In which I offer my headphone wisdom

My go-to cans

  There are millions of headphones out there today. Some really expensive, some really cheap, some free with your phone or iPod, but no matter where they came from or how much you've paid there's only one real requirement for a pair of cans: they have to sound good.

I have been searching for some good phones for a long time. And I've found some, so I thought let you all know what I've discovered. Maybe it'll help you out.

First off, let's get this out of the way: whatever phones came with whatever player you have are terrible. There's no wiggle room here. If you want decent fidelity, you're going to have to bu something else. The closest I've ever had to good free cans were the phones that came with my Samsung Captivate. They sounded really good, very flat and clean, but they aren't very well-made and didn't fit very well. Fit's almost as important as sound, so I tired of them pretty quickly.

You might also think that if you spend over a hundred bucks you'll be in good shape. Not so fast. You can spend a lot more than that and get some pretty terrible phones. I bought a pair of Dr. Dre Beats Solos on a whim once and tried them out before I left the parking lot of the Best Buy. They were terrible. I couldn't even listen to one full song. They were back in the box and I was in the return line within ten minutes. I didn't try the $250 Beats, but they seem more like a fashion statement and a money grab by the good Doctor than anything else.

So without further ado, I'm going to give you my picks for the best phones I've bought in different price ranges. I should tell you that I am not someone who likes hyped sound in anything I listen to. As someone who's worked in the studio for years, I know engineers work really hard to get records to sound the way they want them to, so who the hell are we to jack the bass to rump quaking levels. When I buy headphones I want to hear the music as intended, not artificially basements, so any set of phones that amplifies the bass is out for me.

Nice, long cord, Brillo pad earcups, great sound.

For sitting around the house and listening I pick the Grado SR80. I bought these moments after I returned the Beats. They are everything the Beats aren't; smooth, detailed and open sounding. They are also very open. That why I recommend them for home use, and preferably when your significant other isn't trying to sleep beside you. The Grados have what's called an open-backed design. This helps them get their open sound, but they are also very audible to anyone else in the room when you're listening. The other downside to the Grados is the ear cushions. They are like wearing Brillo pads on your ears. I got the old design. The newer ones (the SR80i) are more cushy, but just FYI. But they do sound fantastic.

Cheap, but effective. Not the best, but fine fit and sound for commuting.

In the earbud category, I have had a set of Shure se210s. They sounded really good, but they had phone controls they kept breaking. Totally unreliable. I've given up on phones with phone controls. I used the Samsung phones for awhile, but they started to fall apart. I bought an expensive set of klipsch earbuds that were highly recommended on other, more fancy review sites. They sounded terrible. And then on a whim I bought a set of skullcandy ink'd earbuds on a whim. They were on sale for ten bucks. Low and behold, they sound great. So much better than the klipsch that cost ninety dollars more. The bass in the ink'ds is a little hyped in the low mids, but not so much as to muddy the sound. For ten dollars, you'd be crazy not to try them.

Tried and true. The old workhorses.

But now, for the best headphones I've ever had: the Sony MDR 7506. I bought these in 2002 when I first started recording. They were a little bright when I first got them, but after a while they smoothed out and have been great ever since. I've had them for almost ten years. Wow. The faux leather on the ear cups has peeled, and I don't like the coiled cord, but longevity and fidelity can't be argued with. They are closed back, so you can wear them without disturbing anyone. And now they're under a hundred bucks. If you're looking for solid, all-purpose phones, these are hard to beat.

Now, this is by no means an exhaustive review of headphones. This is my experience with what has worked for me. I'm sure that hundreds of dollars would get you phones that would blow any of these away. But headphones aren't really worth spending hundreds of dollars on, if you ask me. They are secondary means of listening to music. There are more important things to spend your tech dollar on unless your in a more rarefied tax bracket. And most of us aren't.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Basement couch