Checking out different headphones.

[Dragonzeanse]

I'm currently at an audio store, demoing headphones. So far, I've tried five different headphones: ATH-M50, Sony MDR V6, Sennheiser HD 600, Sennheiser HD 800, and Grado SR80i. The store is Echo Audio and I'm trying to demo what I can to make better recommendations.

I'm running these headphones off of my phone and using an amp for the ones with greater resistance.

I'm posting this because I think everyone should try it if they have an audio store near. After all, I just tried out the ATH m50s and they really are overrated. Not worth anything over $100. Just my two cents.

[Rorgash]

another recommendation is to do it blind if possible, have someone else put them on you one by one

[hawaiims]

I'm currently at an audio store, demoing headphones. So far, I've tried five different headphones: ATH-M50, Sony MDR V6, Sennheiser HD 600, Sennheiser HD 800, and Grado SR80i. The store is Echo Audio and I'm trying to demo what I can to make better recommendations.

I'm running these headphones off of my phone and using an amp for the ones with greater resistance.

I'm posting this because I think everyone should try it if they have an audio store near. After all, I just tried out the ATH m50s and they really are overrated. Not worth anything over $100. Just my two cents.

IMO the Sennheiser HD 800 are extremely overrated (and overpriced) 

 

It is definitely a great idea to test headphones if you can, but the problem is many stores are loud and therefore don't allow you to test the headphones well.

 

Also let's not forget that there isn't really such a thing as the best headphones for 200$, a lot of it depends on your personal preference in sound signature, what you listen to, what your preferences are (comfort, isolation etc..)

 

The ATH-M50 have that audio technica sound signature that a lot of people like. Pronounced treble and a nice punchy bass. While I wouldn't buy them myself, they definitely are pretty good for the price. 

[Dragonzeanse]

The ATH-M50 have that audio technica sound signature that a lot of people like. Pronounced treble and a nice punchy bass. While I wouldn't buy them myself, they definitely are pretty good for the price. 

Now, I beg to differ. The bass is indeed punchy, but the mids and highs are far less present. It has a bass-leaning sound signature without being too bassy. After listening to a few other headphones some time after writing the OP, I decided to go back to the ATH-M50s because I was more or less thumbing through various songs to try out the headphones. The store didn't provide the most optimal testing conditions, particularly with open headphones, because of the loudspeakers playing on the other side of the store. Suffice it to say, I managed to walk away from each of the headphones with a different impression.

 

I listen primarily to alternative rock with some electronic music from the likes of Muse and Linkin Park. My library consists of a lot of grunge and post-grunge music, so guitar distortions are to be expected. I was playing it off of my phone, and an employee helpfully advised that it may not be the most useful test platform for listening to music. That said, I feel what I was doing was more akin to what the average consumer might do to determine which headphones appealed to them most. I'd like to say I have something of an audiophile ear, but I'm not ridiculously analytical. Plus, again, my surroundings left a little to be desired.

 

I won't even try to discuss the thousand-dollar headphones because although I was using an amp for whichever headphones needed it (Sennheiser HDVD 800, in case you were wondering; I didn't try anything else out because the positioning was awkward and they zip-tied the headphones to the racks to prevent theft, but cut them down when I needed them). A smartphone is not an optimal source for audio, and believe me, plugging in a lot of headphones in my Nexus 4 proved to be a goddamn pain because of the phone's bezel. 1/4" to 1/8" adapters that were on hand were simply impossible to use, so I resorted to plugging in whichever headphones terminated into a 1/4" jack into the amplifier. That said, I did notice that the HD 800s and Audeze LCD-2 and -3s tended to just sound better. They provided a lot of soundstaging and clarity that I didn't quite get with the other headphones. The only problem? I can almost guarantee my phone was holding back their true performance because they sounded barely any better than the Fidelio X1s I use at home.

