Help required - Headphone

[Priyabrata]

Hi there. New to this Community. Confused about buying a good headphone for myself. Not an Audiophile but appreciate good quality. Need help for buying a head phone as per details given below.

Budget - within INR 10,000/-
Purchase location - Anywhere in India
Primary use of head phone - for I Pod & occasionally from my computer & audio system
Usage - mostly during travel (Long haul) but rest of the time at home
Type of music - Country,Techno, Trance & occasionally Gahazals

Have read a couple of reviews about Audio Technica, Bose & Sennheiser - to be honest dont know the difference & jargons used.

Would help if anybody could specifically mention the type that I should go for (noise cancellation or not etc) & brand. Personal experiences & sellers also welcome

 

[hydra]

This thread should help a bit: http://www.hifivision.com/audio-video-accessories/1764-headphones.html

As for the type of HPs you'll mostly need to choose between open and closed headphones. All HPs in the price range you mentioned should be circumaural (= fit around and cover your ears completely).

Open headphones:
- Are generally (IMHO) more comfortable to listen to, than closed HPs
- Leak sound outside
- Let in sound from outside
- For the above two reasons they are best used at home
- Generally have a more open and wide soundstage, as compared to closed HPs
- Give more natural-sounding bass
- Are not really good (IMHO) for Techno & trance, but are good for country and ghazals. For techno & trance closed HPs should sound better in general.

Closed headphones:
- Give much better isolation from outside sounds, and leak very little sound outside
- Can be used (if you can manage the size) outside home, in the office etc.
- Have a more in-head soundstage
- Give more punch to bass

How do you like your sound? Laid-back or forward?

Since you need to travel with the HPs, you'll probably need to look for closed HPs with noise cancellation. Audio Technica has a nice pair (I forget the model) within your budget. rallynut might be able to help with the model name.

I personally prefer open HPs to closed HPs, but that's just me

This is just general info, I know, but it should help you get things in perspective. There should be better informed HP-experts along soon to help you out.

 

[icclearlee]

Excellent informative post by Hydra which everyone should know if you are looking to buy headphones.
Just as an addendum, you should also know about the types of headphone form factors which in the end determines its size.

Since you mentioned that your primary usage is via ipod for listening to music during travel, I will reccommend either Audio Technica's ATH-ANC7 which is a noise-cancelling, closed, circumaural pair (probably the one Hydra was referring to).

Or you could go the other direction in terms of size and look at high-end IEM's(In-ear monitors); Etymotic Research is a reputed brand. When I began my research, I found HeadRoom a great help for understand the basics and the popular brands and models.

 

[esanthosh]

Everything depends on how you like the sound, what genres you listen to etc.,

But, for listening using travel, I'd think a noise canceling or a closed headphone would be better. IEMs would be even better if you are fine with sticking something inside your ears.

Etymotics are known to require deeper insertion (within a few mm of your ear drum, they say ). But for over 15 years (?), it's the benchmark for providing isolation (-26 dB). That deep insertion part has always kept me off them. They are very analytical IEMs which many say lack bass quantity. So, if your music requires lot of 'thump', then Etys may not suit you.

Coming to headphones, may be Audio Technica M50 would suit you? Ask rallynut who used to own ANC-7 and now has M50.

 

[iaudio]

Priyabrata, Why not go for two, one for home use and one for travel?

An open/closed full size can/headphone for home use at about Rs.7000.
An IEM for less than Rs.3000 for travel, which will good isolation, and you can pretty much carry them in your pocket.

 

[sonic_nirvana]

If your primary source is going to be iPod, then IMO, iPods DAC doesn't do justice for 10K headphones.
Choose a headphone whose true potential is not constrained by iPod's DAC.

One more brand you can consider is Shure.
I used both Noise Cancelation (Bose Q3) and Noise Isolation (Shure SE530) types and I liked isolation model more.
IEM (In-Ear headphones) type HPs are little uncomfortable during initial usage, but they will give better music experience than On-Ear.

So my suggesion is Shure-Noise Isolation-IEM

 

[rallynut]

@all,nice to see more headphone/iem discussions happening .
@hydra,lovely post.awesome components in that signature u got there :clapping:.

@OP,if ur primary usage is thru the ipod,then an LOD is a must.the signal is so much cleaner,then u need something downstream that is easily drivable(lower impedance),headphone/iem.factor these two in,and u should have a great portable setup for travel use.until recently i used an ipod nano for travel with the fiio E1 and listened extensively to the Radius HP-TWF11R(iem) as well as the Audio Technica ATM50(closed headphone).very engaging,eminently listenable,didnt "feel" like a puny portable setup at all .balanced sonics provided u have good qlty files on the ipod :indifferent14:.

the active noise cancelling offerings in the market are many,of which the most talked about are the Bose Quiet Comfort series and the Audio Technica ANC7b.i did use till recently the previous generation Audio Technica ANC7 which "supposedly" had better sound qlty than the current version.the active noise cancellation was phenomenal and very decent sound qlty to boot.the bose are just too plain expensive.

noise isolation phones,that way,are passive and easier to live with.iems are the best for this.and as esanthosh pointed out,they do require u being comfortable with the idea of sticking something in ur ear.heh

the closed vs open headphone debate will take the proverbial beating,but i believe of the available offerings in the market from Audio Technica,the ATM50 and the AD700 take the cake.not too sure of the sennheiser/beyerdynamic models,but few offerings there as well.

as for headphone vs iem,iaudio's suggestion is very sensible.why not try to have the best of both worlds ??get an AD700 for home,and a good iem for travel.ur budget is ample me thinks .cheers

 

[anm]

priyabatra, are you the first lady on this forum? Wish you a good time on this forum. Lot of experienced people here to help you.

 

[deepakgang]

I believe Priyabrata is a gentleman
Even if a woman is into hi-fi I guess she would ask her guy colleagues to get something for her than posting it here hyeah: .. lol something for another thread huh!

 

[anm]

yeah, remember the sonal?