should I purchase headphones for my iPhone 5?

ATH-M50 do collapse. It's sound are great for starters. It does not required an amp to play well but it has coiled cable. Does that matters to you?

If you are not using it for mixing or studio, the UE4000 are one of the best headphone I had ever try under $150.

Yes but ATH-M50 are more designed for studio. The Sony are designed for DJ. If you are using it for just daily listening music. UE4000 are a better choice.

It's really doesn't matter what they're designed for..

It does not matter but the price matters. If you are not using it for studio or DJ, it is not necessary to climb up that high.

Both will work perfectly fine on an iphone but none have a mic/control attached to the cords, so you wont have the luxury of quick-access to music playback controls (FF,Rew,Pause), volume, play/pause etc. during calls.

Hi,

First, definitely get better headphones.

Second, you are looking at "over ear" ones. Some people prefer them (include me), others prefer those things that are like earplugs to reduce noise, they call them "in ear". Can't stand them bloody "in ear" ones myself for what it's worth.

You should probably try to find a shop that sells a range of headphones and try the different kinds. 

Personally I have Audio Technica Headphones that are quite big but also cancel external noise and sound rather good. These are similar in looks to the ones you showed, I only use them on long journeys, on the plane or in the office. 

For easy portability and not being "in ear" I have some JVC "clip on" HP-AL-1000 which I never saw in England, I bought mine in Japan.

I think it is important to try and to listen. only you will know if a set of headphones makes you feel comfortable and if you will like the sound. Buying off page without listening may leave you disappointed, even if every reviewer rates them highly, so if you do make sure you can just send them back "no questions asked"...

I have used my Headphones for many years just with the headphones outs of Phones (Sony Walkmen Phones, later iPhones and most recently a Galaxy Note).

 

I recently got a headphone amp (not portable, just for the office) and I never knew what these headphones really could do. But I cannot see me carrying both phone and headamp, so outside I still plug the headphones in straight and it sounds a ruddy lot better than than the stuff Apple includes.

I would go for the vmoda m80s if you can. Imo, they are a huge improvement over the m50s, which I didn't like at all.

I had the Senn 428 and I could barely hear music out of it, the iphone 5 couldn't push it fully... I'm like you and I'll probably say you'll need a amp to push the sound fully.

 

The iphone 5 out the box is probably best with iem's

+1 I have used the m80s straight from my iPhone many times and they sound excellent. I have recently purchased an e7. that provides a bit of extra bass but not necessary at all to enjoy the m80s. Also the m80s are built like a tank, very stylish perfect for portable use. Highly recommended.

 

Heya,

 

Maximum benefit? No. You're playing compressed tracks from a phone. It's good, but it's not superb or anything. Though if your music library is primarily compressed MP3, then I wouldn't stress it as you're not going to change anything by using a dedicated audio player if you're just playing the same MP3's anyways. The M50 and other phones in that range are not high-end at all. They're just barely entry level into the idea of more professional audio equipment, and/or higher end equipment. The M50 is frankly an expensive over-hyped average headphone that is simply built really well. I wouldn't recommend it though. The fun thing is that lots of headphone makers are making consumer friendly priced headphones that are more and more competitive for features and overall quality. So I would suggest you look around.

Here's some suggestions for use with MP3 library & your phone as the source (with the understanding that one day you might use higher quality media and a different player):

 

Logitech UE 6000

AKG K167

AKG K550

Ultrasone HFI 780

Sony MDR1R

Sony MDRZX700

Koss DJ PRO 100

Beyer DT770 Pro LE 32ohm

Brainwavz HM5

Sennheiser HD280 PRO

Sennheiser HD380 PRO

Denon D600

 

Very best,