Headphones for big heads! Is there such a thing as one that will last more than a year tops?

[hourendous]

So, I have the issue with headphones never lasting for me for one reason or another. Either one of the headphones dies, or the arm just breaks off, or they are just straight up not comfortable to wear. To give you a rough idea of headsize, one of the previous pairs i had were steelseries of http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KtC6BzBHL._SY300_.jpg style. While putting the strap, in BETWEEN the bars at the top of the headphone, the headphones themselves still pushed against my ears causing slight pain at times. The pair I had before my current ones had the arm snap off after i think it was about 6 months, and my current pair which are/were http://www.amazon.ca/Turtle-Beach-Tournament-Headset-TBS-6010-01/dp/B00BCXF9KK/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1452036365&sr=8-25&keywords=turtle+beach+headphones, are not far off, and currently look like http://imgur.com/0ccs6CK on one side after roughly a year. I've since stopped wearing, as the crack digs into the side of my head slighty, and are no longer comfortable to wear because of it(signs of a crack beginning on the other arm also, but only slight).
 
I've decided to resign from decent headphones from now on and stick with the apple earpods, as greatly annoyed at having no pair of headphones last more than 6 months to a year IF I'm lucky. They do get quite a lot of use I will admit, but outside the very rare tripping over the cord, i take good care of them.
 
Anyone know any actually good headphones for people in my situation, or am i **** out of luck for that style of headphones, and am in need of looking into a different style if i want ones that actually LAST. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hourendous /img/forum/go_quote.gif

So, I have the issue with headphones never lasting for me for one reason or another. Either one of the headphones dies, or the arm just breaks off, or they are just straight up not comfortable to wear. To give you a rough idea of headsize, one of the previous pairs i had were steelseries of http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KtC6BzBHL._SY300_.jpg style. While putting the strap, in BETWEEN the bars at the top of the headphone, the headphones themselves still pushed against my ears causing slight pain at times. The pair I had before my current ones had the arm snap off after i think it was about 6 months, and my current pair which are/were http://www.amazon.ca/Turtle-Beach-Tournament-Headset-TBS-6010-01/dp/B00BCXF9KK/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1452036365&sr=8-25&keywords=turtle+beach+headphones, are not far off, and currently look like http://imgur.com/0ccs6CK on one side after roughly a year. I've since stopped wearing, as the crack digs into the side of my head slighty, and are no longer comfortable to wear because of it(signs of a crack beginning on the other arm also, but only slight).

 

I've decided to resign from decent headphones from now on and stick with the apple earpods, as greatly annoyed at having no pair of headphones last more than 6 months to a year IF I'm lucky.

 

I wouldn't really think of those headphones as the standard for "decent" headphones. Not to say they're totally, absolutely bad, but for the same amount of money you can get headphones from manufacturers who have been into the headphone game longer and have the ergonomics better figured out, among other things.

 

If anything, keep the external USB soundcard that came with either of those and try something like a Grado or Beyerdynamic. For one, these have a metal headband with no plastic over those parts (just the leather and foam padding), so you can bend the headband in a lot more ways to conform to your head. Like spreading them out more in the center then bending them in more closer to the corners to redistribute where it clamps. 

 

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by hourendous /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 

 

They do get quite a lot of use I will admit, but outside the very rare tripping over the cord, i take good care of them.

 
Tripping over the cord doesn't count as "taking good care of them" since there's no way around using copper or any other soft metal strands on cables, unless you're fine using a stiff rod that hooks you up to whatever it's plugged into like a head on a pike. That means that they inherently have fragile parts, and tripping over the cables can tear those strands of copper or whatever, especially near where the cable goes into the earcups, more so because from there the strands are soldered into the drivers. Even detachable cables won't help you if you treat your cables like this since tripping over them can damage where the socket on the earcup is soldered to the drivers, if not really damage that socket.
 
I recommend that you get practically any headphone and then learn to not trip over them, or just use speakers. Some would recommend wireless but these cost a lot more money for less performance, and while you won't be tripping over a cable, I'm somewhat concerned about the fact that you consider tripping over the cable as taking good care of them without realizing how much force that is for copper strands.

 

[nolife1123]

I've got a rather large head (at least larger than most of the people I know), and I've recently grabbed Audio Technica ATH-M30x, they're quite comfortable even with their "clamping" style of fitting, it's got a metal band instead of plastic up top/on the sides, seems very durable so far, although i've only had them for a couple of weeks now, they show no signs of wear/spreading/cracking or bending and I wear them for about 8-10 hours a day (which also confirms that there's no actual ear fatigue happening even at quite loud levels). I'm not sure what your usual listening style is, but they're amazing for metal and not too shabby for progressive house.
I've had the Steelseries Siberia v2 as well, they broke in a couple of months, Plantronics Gamecom 780 as well (twice in 2 years), I'm yet to see if these will last as long, but they surely seem a lot more durable/sturdy than the latter two, as well as sound superior (I personally adore their sound signature, they beat the M40x/M50x and even M70x by far by my taste).
 
There surely are many more great headphones for bigheads, but the best way to know is testing them out in a shop (I've spent a couple of hours in a HiFi shop in my city checking most of their budget-y stuff out, haven't found anything better or even remotely as good for even double the price).

