Decent pair of cans

[kopite]

Hey,

I have been using a pair of Sennheisher hdr 85 for the past few years and they have been great but the batteries seem to be lasting for less times each charge so Thinking its time to upgrade.

Although the Sennheisers are wireless I dont mind going wired.

Budget is 100 quid.

Will be using for music, Watching videos and playing games so need a good all round set.

Any suggestions?

[menthel]

Grado SR80's? Very nice for the money. The SR60's are cheaper and not that much worse!

http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/grad...rodid-310.html

This site actually has a nice selection to consider. The audio-technias are supposed to be great for the money too!

[sadbuttrue]

I was going to suggest the sennheiser hd595, but they appear to have increased in price quite considerably. The cheapest I can see them for now is £110 on eBay, although some second hand ones are available for less. I use mine for music (amp and iPod), video, tv and pc gaming. They're widely considired one of the best pair of all round headphones. The Grados mentioned above were my other choice at the time of purchase, but they didn't appear very comfortable for someone with big ears. The hd595s can be worn all day.

[kushtibari]

I have the SR80's. Never measured the size of my ears bit I've always found them comfortable and I love the sound through most sources.

[Jay]

sorry.. please delete

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have the SR80's too and used them for the same things the OP is thinking about too. They can sound a bit bright at the beginning but after a few weeks they sound much nicer IMHO.Also once the pads have worn in a bit they are quite comfortable as they are a bit stiff at the beginning. However I managed to break the pair(me being a muppet) so I got a pair of SR125's instead. Both are VERY easy to drive too. They are both open backed headphones so there is a lot of sound leakage.

The SR80 has been replaced by the SR80i which has improved sound quality and IIRC a more comfortable pad design. The SR60 too has been replaced by the SR60i.

[Greenlizard0]

Originally Posted by sadbuttrue

I was going to suggest the sennheiser hd595, but they appear to have increased in price quite considerably. The cheapest I can see them for now is £110 on eBay, although some second hand ones are...

The weakening pound is somewhat annoying. I purchased a pair of ATH A900's a year ago for £110, and they're not much more brand new.

OP : Check out the Audio Technica and Beyerdynamic range for your budget. I've used both companies and am very happy with their cans.

[Hesky]

I have a set of Alessandro Grado MS1's, they are modified Grado SR80's but cost just $99 from the states.
I bought them simply for a little fun as they were very cheap with the exchange rate a while back and had a 25% off online offer going at the time.

They are very different sonically to my HD650's but like the Senn's they need decent amplification to sound there best.

I have not compared them to the SR80s or SR125s directly but apparently they are a little less bright sounding.

The thing that ceases to amaze me about the MS1's are the fact that they always sound right no matter what genre of music Im listening to, not necessary as accurate as the HD650's but not so clinical either, they in away add a sense of fun and excitement to music that only Grados can do.

Bottom line they are extremely good best-bang-for-buck cans!! and I recommend the hands down!

[schmunk]

Would it not cost significantly less than £100 to replace the battery in your current headphones? Is this an option?

[Hesky]

yup, they are special nimh batteries but there not to expensive and pretty much all the cordless senns use them.

They sell them here...

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/produc..._campaign=base

I got my HD650's among other audio bits from Dolphin Music, great prices and great service

I think the opp is just looking for a change and an upgrade in fidelity

[kopite]

Thats an option although I also just fancy upgrading to something a bit better.

The sennheiser wireless have served me well but I am sure a wired pair for 100 quid will sound a lot better

[Hesky]

kopite, what will be used to drive your new headphones?
Around the 100 pound mark there are many great headphones, the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro's would be a great choice but like many high quality cans they require a dedicated headphone amp to sound there best.

[kopite]

At the moment they are being drivien by a yamaha dsp ax 630 av amp although at some point I will be upgrading this to a cyrus 8 amp or something else in the same price range.

I am tempted to get a dedicated headphone amp as I seem to remember seeing them for about 100 quid. any recomendations on a good headphone amp?

[Hesky]

Rega EAR is a great little headphone amp, they pop up on ebay once in a while, I can also highly recommend the Musical Fidelity X-Can headphone amps.

If your pretty handy with a soldering iron there are some pretty awesome DIY headphone amp projects out there, both solid state and tube based. I made a Pass Labs based Mini Zen headphone amp with my friend a while back. It was based around a single gain stage class A topology and cost just £50 in components to build, the sound it produced was superb!! better than any dedicated headphone amp I had heard up until then and just me and my buddy made it. I want to built another one but with more exotic capacitors and pop it in a cooler looking enclosure.

[kopite]

Why did you have to do that hesky!

Now i`m looking at the DIY projects involving tubes and the likes.

I wish i could just settle on cheap stuff but my budgets always end up getting blown away lol

[Hesky]

You can always buy a great pair of headphones now that fit in your budget and later build/buy a quality headphone amp to further improve sound, Just do it in stages.

Seriously though headphone amps are possibly the cheapest and most enjoyable DIY audio projects you could attempt, if your half decent at soldering and have a bit of free time you will surprise yourself with what you can make.

This site is full of superb DIY headphone projects.....

http://headwize.com/projects/index.htm

So many different circuit designs and topologies to choose from its unreal. I'd really like to build a cute little OTL Tube headphone amplifier to replace my current single ended tube headphone amp.