Headphones Advice (Canada)
Feb 17, 2009 at 2:19 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 20

tkl.hui

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Hello everyone,
I have been a long time lurker and I have finally decided to make an account. I've been looking into getting a set of decent headphones lately. My maximum budget would be about $150 CAD.

I mostly listen to Rock/Alternative music and occasionally Classical music when I'm studying. My current set of headphones are a pair of Sony MDR-V150s and they really SUCK, big time. Thank god they were free from a friend. (I think he should have payed me to take them after using them for a good week)

I would mostly use these walking to and from school or when I'm on the transit so I'm guessing a set of closed headphones would be best. Any ideas would be nice and I look forward to my stay here on head-fi.
smily_headphones1.gif


Thanks in advance
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 2:32 AM Post #2 of 20
Quote:

Originally Posted by tkl.hui /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Hello everyone,
I have been a long time lurker and I have finally decided to make an account. I've been looking into getting a set of decent headphones lately. My maximum budget would be about $150 CAD.

I mostly listen to Rock/Alternative music and occasionally Classical music when I'm studying. My current set of headphones are a pair of Sony MDR-V150s and they really SUCK, big time. Thank god they were free from a friend. (I think he should have payed me to take them after using them for a good week)

I would mostly use these walking to and from school or when I'm on the transit so I'm guessing a set of closed headphones would be best. Any ideas would be nice and I look forward to my stay here on head-fi.
smily_headphones1.gif


Thanks in advance



It seems like you are looking for something very portable, so I'd say Sennheiser PX100 would be a good start for you. It's very compact, comfortable, and has decent sound. If you are in Canada, they're available locally as well at the Source/Futureshop, although you'd be paying more than you would if you bought it online. igrado's would be a good choice as well (I'd recommend regular Grados such as SR60 but they're not really portable).

However, they're open not closed so they may not be your best bet in that sense. For isolation, I suggest you look into IEMs instead.
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 2:34 AM Post #3 of 20
I would suggest IEM's for your purposes. Seeing as how you would be using them on the move, they would be more convenient, block out more sound and give sound quality as good or better than a full sized headphone of the same price. I haven't tried any of the new ones but head over to the portable/iem section to look for options, there are tons out there now.
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 2:39 AM Post #4 of 20
I had the PX100 and I truly hated them with a passion. Your best bet man is to order a pair of quality headphones from eBay. You'll get reamed hardcore in Canada. I have the same exact budget as yours, 150$CAD. I live in a noisy place so I prefer closed headphones. I might go with a pair of M-AUDIO Q40. You can get it for 145$CAD on eBay. PM me if you want a link

Here's a few other option in your price range (from eBay mostly):

Audio Technica AD500
Sony MDR7506
Denon D1001
JVC harx-900/700 (cheap)
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 3:34 AM Post #6 of 20
Rock and alternative? Find yourself a pair of used Grado SR-225s. They'll rock out better than anything else in your budget and will do classical in a pinch. Take a look through the reviews and threads on the SR-225 and keep an eye on the For Sale Forum. If you're really eager, you could start with the SR-60 or the Alessandro MS-1.
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 3:36 AM Post #7 of 20
I would get grado's but from what I've heard from people's experiences, they leak alot of sound in and out. I don't think that would be ideal when on a bus or when i want to use it in a library or what not.
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 4:08 AM Post #8 of 20
My favorite under $150 is the Denon D1001, but beware, they barely block out any sound. I would only use them in a library if you had the volume quite low.

Look for them in crutchfieldcanada.com ....they are an authorized dealer.
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 5:34 AM Post #9 of 20
I don't know why you hate PX100s with a passion. They're quite a bargain imo. You can find them on ebay for $30-$50. It's a pretty great deal imo, and you can't find Grados for that price (I actually didn't like the SR60s in comparison).

He's looking for a closed back though.
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 5:58 AM Post #10 of 20
Quote:

Originally Posted by tkl.hui /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Hello everyone,
I have been a long time lurker and I have finally decided to make an account. I've been looking into getting a set of decent headphones lately. My maximum budget would be about $150 CAD.

I mostly listen to Rock/Alternative music and occasionally Classical music when I'm studying. My current set of headphones are a pair of Sony MDR-V150s and they really SUCK, big time. Thank god they were free from a friend. (I think he should have payed me to take them after using them for a good week)

I would mostly use these walking to and from school or when I'm on the transit so I'm guessing a set of closed headphones would be best. Any ideas would be nice and I look forward to my stay here on head-fi.
smily_headphones1.gif


Thanks in advance



I second this topic too, Canada has some pretty lame price adjustments here. Your price range and other info is quite similar to mine. What comes out of this thread would be helpful to me too. What i'm looking for is an upgrade to my portapros. Price range is also 150 CAD
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 8:51 AM Post #11 of 20
Buy used, that's the only way to get good stuff at low prices when you're in Canada. I rarely see any good prices for new stuff. HD25-1 would really be perfect for you but alas you won't find them new for $150 CDN but I bought them used for slightly more, albeit quite a while ago. Sony and certain models of Sennheiser are the only thing I see on sale (mostly at NCIX), since you can't tolerate IEMs (me neither).
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 12:31 PM Post #12 of 20
Thanks for the help guys, I see the denon 1001k at crutchfieldcanada.com for $120 with free shipping. I'm thinking I'll go with these. I tend to listen at low to moderate levels so It should be fine.

Anyone know some other canadian sites that sell some decent headphones?
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 1:18 PM Post #13 of 20
Canada is a headphone blackhole. Every headphone in my sig right now was bought from some other country except for the Triple.Fi which I bought from a computer etailer, but that's only because they had a price error so I got them for half price ($180)

As far as other retailers, there have been several threads in the past about buying headphones in Canada which gave some useful information
 
Feb 17, 2009 at 2:12 PM Post #14 of 20
Quote:

Originally Posted by Zathan /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I had the PX100 and I truly hated them with a passion. Your best bet man is to order a pair of quality headphones from eBay. You'll get reamed hardcore in Canada. I have the same exact budget as yours, 150$CAD. I live in a noisy place so I prefer closed headphones. I might go with a pair of M-AUDIO Q40. You can get it for 145$CAD on eBay. PM me if you want a link

Here's a few other option in your price range (from eBay mostly):

Audio Technica AD500
Sony MDR7506
Denon D1001
JVC harx-900/700 (cheap)



The ones I bolded are actually pretty good, I am infact planning to go for the Sony, the sound blew me off and comfort was as good as the M-Audio. Even if you get a cheap pair around here, prob is their return policy, I bought from this place Axe music, apparently the largest canadian online music shop, they do have quite a bunch of headphones, but you return a product for refund, they charge a 25% restocking fee.. What.. so you're basically screwed up from getting another set from them.. One thing though is, I only found few places $1 or $2 higher than them, but you save the shipping cost right?..

Oh and restocking.. I actually saw them boxing a returned headphone pack, and they put it back on the shelf to sell, now if they say it is unhealthy, why re-sell used cans.. Bah!!...

JVC Apparently people say is the poor man's Audio Technica a700/a900..
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/jvc...i-nuts-375575/

Any of those 3 should be available in Canada (JVC kinda hard to find).. But take my word, if you do like the Sony 7506, please do yourself a favor and buy the V6 instead.. the only difference is that the labelling on the 7506 is different and it comes with a gold connector compared to the V6 which doesn't..

Sony MDR-V6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You're paying the extra $30 for no use.
 

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