Best Headphones without amplifier

[Case maker]

Can you guys suggest the best wired headphones that don't require an amplifier?

I just want to listen to Spotify on my phone. My first pick was the xm4, but every forums says they sound bad. 

[rippy4500]

Whats your budget?

[An0maly_76]

I used these. Cheap, decent, reasonably comfortable and good sound.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NJ2M33I

[rippy4500]

3 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

I used these. Cheap, decent, reasonably comfortable and good sound.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NJ2M33I

The sony xm4 which he was thinking of getting costs like 300 dollars, i dont think op is shopping at that pricepoint.

[8tg]

Without a finite budget this gets weird? The actual best wired headphones you can run out of a phone? Probably something planar magnetic that costs $5000 and would be overkill for Spotify.

The best reasonably high end headphones in that similar price tier?

Its another pair of low resistance planar magnetic, 

Avantone Planar’s would be my recommendation if you’re already looking at really expensive Bluetooth headsets and are looking for audio quality first, presumably at the sacrifice of Bluetooth.

You can slap these right into a phone, or use your dongle of choice should you choose. These do better with an amp of some variety, but so can a lot of headphones even in the fairly low power range.

They’re around $400 and offer incredibly good value for their sound characteristics. 

[Psittac]

Rode NTH-100 are one of my current favorites and run well off a phone

[Case maker]

22 hours ago, 8tg said:

Without a finite budget this gets weird? The actual best wired headphones you can run out of a phone?

Around the price of xm4, 300$. Can also go upto 400$

The only good sounding headphone I found was the AKG k361 wired which is under 100$. 

[Case maker]

21 hours ago, 8tg said:

Avantone Planar’s would be my recommendation

Its not available in India.

[Case maker]

Off topic here.

There is so much options among headphone amplifier that its confusing. You could find like 20-30$ amplifiers from company's like Fifine & Behringer on Amazon. Also amps above 150$ that does the same job. So is there a difference between cheap & expensive amplifier?

[rippy4500]

6 hours ago, Case maker said:

Off topic here.

There is so much options among headphone amplifier that its confusing. You could find like 20-30$ amplifiers from company's like Fifine & Behringer on Amazon. Also amps above 150$ that does the same job. So is there a difference between cheap & expensive amplifier?

A more expensive amplifier will output more power and/or a higher quality signal

[Spuriae]

On 9/3/2022 at 2:08 AM, Case maker said:

Can you guys suggest the best wired headphones that don't require an amplifier?

I just want to listen to Spotify on my phone. My first pick was the xm4, but every forums says they sound bad. 

If they can get loud enough from your audio source, no headphones <require> an amplifier.

 

Since phones have limited output voltage, you may want to avoid a small handful of particularly low efficiency headphones, especially if you use an EQ. But in most cases you can just get whatever you want: the HD650, DT880, K612, and most of the other normal headphone recommendations are all on the table.

 

7 hours ago, Case maker said:

Off topic here.

There is so much options among headphone amplifier that its confusing. You could find like 20-30$ amplifiers from company's like Fifine & Behringer on Amazon. Also amps above 150$ that does the same job. So is there a difference between cheap & expensive amplifier?

The absolute cheapest amplifiers are likely worse than your phone. These tend to use op-amps not intended for headphone use combined with high output impedances (which often noticeably changes the sound of the headphones) to work properly. They aren't really intended for music listening; they're meant to enable quick and dirty headphone splitting, or cheaply allow headphone monitoring of a device that wasn't designed to drive headphones at all.

 

In the $100-$200 price range there are plenty of great amplifier choices. The highest measured signal quality commercially available headphone amplifier is $150. The best amplifiers in this price range typically have more than enough output power for all but a small handful of very niche, very expensive headphones.

 

Above $200, you typically get even more power, or more input options, or a fancier volume control (or tubes, if that's your preference). At this point you're typically not buying more audio quality, but instead buying different feature sets.

