Best Headphones < £50

[beesonthewhatnow]

I like the Behringer ones, personally, for around £30.

Robust build and resilient enough to cope with dogy crackling faders and the like.

That has to be one of the first times I've seen the words "Behringer" and "robust build" in the same sentence


In my experience Behringer kit is great for gentle home use, but tends to fall to bits when subjected to the rigours of the outside world...

 

[Kameron]

They do rock though. Excellent for DJing, and I use them at home quite a lot to listen to music. I swear I hear stuff with them that just isn't apparent through my (fairly decent) speakers.

I would post my own thoughts but instead I'm going to quote someone who encapsulated what I thought about them much more efficiently.

Oh god, yeah these are the ones with the surreally loud bass. .they have them in record shops to make you think all the records sound amazing!

Doesn't mean they aren't excellent for DJing of course but you need something different for a flat response.

 

[Old Gammy Leg]

i've just bought a pair of Shure E2C's, they were £50. Good sound, comfortable fit, and you don't look like a knob on the bus..

I have these and IMO they are wicked

They are earbud-style, so they fit right in your ear. Come with a wide range of foam and soft rubber inserts to get the perfect fit... then you can buy spares.

They isolate *all* external noise, which is great on the tube, but obviously not ideal in all situations. Superb sound quality, very well built, look cool. Price has obviously gone down, I thought they were about £80, got mine for $90 in the US a couple of years ago. Highly recommended if you want this sort of earbud.

 

[Herbsman.]

I've got a pair of these Sennheiser PMX 200's, they're wicked, £44

I'm actually selling them due to the fact that I don't have an MP3 player anymore... PM if interested

 

[CharlieAddict]

I have these and IMO they are wicked

They are earbud-style, so they fit right in your ear. Come with a wide range of foam and soft rubber inserts to get the perfect fit... then you can buy spares.

i went through 3 pairs of shures e2cs in 6 months. they're crap if you're an active person. they can't handle condensation! very cheap product for £50.
the sennheiser's cx300 packs a more powerful bass for more than half the price. and if it got damaged or stolen, they're cheap enough to replace.

 

[pk]

That has to be one of the first times I've seen the words "Behringer" and "robust build" in the same sentence


In my experience Behringer kit is great for gentle home use, but tends to fall to bits when subjected to the rigours of the outside world...

I know - I was surprised too!

 

[Dubversion]

i gave in and bought the Grado SR60s

 

[art of fact]

are grado's durable enough to use to play out..? im lookin to get some decent new headphones and weighing between seinheisers and grados...

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

are grado's durable enough to use to play out..? im lookin to get some decent new headphones and weighing between seinheisers and grados...

They are not DJ headphones by any stretch of the imagination IMHO.

 

[art of fact]

They are not DJ headphones by any stretch of the imagination IMHO.

yeah i kinda figuired that.. i want some decent phones but hd25's are a bit pricey n all.. ive seen ppl play out with grado's though.. just wondered how durable they are.. will they handle being trod on?

 

[chriswill]

I got some Bose triports for at home and the Shure e3cs for out and about.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

yeah i kinda figuired that.. i want some decent phones but hd25's are a bit pricey n all...

I've had my HD25s for 9 years now - they have been abused, dropped, trod on, and had beer spilt on them. I use them for work every single day and they still sound as good as the day I bought them.

Worth every single penny.

 

[art of fact]

I've had my HD25s for 9 years now - they have been abused, dropped, trod on, and had beer spilt on them. I use them for work every single day and they still sound as good as the day I bought them.

Worth every single penny.

yeah i think i might just treat myself hd25s are the best all round for me i reckon.

 

[CharlieAddict]

yeah i kinda figuired that.. i want some decent phones but hd25's are a bit pricey n all.. ive seen ppl play out with grado's though.. just wondered how durable they are.. will they handle being trod on?

yeah and that's coming from a person that goes through a new set of headphones every couple of months!
i have a pair of sr80s and they're well made considering they're a cheapo high-end alternative. my dog chewed them up once and i had to get some foam replacements for £10. since then no trouble at all. though i have heard from a few grado owners, that the plastic holding the metal to the speakers have a tendency of breaking.

my only complaint is that these headphones are loud. i mean so loud that other people can hear! so, it's no good if you want to listen to loud music quietly on public transport.

but if you don't midn annoying the hell out of strangers, then the grado sr80s is a good buy.

 

[Dubversion]

They are not DJ headphones by any stretch of the imagination IMHO.

really?

that's what i bought them for, mostly

 

[art of fact]

really?

that's what i bought them for, mostly

they will be good for what you'll use em for..

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

really?

that's what i bought them for, mostly

I view them as "hifi" headphones - very good for crtical listening, whereas for DJing sound quality isn't so critical - what you need is the ability to go loud without distortion and plenty of bass, whilst also cutting out background noise. Being built like a tank helps as well.

IIRC the grados are an "open back" design* so won't be as good at excluding stuff you don't want to hear.




*this could be my memory being up to its usual standard though



Edit to add - saying that, IIRC your style of DJing is pretty much just cueing up one record after the other, rather than any fancy beatmatching or turntable trickery, so maybe it won't matter so much...

 

[hiccup]

Re: HD25s

I would post my own thoughts but instead I'm going to quote someone who encapsulated what I thought about them much more efficiently.

Originally Posted by Some guy from CERN
Oh god, yeah these are the ones with the surreally loud bass. .they have them in record shops to make you think all the records sound amazing!

Doesn't mean they aren't excellent for DJing of course but you need something different for a flat response.

CERN? Isn't that an atomic research lab?

I've never found them dominately bassy, and certainly not surreally so. I reckon you get a good clear sound from them, even off crappy mixers, which is very handy in noisy clubs. I love em.

 

[hiccup]

Also, fwiw, in my experience record shops often have the Sennheiser HD25sp headphones, which aren't the same as the HD25 ones. They're quite a bit cheaper for a start.