[beatlelennon65]

can somebody suggest a good pair of closed headphones for around 100 dollars that does not need a heaphone amp? I have an inexpensive Sony mini hi-fi system (mhc-mc3av) and I need a good pair of headphones. The ones I have are Aiwa hp-x222 and i want something significantly better, but I dont understand all the specs of headphones. How do I know if the ohms on a pair of headphones are rated correctly for my stereo? What is the max ohm I should consider for a pair of headphones for my system? Thanks

 

[BoardC3]

sounds like you want the grado SR-80 you can buy them new for about $95 or used for about $75. They can be powered by almost anything and they sound great, check the past reviews.

 

[hokiefritz]

Quote:

I dont understand all the specs of headphones. How do I know if the ohms on a pair of headphones are rated correctly for my stereo? What is the max ohm I should consider for a pair of headphones for my system?

I'm sure someone much more knowledgeable than me will stop by with a technical explanation. There are many factors that have an impact on what you're asking; the impedance (ohms) and sensativity (SPL) of your 'phones and the power your headphone jack produces (voltage and current). Here's a document with some impedence values of popular headphones:http://www.rane.com/pdf/note100.pdf
An example of why this is a technical questions is that impendence (ohms) doesn't always tell the story. The AKG501 heaphones are only 120 ohms but have poor sensitivity at 94(dB) and therefore would likely be a very poor match for your mini system. <pause for the experts to jump in>

In the meantime while we wait for the experts, pretty much 'phones with less than a 90 ohm rating will work best wtih the average quality and powered headphone jack. You could use cans with higher impedence, but they would not go as loud and certainly not sound their best.

I like BoardC3's suggestion for the Grado SR-80 for open phones (another good open phone is the Koss-KSC35), but you want closed and Grado's are completely open. I suggest trying the Sony V6 or the Sennheiser 280pro. Both are less than $100. If you do a search on either of these you will find literally hundereds of opinions. Questions about less than $100 headphones are asked often - if you search around in the headphone forum you'll find many threads discussing them.

The V6 have an overall more favorable opinion than the Sennheisers on these boards and that would be my primary suggestion to you, especially considering you'll be plugging them into your minisystem and not using a headphone amp. They are also one of the cheapest but decent sounding closed headphones available, in my opinion.

Cheers!

 

[dohminator]

Check out the audio technica A55's. They are $100, and the provide great isolation and comfort if you need that. The sound is also wonderful. I did a full review on them not too long back. You can search the boards and read it. They can be found at www.audiocubes.com There is no other way to get them into the US though.