[Primary]

Alright, my 5G iPod is on the way, my Sony headphones broken, and i've been looking at options for a new pair of headphones to be bought in the very near future. I previously had the Sony MDR-V250's, which i guess by Hi-Fi standards are pretty crappy. Sony's weak plastic (or perhaps my rough handling of them) ended up in a snapped headband thing, and i need to (and obviously am excited to) drop about €50 on some new headphones.

isolation: I will be using them with my soon-to-be-permanently-embedded-in-my-jeans 5G iPod, and i'll use them mostly in trams and buses. Thus, i was looking for something that would isolate the sound at least a bit, but apparently both of these headphones let the person sitting next to me hear every lyric i hear. Is this true?

durability: I'll have these in my bag during the day, and i don't see myself really babying these to the extreme. Nonetheless, i will have some respect towards this to-be acquired piece of equipment. The PX100's look like my cheap Sony's, while i've heard great things about the Koss's and their warranty. How do the PX100's hold up?

sound: I assume these two are pretty much neck to neck on this one, and i already had a chance to test out the Portapro's. Needless to say, they were pretty wonderful. PX100's?

looks: This isn't really that much of an issue, but i wanted to ask you guys. The Portapro's are nice and retro, and well hideous at the same time, but how are the Senn's in person? In pictures they don't really look all that high quality. Are they actually a clean looking set or do they look cheap?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to mention anything related, and also, if you don't think either of these qualifies for my purposes, suggest something else

Thanks in advance,

Primary (first post)

 

[skudmunky]

the portaPros are pretty sweet, and pretty durable too. They have a darker sound than the px100s, and I like dark sound.

 

[Spiritboxer]

I believe the Porta Pro leaks slightly less than the PX 100 and I'd say durability is a toss up. If you mod the PP by cutting a quarter sized hole in the pads you'll get a much more open sound with better mids and highs. I'd give them a slight edge over the PX 100 if you mod them and as far as looks go, the Senn's win out IMHO.
To summarize, it would the the PX 100 for looks with a slight preference for the SQ of the modded PP.

 

[sgrossklass]

Since isolation is a priority, neither of the two would be a good choice - not only because of leakage, but mainly because you probably still need your hearing - hearing loss isn't funny. I'd suggest to take a look at:
AKG K26P
Sennheiser eH250 (and possibly HD212 Pro, unless you consider the looks too ugly to walk around with those; at least they've got somewhat better isolation)
used HD25-SP

(No idea how good the Philips HP460 is, it's the only model of that series that I might consider.)

 

[Beach123456]

Keep in mind that both of these phones are open and using them on buses and the like will probably require you to really blast the music to be able to hear it. And when you do that, the person next to you will probably be forced to listen to your music. YOu might be better off going for closed phones or IEM's just to keep the noise out.

 

[RageX]

Personally I like the look of the porta pros..... the px100 look kinda lame and dull.... and its grey silver.... damn everything is grey silver

 

[xxlMusikfreak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RageX Personally I like the look of the porta pros..... the px100 look kinda lame and dull.... and its grey silver.... damn everything is grey silver

You can also have them in super-ugly white to show everyone that you have or like to have an iPod

 

[Primary]

Alright, thanks for the replies guys. I live in Europe; the buses are hi-tech and quiet, and the people are even more so. That's why i figured i'd be alright with one of these headphones. Just how bad is the leakage? I mean for the people that own these, are they completely unusable when there's people around? Cause i've been studying up every word ever posted on the internet about the PX100's (which i am by the way leaning towards), and here's the pattern i've started to pick up:

Some people say, apparently using their theory of open design headphones, that other people can hear what you're listening to because of the way the phones have been designed. Some people say that they've asked their wife whether or not she can hear what they're listening to and gotten a negative reply. The latter seems to be more from experience rather than theory.

This is probably me just really wanting the headphones and making up excuses in their favor, but i'd like some more input. Do the PX100's leak all that much, and how do they compare to the Koss's.

Thanks again.

EDIT; sorry, forgot to thank sgrossklass for the suggestions. I have been looking at the k26p's as well, but apparently the sound quality isn't spectacular after all. Also, my Sony's looked exactly like them and they turned out very fragile - the metal in the PortaPros and the Senn's give me comfort.

The others you mentioned were immediately checked out but seemed rather large, i'm going for something more discreet and portable. Regardless, muchos gracias my friend.

 

[rimmer]

1. PortaPro - very warm and bassy. To much to my taste. Have tried them only once, EQ went immediately down in the low range.
2. PX100 - very open and airy for phones of this size and price. I have them, chose them instead of PP.

Look is for me irrelevant, both have a distinctive one and both got reputation.

Comfort is IMO similar, based mostly on head and ear shape. PP might be a little better for people who do not like superaural design (like me) - they can be set up to press against head instead of ear.

 

[moongate]

I can definitly recommend the Porta Pro over the Sennheiser when driven out of a decent source (meaning no srs wow eq - whatever involved).

IPods have a good sound quality which can be compared to IRiver when you like those more because you are a pc junkie like me. I have an Iriver H10 (given to my girlfriend) and use a cheapsounding flash player right now that wasen´t any cheap at all

It really made me wanting the IRiver back but it was too late to recall it *smiles*.

I would just go with the Porta Pro which I would compare to the PX200 soundwise. I would also look for that phone if it´s still in your budget.

 

[ZOKROX]

The OLD PX100 (copper voice coil) was close to the sound of the
Portapro (warm). The NEW PX100 (aluminum clad voice coil) is supposedly closer to the sound of the KSC-75 (brighter).

Frequency curve of Portapro:

http://www.headphone.com/products/he...s-portapro.php

Frequency curve of OLD PX100:

http://www.headphone.com/products/he...ser-px-100.php

The curve of the OLD PX100 seems to indicate that it is slightly
brighter than the Portapro.

Other related thread:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=148762

 

[granodemostasa]

I use the PX100 for the exact same reason you described. they dont' leak much and sound great (older px100). The PX100 also looks better, fits in pockets and can take a beating.

 

[imported_t_s]

KSC leaks like crazy. I used them in public for a while, a few years actually, but it was constantly a problem. Yes, others can hear noise if you have it at a medium volume. They can make out exactly what you're listening to if you crank it up even a bit (which I like to do...). I keep on getting comments about how "loud" I'm listening to my music when in fact I'm not - I let them try it and they're surprised how low the volume really is. On public transportation, I can barely make out anything unless I crank it up like crazy... and that's dangerous. I've done this for many years, but after trying a closed pair, I'd even be willing to get crappier sound in exchange for better isolation for portable use. Isolation is so important.

 

[Primary]

Thanks for the replies guys, greatly appreciated. I really wanted these headphones to be at least somewhat suitable for portable use, and i'm still undecided. Every source tells me these headphones have amazing sound quality, and i really want to experience that. At the same time, i guess someisolation would be cool, as i do want to be able to hear my music.

Apparently the PX200's suck? The K26P's aren't exactly available where i live, so thats a problem. In my price range i don't really see other options - the SR60's are tempting but i assume they'd be even worse for public transportation.

Since it's come down to the PX100's or the PX200's, can i get comment's on these two? Is the SQ as bad as i've read from reviews, and is the isolation significant? I'm not really an audiophile - i don't need the best cans out there (obviously, judging by my price range), but if the sound quality difference between these two is significant i probably wouldn't want to settle for the inferior. The 10€ or so difference isn't much.

 

[Fatality_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Primary Since it's come down to the PX100's or the PX200's, can i get comment's on these two?

Why did you exactly forget the Porta Pros? They play in the same ballpark in pretty much every aspect, just with more bass