[themuna]

I'm assuming that we're talking about "audiophile/studio grade" marketed headphones above $100.

Definitely the original Beats Studio or Solo for me. My friend had the studio and it just ruined every song I played, including hip-hop or EDM (the types of music it was initially marketed for). Horrible bass pumping over every other sound.

 

[KG Jag]

While I have fairly frequently not seen eye to eye (and ear to ear) with Tyll over the years, I have always respected him. He has been married (and apparently divorced) 3 times and his kids are grown. He retired and has just opened the next chapter of his life--life on the open road. A Bose noise cancelling headphone makes perfect sense when you are living in a diesel driven truck-home.

The worst headphones I have heard that cost real money were the first generation Beats--bass for its own sake--an not other redeeming benefits worth mentioning.

By todays standards many of the 60's and early to mid-70's headphones were awful. However, I don't think it's fair to compare them with headphones from 40 to 60 years after they were first on the market.

 

[rutter]

Non expectedly crappy ones, DT770 PRO.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I was checking up on this thread because I have had numerous headphones in the past. However, I cannot really answer this question because I currently have a lot fewer pairs of headphones than I did in the past, and that my choices for the worst that I had ever listened to are either those that were long-discontinued or of the brands and types that had been dismissed by the original post in this thread.

With that said and done, my current choice for the worst headphones (both in my current collection and in current production) is the Audio Technica ATH-M50x. It sounded good, but not that good, and definitely not worth its $150 current street price. It would be my choice for the most overrated headphone that I've ever heard.

 

[znev777]

I think most overrated is a more fun question

HD650. Grainy, shouty, "intimate" soundstage, and blase bass. Equal parts boring and annoying, overhyped to hell and back in my eyes. The detail, tonality, and imaging is there for sure but it seems almost forced, like they sacrificed too much to get there. Certainly good for $220 but whenever I see people gushing over them and recommending them left and right my eyes just evaporate into my skull. It didn't help that they flared up my tinnitus way too quickly, maybe they gave me some sort of complex?

Actual worst headphone? Probably that cheap sony pair I had as a teenager, I think I remember ripping the cord out while in the midst of angst and hormones. These days with detachable cords I only rip them out them out after I've fallen asleep on my desk and suddenly wake up hehehe

 

[rutter]

I think most overrated is a more fun question

HD650. Grainy, shouty, "intimate" soundstage, and blase bass. Equal parts boring and annoying, overhyped to hell and back in my eyes. The detail, tonality, and imaging is there for sure but it seems almost forced, like they sacrificed too much to get there. Certainly good for $220 but whenever I see people gushing over them and recommending them left and right my eyes just evaporate into my skull. It didn't help that they flared up my tinnitus way too quickly, maybe they gave me some sort of complex?

Have you heard headphones that cost several times as much? It's hard to overrate great value.

 

[znev777]

Have you heard headphones that cost several times as much? It's hard to overrate great value.

Sure, my Zmf ori's blew them out of the water, right across the country into somebody else's hands. They pick up where the 650's left off, great bass, superior soundstage (despite being a closed-back), and even more comfortable to boot. Those rough little pads on the 650's along with that clamp weren't exactly a treat despite their low total weight. The only caveat would be the infamous t50rp power requirements, but the 650's aren't exactly known to be easy to drive either. Again, they are a good value, but I think their sheer popularity and the brand name might lead people to recommending them too often, where other brands offer more well-rounded products that a newbie might better start their journey with. Not bad if you want to compare them to other cans though, the sheer number of them out there means that they've been measured against just about everything in existence. If anything, they can at least lead you to greener pastures, like they did with me.

