[Hyl]

Hi, i am new to closed headphones (used IEM's before), so can anyone advice me which of these 2 to pick from. I want to use them in the bus and metro for about 1 hour, so it needed to be decently isolated and not too tiring to listen for longer periods of time.I care about Sound quality (i know that these cheaper closed headphone's don't sound as nice as my shure se530 but i am on a tight budget), portability and comfort.

Thanks to anyone who can help me

 

[cerbie]

AKG K271 mkII/K272 HD:

Neither are going to be terribly portable. The main differences are the color, the K271 mkII coming with both pads (velour and pleather), and detachable cables, coming with two of them. However, neither cable is short, and the shorter one is more "microphonic." I can't say fir sure, but I would guess the integrated cable of the HD model is probably much less "microphonic."

I'm not sure how well isolation will be for your intended use. The isolation is good, but not great, from the lower minds/upper bass on down (I'll guess <500Hz), which will account for a great deal of the noise in buses and trains. Above that it's similar to the hard silicone Shure tips.

Comfort, OTOH, is phenomenal (with velour pads, of course).

Yet, while they boast of efficiency, they really just mean sensitivity. If you have a nice portable amp you use already, you should be set; but, they benefit greatly from an amp when it comes to long-term listening. The upper-mids have a sibilance to them, and the mid-bass has a dip, which combined with phase distortion from little cap-coupled outputs can make it sound like there are two instruments making every low drum hit.

I'll leave others to those Senns.

 

[JD20]

Good timing, I was about to ask the same question. Love the looks of the K 272HD.

I'm looking for a good portable closed pair of headphones, for use with an iPod Classic with a view to buying an amp in the very near future. And that's another question entirely...

I think I've narrowed it down to the following:

- AKG K 272HD
- Audio Technica ATH-ES7
- Audio Technica A700
- Sennheiser HD25-1 II (quite a price increase here tho...)
- Something else???

SQ would win over comfort, and music taste ranges from Industrial to Ambient.

Shame there's nowhere for auditioning near me

 

[eruditass]

i would pick HFI-680's for $150

 

[ph0rk]

the k271's are a tad warm (as in temperature) even with velours - more so than either the dt770 or dt250. The HD25 isn't hot at all but puts pressure on the ears which can make them sore after a couple hours (goes away fast though).

I think the k271's arguably sound better, and that neither will give enough isolation for a bus ride.

 

[dmc333]

Have you thought about the hd280 pro, they have good isolation. The akg 272hd seem to isolate what is going out very well, but you can still hear much of what is around you. The best sound closed cans seem to be the esw9s, but the isolation is meh.