New headphones for 200-300€

[Stahlmann]

So my Beyerdynamic Amiron's are dying on me. While repairing them through Beyer repair service is an option, It's probably gonna cost me about the same as new headphones. Plus, according to the audiophile community they're not even that good in the first place.

 

So I'm thinking of trying another type of headphone / headset instead. I've been looking at the Audeze Maxwell since the included boom mic would be a nice-to-have and planar magnetic drivers are something completely new to me, but I'm not really willing to spend $400. So are there similar known good planar magnetic headphones / headsets for less money? I don't really need wireless connectivity at all, and I prefer open-backed headphones. My sound preference is neutral, maybe with a slight bass boost, similar to the Harman frequency response curve.

 

 

 

According to crinacle.com, the Moondrop Para is a great option and only costs around 299€ on Amazon. Seems like a slam dunk to me. I bought the Moondrop KATO IEMs in the past and I'm still very happy with them.

 

 

Opinions or recommendations?

[191x7]

I would recommend the Sennheiser HD 560S.

With the rest of the money you can get a different cable, a microphone, an AMP/DAC (like the Akliam PD4, Truthear Shio, Moodrop Dawn Pro, Fiio KA3, ...), a balanced cable, etc.

[Stahlmann]

20 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

I would recommend the Sennheiser HD 560S.

With the rest of the money you can get a different cable, a microphone, an AMP/DAC (like the Akliam PD4, Truthear Shio, Moodrop Dawn Pro, Fiio KA3, ...), a balanced cable, etc.

But these are just dynamic driver headphones. Not that it's a big deal, but I've been using them all my life. I'd really like to try something different.

 

AMP/DAC is already accounted for. I have a FiiO K5 Pro.

[Doobeedoo]

I've been using Beyerdynamic MMX 300 for some time, didn't cost too much and has mic which I wanted.

[Cocococo]

Moondrop Para are absolutely amazing headphones, fantastic sound, great imaging and detail, pretty comfortable and the magnetic earcup attachment is great for pad swapping, moondrop is usually pretty good with spares and repairs, there have been Moondrop Venus owners who've headphones have had the earcups detach from the headband, not heard of it happening with Para but I'd still be careful.

 

I have seen Hifiman Ananda come down to this sort of price before, the Edition XS sound good but the headband sucks (plus Ananda are some of the best tuned headphones I've ever tried) But you cannot be too careful with buying from Hifiman, there have been people who have needed multiple replacement HE1000's in the past, make sure you get a really good warranty if you go for a pair. (Some folk like the Sundara, I'm not one of them, Para > Sundara every day of the week) 

 

Planar Magnetic drivers don't sound THAT wildly different from dynamic drivers, there does tend to be better bass extension on planars,  especially when compared to your Amirons. The Maxwell are great if you want a wireless headphone that still sounds amazing, but if you don't care about wireless then Para sounds order's of magnitude better. 

[Stahlmann]

30 minutes ago, Cocococo said:

Moondrop Para are absolutely amazing headphones, fantastic sound, great imaging and detail, pretty comfortable and the magnetic earcup attachment is great for pad swapping, moondrop is usually pretty good with spares and repairs, there have been Moondrop Venus owners who've headphones have had the earcups detach from the headband, not heard of it happening with Para but I'd still be careful.

 

I have seen Hifiman Ananda come down to this sort of price before, the Edition XS sound good but the headband sucks (plus Ananda are some of the best tuned headphones I've ever tried) But you cannot be too careful with buying from Hifiman, there have been people who have needed multiple replacement HE1000's in the past, make sure you get a really good warranty if you go for a pair. (Some folk like the Sundara, I'm not one of them, Para > Sundara every day of the week) 

 

Planar Magnetic drivers don't sound THAT wildly different from dynamic drivers, there does tend to be better bass extension on planars,  especially when compared to your Amirons. The Maxwell are great if you want a wireless headphone that still sounds amazing, but if you don't care about wireless then Para sounds order's of magnitude better. 

Since magnetic is in the name of planar magnetic drivers, are small magnets on the outside of the earcup, like the attachment from a ModMic for example, problematic?

[Cocococo]

11 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Since magnetic is in the name of planar magnetic drivers, are small magnets on the outside of the earcup, like the attachment from a ModMic for example, problematic?

Chassis and magnet dependant, generally i'd say no, Para in particular i'd be confident with using a modmic because they already use magnets for earpad attachment. I'm guessing this is for console use? If it's PC only then i'd just get a cheap USB mic and call it a day.

All speakers use magnets in some way to make the driver move and produce noise, planars might be a bit more susceptible because of how the magnets are placed (dynamic drivers typically have the magnet pretty far from the edges of the headphone) planar magnetic drivers are very large for headphone standards and take up a larger portion of the earcup cavity, there might be something about modmics in the owners manual, worst case scenario just ask the headphone manufacturer themselves, Moondrop customer service has been getting better lately (just be patient they are a Chinese company and Mandarin to English is not easy to translate)

[Stahlmann]

5 minutes ago, Cocococo said:

Chassis and magnet dependant, generally i'd say no, Para in particular i'd be confident with using a modmic because they already use magnets for earpad attachment. I'm guessing this is for console use? If it's PC only then i'd just get a cheap USB mic and call it a day.

All speakers use magnets in some way to make the driver move and produce noise, planars might be a bit more susceptible because of how the magnets are placed (dynamic drivers typically have the magnet pretty far from the edges of the headphone) planar magnetic drivers are very large for headphone standards and take up a larger portion of the earcup cavity, there might be something about modmics in the owners manual, worst case scenario just ask the headphone manufacturer themselves, Moondrop customer service has been getting better lately (just be patient they are a Chinese company and Mandarin to English is not easy to translate)

I'm not a fan of desk or arm mics. I much prefer the boom mic approach, and I'm hoping to reuse the ModMic I already have, so that's why I'm asking. But since they already use magnets in the Para model, I think these concerns are unfounded. I've never had any problems with dynamic headphones in the past, and the cup that's failing on my Amiron is the one that doesn't have the ModMic attachment.

[Stahlmann]

There's currently a deal going on at Amazon that brings the Moondrop Para down to 263€ with free shipping, so I decided to give it a try. Should be here in about 3 weeks.

[NinJake]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Para's after you've had a chance to test em out!

[Stahlmann]

27 minutes ago, NinJake said:

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Para's after you've had a chance to test em out!

They will be shipped from Shenzhen, China to Germany. Hopefully I will remember to write about it until then.

[Cocococo]

8 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

There's currently a deal going on at Amazon that brings the Moondrop Para down to 263€ with free shipping, so I decided to give it a try. Should be here in about 3 weeks.

Enjoy! Para deserve a lot more love than they're getting atm, just hope Moondrop can keep up the Para quality for whatever headphones they plan to release in the future