Shootout: 98 Portable Headphones Reviewed (Sony MDR-PQ2 and Philips O'Neill SHO9560 added 01/02/12) - Page 4

You should get closed cans Jubei. Believe it or now, even the HD 201's I tried in a very busy Apple Store in my country isolated outside noise (110+ db) that well. The Flats and the Technicas will be almost the same IMO.

I suppose circumaural phones do isolate better but the heat would be unbearable over here. Even with the PX100 my ears were sweating with 15 minutes today.

Still, I might need a pair of over-the-head cans for rough use with ear has infection or sore spots. My PX100 has its fair share of problems with disintegrating headband pads and loose plug

110 db?

Do you live on an aircraft carrier?

Hong Kong is ridiculous in terms of noise pollution - mind you the noise levels don't even really take into consideration the constant road work noise and flat renovation noise (drilling, demolition etc) that happens every day in Hong Kong and is not avoidable.

At Chinese restaurants, it is common to be in situations where it is so noisy (loud patrons, dish noise, awful background music) one cannot have a decent conversation with friends over a meal.

Honestly, HK is nice place for gadget and PC shopping in general, but living here is unpleasant. Personally, I hate the tropical weather and I can't get any peace and quiet until this ungodly hour - I spend most of my time listening to music after midnight till I get tired.

As for the cans, I think I still might opt for a spare pair of cheap-ish portable closed cans. Price-wise leaning towards JVC Flats but will trial a few more pairs of AT and Denons.

HK

Got it, I did notice even back in the 70s when I visited HK that the construction noise was pretty bad. I can't imagine how it might be now with even more growth. Jackhammers and other equipment going on all day long would get very tiring after a short while.

Good luck in your search.

The worst is renovation work in the apartment upstairs - 1-2 weeks of knocking down walls and stuff, then another 2-3 weeks of assorted drilling and hammering. Normal starts at 8:30 in the morning and lasts to 6-7 at night. Even on Saturdays ....

I live in an apartment block with 6 flats per floor, total of 24 floors = 144 apartments. Hong Kongers love to buy and sell property / apartments, so there is nearly always some bloody renovation going on.

But I digress - will go to Wanchai tomorrow afternoon and go a headphone shopping!!

Very cool review group. I'm surprised I never ran across this thread earlier, but I made it for the update. Budget headphones is a great choice to cover.

LOL. Even the malls here in my country reach up to 100+ db in peak hours. We're just that noisy.

I haven't read this thread but I find it funny that the title has a 56K warning in it. Do people still use 56K modems?! I can't imagine how long even the homepage of a site like head-fi.org (or any other modern website) would take to load on that slow of a connection!

hahaha, (##7) Parts-Express Mini Headphones. I recognized those as soon as I saw them since I bought a couple pairs to use the headband for my ksc75s. I think it's hilarious (in a good way) that someone would review those, and I agree completely with worst sounding headphone I have ever heard. I'm not sure they're marketed for anything but voice/speech, etc., but they even suck for that. thanks, you made my day.

So finally I went to buy myself a pair of portable closed headphones and it was a total disaster ... the intention was to go cheap and get something like JVC Flats, but I ended up spending considerably more in a pair of ATH-ES55.

Phones demoed today included ATH-FC700A, JVC Flats, ATH-ES7, Beyer DT 231 Pro. To be honest, I am not even sure why I ended up buying the ES55 ...

I will say this though, on symphonic black metal, both the ES55 and ES7 did a better job. On the other cans, the aggressive guitars and drums sounded rather muddled. I sort of preferred to ES55 because it was a) cheaper, and b) less bassy (never thought I would say that!).

Maybe it is age - am I hearing less highs theses days? - but while 5-10 years ago nothing had enough bass, these days I find most budget cans lacking in highs. Together with bloated bass, it is not appealing. Still think the JVC Flats are good value for money though.

Excellent reviews of each of those 'phones. It's helped me narrow down my next headphone purchase (KSC75 vs. PX100).

Get the koss. They are cheaper than the senns and sound a lot better.

ditto

ditto on the Koss, I kept my Senn 100s for about a week, still have several pair of the Koss.