niccolo
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2015
- Posts
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I'm having a hard time finding headphones that fit what I'm looking for. Headphones should check all the following boxes:
1) Hi-fi, I'm picky about sound quality, a long-time audiophile with a mid-fi home rig (NAD separates, Focal lower-end speakers);
2) Sealed and ideally also with an active noise-canceling function, much (but not all) of my headphone use occurs while traveling, though I am pretty strongly set on also having a passive mode, the noise-cancelling hiss gets old in environments where it's not needed;
3) Over-the-ear, I find on-ear headphones uncomfortable for extended use, and sadly in-ears give me ear infections while traveling by irritating the ear canal a little and creating a sealed warm, moist environment;
4) Efficient enough to be driven by a portable device like an iPhone or iPod and sound reasonably good while doing so;
5) Flexible on price, willing to spend what it takes for a product that meets my needs.
I've tried a number of headphones so far:
- PSB M4U 2: These check all the boxes: Excellent sound quality in passive, active amplification, and noise-canceling modes, over-the ear (just barely) and reasonably comfortable, a bit bulky for travel but doable. BUT they appear to suffer from a severe design/quality control problem, I've returned three of these for all manifesting different but similar problems where the active amplification and noise-canceling modes sporadically get stuck in horrible bang-bang-bang feedback modes, totally independent of what source is driving them (including no source at all). Surreal for a company as reputable as PSB.
- Polk Ultra Focus 8000: These come close to checking all the boxes: Excellent sound quality, easily over-the-ear and very comfy, BUT they only work in active noise-canceling mode, and the subtle hiss gets tiresome when used in quiet environments where noise canceling is not needed. Wish these had a passive mode, I suppose they don't because the audio was engineered specifically for the noise-canceling mode.
- Bose QC25: I know, shudder, but I wanted to give these a fair shake. The noise-canceling is superb, the sound quality is mediocre, and these are surprisingly inefficient, they really can't be driven properly by a portable device and require independent amplification (which is odd given their intended use).
- Audio Technica ATH-ANC7B: Not in the same class, on-ear fit is less comfortable, sound quality is so-so.
- Shure S210: My old in-ear-monitors, used these for years, with the multi-flanged silicone earpieces (could never get the foam ones to seat as I wanted) and was quite happy with them, but also repeatedly got ear infections and started carrying Cipro antibiotic drops when I traveled. Ear infections seem to be caused by a combination of physically irritating the ear canal and the warm, moist environment created when these seal the ear canal.
- Sennheisers [older, low/mid-range over the ear model]: Used to use these a fair bit back in the day, was always impressed with their sound quality at the price point, but they're open models good for home use, not travel.
So...anything else that should be on my radar? Although my expectations are high, I don't think they're unreasonable.
One option is to get a sealed, non-active noise canceling headphone, and just rely on passive noise-canceling, I could live with that. What are the best sealed headphones people like?
The other option is to stick with the Polks, and reconcile myself to the slight hiss all the time.
But I'd love to find something that checks all the boxes.
1) Hi-fi, I'm picky about sound quality, a long-time audiophile with a mid-fi home rig (NAD separates, Focal lower-end speakers);
2) Sealed and ideally also with an active noise-canceling function, much (but not all) of my headphone use occurs while traveling, though I am pretty strongly set on also having a passive mode, the noise-cancelling hiss gets old in environments where it's not needed;
3) Over-the-ear, I find on-ear headphones uncomfortable for extended use, and sadly in-ears give me ear infections while traveling by irritating the ear canal a little and creating a sealed warm, moist environment;
4) Efficient enough to be driven by a portable device like an iPhone or iPod and sound reasonably good while doing so;
5) Flexible on price, willing to spend what it takes for a product that meets my needs.
I've tried a number of headphones so far:
- PSB M4U 2: These check all the boxes: Excellent sound quality in passive, active amplification, and noise-canceling modes, over-the ear (just barely) and reasonably comfortable, a bit bulky for travel but doable. BUT they appear to suffer from a severe design/quality control problem, I've returned three of these for all manifesting different but similar problems where the active amplification and noise-canceling modes sporadically get stuck in horrible bang-bang-bang feedback modes, totally independent of what source is driving them (including no source at all). Surreal for a company as reputable as PSB.
- Polk Ultra Focus 8000: These come close to checking all the boxes: Excellent sound quality, easily over-the-ear and very comfy, BUT they only work in active noise-canceling mode, and the subtle hiss gets tiresome when used in quiet environments where noise canceling is not needed. Wish these had a passive mode, I suppose they don't because the audio was engineered specifically for the noise-canceling mode.
- Bose QC25: I know, shudder, but I wanted to give these a fair shake. The noise-canceling is superb, the sound quality is mediocre, and these are surprisingly inefficient, they really can't be driven properly by a portable device and require independent amplification (which is odd given their intended use).
- Audio Technica ATH-ANC7B: Not in the same class, on-ear fit is less comfortable, sound quality is so-so.
- Shure S210: My old in-ear-monitors, used these for years, with the multi-flanged silicone earpieces (could never get the foam ones to seat as I wanted) and was quite happy with them, but also repeatedly got ear infections and started carrying Cipro antibiotic drops when I traveled. Ear infections seem to be caused by a combination of physically irritating the ear canal and the warm, moist environment created when these seal the ear canal.
- Sennheisers [older, low/mid-range over the ear model]: Used to use these a fair bit back in the day, was always impressed with their sound quality at the price point, but they're open models good for home use, not travel.
So...anything else that should be on my radar? Although my expectations are high, I don't think they're unreasonable.
One option is to get a sealed, non-active noise canceling headphone, and just rely on passive noise-canceling, I could live with that. What are the best sealed headphones people like?
The other option is to stick with the Polks, and reconcile myself to the slight hiss all the time.
But I'd love to find something that checks all the boxes.