[Chironex]

I have $100 cash, I'm looking for headphones with

MUST HAVE: GOOD bass, sound quality, and are pretty sturdy (I'm careful with my stuff though)

Optional: Active Noise Cancelling

I'll post a couple I looked into and read several reviews about, please tell me which are best, or which other ones are better.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000G3LCQ...ASIN=B000G3LCQC

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001FTVD...ASIN=B0001FTVDQ

Overall I hear that Grados, and Sennheaiser's are the best overall quality. And I heard Bose is good but most of them are too expensive for me.

Also, if it means anything, I'll MOSTLY be using these for my Ipod Touch 4, so please make sure the headphones are compatible.

Extra info: I'm not a high end music producer or anything like that so I'm not looking for EXTREME detail, I just good bass whilst simultaneously having crisp/clear sound quality, I don't want the bass to override the song and make the music muffled.

Please provide names of headphone models and price. Or a link. Please tell pros and cons.

Thank You

 

[afrobat]

There's a lot of bose bashing here, just a forewarning. Bose has pretty terrible build quality and sound quality for the price and the bass is relatively overpowering and leaks into the mids and makes it pretty muffled, so definitely don't go for that.
 
As for your needs, I would recommend a pair of closed headphones. The grados won't be a good fit since they are open headphones and, if I remember correctly, they don't have much bass.
 
You'll have to give more specifics on what headphones youre looking into, as in what model number, since Sennheiser has a ton of different headphones.
 
A popular choice around here for your price range is the m50. The soundstage isn't the best, but it's pretty detailed, isolate well, and have good bass. Just remember to get the coiled cord if you end up going with this, because otherwise the cord will be very long.

 

[colgatetotal]

Sony MDR-XB700. Should fit your bill, and they're built like trucks.
 
Grados have bass, although it's recessed and fast as opposed to club thumping. Low-end Sennheisers won't satisfy you enough. And Bose... yeah.
 

 

[Chironex]

 
Quote:

There's a lot of bose bashing here, just a forewarning. Bose has pretty terrible build quality and sound quality for the price and the bass is relatively overpowering and leaks into the mids and makes it pretty muffled, so definitely don't go for that.
 
As for your needs, I would recommend a pair of closed headphones. The grados won't be a good fit since they are open headphones and, if I remember correctly, they don't have much bass.
 
You'll have to give more specifics on what headphones youre looking into, as in what model number, since Sennheiser has a ton of different headphones.
 
A popular choice around here for your price range is the m50. The soundstage isn't the best, but it's pretty detailed, isolate well, and have good bass. Just remember to get the coiled cord if you end up going with this, because otherwise the cord will be very long.

 


Quote:

Sony MDR-XB700. Should fit your bill, and they're built like trucks.
 
Grados have bass, although it's recessed and fast as opposed to club thumping. Low-end Sennheisers won't satisfy you enough. And Bose... yeah.
 

I went to BestBuy and looked around the best ones I saw in my budget range were Sennheiser HD 428 S and Sony MDR-XB500
 and I'll probably get the XB500's because the base seems good but I'm unsure of the Highs and Lows based off reviews, and I don't think it will muffle the overall sound quality. I'm hoping the sound quality doesn't distort the higher I turn up the volume. The 4HZ-2k4HZ range doesn't seem too bad either, but wouldn't that mean it doesn't have too good lows.  I wish it had a coiled cord and it was able to fold, but for the price they seem very good overall. Also I couldnt find the Sony MDR-XB700 at BestBuy.And ya I heard grados have weak bass.
 
By the way, if it helps, I'll mainly be using these headphones for my Ipod Touch, but I don't think I'd need an equalizer for the XB500's, so are the cord lengths on any of those headphones too long?
 
 
Check em out here: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665774410#specifications
 
Thank You for responding.
 

 

[burnliff]

Look harder for the XB700, it's worth the price difference over the XB500 if you can deal with the size.

 

[soul05]

amazon has xb700 for ~70 bucks

 

[afrobat]

I haven't heard any of the xb headphones or the 428, but the general consensus is that the xb700 is significantly better than the xb500 like burnliff said, and likely better than the 428. I hope you're not planning on buying the xb500 from that site because you can get the xb700 for that same price on amazon.

 

[Chironex]

I was going to go back to BestBuy today and get the XB500's and they cost $84 (W/ tax), but since you guys say the 700's are better, I guess I'll try to find them ( I can't find them at bestbuy, what Retail store would I find them?). How are they better? Also, I would buy them off Amazon, only problem is I don't have a credit card and I can't find Amazon gift cards by where I live.
 
And if it helps, I listen to songs like this:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iK_AOsKv0Y
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6m8q4MqwvA&feature=fvst

So I'm looking for headphones that have good enough bass to accomodate songs like those without muffling the acapella or overall
song and I'd prefer if I didn't need to use any EQ on my Ipod Touch as that drains the battery and I also don't want a 10 ft. long cord.
 
PLEASE tell me the Pro's and Cons of both the XB500's and XB700's, or PLEASE tell me how they differ.