[IPD]

I think people are approaching this from the wrong end.  Price is but one consideration, and far from the only one.  "they sound bad" is meaningless.  The type of audio you are listening to is important.  Classical piano concertos are going to sound best on a setup that is entirely different from the setup that sounds best for dubstep.  This variation is why I tend to recommend brands with a fairly "flat" response (eg. Sennheiser)--since I listen to a wide assortment of styles.

 

P.S.

LTT isn't the best place to get definitive-taste-recommendations.  If you want audio recommendations from the bleeding-edge of connoisseurs, you need to go to a dedicated forum for that.  Same if you want recommendations on home-theater projectors.  LTT is great for some things, but within limits.

[dalekphalm]

On 9/3/2022 at 5:08 AM, Case maker said:

Can you guys suggest the best wired headphones that don't require an amplifier?

I just want to listen to Spotify on my phone. My first pick was the xm4, but every forums says they sound bad. 

Personally my daily driver is a Sennheiser HD6xx - people will often tell you "you need to use an Amp with the 6xx!". They're wrong. Straight up. I don't own an amp, and my 6xx's still sound amazing.

 

Sure, a dedicated amp and dac will get even more out of them, but they sound pretty kickass without. They do sound even better when I use my AV Receiver as an amp though, which is a nice bonus, but I only do that novelty reasons every now and then.

[spartaman64]

the absolute best? probably something like the focal utopia. most modern computers etc should be able to drive them to a decent volume but some older stuff might struggle with the 80 ohms so maybe the focal clears if thats an issue

 

ok jokes aside maybe something like the akg k371. if you get a 10 dollar apple dongle it should really expand the amount of headphones you can power effectively. unless you live in the EU and have to get the usb c version. with the apple dongle you can go for something like the hd6xx or he400se/sundara 

[James Tillenger]

46 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

the absolute best? probably something like the focal utopia. most modern computers etc should be able to drive them to a decent volume but some older stuff might struggle with the 80 ohms so maybe the focal clears if thats an issue

 

ok jokes aside maybe something like the akg k371. if you get a 10 dollar apple dongle it should really expand the amount of headphones you can power effectively. unless you live in the EU and have to get the usb c version. with the apple dongle you can go for something like the hd6xx or he400se/sundara 

I had the utopias. They were suprisingly easy to drive so yeah If you had to skip actually having any good audio components I think you're right... theyre the best.

For a budget? Grado Sr125's might be interesting. If you need closed back I think the audio technica ATH-M50x  would be a solid pick or yeah what spartaman64 said the K371 wouldn't be a bad pick.

[The Hope]

Price-quality, I would say that the ATH-M20x is fairly unbeatable.

 

I've done human testing and compared the ATH-M20x to the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro in lossless 24-bit tracks on my system configured in bit-perfect mode. I have now tested four people and they all chose the ATH-M20x.

 

Here's a detailed review: https://medium.com/evalir/audio-technica-ath-m20x-review-the-most-sturdy-headphones-ive-ever-used-97ce23898d04

 

I want to say that I don't know what he did with the headphones. I've been using them for three years now, almost daily, and they look like new.

[Entropy.]

8 hours ago, The Hope said:

Price-quality, I would say that the ATH-M20x is fairly unbeatable.

Have you tried options such as akg k36/371, nth100, grado, CAL SE, etc? 

[The Hope]

On 9/9/2022 at 8:18 PM, Entropy. said:

Have you tried options such as akg k36/371, nth100, grado, CAL SE, etc? 

The ATH-M20x sounds very close to how something sounds in reality so especially the timbre of all sounds are extremely correct. 

For example, suppose you play a note on a piano, the note can have exactly the same frequency as another piano, but have a different timbre. The rich sound of real instruments is precisely because there is a broad spectrum of other sounds besides the pure frequency. And it's this that audio-technica does better than any other brands in my experience.

 

Audio Technica ATH-M20x sound tests 

AKG also does not always have the best build quality. Grado often has a rattling sound after a few months or years. audio-technica generally has no weak element in their build quality and is among the 5% of brands with best build quality.

[The Hope]

Another element that determines the sound quality of headphones is detail. The ATH-M20x has so much detail that it's hard to hear the difference from the detail of real sounds.