The Pioneer SE-305 can be had for as little as £10 off ebay. There is a regular stream of them for sale. With their super build they last well. They are closed backed, leak only a little sound and isolate well from outside noise. The cable is a coil type and prone to the usual kinks. Although, according to the specs the coil goes to 15 feet, the tension makes that impracticle.   Sound wise they are the most bassy vintage 1970s headphones I have heard. They are ideal for rockers. Detail through the frequency range is good, but the treble can be a...

Made between 1987 and 1995, these headphones are big. Big to wear with a big sound. Overall they are warm, lush, but still keep the details. That detail means so far I have found them a bit source dependent where poor recordings sound poor. If anything treble is the week partner, but I would guess they have a pretty even frequency response.   Stereo effects can sound amazing and there is an all around the ear sense of space. The way the four drivers interact, it is seemless and totally together.   Recommended.

The Grado SR80 is a classic headphone. It has a classic style, like a old radio ham. It has been around virtually unchanged for donkeys years. It is a superb entry to audiophile headphone listening.   Often overshadowed by the baby of the range, the SR60, which has won numerous awards. The SR80s can be had for only £20. When I auditioned for my first headphones, the first to go were the SR60s. The SR80s had more dynamics, detail, everything really. I preferred them to some similarly priced Sennheisers, which did not retrieve the same detail.  ...

Can you have too much of a good thing? Going by the various threads and reviews of the K702s, yes. These cans give you so much detail it is not true. Sounds appear that have never been heard before in the background of familiar tracks. That satisfies some and manages to irritate others. i did not understand that until recently.   When I first got my K702s I only had open backed headphones. But the demands of family life and travel meant that my next few purchases were closed backed to limit noise leakage, of which the K702s have loads.   I...

Top ratings for this small, cute and very well priced DAC. My sound comparison is with a Musical Fidelity V-DAC and the Fubar2 has more detail, dynamic and greater clarity. It can be easily upgraded with a change of the opamp and the addition of a power supply unit called The Supplier at $144.    It is beautifully made and some of the older versions have a cute comedy dog logo on the front of them. Otherwise they have been available in black, silver and red.   Operation is very simple. Just connect the supplied USB cable to your PC and the...

  Popped into the Apple Shop today and gave these a right good first listen……..   SOUND     I listened to a variety of tracks from The Rolling Stones to Lilly Allan. The P5s were straight into an ipod nano. I have no idea what EQ if any setting was on. I have no idea, but suspect that the files were probably itunes downloads and so lossy. Kicking off with The Rolling Stones and Street Fighting Years and there was great rhythm, clarity and detail. The sound was quite forward and bright (the file and EQ setting?) and the cymbals sounded odd...

  Got myself a FiiO E5 portable headphone amplifier for a long bus and ferry trip. It was £14.44 delivered,  including a car charger from mp3amplifier on Amazon.. I then went a bit daft (maybe, read on) and also bought a line out dock (LOD) to connect the ipod to the amp from ebay seller saradam62, search iphone line out dock with cable, for £19.99 including delivery.    The E5 is tiny, seriously tiny and very light, see the pictures. It has a solid metal casing and a clip which fits nicely through the belt slits on  my soft ipod cover.  ...

Made from a Neutrik jack and mini XLR and Proel headphone cable, this is an easy means to replacing the stock AKG cable with something more robust. Neutrik and Proel are widely used in pro-audio. The cable will flex very easily and is very hard to get tangled.   Sound wise there is no difference from the standard AGK cable.

Using Neutrik Rean phonos and Van Damme cable this interconnect lays bare the claims that you need to spend money on esoteric cables to get any audio performance. This cable has not been cryogenically treated or had any flashy sheathing added. It has been breathed upon by angels, a new means of ensuring the very best in sound. Chrystal clear highs and dungeon deep lows make this the very best cable, ever!

This is Musical Fidelity's top of the range headphone amp. It includes a pre-amp and a USB DAC. The two headphone outputs do not have individual volume controls. So there are a lot of features, but it would be rare to actually need them all.   Antony Michaelson, the owner of MF and a classically trained musician himself, describes the amp as powerful enough to drive any headphone, including the AKG K1000 ear speakers. But that power belies its detail and ability to control the dynamics of music. At first, he says, the amp will sound as if it lacks...

Goldring are a long established company who make headphones and phono cartridges. Originally German the company moved to the UK in 1933. The NS1000s have been consistently rated as one of the best NR headphones by What Hifi.    The RRP is £150, but Play.com have been regularly selling them for £50 and at that price they are excellent.   The pros outweigh the cons of these headphones. The sound is dynamic and detailed and closer to my Grado SR80s than my AKG K702s, but without the sound stage as they are closed backed. The travel case is great...

I wanted some cheap cans for a bit of fun and got the K44s. I am delighted with them.   They are very plastic, very light, fit very well around the ear with the clever AKG self adjusting band. The leatherette pads are sweaty and I keep lifting them to air out my ears.   They are good for classical and jazz and retain that AKG strength of detail. The bass is tuned quite high and can be muddy and dull. Kick drums are a thud with little detail and the dynamics are OK. But that means they can also be considered for dance and heavy rock and they...