 

Without further ado, here are my impressions:

• Sennheiser Momentum: These headphones are made of real leather, courtesy of Pittards. Reviewers have said that it has a bassy sound signature, and I don't disagree. What they haven't said outside of just gushing about the headphones is that they have surprisingly good soundstage for closed headphones. The bass overpowered nothing in my experience. In some songs, the frequency response sounded v-shaped, and in others, I'd describe more as "warm." The earcups were incredibly small, but since my ears are average-sized, I could just barely tuck them in there comfortably. It definitely felt premium on the head, and because of its fairly thin aluminum frame, I imagine it would have been easy to break in had I my own pair. Isolation was pretty much what you'd expect; good, and not much else. It just did the job. My biggest gripe was - ironically enough - the leather. Of all the things I could complain about, Sennheiser's attempt to make something people associate with premium quality was my biggest point of contention. Over a long period of time, they can make your skin sweat, but even worse, they can get sticky. If you don't fit your ears inside of the cups, then wearing these headphones and removing them is akin to the burning sensation of a bee sting. They're very comfortable... for the right people.
• Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear: Rather than leather, these use Alcantara, a super-suede material. They're also smaller (who would've thought?). It definitely mitigated the comfort issues I had with the Pittards leather on the other headphones. But being that these were a scaled-down variant of headphones that could already be considered on-ear to some people, these felt really small to me. Surprisingly, however, they weren't something I couldn't wear for a fair period of time, and they isolated well. I lost a bit of the performance of the big brother Momentums. Cnet once described it as "80% of the way there," which I'm inclined to agree with. The dip is across the board. Other than that those differences, they were almost unmistakeably the same headphones. Depending on your budget and what you want out of a product, these might be better suited to you.
• AKG Q701: Of all the headphones that I ended up listening to, I had no idea that these would be the ones I liked most. Not because of their comfort, which was easily surpassed by other headphones in pretty much every price range, but because of their sound. They managed to bring nuances out of songs that I hadn't realized even with my Fidelio X1s before. They sounded analytical, but not in a bad way. These headphones were no Grumpy Cats: they were fun to listen to and the soundstage was easily the best out of all the headphones I listened to. Comfort-wise, not quite as appealing. The grooved headband wasn't very comfortable, and I feel that if I were given an extended period of time to wear these, I wouldn't have soon forgotten that I was wearing them. Holy hell, though, they were not going to run off of my phone - they needed an amp.
• Anything Grado: Alright, let's see how good these are- HOLY SHIT THESE THINGS ARE THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE THINGS I'VE EVER WORN. In all seriousness, there was one pair of headphones that I did actually audition: the SR80is. Everyone's favorite tech reviewer MKBHD (sorry, second favorite) commented that the Grado SR80i headphones are comfortable, whereas pretty much anyone else on the planet disagrees. I'm in the latter camp, in case you didn't already guess. The leather on the headband wasn't even enough to keep the metal inside from touching the crown of my head. I don't have a lot of hair, so I instantly knew when they were pressing against my head. I had to wear them further towards my forehead, close enough to the point that I might be uncomfortable that they might fall off (not that you're going to commute with these headphones). The cushions were acceptably comfortable. However, with differently-shaped pads that don't cover the entire driver (the L-cushions and G-cushions as they're called, as opposed to the S-cushions on the SR80is), my ears were pressed against a flat surface that caused more discomfort than the headband could have. They've been described as a "gateway drug" into audiophilia and I can see why - lack of bass impact notwithstanding. They're not a bad first attempt at open headphones on a budget, but just the same, I could make better recommendations.
• Marshall Major: lolwut? That was how I felt when I saw these hanging on the wall and listed in the inventory on the website. They're on-ear headphones from a brand that, honestly, I haven't really seen recommended anywhere as far as headphones go. They sounded "okay" at everything. These, I didn't give a lot of time to form an impression on. I was a bit on the clock and I wanted to spend time trying out as many of the headphones people talk about as I could. The $99 price tag didn't really offend me over the course of two and a half songs that I listened to, though.
• Sony MDR-V6/7506: As I understand it, the 7506s are basically just a retuned version of the MDR-V6s. At first, I was going to say that the 7506s were more of a consumer product while the V6s were more geared towards professionals who wanted a more flat response. But the strange thing is that these traits swapped hands based on the songs I listened to. Even my reference song - "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden, which I used for pretty much every audition - seemed... different, each time I tried to analyze it. I suppose that's the psychological burn-in process, so to speak, but I'm honestly surprised how good they sounded for $99 headphones. Both managed to impress me with a wide soundstage and a healthy, neutral sound signature. Easily my go-to recommendation in its price range for comfort, isolation, and sound quality. Only problem? Coiled cable. Yeah, not a fan of that. EDIT: After perusing the interwebs to see what people thought the differences were between these headphones, it appears they pretty much have no difference other than the branding.
