Most overrated headphones of all time?

I think that the Apple iBuds are (by far) the most overrated headphones.

Anything by a company whose name starts with a "B" and rhymes with "cellulose".
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingtz 

Anything by a company whose name starts with a "B" and rhymes with "cellulose".
 

You beat me to it!

Bose, Skullcandy, Dr. Dre's Beats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hodgjy 

Bose, Skullcandy, Dr. Dre's Beats.

/thread.
 

AKG 70X

It's not a headphone, but for me it's the RE0. I had high hopes for these. My first mistake was using the Comply foam with them. It just made them sound really bad and painful to listen to.

I put in the included tips instead (small double flange) and they sounded much, much better. There was still absolutely no bass to be found anywhere. To this day the only headphone where I felt the bass was non-existant were these and the Audio Technica ATH-AD700s. What's the best tip for bringing out the bass? I've also tried two different amps.

The highs i've found painful too. Piano playing also sounded just plain awful and not accurate at all.Like something was missing. As if it were a toy piano instead of a real one!  I guess the overall sound feels "tinny". I don't understand this. They do have a ton of detail and it's nice, but it feels like a less bright DT-880 without any bass or close to none.

The Ipod Touch (lossless BTW) EQ settings are worthless so what I might do is try to use my Sansa View or Iaudio player along with a cheap Fiio with it's bass boost to try and bring it out more.

BTW I also found the Grado 325i overrated. I actually found it unbearable to listen to due to excessive bright high frequencies. Some tracks were just painful. I guess my ears may be more sensitive to this then some other people. I sold them and got the Triple Fi 10 and was hooked.

EDIT: Using my Sansa View and increasing the bass to '5' and using the Fiio E5 bass boot seems to now give it an adequate amount of bass. Strangely these sound better out of a Sansa View over an Apple Ipod Touch. Still sound a bit tinny.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hodgjy 

Bose, Skullcandy, Dr. Dre's Beats.

In terms of mass-market headphones, this is a perfect answer.

In the audiophile world: HD800

I agree about the hd800s, and I'm a senn fan. They put so much work into making them a technical marvel they forgot about making them sound musical and emotional. They are a technical marvel though. Just don't have any soul. I just don't get lost into the music when I listen to them.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdockweiler 

for me it's the RE0 -snip- no bass to be found anywhere.

 

The highs i've found painful too. Piano playing also sounded just plain awful and not accurate at all.Like something was missing. As if it were a toy piano instead of a real one!  I guess the overall sound feels "tinny". I don't understand this. They do have a ton of detail and it's nice, but it feels like a less bright DT-880 without any bass or close to none.

X2, my old my ER6i sounds much better in all areas than the RE0; I even like the RE1 better..

Having established a favorite signature with the HD650 and being intimately familiar with them - I was not very overwhelmed with the Stax O2s with its matching tube amp (understandably not a good amp as reported here).  At $10,000 AUS it still couldn't produce a snare drum as the HD650 or HD800 could.  At the same time I was stunned by the detailing and soundstaging of the HD800's - 20 minutes later into the auditioned I tore them off my head as my ears began to protest the treble response.

These were audition situations with no chance for synergy, so is in fact worthless as impressions go.  Also my subconscious is starting to protest the fact that I must resort to DSP and EQ'ing with my D7000's to appreciate them. 

You will find that all headphones are overrated

http://www.head-fi.org/search.php?advanced=1&action=disp&search=overrated+headphones&titleonly=1&byuser=&output=all&replycompare=gt&numupdates=0&sdate=0&newer=1&sort=relevance&order=descending&Search=

Quote:

Originally Posted by moodyrn 

I agree about the hd800s, and I'm a senn fan. They put so much work into making them a technical marvel they forgot about making them sound musical and emotional. They are a technical marvel though. Just don't have any soul. I just don't get lost into the music when I listen to them.
 

That's funny.  I'm a Grado guy and bought the HD800 just to hear this thing for myself (knowing I could easily sell it off if it just didn't click for me).  I still can't bear to sell it off.  Every time I put it on, it surprises me.  The HD800 must be the most overhyped can - except for just about everything else.