[machoboy]

I'm messing around with an '80s Pioneer amplifier I acquired, and being an '80s music fanatic, I'm pretty thrilled to realize that it sounds awesome (comparing to a modern $400 Harman-Kardon).
 
Since I'm a headphone newbie, I got to wondering which headphones were really the cat's meow in the '80s. I know AKG K 240s and Sony V6s were both popular. What else?
 
I'm not really talking about exotic quirky $10,000 stuff that looks like alien headgear so much as what head-fiers would have been posting about & buying if the internet was around in the mid '80s.

 

[KG Jag]

The 80's were the Walkman era and the gateway for small, portable and ususally cheap portable headphones.  Koss had gone into the toilet and Sennheiser was beginning to be known.
 
See:
 
http://www.hifiengine.com/gallery/images/sennheiser-hd420-headphones-early-1980s.shtml-1 

 

[biggbenn74]

Quote:

The 80's were the Walkman era and the gateway for small, portable and ususally cheap portable headphones.  Koss had gone into the toilet and Sennheiser was beginning to be known.
 
See:
 
http://www.hifiengine.com/gallery/images/sennheiser-hd420-headphones-early-1980s.shtml-1 

What about the PortaPro?

 

[KG Jag]

Quote:

What about the PortaPro?

Not a full sized headphone.

 

[tomb]

KG Jag is pretty much correct.  Koss had the Pro 4X at the time, which I think was the worst in the Pro 4 line.  He's right about Sony, though - the MDR-80T was the top-of-the-line for awhile and was a very nice headphone for the "new" light-weight, on-ear designs.  I had a pair for many years.  They outlasted the Pro 4X's.  Koss conveniently claimed their long-standing warranty didn't apply to 4X's, too.
 
MDR-80T:

 

[NamelessPFG]

If I'd have to guess, it would be one of the earlier Stax Lambda models, pre-Nova series.
 
The original SR-Lambda may have to be ruled out (1979), but there's still the Lambda Pro, Lambda Signature, and Sigma Pro if you prefer a more speaker-like presentation. (But good luck finding a Sigma for a reasonable price!)

 

[nick n]

AKG K240S ( studio ), M ( monitor ) , DF ( diffuse field ) may be worth a look. oops see you already posted that  srry.
 
Fostex T20 ( original version ) were all over the musician's heads also.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/fostex/T-20.html&usg=ALkJrhhwK2ZHhfFGI2EslEeG8A0qIReNeg

 

[Mikey99]

I had AKG 240s in the early 80s, as I recall they were the cats meow. I also remember Stax as being the ultimate, but very hard to find plus unattainable for me at the time.

 

[MarcoGV]

My parents took a trip to England in April 1979 (sorry, just before the eighties!) and brought me an electret Stax SR-44. (You can see it in my avatar picture.) I still own this Stax, but it does not work well any longer. I liked the sound of this headphone (fast, clear throughout the range, not a basshead can by today's standards, but the bass was there, still the best headphone for female vocals I had when I retired it about a year ago) a lot, especially when driven by my 1987 (bought new) NAD 3130. (Before that, I used a Philips receiver.) Electret headphones were more popular then, with some rather unexpensive ones. (Wharfedale had a model that sold for about UKL 10 in the mid-70s, if I remember correctly). The other headphone I owned in the early 80s was a Pioneer SE-30, which I had bought (in London) around 1975.
 

 

[Goraman1]

I think we are forgetting the 1982 Audio Technica P

Point 1 through 6 ultralight portable headphones.
2 years before the Koss portapro, they where far more neutral and transparent bass was lighter but well controlled.
I had the ATH 0.1 they where the lightest at 50 grams ,30 ohms and and went down to 35 Hertz if memory is correct.
They where an outstanding match to a Sony Walkman.
The Point 0.6 was the top of the line but I never found a pair for sale.

 

[richard51]

The Akg K 340 are top of the line headphone in the world same level as Stax...First hybrid model combining electroacoustic electret with dynamic driver for the bass, this headphone crush by his naturalness all my other headphones, like basic Stax and Stax SR-5, hifiman He 400, AKG K 701, Beyerdynamic 990,beyerdynamic DT-150, all are in a low level league in comparison...Even today you must choose a high level headphone to beat them,and a costly one, which one I dont know...But beware, it is not an headphone that you can drive with ordinary headphone amplifier...

 

[bagwell359]

I had AKG 240s in the early 80s, as I recall they were the cats meow. I also remember Stax as being the ultimate, but very hard to find plus unattainable for me at the time.

Pretty much same for me. Had a AKG 240 from '81 until '17 - used it for VTA adjustments, too bright for me. Had a junk Koss in the mid/late 70's. Heard a Stax in the early 80s very nice but too much bread to get into.

 

[Goraman1]

 

[Goraman1]

These are Superex professional ST-ProB made in Yonkers .
I spent the late 70's all the way through into the late 80's listening to music through this headphones .
They are a 2 way design separate woofer,tweeter and a small crossover, very huge sound stage for closed backs and with 3.5 inch drivers with Alinco magnets doing mids and bass they go well into the lowest sub bass you only get from pipe organs.The tweeter is the size of a nickel and is tuned slightly warm.
They are stupid big but so is both their sound and presentation. There was nothing in the 80's that did dynamics like these.

 

[Monsterzero]

K240 sextetts and HD250s