Thank You

 

[afrobat]

I don't have any personal experience with either, but on a quick search of head-fi. I found this
 
Quote:

I've compared both side by side. XB500 is actually significantly easier to drive than XB700, both SQ-wise and plain loudness wise (aprox 20~25% louder at same volume comparing with Windows 7 vol slider, the slider set to 25% for XB500 and 30-31% for XB700 provides roughly similar volume levels in my case). XB500 is also by far the easiest driven headphone I've tried and then my collection contains only of very easy driven headphones that all play well without any amping. In fact I found XB500 to perform worse when adding my cheap amps FiiO E5 and Gary's PA2V2 to it as they made it sound even smoother and you do not want that, it sounds like it's properly amped without using any, if you use an amp for it, it better be an as neutral sounding amp as possible. XB700 benefitted slightly with those amps to add slightly more punch to the bass especially without making it sound too warm/smooth. I've also tested running the XB500 straight out of an old Creative Zen mp3 player I RARELY use and it sounded very good without amp and it also had a simple 5-band EQ which was enough to improve the sound quality. Basicly you want to have the upper bass range a bit lower than the rest and highs a bit higher.
 
Without taking any EQing into account XB500 is overall more fun / warmer sounding with bigger bass quantity and a lot more punchy upper bass and the bass impact is bigger while XB700 focuses heavily on very deep bass so it remains rather soft in comparision. The highs are smoother on XB500 or slightly rolled off which makes it very soothing to listen to without any hint of sibilance. As an side-effect the midrange sounds actually "fullier" and less recessed on XB500 compared to XB700 but the slightly excessive upper bass on XB500 colors the mids a bit more/making them a bit smoother sounding unEQ'd. XB500 benefits a lot from a little EQing, unEQ'd it may be just tiny bit too smooth/dark sounding for most people I'd imagine but if EQing using a good quality EQ this headphone can be made sound in my ears even better than XB700 and suprisingly good for a headphone for this price. XB700 has slightly better instrument separation and is a bit less warm sounding and has better clarity unEQ'd but my ears still enjoyed the XB500 sound more as I prefer very warm sounding headphones with very forward mids and not any exaggerated highs and balanced deep/mid/upper bass ratio but every1 got their own preferred sound signature anyway.

Here's the thread it comes from. It's a comparison thread between the two. http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/538785/sony-mdr-xb500-vs-sony-mdr-xb700

 

[Chironex]

Quote:

I don't have any personal experience with either, but on a quick search of head-fi. I found this
 


Here's the thread it comes from. It's a comparison thread between the two. http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/538785/sony-mdr-xb500-vs-sony-mdr-xb700

Thank You EVERYONE who responded.
 
Afrobat- Thank You for that thread, I'm leaving in about 5 mins. and that thread saved my decision. I'm getting the XB500's because they seem more smooth (Which I hope is good for Hip-Hop) and my Ipod Touch pre-set EQ's seem good enough to alter the headphones in my favor. I'll review them later today after I get them. thanks again everyone!
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Thank You EVERYONE who responded.
 
Afrobat- Thank You for that thread, I'm leaving in about 5 mins. and that thread saved my decision. I'm getting the XB500's because they seem more smooth (Which I hope is good for Hip-Hop) and my Ipod Touch pre-set EQ's seem good enough to alter the headphones in my favor. I'll review them later today after I get them. thanks again everyone!
 

 
I would seriously concider getting EQu from the appstore for $3, it's a custom linear phase EQ which trumps over the built in crappy EQ in the iPod as long as it's not an iPod classic or Nano cuz those aren't supported obviously. Using this EQu you can very precisely tweak the EQ to sound optimal for the headphones, it would be very well worth it for a headphone such as XB500 that has lots of EQ potential.
 
Check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GomY7Wrn0Iw

 

[Chironex]

Ok so I went with the Sony MDR-XB500's and I'm listening to them as I'm typing.
 
First Impression: Bass is VERY good, not ASTONISHING, but VERY good. It doesn't overpower the acapella, and doesn't muffle the song at all. It's like having a mini subwoofer in your ear. There is definite sound leak. Not very noise cancelling, but that wasn't advertised so it's not a huge deal. Pretty comfortable. Very clear overall quality.
 
Now this is my FIRST EVER pair of higher quality headphones and I'm very impressed.
 
Cons: The cord doesn't seem durable, but only the test of time will tell.
Also I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like the right can might be dimmer in sound than the left, like I can hear a snare in the left can, but not the right? Hopefully I didn't get a defective pair. My older brother said he didn't notice it, so I guess it's fine.
 
Overall I'd give them an 8/10
 
Thank You everyone for your responses.

 

[Chironex]

Quote:

 
I would seriously concider getting EQu from the appstore for $3, it's a custom linear phase EQ which trumps over the built in crappy EQ in the iPod as long as it's not an iPod classic or Nano cuz those aren't supported obviously. Using this EQu you can very precisely tweak the EQ to sound optimal for the headphones, it would be very well worth it for a headphone such as XB500 that has lots of EQ potential.
 
Check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GomY7Wrn0Iw

DEFINITELY will do, Thank You

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

This is not a perfect curve how EQu should look like as I'm not using the same device or EQ (since I'm mostly using my PC and my soundcard's EQ) and "optimal" setting wouldn't be the same on another device/EQ as different sources or DACs provide different sound for starters even unEQ'd, but it should give a guidance what I and others find a good setting for XB500 to sound great with more wide range of music:
 

 
It sounds like "clearing" up the sound a lot as both mids and highs are a bit recessed compared to the bass and will bring out details better.