• Sennheiser HD 429: These were a bit of a weird one for me - probably the most interesting pair of headphones out of all of them that I listened to. Instinctively, I feel "reverberation" is a dirty word in audio because I have a pair of headphones where I feel this is done poorly (Sony MDR-X05). I listened to these headphones and the warm sound signature managed to create a very pleasant, bassy sound. Yes, it was punchy bass, but what interested me was how the reverb actually worked in its favor to make electronic instruments from the likes of Linkin Park and Muse sound more lively and less analytical. Have you ever tried to listen to dubstep analytically? I can't imagine most people having very much fun with that. These headphones mitigate that issue. While their treble leaves a lot to be desired, these were an underdog winner for me. Your mileage may vary in songs from genres that distort guitars such as grunge, but they were definitely fun for listening to Hybrid Theory. They weren't the most comfortable headphones I tried on, but I do not mean to speak ill of them: they were still mighty comfy.
• Sennheiser HD 598: Being that these headphones are essentially the HD 558s with a "better" sound signature, I decided to listen to only these and not both. I've always been incredibly skeptical of the headband cushions in pictures, feeling it might not be particularly well-stuffed. Though my assessment was somewhat true, that hardly meant they were uncomfortable. I enjoyed wearing these headphones, and I have to say, they look more stylish in person than they do over the internet. Maybe I'm just biased, because the sound signature was very pleasant, indeed. Warm-sounding, just like the aforementioned 429s, these had a relaxed sound signature that would probably sound really good to someone who wants to listen to some laid-back songs by the likes of Radiohead. What people describe as the "Sennheiser Veil" was pretty apparent to me. While I think it's unfair to dismiss Sennheiser headphones because of that (I mean, shit, look how many loyal customers they still have), I cannot deny that the treble was the weakest component of the signature. The treble existed and it did its job without sounding gaudy or artificial. It was simply easy on the ears.
• Audio Technica ATH-M50: Like I said earlier in this reply, I took a second time to listen to these. Perhaps I was predisposed to try and dismiss them as overpriced and overrated at first, so I decided I should give it a fair chance to impress me. The second time listening - and admittedly, I picked a couple different songs - I placed the headphones under a little less scrutiny. A lot of people have said that these headphones don't have great soundstaging, and I'm not going to disagree. For a lot of songs, they can sound incredibly closed. They were also lacking in treble, which leaves something to be desired to me, as I enjoy v-shaped sound the most. But these ticked every box: comfort, isolation, neutral sound signature with a fair bit of bass. They were definitely not the most exciting headphones I listened to, and honestly, they weren't the best monitors, either. The Sony MDR-V6 headphones were superior to these in that regard, and I'd say just as comfortable. I wear glasses, and although I was wearing exceptionally thin-frames today which hardly interfered with any of the headphones I listened to, these were a slight exception. The ATH-M50s are, in my mind, a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none headphone. To the casual listener who has probably only heard one or two other headphones in their life, these probably sound fantastic, and I can see the market for these. I honestly can. But do I think they're worth anything north of $100? No, I don't. They're basically just bulkier Sony MDR-V6s to me. Whether or not they're more comfortable or better built is something you'd have to judge on an individual basis. Come to think of it, so is the sound. No part of the sound signature - whether it be lows, mids, or highs - were particularly great, but as contradictory as it might seem, they all sounded "fun" to the point that I could at least enjoy these headphones if I wasn't trying to find a reason not to like them.

As @Rorgash said, it would have been better to do a blind test with these headphones (not that I find that particularly easy to pull off), and to use more uniform standards in a more consistent and hush environment. But that's not what the consumer is going to do. They're going to buy whatever pair of headphones they tried out in the store and liked the most, and then probably be happy with them for days to come. That sentiment, I feel, is shared by many people on this board. Is it something of a cop-out? To be fair, considering that I'm hardly Tyll Hertsens, it could easily be considered such a thing. But I think making the case that these impressions can be easily dismissed would be doing a disservice to the notion that most people don't really care as much as audiophiles might think they do. After all, if you take a walk down a busy street, you're probably going to see most people wearing Beats headphones. It's important to educate the consumer. What isn't important is to overwhelm them with the details unless that's something they really want to take seriously. Speaking as someone who is only just starting to enjoy audio more and more, I think this is a fair starting point for myself. I'm open to disagreements from both audiophiles and non-audiophiles. There are people on this board who know vastly more about audio than me and probably think I'm a moron speaking out of my ass, pretending to know more than I let on. Well, here's a chance to take a swipe at me. But let it never be said that I'm close-minded.

 

tl;dr: Headphones are cool.