Hey,

Ages ago I bought the ATH-M50s but found the extremely long cord (I bought the straight-corded variant) a hindrance to taking it outside of my room. Thus it has found a place as an extremely competent studio headphone, but has left me with little else than some ill-fitting portapros and a pair of cheap Sennheiser ear buds I use at the gym.

Basically I'm looking for a headphone with good sound and a shorter cord more suitable for use with an mp3 player. The MDR-V6s look great, have a reputation for decent sound, but I fear the cord might still be a little too long (Though the corded cable would definitely help things I think). The SR-60i's might have a shorter cord; I don't much like the style but they too might be a viable option.

Any other headphones I might want to look into? I'm trying to keep the price around 60-80 USD.

A headphone with a removable cord would be an ideal solution assuming I could keep two cords of varying lengths. Failing that, I might perhaps see about getting the cord replaced, but I don't really know where to look for that and I'm not about to attempt it by myself.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Heya,
 
You can shorten pretty much any cord. Cut it. Re-terminate it. Done.
 
Very best,

To my ears, one of the best sounding (and most comfortable) headphones in the price range you mentioned are the
Ultrasone HFI-15G. 
 
Not well known or often discussed headphones; I really don't know why.  They are exceptional.
 
 
Then there are the usual suspects, such as the Creative Aurvana Live ($59.00),
Koss Pro 100, some Sennheisers which seem to excite no one, Beyer DT 235
(but they also have a very long cord), and the Yamaha RHM5A (long cord too).
There are some others as well.
 
 
I wouldn't hesitate to go with the Sony MDR V6; they're just not that "portable" in my view.
Neither are the Grado's.
 
What I'd recommend, if you're in a position to do it, are the Sennheiser HD 25 I II.
Great sound, great size, short cord, very well made. 
For the combination of portability & outstanding sound quality, I don't know of anything better.
 
Another very good choice for portables, if you can find a pair, are the Audio Technica ATH-ES7.
 

Are there perhaps any headphones I could look at with replaceable cords? Anywhere I could send a pair of headphones in to get a professional to shorten/replace the cord?

Ultrasone's have replaceable cables.
(You should have bought the coiled cable M50, I used to commute with one all the time)

I should've. Rookie mistake, eh? I thought the straight cable would be somehow better without really thinking about it.

Quote:

byte said:

Are there perhaps any headphones I could look at with replaceable cords? Anywhere I could send a pair of headphones in to get a professional to shorten/replace the cord?

Click to expand...

Absolutely.  Any good electronics repair shop can do that for you.
 
 

 
Quote:

rezel said:

Ultrasone's have replaceable cables.

Click to expand...

You sure about that? My HFI-580 cable is definitely not replaceable.

Pro line?

zazex said:

Absolutely.  Any good electronics repair shop can do that for you.

Click to expand...

Welp, my current thought is to buy the MDR-V6s or similar style headphone (I'm still looking at my options) and just pay some money to have them shortened.

Quote:

byte said:

Welp, my current thought is to buy the MDR-V6s or similar style headphone (I'm still looking at my options) and just pay some money to have them shortened.

Click to expand...

You can certainly have that done at any time - but you might find the cable length not such a big issue, especially with a coiled cable.