 

[rutter]

ZMF I haven't heard but I've heard a dozen other >$800 headphones and despite having thousands of dollars sitting on my desk I ended up selling and returning everything, keeping an HD650 that is driven by a Magni. Perhaps I missed out on the ZMF answer, but I wasn't putting up with unnecessary wood hanging off my head and 25% restocking fees. I'd recommend the HD650 with experience, arguably the only purchase that makes common sense. Sennheiser headphones also tend to be the most comfortable. There is nothing better for a newbie to start their journey with. I might have to end mine here, for the time being at least.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I think most overrated is a more fun question

HD650. Grainy, shouty, "intimate" soundstage, and blase bass. Equal parts boring and annoying, overhyped to hell and back in my eyes. The detail, tonality, and imaging is there for sure but it seems almost forced, like they sacrificed too much to get there. Certainly good for $220 but whenever I see people gushing over them and recommending them left and right my eyes just evaporate into my skull. It didn't help that they flared up my tinnitus way too quickly, maybe they gave me some sort of complex?

Actual worst headphone? Probably that cheap sony pair I had as a teenager, I think I remember ripping the cord out while in the midst of angst and hormones. These days with detachable cords I only rip them out them out after I've fallen asleep on my desk and suddenly wake up hehehe

Of course you’re entitled to your opinion, but I couldn’t disagree more. The 650’s are a fantastic sounding headphone and they scale very well. I’ve never heard anyone describe them as grainy, as most find them to sound very smooth (me included). And as far as soundstage goes, you’re right, they’re not winning any awards, but at the same time, you could do a lot worse.

Both the Aeon Flow open and closed have a smaller soundstage yet cost more than double the price. Hell, you could argue that even the Elear, Clear, and Utopia have a smaller soundstage than the 650. And the Utopia is a $4000 headphone. So for $200 brand new, I don’t know how anyone could not see a bargain with the 650.

 

[rutter]

It's just a good sounding headphone. It's not the best but what happens at higher prices is that manufacturers figure out ways to insert flaws and make omissions almost like higher level sound qualities are mutually exclusive in achieving and makers feel a need to express themselves rather than deliver, so it becomes a very preference-dependent thing and value is extremely controversial. It is also highly ironic how transparency between source music and sound is supposed to be a principal audiophile goal when in reality expensive headphones give you such different presentations. This is exactly why I'd recommend the HD650 to a newbie. It is a relatively safe good quality headphone that won't leave you thinking you've wasted your money. Says just as much about the market as it does about the headphone. You might have to go to the $5000 range to find headphones you'd expect at $1500, $2000 at most. It's silliness, but them's the options presently. Apparently it's a viable market.

 

[SpeakerBox]

Cheap ear buds that came with a phone I previously had.

 

[znev777]

Of course you’re entitled to your opinion, but I couldn’t disagree more. The 650’s are a fantastic sounding headphone and they scale very well. I’ve never heard anyone describe them as grainy, as most find them to sound very smooth (me included). And as far as soundstage goes, you’re right, they’re not winning any awards, but at the same time, you could do a lot worse.

Both the Aeon Flow open and closed have a smaller soundstage yet cost more than double the price. Hell, you could argue that even the Elear, Clear, and Utopia have a smaller soundstage than the 650. And the Utopia is a $4000 headphone. So for $200 brand new, I don’t know how anyone could not see a bargain with the 650.

I think they certainly work well for small scale acoustical sorts of music, maybe my taste in music is just too out of sync for them. I find myself trending towards more large, open, full, warm sounding material. Film scores, ambient, electronic, maybe a dash of big band and classical. The range of music I did like on them well enough on was just too small to justify keeping them, I wonder if people who love them are just focused on certain genres that the 650 just happens to works well with. If I found my perfect cans for $200-$300 I would be pretty excited as well!

Kind of worrying to hear about the afc soundstage, I've been looking for some well extended detail monsters that won't nuke my ears and they seemed interesting. I had a pair of er4xr's a while ago, amazing detail and fun, but my ears were just fatigued much too fast. They had almost no soundstage (good imaging though), which didn't actually bother me too much, so maybe that's not so much of a problem. I suppose I might just like my natural sounding cans to be big, warm, and full rather than more intimate and mid-forward. I don't think I'd mind a small soundstage on a more neutral, detailed, less "natural" can though.

