Good headphones for under $300?

Hey nice decision on having an open mind and not being stubborn unlike a majority of Beats owners. Welcome to Head-Fi. First of all, if your budget is under $300 WITH your Beats, sell them and increase the budget with the money from the Beats. Once you find anything respectable above $300, the Beats won't even compare to your shiny new cans. Is this for portable use or home use? Considering how the Solos are Supra-Aural cans, you might want the same configuration? If you want a nice portable can, look no further than a Sennheiser HD-25-1-ii, Vmoda M-80, AKG K581, Beyerdynamic DT1350, and a few that I cannot recommend because I have no experience with. If you don't mind a larger headphone, variety changes greatly with a lot of sub-categories. And if you want an Open-back/Semi-open design, there are numerous options available. However, as you get closer to the Open and some Closed Full-Size headphones, you might want to invest in an Amp as well. If you want IEMs, post in the IEM/Portable Headphone Thread. Hope this helps.

Why don't you use your Solos for portable use and get home headphones? For around $300, the Hifiman HE-400 is hard to beat as it plays every genre very well.

I suppose my review qualifies? http://www.head-fi.org/t/626571/he-400-review-planx

Well the HE-400 are $400, I wouldn't say that is around $300...

If you listen to music at very loud volumes you might not be satisfied with them unamped, but they don't need an amp to give them enough power to function properly.

Keep in mind that they are open aired too...might not be what you're looking for, as that's nowhere close to sound isolating and people in another room can hear it to the point where they can tell what song your playing at moderately loud volumes.

beats studios sound a little better than solos, butt the noise canelation is a joke, you cant even notice a difference when its on then when its off, you can get them used those for half the price, anyways http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/shootout-102-portable-headphones-reviewed-panasonic-rp-htf600-added-04-29-12 this helped me when i was new

If there is even the slightest chance that you will want to bring them outdoors, think twice about the HE-400s. I love them, they get the most head-time for me right now, but they are slightly too heavy, and do not isolate at all. They are open-backed, meaning that sound comes out just as it goes in. You would probably need a portable amp of some sort to drive them - they're efficient, but need power to sound good. Something that outputs ~100mW/32ohms, like the Fiio E10, would be all you need really. But they really leak too much. I use them around places like the library most days, and in that case it's fine, but anywhere around school is a definite no-go.

It looks like you might need a closed can, even though you say you would use them at home. The Denon D2000s sound right up your alley, but I do hear that they leak a bit as well (keep in mind I haven't heard them). What kind of sound would you prefer? What kind of music do you listen to? 

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AHD2000-Performance-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B000MVEC0Q. Found out on the deals thread. A bit above your price range, but still a good deal. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by chewy4 

Well the HE-400 are $400, I wouldn't say that is around $300...

They were $339 B-stock at Headroom for a while. Gone now though.

Beyerdynamics dt770 pro 80 ohms only go for about 100 used.  They have excellent bass when amped, but I wouldn't say that they are completely bad unamped.  Also I see the audio technica M-50s on a lot of threads here, but have never tried them myself.  Both are closed cans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjaninja84 

I usually have my volume below halfway on an Ipod so I may need an amp but I really would prefer the noise cancellation.
 

You could get a cheap cmoy portable amp that runs on 9volts, sure that would work with beyers and the audio technicas.  These are not noise cancellation cans but do have adequate amount of isolation.  Not sure how much u are wanting and whether u want passive noisce cancellation or not.  I have never tried but some of the IEMs are supposed to be good.

bose qc15. period if you want noise cancelling