Full Size, Big Cups, Over Ear, Closed, Replaceable Cable, Easy to drive (portable), 3.5mm, comfortable & good passive isolation with still good sound quality - Does it exist <$500?

[halcyon]

Would like to have a secondary headset (headphones + mic via the cable) for my phone to supplement my on-the-go IEMs when I don't need small size, but still need:

- comfortable wearing, so big cups, fully around the ear, not pressing on ears (with adequate cup depth)
- fully closed, with good passive isolation
- replaceable standard cable, so that aftermarket 3rd party cable swap is easy, no proprietary connectors
- easy to drive from a standard 3.5mm headphone output of a phone, incl. bass (even if it's not perfect from this output)
- Sturdy, durable, not flimsy easy to break plastic
- Below $500 as these will be beaters and will go into bag, out of bag, into pocket, dropped, thrown around, on the go
- Sound quality still good (given circumstances, it can't be perfect), no obvious super shrill upper mids/highs or boomy upper bass or honky vocal section

Do they exist?

I've ruled out:

- all of the studio monitor headphones : too cumbersome, too small cups
- all of the DJ style headphones (as above)
- all of the active, battery powered USB-C headphones that sound like crap when driven passively

 

[msing539]

The FiiO FT1 is probably the closest to meeting all your requirements, except durability. I wouldn't just toss it in a bag without its case. If you're willing to compromise on something, I'm sure there are more options.

 

[dunring]

I've got the Beyerdynamic MMX300 2nd gen and it's what you describe. I think it's the one that checks the most boxes.

 

[halcyon]

The FiiO FT1 is probably the closest to meeting all your requirements, except durability. I wouldn't just toss it in a bag without its case. If you're willing to compromise on something, I'm sure there are more options.

Great! You wouldn't happen to know of a two-sided replacement cable for Fiio FT1 that has a mic built-in to the cable (pref. with call answer and vol up/down buttons)? Can't for the life of me find one. All that I can find are one sided cables (FT1 connects to both cups separately, so two-sided cable).

 

[msing539]

Great! You wouldn't happen to know of a two-sided replacement cable for Fiio FT1 that has a mic built-in to the cable (pref. with call answer and vol up/down buttons)? Can't for the life of me find one. All that I can find are one sided cables (FT1 connects to both cups separately, so two-sided cable).

Meze makes a dual 3.5 with boom mic, I've never seen it in person.