[ipponrg]

Hi all,

I am looking for on-ear or over the ear headphones that meet the following criteria in no particular order:
- Comfortable! I usually wear headphones on for 6 hours of the day at my job while coding at work.
- Portable! I'd be carrying these headphones around listening to my ipod at airports or streaming from Pandora at work.
- Great sound for music coming out of a computer or ipod

I listen to mainly alternative rock, trance, and pop rock.

Based on my initial research I've come up with the following models that seem to fit my criteria above:
- Sennheiser HD 228 (is new and not many reviews yet)
- Audio Technica ATH-ANC7 (leaning towards this one, however this has been discontinued by AT)
- Denon AH-D1001 (a little more expensive)

I am wondering if anyone can chime in on any other models that I may be missing that may fit my criteria so I can do more research. My budget is ~$100. I dont care for active noise cancelation. Appearance does mean something (I think the Grado SR80s are hideous). If you have any opinions, please dont hesitate.

Thanks again

 

[limpidglitch]

I've got no experience at all with any of these headphones, but I think you can by default steer away from active noise canceling, unless you think you really really need it. You say you don't, so i say skip 'em.
Search for reviews on the Denon, I think you've got to look very hard to find much negativity about them, of any substance anyways.
They're also generally recommended for your musical preferences and good with just a headphone-out on a dap or computer.

 

[ipponrg]

The reason I mention the ANC7 is because they are in same price range ($90) as the Denons ($120) . Based on my research, some people felt that the ANC7 were more comfortable than the Denons. The denons on the other hand sounded better compared to the ANC7 without active noise canceling turned on. However the ANC7 w/ noise canceling turned on sounded better than the D1001. The ANC7 has been discontinued though ...

 

[limpidglitch]

Seems like we've been fed different consensuses.

Shop around, there's way more options than these. RP21, M50, ES7, HTX7, V6, SQ5…
My headphones of choice within your criteria are HD25-1, bit over your budget though.

 

[Moocher]

You might prefer iems for their ability to block out noise, especially for airplanes.

Mooch

 

[jonathanjong]

ANC7 wasn't more comfortable than D1001 to me, but they certainly come close. The ANC7s don't sound bad by any estimation, and certainly not for the price (relative to other noise canceling cans), but they don't do your music well. They sounded on the anemic side to me, especially relative to D1001. Well, at the time, I compared them to HD25, but the same would apply for D1001. I've not heard the Senn, but between ANC7 and D1001, I'd go D1001. Cord's a good length for portable too. Get a black one.

 

[ipponrg]

Do you have any particular thoughts of the D1001 vs the M50? I'm reading that the M50 requires an amp whereas the D1001 not so much.

 

[jonathanjong]

Nope, never heard M50, sorry.

 

[pitom]

edited