Opinion neede: Under $100 headphones (closed, open, circum/supra-aural, ANYTHING) with best timbre

Grado SR60 or SR80 are both in your price range, and they do have decent timbre for the money

They are easy to drive, good for Rock, Jazz, and Acoustic music, but offer little or no isolation.

If you can spend a bit more and buy used you can look into AKG K701, which has Timbre as it's middle name. It may work OK with your Filo, but I am not certain as I've never used one.

I find it odd that you would disregard the Grados based on one bad review. It would be better to disregard them after listening to them.

For timbre Grados are my absolute favourite at that price range (and above), with VERY few contenders. The only ones that come close for me (in the price range) are some vintage AKGs and Sennheisers.

It's probably worth noting that everyone's ears are different shapes and sizes and some headphones will sound slightly different to unique individuals; especially Grados which are voiced almost too accurately and can sound massively different when closer or further away from your ears, which changes attack, sound stage and bass volume and 'size'.

What about the Akg 240?

Any good?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lltfdaniel 

What about the Akg 240?

 

Any good?

The best AKG K240 model is the 1975 vintage 'Sextett' model. It seems that mostly because of the head-fi community the popularity and price of these lesser known headphones has gone up considerably in the past few years.

I own the original K141 which shares its driver with the sextett, the K240 'Monitor' and have borrowed a friends sextett for a few weeks. The mids are absolutely amazing on the sextett and k141, very lush and natural sounding. The treble is not quite as sparkly as other cans, but the timbre is very pleasing. The main difference between the two is that the k240 has much more bass than the k141 - however there are 3 main variants of the sextett with different colour vents and drivers. The younger the variant the less bass it has. I've listened to the oldest version and found it to sound like a very smooth/liquid sounding Grado with more bass and less treble - one of the bests 'sounds' I've ever listened to - but for it's neutrality I'm very happy with my k141.

Also with these old 600 ohm cans, a decent amp is an absolute must, otherwise they sound like crap.

I would TOTALLY avoid the younger K240 'Monitor' (I own this and the mids and timbre are NOTHING compared to the sextett and k141) and only consider the 'Studio' gold version if you get a good price on it. Many people say the new K240 doesn't even compare to the older ones, but I've never heard them so I can't comment... I've briefly heard the new K142 in a shop and it sounded like a different beast.

The K240 DF (diffused field) model is also an old favourite for studio stuff as they're said to be the most neutral of the breed, with less bass than the sextett (which probably wouldn't be desirable for bassy music).

Also K240s are generally amazingly comfortable, but I would hardly describe them as portable. That said, they're construction quality is legendary - and eve if something breaks it's super easy to fix.

You do not want a Grado if accurate timbre is what you are looking for. The headphones with the best timbre are almost invariably closer to neutral than most other headphones. These can be tough to find at your price range however. A K240DF used would be one of the best choices if you could find one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by juantendo8 

You do not want a Grado if accurate timbre is what you are looking for. The headphones with the best timbre are almost invariably closer to neutral than most other headphones. These can be tough to find at your price range however. A K240DF used would be one of the best choices if you could find one.

I think you're confusing neutrality and timbre. A VERY neutral headphone can still sound a bit cold and boring, while Grado's can produce very life like instrumental sound reproduction. I find that a lot of neutral headphones don't have the 'attack' or 'bite' that is needed to replicate a live sound. Grado's have absolutely excellent timbre, and is very well 'coloured' to imitate the sounds of live instruments. I find that neutral headphones tend to sound more like 'recordings' than 'live recorded music.'

you can find the k240's on ebay right now --- new in the box for 125.00 shipping included --- there isn't many listed so you should be able to find them easily but I agree with the response you have been getting if you could possibly go for the 701's or 702's but don't spend any more on the 702's than you would on the 701's because they are internally identical except the 2's have a detachable cable--I own denon 7000, beyerdynamic t1's, beats studio and pro, bose 15's (which by the way are excellent for computer or iphone sound quality but the construction isn't as durable as it should be for carrying around) grado rs1's and gs1000's, sennheiser 650's, and polk 800's to name most of them anyway I find myself going back to the 701's quite often but you will have to unfortunately splurge for a decent headphone amp also if you don't all ready have one.