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Treating myself to some headphones..


MillsyVRS

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And I need some help!

I've narrowed down my search after reading the reviews to AKG K550 at £129, Sony MDR1R at £99, or a bit higher up the scale are the Bose AE2W for £166.

Ideally I wouldn't want to spend more than the Bose, and I'm not at all musically knowledgeable so don't know anything about the science of sound at all! Just want some good quality ones that will last and ideally block out some sound while they're on.

Does anyone have any experience of the above 3, or any other recommendations? They'll mainly be used for when I'm out and about by foot, on my bike and long car/train/plane journeys. Not massively frequent.

Thanks for your time and any help!

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I'm only familiar with the AKGs as my son has them. I've tried them and they are very good - both at blocking external noise and not leaking sound. They have a 3m captive cable which, at 4mm thick, does add a bit of bulk for carrying about. He ends up having that coiled up in one pocket with the media player & headphone amp in another. It looks a bit OTT compared to having a phone and some in-ears headphones, but the sound quality is top notch. He says the next model up, the 551, has a shorter detachable cable (and in-line volume control) designed more for portable use.

 

He did have one issue with them, where one of the drivers started to crackle. He got those repaired under warranty through the place he bought them (Superfi I think) and they've been fine since.

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I am not up on current models, I would just say "Try before you buy", as what some will find very comfortable, others will find the opposite; also, everyones hearing is different, and they have different perceptions, so you need to give each set you short-list a good long listen to before buying.

 

BTW, a big price label doesnt guarantee a good sound, I spent £120 on some earphones about 6 years ago, but ended up with a £9.99 pair of Philips' IEDs that sounded better and were more comfortable.

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Stay away from the beats ones, there all base and nothing in the mid and higher end of the music.

Yeah I was planning to, I've heard from lots of people that you just pay for the name and aren't that great at all. Plus I don't like getting things just because everyone else has them.

I'll check out some senheisser models then, thanks.

The Bose ones have got Bluetooth and a couple of other features which could come in handy, though not sure how much I'll use them.

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I am not up on current models, I would just say "Try before you buy", as what some will find very comfortable, others will find the opposite; also, everyones hearing is different, and they have different perceptions, so you need to give each set you short-list a good long listen to before buying.

BTW, a big price label doesnt guarantee a good sound, I spent £120 on some earphones about 6 years ago, but ended up with a £9.99 pair of Philips' IEDs that sounded better and were more comfortable.

Good idea, I'd only been looking online and hadn't thought about going into store. I'll go into a currys or John Lewis or place like that soon and try some out like you suggested.

Thanks for all your comments. Just don't want to waste money!

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I must admit I prefer IEDs these days, I have never found a pair of normal in ear phones that dont fall out, and although I used to love my old Sennies, I cannot justify spending that sort of money when a pair of £9.99 IEDs sound better (and a pair of £40 IEDs from SoundMagic blow them away).

 

I would grump at paying £40 in the UK for them though, I only paid £16 for them in China.

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I don't really care how big they are, as long as they fit nicely and sound good! I can't seem to get on with many in ear phones at all, I've only ever found one or two pairs that haven't fallen out. I recently bought a pair of senheisser cx300's (something like that) which I got for £27, and don't get me wrong the sound was great, but no matter what I couldn't get the dam things to stay in my ears!

Which is why I'm not really considering buying a pair of in earphones.

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Have you tried IEDs?? They push into the ear canal, so there is less chance of them falling out, BUT, they can be fiddly to get in correctly, and getting the angle/position wrong usually means little or no bass. I spent much of my first 6 months of IED ownership trying out various sleeves to find one that best suited me.

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Have to say I love my Sennheisers. Spent 30 mins trying various ones and every time came back to the Sennheiser.

 

It is definitely a case of try before you buy - what I think of as perfect might not fit you or sound good to you.

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Sennheiser HD25 get my vote every time. I've used them for years sound engineering. Around £140 they are comfy, sound better than pretty much anything else I've tried including those obscene Dr Dre beat headphones that retail at £400!!!! They also cancel out background noise really well, love them!

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I had a pair of the 'around ear' Bose Headphones, years ago, long before any of the 'fashion' brands came into the market, I would highly recommend them, brilliant sound quality, extremely comfortable, a padded neoprene head band, the softest leather around ear pads (I mean THE softest leather!) and near silence when it came to the noise cancelling, I spent many hours mowing lawns, using strimmers and backpack blowers with little irritation from the noise of blaring two/four stroke engines.

The one problem that I would mention was the thin wiring - also that they were cotton woven wires, which made it difficult to re wire them after an incident with a hedge trimmer.

Had them for a good three years with no problems though.

JRJG

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I have just purchased some Bowers and Wilkins c5s. They sound amazing, however they do cost a few quid... Never been a fan of over ear headphones after moving to in ear buds, only time i use over ear now is when recording with my band...

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I have just purchased some Bowers and Wilkins c5s. They sound amazing, however they do cost a few quid... Never been a fan of over ear headphones after moving to in ear buds, only time i use over ear now is when recording with my band...

I have the C5's too they are so much better than the Bose headphones they replaced.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for all your suggestions folks. I looked into them all, but recently came across the AKG K451 headphones, which have recently gone down in price from £130 to £48! Not sure or the exact reason, but on lots of websites they were rated very highly and also given great scores by customer reviews. I'd also say they are excellent value, a real bargain. I've only had them a couple of days so we'll see how long they last, but so far very pleased I didn't spend the £150+ I was going too.

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Worth including Sennheiser in your shortlist too. I used them for years DJing.

 

I've never bought anything near the budget your looking at but my now rather ancient Sennheiser CX300 (£17 6yr ago) are still the best I've ever had. Every time I try something else I realise just how good they are. So I'd certainly recommend Sennheiser as a brand.

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