Rick
 
Originally posted by tones
Respectfully disagree. I have 125s and I have no problems with them, even for long listens. Having said that, I would agree that they're not the most comfortable around.
Click to expand...

I too have absolutely no problems re: comfort with my SR80s. The pads of the SR60 are however different to those of the rest of the range but you can change them.

The leads however (on the SR60 and 80 at least) are "hard wired" in and the other thing that I don't particluarly like is the fact that you have a separate wire to each side of the 'phones.

Try the SR60 - I was pleasantly surprised when I was looking - I only went for the 80s in the end for the extra bottom end over the 60s.

Donut
 
Thanks, yeah the HD575 from RS won't be in stock, I even checked on their website.

For snobbish reasons I would really want to listen to the Philips before spending £50 on them, although I am sure they are good phones. Thinking about it I can probably live without the detachable lead. are they cheap to get them replaced if it breaks after warranty? I wrecked my DT231's when the lead broke I tried to solder a new one on, but ended up melting the entire things.

Again with the Grado's I think I need to try them to make sure they are comfortable! Is seven oaks a good place to audition them?
 
Just read a review of the Philips they seem ideal, do Dixons let you take stuff back if you don't like it say after a couple of days like most the 'proper' and RS HIFI stores let you do?

I am going into Manchester city centre now to check out a few options, it certainly beats delivering leaflets! If Dixons have these philips I may just buy them if they appect my terms and conditions.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh, just remembered - when you audition make sure the 'phones are well run in - the grados I tried seemed to take at least 12 hours to loosen up (I just left them on overnight)
Donut
 
Another Grado (SR80) fan here.

As for comfort I can wear them longer than I could some HD580 which really heats up the old lugholes.

Senns are also high impedence phones and need a dedicated headphone amp to get the best out of them, whilst Grados are fine without.
 
Dixons are the WORST for returns - don't mug yourself by buying from those tools...

Hunt on the net for Sennheiser HD580s - they can be got for £80 if you look hard enough, I believe. I had a very long listening sesh last night (running them off my Sony MDJ-530 in the bedroom - due to my Rega Ear dying on me) and even with the digital AD-DA stage and the slightly weedy Sony headphone out (weedy is better than NO out though!), vinyl was sounding ACE ACE ACE!!! I didn't get to bed until 1.30 and had to get up at 7 - oh well - too hot to sleep anyway!

The Senns ARE fairly bulky though - they are fairly comfortable but bear in mind that with the heat etc at the mo, those velvety pads might go a bit mingin'....
 
Dont get the HD575, they are awful, with really shrill, grainy highs, and they are also inefficient, so I really would avoid those at all costs, you can do so much better for the money.

I have to say that really, provided you can get them to be comfortable, the SR80 might be the best bet. The HP890 is not bad either. I'd either try and source some HD580's or SR80's if possible, the 890's will make a good buy for the price however.
 
I've well and truly fallen out with the Dixons Manchester Arndale branch anyway. I asked if I could return the HD890's if I didn't like the sound the salemen laughed and said basicaly if you don't like the sound you own them.

None of the proper HIFI shops stock the HD890's either so its going to be impossable to audiion which is a shame because they seem like good headphones. Would they be a lot better than my HD495s?

I am still half tempted just to buy these, but from a different branch of Dixons. Even though I do hate DSG and all of their share holding morals - thats in my opinion of course.

So heres my short list after listening to some headphones this morning:

Philips HP890 - can't audtion but only £50
Beyerdymanic DT331s at £70
Grado SR60's at £80 - Seven Oaks were asking £90 for these, even though they are only $50 in the USA! Cambridge Soundworks the USA stockers won't ship to the UK though wonder why!
Grado SR80's but these are over budget.

Seven Oaks said that SR125's I tried on had the same pads as the SR60's is this true?

Out of the all the shops I went to, Richersounds were most helpful surprisngly and this was over the phone, and the salemen concluded that they probably didn't have any suitable headphones in stock for me, as the HD25's would probably to uncormtable.



Gradio SR90's at £100
 
Don't even think about Dixons... untrained monkeys could do the job better than most of their staff.

www.empiredirect.co.uk do the HD570 for £65 inc. shipping and www.askdirect.co.uk are doing the HD590's for £90 and they show as being in stock. I think you'd have to pay shipping frthough as order is less than £100. A search on Pricerunner pulled up these results... some can be had cheaper than what they suggest though: http://uk.pricerunner.com/search?query=Sennheiser

Might just be worth running a search with other brands, see what they can come up with.

If you can save another £40, AskDirect do the HD600.

Happy shopping!
 
I nearly bought the HD600's a year back instead of buying my PM6010OSE but decided not too because I think you would need a dedicated headphone amp for them, even my HD495's have problems. The HD497's which I auditioned to today seemed to louder than the HD495's and the shop said each one had equal amplification so the louder the headphone were in the shop the easier they are to drive. I want somthing better than the HD497 though.

I will check them sites out anyway.
 
Originally posted by amazingtrade


Seven Oaks said that SR125's I tried on had the same pads as the SR60's is this true?

Gradio SR90's at £100
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that the SR125s would have the same pads as my SR80s which were different from the SR60s I tried. The 60s have a pad that is more or less the same thickness across the phone speaker. The 80s however are like a ring with no pad at all in the centre where the speaker part is. I think the diameter is the same so they could easily be changed - mind you Grado may now produce the 60s with these better pads.

Not heard of the 90s.....

If you want less boomy/more defined bass I think the Grados would be your best bet but have a listen and see for yourself.

Donut
 

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