[Makiah S]

Quote:

I picked up a pair of noise cancelling headphones from Radio Shack once that were atrocious. I can't remember the name. I threw them out right away.
 

Lol, I can just picture you riding along in ya car and chucking those things out the window [cracks me up xD] 
 
I can't remeber how bad iBuds sound I never used em
 
although I did use those crappy Koss $5 headphones too... the itty bitty ones... they where horrificly quiet as well 

 

[DavidJ1973]

You can pretty much count on any active noise-cancelling headphone to sound terrible.  These days there's really no reason to even consider NC headphones.  So many IEMs are out there for any budget that offer superb isolation and sound quality that surpasses many full-sized headphones in their price point.  You just have to be willing to sacrifice soundstage, esp when comparing to open-backed fs headphones.

Totally! my brother even has some Bose QC3s he thought were great and my lame ATHs are better! NC serves one purpose: noise cancelling. FULL STOP

 

[Arkyle]

Quote:

You can pretty much count on any active noise-cancelling headphone to sound terrible.  These days there's really no reason to even consider NC headphones.  So many IEMs are out there for any budget that offer superb isolation and sound quality that surpasses many full-sized headphones in their price point.  You just have to be willing to sacrifice soundstage, esp when comparing to open-backed fs headphones.

 
They issue is that frequent travellers who take international flights will need to have their ears plugged sometimes for more than 13 hours straight. NC full-zised headphones are really more comfortable to really long journeys, but for short commutes I see no benefit whatsoever from full-sized cans that just hinder your movements. 

 

[ssrock64]

NC cans aren't inherently bad-sounding; it's just that their manufacturers focus more on the NC tech than making a great-sounding can because the NC market is very different from the audiophile market.
 
UE and Audio-Technica have both had respectable attempts at high-quality NC.

 

[sad cricket]

Monoprice earbuds are the worst I heard so far.  I took a chance after reading glowing reviews on these $10 buds.  I listen to them twice and could not stand the tinny sound.  I am keeping these tragic earbuds as a reminder to always listen first to speakers/headphone before I buy.

 

[Leliana]

I think I found my most hated ones, I just found an old pair of headphones with tiny foam pads and a microphone that I used to use when I was a 5-10 year old kid at school with the computer and later for home Warcraft 1/2, Starcraft, Starlancer and other video games. Had a listen, good god, there is no treble or upper mids, just soft patting bass and a semblance of some voices coming through. Disgusting to think I used to use these when I was younger.
 
Had a similar experience cracking out my old pair of Teac Earbuds I used at a young teenager before I first got my Sennheiser 418 some eons ago. No bass or low mids on this one almost at all.

 

[DavidJ1973]

Maybe we should start a new thread: "Most overhyped headphones ever". My nomination: Grado SR80. Good, but I think the reviews out there are chock full of cognitive dissonance psychology.

 

[GREQ]

Maybe we should start a new thread: "Most overhyped headphones ever". My nomination: Grado SR80. Good, but I think the reviews out there are chock full of cognitive dissonance psychology.

The sr80i is just one of those polarising headphones that you either love or hate.
I think an over-hype thread will just turn into endless debates about value for money, over pricing and fan-boys are going to love arguing there.
I think I'd still come over to see how such a thread would evolve.

 

[bubsdaddy]

Monoprice earbuds are the worst I heard so far.  I took a chance after reading glowing reviews on these $10 buds.  I listen to them twice and could not stand the tinny sound.  I am keeping these tragic earbuds as a reminder to always listen first to speakers/headphone before I buy.

I was stunned at how bad these are after the incredible hype they received here. I sent them to a non-U.S. Head-fier for free because I couldn't fathom charging someone for these and I also hated the ridiculous shipping charges that are charged when it only cost me a little over $3 to send them to Australia. I tried every combo of tips available. Still sounded tinny and cheap. The person I sent them to agreed. We were both "called out" in the thread for not liking them and being " inexperienced reviewers" , in some cases by people who had never heard them.

 

[SundayDriver]

The Sony headphones that came with my Discman portable CD player back in the day.

 

[paloalto00]

I'm nowhere near an audiophile, so if headphones can play music they're good enough for me

 

[wafflezz]

Quote:

I was stunned at how bad these are after the incredible hype they received here. I sent them to a non-U.S. Head-fier for free because I couldn't fathom charging someone for these and I also hated the ridiculous shipping charges that are charged when it only cost me a little over $3 to send them to Australia. I tried every combo of tips available. Still sounded tinny and cheap. The person I sent them to agreed. We were both "called out" in the thread for not liking them and being " inexperienced reviewers" , in some cases by people who had never heard them.

They supposedly measure well. You know what I think it is? A bad seal. It's probably extremely difficult to get a good seal because of the design, no matter what tips are used. Very poor design on monoprice's part, but hey, they're 7 bucks...
And of course they could actually just be bad lol. 

 

[MauriceDockrell]

Sennheiser CX 215 earbuds - dreadful sound and build quality.
 

 

[AndyMossers]

I've had a lot of really crap earphones in the past.
 
I'd forgotten I'd had these old earphones but I found them in a cabinet when I misplaced my old HTC earphones. They originally came with a Nintendo DS accessory pack. They were unbranded and they were just amazing, but not in a good way. They sounded fairly awful and were very uncomfortable, and the build quality was... unique. After a week of use one of the ears stopped working, so I tried to find the loose connection that had caused that by opening up the earbud, which you could do by just pulling at it. The cable turned out to be quite weak, so I broke off the defective earbud by just pulling lightly. I used them with only one bud for a few more weeks until they finally gave up and were subsequently demolished by pulling at the cable.
 
I've also tried a pair of fake Beats earphones that my friend got at the market for about five pounds. They were misshapen and one earbud was larger than the other, and the Beats logo was a badly made sticker. The cable was actually fairly nice but thinner than normal, and the sound quality coming out of them was awful. One earbud was louder than the other, and one sounded muffled. They had no bass and muddied absolutely everything in the music. They were that badly faked, they were hilarious.

 

[Schonen]

$2.00 earphones I get from the Dollar Store. I use them to watch TV in bed and have broken a few pairs when falling asleep with them on. Absolute garbage for music but ok for TV.