Any sub-$1000 detail oriented cans that aren't grainy or fatiguing? I've been looking into the afc and lcd2's in particular

 

[SpeakerBox]

I think most overrated is a more fun question

HD650. Grainy, shouty, "intimate" soundstage, and blase bass. Equal parts boring and annoying, overhyped to hell and back in my eyes. The detail, tonality, and imaging is there for sure but it seems almost forced, like they sacrificed too much to get there. Certainly good for $220 but whenever I see people gushing over them and recommending them left and right my eyes just evaporate into my skull. It didn't help that they flared up my tinnitus way too quickly, maybe they gave me some sort of complex?

Actual worst headphone? Probably that cheap sony pair I had as a teenager, I think I remember ripping the cord out while in the midst of angst and hormones. These days with detachable cords I only rip them out them out after I've fallen asleep on my desk and suddenly wake up hehehe

I have a similar opinion of the HD-600. Don't like them much.

 

[rutter]

I think they certainly work well for small scale acoustical sorts of music, maybe my taste in music is just too out of sync for them. I find myself trending towards more large, open, full, warm sounding material. Film scores, ambient, electronic, maybe a dash of big band and classical. The range of music I did like on them well enough on was just too small to justify keeping them, I wonder if people who love them are just focused on certain genres that the 650 just happens to works well with. If I found my perfect cans for $200-$300 I would be pretty excited as well!

Kind of worrying to hear about the afc soundstage, I've been looking for some well extended detail monsters that won't nuke my ears and they seemed interesting. I had a pair of er4xr's a while ago, amazing detail and fun, but my ears were just fatigued much too fast. They had almost no soundstage (good imaging though), which didn't actually bother me too much, so maybe that's not so much of a problem. I suppose I might just like my natural sounding cans to be big, warm, and full rather than more intimate and mid-forward. I don't think I'd mind a small soundstage on a more neutral, detailed, less "natural" can though.

Any sub-$1000 detail oriented cans that aren't grainy or fatiguing? I've been looking into the afc and lcd2's in particular

What you're describing is ideal territory. It doesn't exist in my experience unless you start going toward $5k. If ZMF delivers that it's unfortunate they decided to chop down trees to make headphones and sell their headphones themselves without an attractive return policy. I'm skeptical. Sounds like you're looking for sub-$1000 complements to the ZMF headphone you do have so I doubt it's all that great.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I think they certainly work well for small scale acoustical sorts of music, maybe my taste in music is just too out of sync for them. I find myself trending towards more large, open, full, warm sounding material. Film scores, ambient, electronic, maybe a dash of big band and classical. The range of music I did like on them well enough on was just too small to justify keeping them, I wonder if people who love them are just focused on certain genres that the 650 just happens to works well with. If I found my perfect cans for $200-$300 I would be pretty excited as well!

Kind of worrying to hear about the afc soundstage, I've been looking for some well extended detail monsters that won't nuke my ears and they seemed interesting. I had a pair of er4xr's a while ago, amazing detail and fun, but my ears were just fatigued much too fast. They had almost no soundstage (good imaging though), which didn't actually bother me too much, so maybe that's not so much of a problem. I suppose I might just like my natural sounding cans to be big, warm, and full rather than more intimate and mid-forward. I don't think I'd mind a small soundstage on a more neutral, detailed, less "natural" can though.

Any sub-$1000 detail oriented cans that aren't grainy or fatiguing? I've been looking into the afc and lcd2's in particular

Well I’m definitely not saying the 650 is anywhere near the best or TOTL status. But they’re very good, especially for $200. I honestly can’t think of any other headphone at $200 or less that I would choose over them. But I can think of many, up to $1000, that I would choose the 650 over.

I’m a soundstage junkie, just like you, which is why I own the 800S. I also have the LCD 4Z, but had to put Dekoni pads on it, because it has a relatively small soundstage with the stock pads.

If you’re looking for more detail-oriented cans, I’d stay away from the LCD 2. It’s a fun sounding headphone, but I would never describe it as a detail-monster. I don’t think Audeze, outside of the LCD 4/4Z, is really known for their detail and resolution.

For under $1000, I really like the Edition X V2. That would be my first choice. It has very good detail retrieval, separation, layering and a pretty large soundstage. It’s also very comfortable and easy to drive.