[justMANGO]

I've been doing research for three days now and it's been more troubling than enlightening. I guess it's best if I just subject myself to some good advices of the experts here.
 
I'm looking for a nice portable headphone for on-the-go iPod use. Budge is 100 dollars, I know, sucks for being a student living in poverty. I'm looking for something that's not too heavy, comfortable with a relatively uncolored and neutral sound quality. I'm not huge on the bass, in fact, most of the things I listen to are on the softer side too (classical to rock, nothing too heavy). (I'm kind of picky on the comfort side though.)
 
I was quite pleased what everyone said about the Alessadro MS-1 and was thinking about getting that, but I'm a little worried with the leakage problem, especially since I wish to use them for subway/bus commutes and probably also for mid-noisy indoor settings. I guess my question is whether or not the leakage of the MS-1 will really impose a problem for this kind use. I was hoping that it wouldn't be much a problem because I don't tend to listen to really loud music, neither do I turn my volume up very high (for the benefit of my hearing, says the doctor). The other, not as concerning question is its cord length. Is it too long for portable use? I've never owned earphones/headphones with 2+ meters of cord length. *inexperienced*
 
Both supra-aural and circumaural headphones are great, if there are in fact any portable circumaurals.
 
Thanks for your time!

Hope I'm posting this in the right section.

 

[bik2101]

i think that leakage would definitely be a problem with the ms-1's. i've owned grado sr-80's which i'm pretty sure are essentially the same headphones. they leak like crazy and are completely open. and being open, you need to have the volume at least at moderate levels to hear over all the noise in your commute on the bus and subways - so that would all leak out too. also, to me, they are really not at all comfortable and the cable, imo, is too heavy and thick.
i would recommend koss portapro's - i've used them for a bit and really liked them - comforable, and great sound quality. the ksc35's are also nice, as are the yuin g2a. all these are nice and light with great sound.

 

[justMANGO]

Despite hearing a lot of good things about the Portapro, I don't really dig them. I think it's totally dorky. Dx (That and I don't really like getting hair yanked out frequently.) I went to an audio store today and checked out the Grado Sr60/80i and oddly enough they don't seem to leak as much as I had expected them to. Maybe it's just because my "perfect" notch of volume is lower than the average person's. But for sure you're right, the cord is heavy and bulky and thick. *decisions decisions*

 

[stevenswall]

^You don't dig the what of the PortaPro? The look? I would recommend the PortaPro for sound and looks if you go the black route, the Sennheiser HD 238 for similar sound and better comfort (but a worse cabling job), and the Etymotic Mc5 for isolation since it seems you will need isolation if you are using it on your commute.

 

[bik2101]

your perfect volume in a store is most likely going to be lower than the needed volume in commute on subways and buses.. keep that in mind. being open - your going to hear a lot of outisde noises too, which will probably end up in your having to raise the volume to hear your perfect volume.