Headphones under $50-60

Heya,

The HTF600 is fine. They're not huge. The drivers are big, but the cups are not monstrous. They're a good size. Normal size really. The don't leak nearly as bad as the internet has made it out to be. They leak a little more than a really good isolation closed-back headphone, but that's leaking out, they don't leak hardly at all in. So you're in your own world with them. They're fantastic for gaming, they have a good sound stage and imaging, and the bass is terrific for ambient sound in games and action and is out of control good for anything with a good strong 30hz kick to it like bassy music. As far as I'm concerned, in this price range, nothing is going to handle it except and IEM. If you want to move up in cost, the M-Audio Q40 would be the next tier stop.

Size of headphone for reference (they're not huge like Fischers/AudioTechnicas):

Full review in my signature if you want some more gushing.

Very best,

And now for a dissenting opinion on the Panasonic HTF600.  These are some of my least favorite headphones I've tried.  After two months of misery trying to listen to them, I traded them off.

The Panasonics have dull, overbearing bass that overwhelms the mids.  The mids are so recessed as to be hard to discern.  And the highs produced by this set are one of its weakest areas, as it introduced distortion in many notes that was simply not there when listening to the same songs with other headphones.  And there is no detail apparent in any register.  Muddy and muffled are the best way I can describe them.  And yes, I did burn them in for 70+ hours.

The pads were cheap feeling and sweat inducing, so I never found them comfortable to wear.

After all that, they were barely adequate for gaming or listening to tv broadcasts, but for music or movies, they simply didn't cut it.

If you can find the Creative Aurvana Live on sale at Amazon for $55-60 (which does happen periodically), you'll be much better off for both music and gaming, at least in my opinion. 

The CAL's are clearly the best choice when they are at their "usual" Amazon price--which was true less than a week ago.

For entry level phones in the $30 something price range, I'd pick the Superlux HD 681 Dynamic Semi-Open Headphones, which are currently $36.95 at Amazon.

Seconded. Superlux created some of the best bang-for-your-buck headphones out there.

The Pannies and the Superluxs listed are all Semi-open headphones.

Superluxs  20%-25% open,  Pannies 10%-15% open.

If you google them, should be lots of pictures on the web, make up your own mine on how open they are.

Samson SR850C (made by Superlux) seem to be liked by gamers.

Nice thing about the pannies are you can get Velour pads (Beyerdynamic EDT 200) for $20.

Cad mh310 is closed and very good. It's a Superlux hd662. Can be found on sale as low as 39 but 50ish is the norm.

Philip's............

I'm gonna complicate things and throw in the Brainwavz HM3 into the ring.