 

[hourendous]

Thanks for the responses, ill definitely have to look into some of these, and that kind specifically nolife. Unfortunately where i live trying on headphones Isn't much of an option, as at best we have a best buy where i am, which doesn't give you wide a selection of headphones. I'll also have to look into the 2 brands that protege mentioned also. The metal band though I've concluded is an absolute must for me, as the plastic ones simply don't last for me.  Good sound for metal is good also, as while  i listen to just about everything, metal is the one i listen to the most. While the earpods I'm listening to now are good, I'm noticing the...lower quality sound of them more and more, and its starting to bug me a bit, Lol.

 

[nolife1123]

  Thanks for the responses, ill definitely have to look into some of these, and that kind specifically nolife. Unfortunately where i live trying on headphones Isn't much of an option, as at best we have a best buy where i am, which doesn't give you wide a selection of headphones. I'll also have to look into the 2 brands that protege mentioned also. The metal band though I've concluded is an absolute must for me, as the plastic ones simply don't last for me.  Good sound for metal is good also, as while  i listen to just about everything, metal is the one i listen to the most. While the earpods I'm listening to now are good, I'm noticing the...lower quality sound of them more and more, and its starting to bug me a bit, Lol.

The M30x's have an excellent sound for metal (they're quite well balanced, with excellent vocals, not very thumpy bass, which I prefer anyways), I'm a metalhead myself, and it's quite satisfying to listen to anything on em, however, like with every earphone/headphone there is, Rhapsody of Fire takes them with full glory. If nothing, they'll surely sound a lot better than your current headphones (gaming headphones aren't really well-sounding, from personal experience all these years, the ATH's have been a revelation for me, if you do need a mic, grab a clip on one instead such as http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ ).
 
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions at all regarding the M30x's, I can provide a picture of the metal band if needed, as none of the official/internet pictures actually show it!

 

[hourendous]

Hmm, not as much a question about the metal band itself, as how adjustable are the headphones themselves are. They look noticable moreso right off the bat vs previous sets I've had. Just wondering how much i can...modify the angle things are on to reduce the amount of pressure on the arms themselves. The set i had before my current for example, everything was removeable, the headphones themselves were able to be taken off completely due to a plastic clip they snapped into of sorts, and as such there was no wiring connecting it, but in the case of those, the plastic clip itself broke, and in turn there was nothing keeping the headphones themselves in place to keep them connected.
 
So I'm just wondering how sturdy not only the metal band itself is, but how much so the plastic around it seems to be constructed to prevent any notable weak point. As you nearly have me bought on them, XD (Then i just need to find out the differences between the model numbers, between the m30/40, the 50 ill not bother with until i get a good first hand idea how they are)  Thanks!

 

[nolife1123]

  Hmm, not as much a question about the metal band itself, as how adjustable are the headphones themselves are. They look noticable moreso right off the bat vs previous sets I've had. Just wondering how much i can...modify the angle things are on to reduce the amount of pressure on the arms themselves. The set i had before my current for example, everything was removeable, the headphones themselves were able to be taken off completely due to a plastic clip they snapped into of sorts, and as such there was no wiring connecting it, but in the case of those, the plastic clip itself broke, and in turn there was nothing keeping the headphones themselves in place to keep them connected.
 
So I'm just wondering how sturdy not only the metal band itself is, but how much so the plastic around it seems to be constructed to prevent any notable weak point. As you nearly have me bought on them, XD (Then i just need to find out the differences between the model numbers, between the m30/40, the 50 ill not bother with until i get a good first hand idea how they are)  Thanks!

The headphones seem removable from the Y fork (tried twitching it a bit to see if it can be removed), but I wouldn't try it since the wires pass through one of the fork sides!
Honestly, all of the pressure when you're spreading them to put them on your head is felt on the metal band itself, there's literally no pressure on the Y fork, nor the plastic on the band (the ones on the edges of the metal band, it just keeps the metal pieces at place, there's literally no pressure on it whatsoever, which kinda exposes no weak point at all, from what i've noticed, when compared to the old headphones which had a noticable weak point on the top band, which ended up breaking, every single time . Here's a picture of what I've described, it's from when I got them, so they're not expanded with the metal band yet http://i.imgur.com/E21FKRS.jpg
 
Honestly, the only noticable physical differences among 30/40/50 are the following: 30x can only turn about 15 degrees to the side, cant fold down flat around your neck (never even needed that), 40x and 50x have removable/interchangeable cables, 40x can move up to 90 degrees (folds down flat, same as 50x) and 50x can move around 180 degrees
Sound quality wise, they're very similar, I actually prefered the sound of 30x's over both 40x and 50x, they're way more metal oriented, as far as I noticed at least.
 
Make sure to take a look at this guy's review on the whole series, could answer most of your answers/needs with that, although he doesn't actually review the 30x's much, but they're all very similar in physical appearance anyways!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA-I_o9PLtM
 
And here's a fresher photo of the headphones - http://i.imgur.com/lqDGqxt.jpg

 

[hourendous]

Sweet man, that...answers just about all my questions. Will definitaly be looking into the M30's/40's, havent fully decided yet, but their both on sale on amazon so its the perfect time to get them. Irregardless, they'll be an improvement over the earpods for sure, and for the price you cant really go wrong. Thanks man!

 

[nolife1123]

Not a problem sir, one thing I'd mention is that you'd likely need a soundcard for them if you intend using them in the pc, mine suffered from massive coil whine until i plugged them in over my speakers, they could in no way be connected directly to the pc, I haven't discovered what's causing the problem due to great workaround :>.

 

[hourendous]

Interesting, ill figure it out im sure, Lol