HD25-IIs have the added bonus of being more or less indestructible and easily fixed if they do break.
How much is it worth spending on 'everyday' headphones
- Thread starter zippy
- Start date
HD25-IIs have the added bonus of being more or less indestructible and easily fixed if they do break.
)
adamdea
You are not a sound quality evaluation device
I’m not sure whether these count as a luxury buy, but Oppo pm3s are imho as good as closed back headphones need to be, and work great with an iPhone. I wouldn’t bother with anything else unless you want to shove something in your ears.
That says headphones are quite personal....
That says headphones are quite personal....
cjyosemite
pfm Member
I am about to retire some B&W P5s (not wireless) but they are "on ear" design & I think there are quite a bit more than £150 - unless price has been substantially reduced since I bought mine. Replacing them with guess what - some Oppo PM3's which are "over ear" & approaching luxury but worth the money from what I read & my brief audition earlier today.
Last edited:
steve_1979
pfm Member
Sennheiser HD25
£130
£130
gryphongryph
pfm Member
Well if you want to use them every day the I would go with the Denon 7200, probably a headphone for life as the build quality is fantastic and easy to drive, but I guess when you say every day headphone, you mean as cheap as possible with good quality, looks like the help so far should have you covered, enjoy what ever you buy.
zippy
pfm Member
Thanks everybody for the suggestions - what I was really trying to establish was the point at which it gets crazy to spend a lot of money when the source is a simple tablet.
As vinylmonkey suggests above, that then starts to demand an improved source such as a soundkey/dragonfly. I don't figure its worth going for extras like that for casual listening. I've actually tried using an external soundcard (with dac) for the tablet but that doesn't make much difference to the sound quality.
Looks like I might get the Momentums if I can get a listen somewhere.
zippy
pfm Member
See my latest reply - how much to spend was my question !
Elephantears
Trunkated Aesthete
I only use cans on the road; I've got some Momentum 2 over ear and some Focal Spirit Pro. Also some HD 25 1-II which are lying dormant. The Momentum are very palatable and easy on the ear. I can almost forget I've been listening to music whilst typing or internet researching. The Focal are more accurate, forward and tonally rich; better all round in most respects, but at the same time less ideal for more casual listening whilst you are doing something else. For a chuck-in-my-bag option, I'm happy enough with the Momentums.
claire.foxx
-⃝⃤
Headphones really are like buying clothes, they are the most intimate technology as they are attached to you so how much to spend really is the sky’s the limit. I think it is personally reasonable to spend whatever it takes based on:
Looks
Features
Materials
Ethical concerns (materials and labour)
Future proofing
Headphones can be really technologically complicated purchases, and getting to right means they are some of the most complicated audio purchases because like clothes you are not in the same clothes all the time, the same goes for the tech inside your headphones — not only in terms of wired only vs wireless leading to a hot mess of codec support (AptX vs AAC vs Bluetooth 4.1-to-5.0 upgradeablitity) but also the efficiency of the external noise filtering, gesture controls, proximity sensors and battery life. It’s just not enough to go “Noise filtering, ewww” and disregard at all costs if your use is airplane as well as subway, trains and office because no good the transducer, no matter how hifi and natural those open backed planar magnetics are, it’s going to need noise cancelling and closed back if used in noisy environments — unless you like a vice like grip and gaffa tape over the open back which destroys the purity of the noiseless open back experience.
I think it’s ok to have several headphones which adds further to the notional cost of “how much to spend”. Jogging with earbuds is vastly better than headphones, big over ears for home and travelling listening but on ears for transportability. My only fixed criteria these days is no cables, I just won’t have them after a comical 5 minute detangling session on a flight only to find the adapter would not fit my iPad in its case and then the cable proved to be faulty... so for me I went for B&O h9i headphones. £450 or thereabouts. I didn’t like spending that much but boy are they good and I feel money well spent. Sure I have Hifiman HE400is but those are locked at home as they are useless for travelling with and the Beyerdynamic Tesla t51p on ears are going to get butchered for a bit of DIY Bluetooth capability at some point.
Wireless Earbuds are the very hardest of alll to decide upon and again, budget wise the sky’s the limit.
Looks
Features
Materials
Ethical concerns (materials and labour)
Future proofing
Headphones can be really technologically complicated purchases, and getting to right means they are some of the most complicated audio purchases because like clothes you are not in the same clothes all the time, the same goes for the tech inside your headphones — not only in terms of wired only vs wireless leading to a hot mess of codec support (AptX vs AAC vs Bluetooth 4.1-to-5.0 upgradeablitity) but also the efficiency of the external noise filtering, gesture controls, proximity sensors and battery life. It’s just not enough to go “Noise filtering, ewww” and disregard at all costs if your use is airplane as well as subway, trains and office because no good the transducer, no matter how hifi and natural those open backed planar magnetics are, it’s going to need noise cancelling and closed back if used in noisy environments — unless you like a vice like grip and gaffa tape over the open back which destroys the purity of the noiseless open back experience.
I think it’s ok to have several headphones which adds further to the notional cost of “how much to spend”. Jogging with earbuds is vastly better than headphones, big over ears for home and travelling listening but on ears for transportability. My only fixed criteria these days is no cables, I just won’t have them after a comical 5 minute detangling session on a flight only to find the adapter would not fit my iPad in its case and then the cable proved to be faulty... so for me I went for B&O h9i headphones. £450 or thereabouts. I didn’t like spending that much but boy are they good and I feel money well spent. Sure I have Hifiman HE400is but those are locked at home as they are useless for travelling with and the Beyerdynamic Tesla t51p on ears are going to get butchered for a bit of DIY Bluetooth capability at some point.
Wireless Earbuds are the very hardest of alll to decide upon and again, budget wise the sky’s the limit.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
I’ve not gone down the wireless route with headphones yet but based on my experience with B&O H6 and H3s, I’d be pretty confident in going with a B&O model. I’ve found the sound and build quality of their headphones to be excellent, they’re comfortable and look good too... and B&O customer service is excellent. In all, they offer excellent VFM.
Weiss-Man
pfm Member
I agree with the above, I’ve gone from 009/PS1000/HD800S to B&O E8 and H4. Huge amount cheaper and good enough for me.
My point re the OP was you will always get a small increase (generally) by spending more (even from a tablet) but only you can decide if the extra is worth it. Good luck with your search.
rockingdoc
pfm Member
As a daily portable headphone setup user for many years, I would caution against spending too much on phones without replaceable cables. No matter how expensive the phones, the cables will give up after a few years.
cjyosemite
pfm Member
Contrary to my previous post I have not replaced my B&W P5's with Oppo PM3's - I have got some B&W P9's instead (will do a review shortly) - & they certainly do not fall into the moderate price bracket. Problem with buying headphones is finding somewhere which offers proper demo facilities. Got a short demo on the Oppo's at local Richer Sounds but the "cans" belonged to one of the staff. Liked them but was not certain they offered much of a step up from P5's so decided to do a bit more research & reviews on the P9's kept coming up so despite having discussed B&W offering with my local Audio-T (my regular supplier) when I rang them today they confirmed we had not discussed P9's but they had a pair in stock. Jumped in car & had quite a long demo & came home with them.
I have never been keen on headphones, other than on holiday, but these might change my mind. I am not suggesting to the OP that he gets some but I think better to think long term & I whilst had not intended selling my P5's, if OP wants a listen to them, then get in touch & quite happy to send them to enable him to get a fix on what you can get for how much.
Last edited: