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Closed Back Headphones Recommendation

Gingerbeard

Gingerbeard

Ayup Me Duck
I am looking at purchasing a pair of closed back headphones for general listening, mainly Spotify, YouTube, and Podcasts via my iPad. I would like something that is comfortable for long listening periods, say a couple of hours +. I currently have a pair of Sennheiser Momentum and these get really uncomfortable after a relatively short amount of time, about 40 minutes or so of use. Any recommendations on what to try or that others have found comfortable would be much appreciated. They’ll have to be closed back as I’ll be listening while the other half is watching some dross on the television :D

I do also have a Dragonfly DAC, so something that also works well with this would be good, but is not a deal breaker

Budget is up to £250.00 max

TIA​
 
If you are driving them from your ipad, an efficient design would be best.
Shure make excellent closed-back headphones that are efficient enough to be used with phones and laptops. I now use the SRH-1540 but also have the SRH-840 and I would recommend both.

I also have Beyers but they are 250 ohm and not suitable for your purpose, IMO, though they are truly excellent cans.
 
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In my experience on my head, Beyer make some fo the more comfortable headphones. You just need to renew the surrounds when they age and flatten out.
 
I tried Meze 99s and they didn’t float my boat. The earcups were too small for a comfortable fit and the sound was flat and lifeless. Maybe they needed time to burn in to open up but I moved them on.

For the OP’s needs I would recommend Bose quiet comfort headphones. These are superb if there is a bit of background noise to compete with, and the comfort is top notch. The earcups are large enough and the clamping force is just enough to hold them in place. The only down side is that they use fake leather earpads that disintegrate after a few years.
 
Another vote for Beyer. To add, however, I ordered the DT770/250 and DT1770 from Amazon to "try before you buy" with a Chord Mojo. There was, IMO, a huge difference in favour of the DT1770. Unfortunately it is out of the OP''s budget, but is still at a discount from the price I paid back in 2018. If the OP could find £100 more then the improvement would be well worthwhile ...
 
Gingerbeard said:
I am looking at purchasing a pair of closed back headphones for general listening, mainly Spotify, YouTube, and Podcasts via my iPad. I would like something that is comfortable for long listening periods, say a couple of hours +. I currently have a pair of Sennheiser Momentum and these get really uncomfortable after a relatively short amount of time, about 40 minutes or so of use. Any recommendations on what to try or that others have found comfortable would be much appreciated. They’ll have to be closed back as I’ll be listening while the other half is watching some dross on the television :D

I do also have a Dragonfly DAC, so something that also works well with this would be good, but is not a deal breaker

Budget is up to £250.00 max

TIA​
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You might get a pair of used Fostex TH600s near your price ceiling. They’re the most comfortable headphones I’ve worn and in SQ terms, a real jump from Beyer DT990s and Sennheiser 600s
 
martin clark said:
If they must be closed back - AKG550. very comfortable (true large, over-ear headphones); very sensitive & easily driven by mobile devices. Outstanding at the price, which is well inside the budget.
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I was just looking for these -on your recommendation(!)- and can't see them anywhere: they seem to have been replaced by the 371s which have some favourable reviews online
https://www.headphonesty.com/2019/12/akg-k371-review/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../akg-k371-review-closed-back-headphone.19657/
 
Anyone that uses wired headphones should have a pair of HD25's. Best sounding over ear closed cans for the 3.5mm jacks on portable devices there are and not ridiculously massive or expensive.

I've been through IEMs and all sorts. I suspect a pair of these and my HD600's are all the wired headphones I will ever need.
 
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There's excellent cans out there at reasonable prices, prefer HD25 and various Beyers & AKG.

The most comfortable I've had/tried were Koss Porta pro and some from Audioquest, not sure they were closed type.
They were definitely not the best sounding.
 
Wow, so much food for thought here :D thank you all, just love PFM

I suspect I might end up stretching my budget ;) and at this rate could end up with a couple of pairs! Lol! :eek:
 
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