[sugarkang]

Maybe because they are cheap?  In price that is.
Sound quality is excellent. 
This is the under-rated thread right?
 
Quote:

i do like sony but they usually feel cheap to me.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

Maybe because they are cheap?  In price that is.
Sound quality is excellent. 
This is the under-rated thread right?
 
Quote:

i do like sony but they usually feel cheap to me.

 

yes it is

 

[ProtegeManiac]

If by "retail store" you meant Mac outlets or electronics stores like Best Buy, you sure won't see those. You'd usually find them in Pro Audio stores, or Hi-Fi shops that sell headphones with at least half as much regard they give speakers. Most of them only sell earphones or wireless headphones, ie, for use with an iPod or late night movie watching, which means their selection is only marginally better than run of the mill electronics stores.
 
Quote:

because i never see them in retail stores. and nobody i speak to knows what those brands are.

 

[tvrboy]

SONY: Their flagship headphones are always technological marvels, including the Z1000 and SA5000. They may not be the best in class, but Sony headphones are truly well conceived and engineered.

STAX: Most Head-Fiers ignore Stax because of the difficulty and expense of putting a good system together. In reality, with a little research, a used Stax system is by far the best bang for the buck. The modern lambda models simply slaughter most dynamics.
 
HiFiMAN: They get a lot of love here, but few realize how awesome this company is. They came from nowhere and released two products that basically invented their own category (high end DAP and high end ortho). Not only did they bring these products out, they were actually good enough to compete with the established companies. That gets mad respect from me and I put my money where my mouth is by buying their high end headphones.
 
That's three, im going to bed now

 

[MrGreen]

Quote:

 
STAX: Most Head-Fiers ignore Stax because of the difficulty and expense of putting a good system together. In reality, with a little research, a used Stax system is by far the best bang for the buck. The modern lambda models simply slaughter most dynamics.
 

I definitely agree. But I kind of like the lack of users because it means a cheaper used market for the vintage stuff
 
Quote:

HiFiMAN: They get a lot of love here, but few realize how awesome this company is. They came from nowhere and released two products that basically invented their own category (high end DAP and high end ortho). Not only did they bring these products out, they were actually good enough to compete with the established companies. That gets mad respect from me and I put my money where my mouth is by buying their high end headphones.

I think it was probably the RE* series that started them, or at least the head-direct store. The phones used to say head-direct but now they say hifiman.
 
 

 

[EddieE]

If we are talking the general public then in the UK pretty much everything except Bose, Sennheiser, Shure, Monster, WESC, Skullcandy, Phillips, Panasonic, Klipsh stuff is nowhere to be seen in high street stores.
 
If you're talking about on head-fi I'd say that the headphones which deserve to be rated highly all get fair attention here. Not much slips through the net.

 

[burnliff]

How does Stax's vintage stuff compare to more modern headphones? I've been tempted many times to get the sub-$100 headphone+amp combos that pop up in the for sale section..
 

 

[chinesekiwi]

Some of the mentioned in here do have reputation around here!
 
Here's some a lot of people forget:
 
Roland (fantastic studio monitors for the price e.g. the Roland RH300 easily compares to the Shure SRH840, the Roland RH50 is an insanely underrated budget [sub $60] headphone)
Fostex (but in the way, they aren't really underrated as they OEM most Japanese brand headphones)
DBI
beyerdynamic and Ultrasone (when compared to more hyped up brands like AKG, Sennheiser)
Koss (stupidly underrated)
Equation Audio

 

[mobbaddict]

Ergo. I guess it's because their headphones are ugly.

 

[K2e2vin]

Local stores around here do not really carry much brands so given that definition, anything that's not Shure, Sennheiser, Klipsch, or Sony, etc. would be underrated. 
 
I'd say "In store" would be popular/popularity, while "underrated" would be quality headphones that everybody simply overlooks.
 
I can't think of much brands but I'd vote Sony; I guess they're so big and they have such a wide range of products, people simply overlook them; some of their products just feel cheap but they also have higher end products that are simply better quality.  I guess you can say their lower-end quality sort of soils their image.....and the fact that many discount retailers(like Wal-Mart) sells their products.
 
+1 for Koss and Fostex too.

 

[mackat]

Panasonic HJE-900! (Best earphones I've EVER Heard, better than sr-60's!)

 

[Aizura]

Anything that doesn't say "made for iPod/iPhone" on the box

 

[Skarecrow77]

Quote:

Anything that doesn't say "made for iPod/iPhone" on the box

Truth.
 
I was at walmart the other day, and aside from the lone turtle beach gaming headphones in the ps3/xbox section, every single set of headphones in the store, be it full size, portable, or earbuds, were in the "ipod accessories" section.

 

[Varley]

+2 for Koss
I still can't get over that I paid £9 for my portapros new in a sale over 4 years ago, they still look new, still work like new and don't fail to please me when I don't feel like my IEM's on the go

 

[afbug]

In Singapore, its Koss. Their stuff are limited and are only avaliable in a few shops/places. Surprising, Klipsch and Jays have quite a presence here and in the past 2-3 PC/electronics show, they are quite aggressive in their promotions.