[Triple_Dude]

So I found two "potential" headphones to get (First pair of actual headphones I'll be buying... Wow, I can't believe I've been using earphones for my entire life until now for portable audio listening. And when I mean my "entire life", I mean from back in the tape-player Walkman ages!), and I'm having a lot of trouble finding "professional" reviews that compare the two side by side (they're probably in two different leagues...).

The first one is the Sennheiser PC150 Or the PC1151 as they're lovingly called here in Canada; don't ask why they change the name of the product

. I noticed that the higher notes (treble, is it called?) is a bit... muffled? It's sort of muddy. I'm no audiophile, so I have no idea how to describe it... All I know is that my previous earphones sounded better (And provide better noise isolation, to boot). I'm currently trying them out (The return policy is only 15 days! So please reply quickly, for those of you that want to help a fellow lost audio-soul

!).

Now, bass, that's a whole different story. For a headphone of its size, it had better deliver some good bass! And it does. Haven't heard this kind of good bass on-the-go since the time I borrowed a friend's headphones.

I'm wondering what you guys' more "professional" opinion is on this headphone as opposed to the Panasonic RP-HTX7.

Just to be fair, the Sennheiser doesn't enclose the ears and isolate noise (well, not as well), so it loses some brownie points from me in that respect (I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that the ear-enclosing RP-HTX7 will offer better noise isolation... but that's just a clueless assumption from a non-audiophile

). It also hurts my ears, since it clamps down on them--something I'm going to, again, "assume' that the RP-HTX7 doesn't do (correct me if I'm wrong, though)

At the end of the day, I want clear crisp sound (or as clear and crisp as possible at the price range I'm looking at, which is 39.99 and 29.99 for the Sennheiser PC150 and the RP-HTX7, respectively, as they're currently on sale) and comfort... The mic that the PC150 includes, I could do without, as my laptop already has built in mic that I'm already using to chat with my friends. I'll be using this to listen to music, play games and to watch some movies.

So, with that said, which one would be a better buy?

Note: I wear glasses, so would the ear-enclosing RP-HTX7 impede?

EDIT: One thing I like to mention is that I like the bass level of the PC150. I do NOT like over powering bass; I like to have a balanced level of sound throughout the entire spectrum. From some of the amazon user reviews, it seems like the RP-HTX7 has really strong bass--or it could just be them speaking relative to whatever else they've owned before hand... So if anyone has hands on (err, "ears" on) experience with both, please tell me which one has the more "natural" sounding bass (as well as best "overall" sound). Thanks!

 

[4ki]

It doesn't clamp on the ears (around them, at least unless you have wider/longer ears than most people), and if it ever feels tight, plenty have simply stretched the band on their thigh or something for a bit to ease the pressure. The bass is quite generous (not excessive, though), but so is the high-end attack; to some this is a little too aggressive a phone to handle, but after Clie OS's headphone pad mod (where you simply tape old headphone pads into the inside of the cups to attenuate harsher frequencies) and 50 hours of burn in, they're quite balanced, what I'd call the koss ksc75's in closed-form with a tighter midrange. They respond well to EQ.

"Natural" bass is hard to tell. If you're thinking flat-response, you're better off looking at an audio-technica phone, but I have no idea on what lower end models they have (the a-series being at least $100). They have a little more punch than the ksc75s, are tighter than the kvc marshallow buds, and excel with music with good percussion energy, but falters as far as separation and sound-stage goes (being a closed design, this is to be expected). They're very engaging phones, but as I said, can be too aggressive for some. If the soundstage were more lifelike, it'd be the ultimate closed-budget phone, but for what it's worth, these will provide more fun. After the pad-mod they are definitely more 'crisp' without the harshness, and don't disappoint one bit.

I rather like mine as they're both durable and not as giant as some would say. It's a steal at $30-40, but if you wear glasses all the time, any closed circum-aural won't bode well for long-term wearing at least if you're moving around. I never wear my glasses when I have them on.

I don't own or have heard PC150s, but any phone labeled as 'gaming' with heavy bass is simply another marketing ploy masked with thrifty engineering. For gaming, you want soundstage. That realism felt when you step on a patch of grass. Trippy stuff.

 

[ttmnky]

I have glasses and the HTX7, and initially, I felt that the clamping on my head was pretty tight. I wear glasses, and so it pinched a bit, but over a month or so, the cushions became a bit indented where my frames rested.

One note is that glasses and those cushions result in slight leakage of sound. VERY SLIGHT.

Overall, however, I love the sound of the RP-HTX7's. But then again, I don't have any headphones which cost more than them...