[parallel49IPA]

First of all, Hi everyone I live in Vancouver, Canada...where abouts do you?

Now that is out of the way...

I love music, alot I listen constantly and have gone through a number of headphones/earbuds in my day a big problem I would have is after a few months I would lose sound in one cup/bud and that as you can imagine sucks it hasn't happened with every pair but more then i would like to be sure.

I have never really broken the bank on a pair i believe the most I have ever spent would maybe be $80? for a pair of Skull Candy Hesh 2 if I recall and that would have been a few years ago now. For the past couple years I've really enjoyed the Sennheiser CX1.0 and 2.0 (maybe one was a 3.00 instead but I don't rememeber.) My latest pair were a $20 pair of Happy Planets I think that I purchased last Christmas and they served me well until biting the dust a couple weeks ago now.


However now I am ready for another purchase and this time I really want to make it count and am willing to pay a little more lets say $250 max where should I begin? I have loved my Sennheisers should I stick with the brand? I'm not exactly a trendy guy but I wouldn't be opposed to something from Bose but I feel there would be better options out there from what I hear. But I wouldn't exactly know where to begin to look outside of the big stores like Best Buy or the Source... I'm sure I could find some place that offers outside the norm

Thanks again

 

[obobskivich]

Welcome to Head-Fi!

The easiest/biggest initial questions when shopping for a headphone are:

- What kind of music do I listen to?
- What am I plugging them into?
- Do I need to worry about either isolation from external noises, or containment of the sound the headphones make away from my outside environment?
- What is my budget? (you already have this one)

There are many headphone options out there, even if you kept your budget lower at $100, but especially when you go up to $250 or more (~$300 tends to be where many headphones these days are priced). As far as the whole "they break and fall apart" that really comes down to two things IME: first is that cheap stuff tends not to last as long or age as well, because usually corners were cut to get that price down, but second is how you treat what you do own. If you're smashing these into a backpack, dropping them off a table, throwing them around a dorm room, dragging them around by the cord, exposed to children, and so forth, they are going to be broken before too long (regardless of price - headphones tend to be pretty sensitive/delicate pieces of equipment in the grand scheme of things). So I'd say its worth looking at your usage/lifestyle habits and considering if you really do want to spend $250 (or more) on a pair of headphones if you aren't going to treat them as delicate instruments (think about how you should treat a camera if you need more of an idea). That doesn't mean "don't use them" but certainly they need to be handled gently is my point here.

As far as what to look at, without some semblance of answers to those questions above it will be hard to give you any real directed suggestions, just lots of "well [headphone] sounds good to me!" and you're left to wade through that on your own. With some idea of what kind of music you like, what has to drive them, isolation needs, and budget (again, you have 1 of 4) it becomes easier to direct advice. This article gets at that in more detail: https://www.head-fi.org/f/articles/...ne-buying-guide-for-newbies-by-boomana.12330/

As far as purchasing headphones themselves go, I'm not entirely sure on what it looks like in Canada, but generally online shopping (like Amazon) is the better choice than suffering whatever rapper-endorsed plastic that Best Buy or whatever other retail store will have on offer (often at or above retail list price to boot).

 

[cossix]

Are you looking for a headphone that doesn't require an amplifier? The higher quality headphone you want, the more likely it is that it will need gear to sound it's best. I'd suggest starting with something like a Sennheiser HD598 and maybe a FiiO E10k or an Audio Technica M50x. It's a good idea to split you budget to allow for a starter dac/amp like the E10k. It'll help your headphones sound more balanced and dynamic. Also consider finding yourself some lossless music. Mp3 sounds dull and flat on good headphones compared to something like .flac format. Try signing up with HD Tracks, they will give you a starter pack of free lossless music

 

[parallel49IPA]

Hi guys, thanks for the quick responses.

I listen to many types of music, but I guess I would say mostly rock/alternative with a little hip hop thrown in there but then again I have something of everything, I would prefer something that has decent base and some noise cancellation as for what I am plugging them into they would go straight into my phone (an lgg5 if that matters.)

I've heard good things about the Sennheiser HD1 in ears and they do seem to be on sale at the moment..

 

[parallel49IPA]

bump

 

[tompaz909]

There's a great store called Headphone Bar on Main Street with a large range of headphone equipment.

 

[parallel49IPA]

Cool, I'll check it out.

Looking into hd598s now, coossix

 

[parallel49IPA]

After reading into it some more I'm liking what I hear about the Sennheiser 4.40 and 4.50s, i'm going to go sample those today I believe does anyone here own a pair?

I'm also not against a decent pair of earbuds and I've read the new focal sparks can't be beat for the price.