Which headphones to choose

Hello there, after trying many low-end headphones, I've decided to try something a little bit more expensive, in hope to avoid constant curse of mine - one channel stopping working after few weeks/months. I'm sick of it, so I hope by buying more expensive (but not so much expensive) ones, I'll avoid/reduce this problem.

So I ask you if you can help me choosing some.

I'll buy them from local (city) dealer, so don't post me your choices, as my dealer won't probably have them. I want to buy them here, locally, so I'll have best chances to communicate with him and also to have warranty easy to go through.

some points I need
* I hate earbuds, I need proper headphones with ridge (connecting left/right) over top of my head
* I obviously want better sound quality. I can have best, as for this I would probably need hundreds of $$$, but I want good quality for this price range.
* Oh, my price range is about ...$20-$80
* 
* And quite important thing (made me condemn some choices) - I need to suppress outside noise to some extent. Without use of electronic devices (on battery), I just want headphones where you can enjoy your music, even if you're in noisy place (school, bus)

Here are choices so far:

http://www.amazon.com/Koss-UR40-Collapsible-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B00006JILE

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-EF0060-Aurvana-Live-Headphones/dp/B000ZJZ7OA

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-202-Dynamic-Headphones/dp/B000065BP9

I heard about electronic thing that's build in some headphones (rare), AFAIK it takes outside noise that's coming to my ears and puts it back somehow. Anyway, I don't want this, as I don't want anything with batteries inside my headphones (I listen music about 12h per day, I don't want to recharge batteries every few days).

I just want headphones that are build well - they don't let muchnoise coming through. Because more noise coming into my ears through headphones means less music I'll hear. So I'll have to raise volume => more damaging to my ears and also more of my music coming out of my headphones => more music will be heard by other people, which isn't I want. It's my music and I don't want to bother other people with it, same as I'm angry at people who listen music too loud in buses.

So what do you think ?

I wouldn't suggest the HD-555's  if you plan on using them in noisy places. They are not good at blocking out noise at all. They shine in a lot of areas, but they are not made for noise cancelling.


Edited by Evolutionary Sleeper - June 02 2011 at 12:34

Marty McFly wrote: What do you think about these Aurvana Live Headphones from CREATIVE ?

I haven't tried them, but they look a lot cheaper than they are.

The AKG K 518's which I have block out noise very well but are also uncomfortable to wear for a longer time. The Sennheisers which I used to have (HD 435?) were very comfortable but didn't block out noise at all. Sadly there seems to be an inverted correlation between these two properties.

I would go for a closed model by either Sennheiser, AKG or possibly Beyerdynamic. If you can't try them before buying you'll just have to go by the reviews.


Edited by Vompatti - June 02 2011 at 12:55

Possibly the kind of big ones that go around your ears and therefore don't press against them?

just a quick note - Koss Porta Pro - never :-D when I thought about them few years ago (2?), they just came down to $35 price tag from something 2-3x more expensive. But this was exactly the moment, when everyone started to use them.

Literally.

I go to the school, then I'm in school, then I go home and during this time, I can see them at least ten times, usually more times. I'm getting sick of them just from looking at them, because they're everywhere in Pilsen.

Oh, they also don't have that good sound, my gf have them.

Marty McFly wrote: Active noise canceling, that's the thing I don't want. Skullcandy ? Never saw a thing.

You're lucky.

Marty McFly wrote: Also, from look at the image, some brands simply doesn't exist here in Czech Republic - JVC for instance.

Well I hope you're planning to buy online. This day and age, there's really no reason not to unless shipping is ridiculous, which it might be in CR for all I know...

Marty McFly wrote: Oh, my shop have skullcandy's. Great. Now it's tempting, I feel need to buy them ... oh wait a minute, not really, I'm safe  Seriously, who would buy such a thing ?

Edited by stonebeard - June 02 2011 at 14:00

My advice: go for bluetooth. Obviously this depends on whether your mobile player supports bluetooth, but if it does it's definitely worth it.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: My advice: go for bluetooth. Obviously this depends on whether your mobile player supports bluetooth, but if it does it's definitely worth it. http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-BH-505-Bluetooth-Stereo-Headset/dp/B003H83XP6 Please note that the bulk of the negative reviews complain about the headset not being sweat resistant. I own one and can confirm this - I wore it once in the gym and it stopped working, but then resumed normal operation a couple of hours later. This means that if you want to wear this during a workout, you should also wear a sweat band ... which is a good idea for other reasons, namely keeping sweat away from your eyes. I've been using the headseat for 2-3 months and I definitely don't want to go back to wire based headphones.

Yep, even it's 2 years old, it supports it. But I'll have it for listening with notebook, which fortunately have it as well :-D

I thought about bluetooth a lot. 

Having wireless mouse and headphones is a good thing, as it would reduce number of needed cables to nice number (only power supply) on my notebook. I sometimes feel like tangled thing. I will explore this possibility further, but generally, it seems like very good thing.

Because problem usually is in cable, it gets in way, it can destroy contact (electronic) and you have only one channel working ...

but what about batteries ? price ? Such HP would be more expensive, wouldn't they ?

^ At least those are very big and I'm sure can block out the noise extremely well. Only music is lacking, isn't it ?

Do you even read people's questions, or just automatically plug whatever gear you have?  Look at this price range, obvious he won't be getting HD25s