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Please Help Me Decide

post #1 of 14
11/12/11 at 7:26pm
Thread Starter 

Ever since I had broke my Grado i60s a few months ago, I have been in need of a new pair of headphones.  If the Grados had no sound leakage, I would buy those again, but however, I had listened to them in school and had been constantly annoying my fellow students with my music.  Currently, I am looking at either the Audio Technica ATH-M30 or the Sennheiser HD 448.  However, any other suggestions are welcome.

 

I want to know which one is better suited for me with my criteria being as follows, with what I consider the most important attribute at the lowest number.

 

1 - Sound Quality (I want decent bass and highs.  Mids are not as important for me)

2 - Durability (Wire strength is most important, build quality and such.  All of my broken headphones are due to dead wires)

3 - Noise Isolation (Will listen during school and at home, usually at quiet times.  Not as important as the other factors)

4 - Looks

 

If people can help me decide, then I will be extremely grateful.  I hate being as indecisive as I am now, because both are great headphones for the money.

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post #2 of 14
11/12/11 at 7:37pm

Neither will sound as good as your old SR60i unfortunately redface.gif

 

Is there a reason why you didn't consider sending them back to Grado? They can

be easily repaired.

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post #3 of 14
11/12/11 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 

Unfortunately, they were out of warranty.  I decided that because the headphones were open, they posed too much of a distraction in school, and I decided that they were not worth the money and time to repair.

 

And here I am now.  Which one would you choose?  Both cost around $50 on Amazon, which I just realized (a nice surprise), but due to my telling that to my dad, my budget has dropped to $60.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwarmi View Post

Neither will sound as good as your old SR60i unfortunately redface.gif

 

Is there a reason why you didn't consider sending them back to Grado? They can

be easily repaired.



 

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post #4 of 14
11/12/11 at 7:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FusionMK View Post

Unfortunately, they were out of warranty.  I decided that because the headphones were open, they posed too much of a distraction in school, and I decided that they were not worth the money and time to repair.

 

And here I am now.  Which one would you choose?  Both cost around $50 on Amazon, which I just realized (a nice surprise), but due to my telling that to my dad, my budget has dropped to $60.
 



 



Have you thought about spending some time in the 2nd hand forums?

 

You might be able to pick up a $13-$150 headphone for that sort of money, otherwise keeping saving.

 

I have not heard the M30 but I own the M50 and it does sound anywhere near as open and natural as

my SR80i at all, it lacks clarity and transparency, bass has little impact but lots of bloated extension

on some tracks. It's not great.

 

HD438 ~ thin, muddy - nothing to write home about, construction is nothing special either if you're

rough on headphones.

 

I'd recommend the Shure 440.

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post #5 of 14
11/13/11 at 2:29pm
Thread Starter 

Alright, thanks for your opinion.  What would you choose if you had a choice between the two?

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post #6 of 14
11/13/11 at 2:40pm
Thread Starter 

Or perhaps the Audio-Technica M40 or the AKG K99?

 

And how does the Shure 240, the 440's little brother turn out to be?

 

Or maybe compare them even the Sony MDR-XB500, which I had used before and have a baseline recognition of its quality?

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post #7 of 14
11/13/11 at 4:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FusionMK View Post

Or perhaps the Audio-Technica M40 or the AKG K99?

 

And how does the Shure 240, the 440's little brother turn out to be?

 

Or maybe compare them even the Sony MDR-XB500, which I had used before and have a baseline recognition of its quality?



Have not heard the entry level 240 ~ the XB500 is a bit of a bass heavy monster , I can certainly tell you that the 440

is much more balanced than the XB500 which tends to be good for thumping bass lines but not much more.

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post #8 of 14
11/13/11 at 5:26pm
Thread Starter 

Is the AKG K99 supposedly good?

 

Sorry for the quantity of my questions... a side effect of my indecisiveness

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post #9 of 14
11/13/11 at 5:27pm
I will highly recommend the Philips O'Neal, they built sturdy and can stretch so much without breaking and has quality wire. The other headphones like JVC over ear, Pioneer on ear.
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post #10 of 14
11/13/11 at 5:36pm
Thread Starter 

How are those guys on sound quality?
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by ZARIM View Post

I will highly recommend the Philips O'Neal, they built sturdy and can stretch so much without breaking and has quality wire. The other headphones like JVC over ear, Pioneer on ear.


 

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post #11 of 14
11/14/11 at 7:53am
Thread Starter 
I think that in the end, I'll settle with the HD 448. Now I'm wondering if the price will go down even more in Black Friday

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
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post #12 of 14
11/14/11 at 9:21am


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by FusionMK View Post

I think that in the end, I'll settle with the HD 448. Now I'm wondering if the price will go down even more in Black Friday
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk


At buy.com they can be found for around $70. 

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post #13 of 14
11/14/11 at 1:07pm
Thread Starter 
$55 at Amazon. That's why I haven't bought anything else.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
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post #14 of 14
11/14/11 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 

I think that in the end, I will go with the Sennheiser HD 448.  I found a graph comparing the Shure 440 and the Sennheiser, and I found no, shall I say, "big" difference between the frequency responses of the two.  Also, I added my old Grado as a comparison.

 

http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=1163&graphID[]=2811&graphID[]=393

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