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/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 ?

Strange thing, they look good, but I can't take them for a very peculiar reason. Even they cost around $80 on Amazon, they cost terrible $170 in my local e-shop. From a look on price aggregation server (which compares prices from all major e-shops around Czech Republic), their price ranges from $120 to $250 in shops here.

Not sure why, but this puts them out of race.

Trying them would be best thing, but it's thing that not many shops allow here. Fortunately, there is thing called return in 7 (or 14?) days if I'm unhappy with product, so I can "try" them this way. 

What do you think about these Aurvana Live Headphones from CREATIVE ? 

^ I remember un-comfortability myself. I had headphones that were simply too tight on my head. And my head isn't exactly fat or round. They had vertical adjustment of position, but I would prefer horizontal. Simply to get them from being too tight sitting on my head.

My ears were in pain, but these headphones had very good sound and also could block out noise well.

I was thinking about this inv. correlation - one of factors that governs how comfortable are they is how tight are they - how much they press on your ear, right ? And also major factor of noise blocking is how tight it sits.

But there has to be way.

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.

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

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

A lot of stores also have more headphones with microphone than normal ones. I don't want to go around town with microphone near my head, it's ridicolous. Of course, these are computer shops, but that's where I usually am buying.

EDIT:

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 ?

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 ?

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" rel="nofollow - 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 ?

The bad thing is that some headphones cost more on amazon and some cost much less on amazon than in Czech shops. What can be $150 here can cost $400 here, while some $100 can cost $50 here.

This factor changes it all. In a bad way.

Just to let you know, I finally choose these:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-EF0060-Aurvana-Live-Headphones/dp/B000ZJZ7OA" rel="nofollow - http://www.amazon.com/Creative-EF0060-Aurvana-Live-Headphones/dp/B000ZJZ7OA

I've read few dozens of reviews and opinions and their positives were very good. Disadvantages includes sweaty ears (can stand it) and bad portability (can stand it).

I also choose them because they were in local shop, so in case of faults, I can easily use my warranty.

Well, I'm sadly not audiophile and cannot compare these with others mid-price range headphones (they cost $60 on Amazon, they cost $60 in Czech R. as well), but if you just want my brutally honest amateur opinion, then they

sound effing great.

I've read in one Czech review that he was listening a movie with these headphones and he actually heard hissing noise in background. He made a theory that the film was so badly encoded, that good phones captured the bad sound and let it be known.

I didn't try films yet though.

Music sounds well, I've tried them with big range of Prog subgenres and so far the only bad sounding was weirdly captured mp3's of my Caravan (particularly song "And I Wish I Were Stoned"), because I in my past foolishness artificially edited the song in editor and raised volume. It sound like sh_t now.

I was especially happy with Moon Safari's Blomljud music, because their songs are full of instrument harmonies.

SOME old unmastered albums sound kind of "lifeless" though.

Bacamarte's first album is perfect example of songs where every instrument sound "loud" and "prominent" as it should be.

I don't need to use equalizer anymore, it all sound great without it.

Thanks avant man, good to hear such words from you.

I'm happy with them, that's for sure. Not sure how much of it is placebo effect, but as long as it works, I'm fine with it.

After these few months, I can say some things - Creative Aurvana Live headphones have the finest sound I've ever heard. Especially after I found out that there is an option in Windows 7 (click on systray sound icon - settings of effects) that boosts basses, adds surround effect.

Of course, I don't want these idiocies, but i F-ING DIDN'T know that such thing was in place there. It was turn on by default.

I turned off equalizer in Winamp, I turned down all these b*****ds. Result - terrific natural sound.

There is a problem though with these phones. Left headphone snapped. It broke in the weakest spot, where only flimsy plastic , about 5mm in radius, holds it. It's right in the spot where the bridge connects to the "dish", in the place where you can turn dish left and right.

They still play good, I just had to make makeshift holding on the head.

Warranty is void though, they said it's a mechanical damage. b*****dS - It's not my problem that the joint is so weak and possibly wrongly manufactured.

But I mean, I've tried to prepare. I've read dozens of reviews on those. Read discussion counting hundred posts in one e-shop (czech). They have perfect sound, but they're perhaps not from that good materials.

Anyway, I spent $60 for them, I'm not going to let it go down the drain and buy new ones. Not because I don't have have money, but because of principle. I made the choice, I'll get used to it. Next time, perhaps $100 ?