Headphones under 150$

[Nielxd]

Headphones for 150$ w/o amp ?

Edited March 27, 2018 by Nielxd

[minibois]

Any specifics you're looking for?

Like open back or closed back, over or on ear? etc.

 

This thread has some nice recommendations in it:

 

I have the DT 990 Pro 250 Ohm, without any AMP and it is working out nice for me, but it does leak quite a bit of sound, so they are not headphones to take on a train or whatever.

[Nielxd]

5 minutes ago, Minibois said:

Any specifics you're looking for?

Like open back or closed back, over or on ear? etc.

 

This thread has some nice recommendations in it:

 

I have the DT 990 Pro 250 Ohm, without any AMP and it is working out nice for me, but it does leak quite a bit of sound, so they are not headphones to take on a train or whatever.

Over ear , no mic needed , and good bass without the sacrifice of everything else , the rest doesnt really matter

[minibois]

5 minutes ago, Nielxd said:

Over ear , no mic needed , and good bass without the sacrifice of everything else , the rest doesnt really matter

The DT 990 would still be a recommendation from myself, but your location decides if it is in your budget. As a 'made in Germany' product, this product is a lot more expensive outside of (West) Europe.

[Nielxd]

3 minutes ago, Minibois said:

The DT 990 would still be a recommendation from myself, but your location decides if it is in your budget. As a 'made in Germany' product, this product is a lot more expensive outside of (West) Europe.

Well they are about 160 euros here in romania , close to my budget but a bit out of it ill try to find them cheaper though maybe ill have some luck too

[NinjaQuick]

SHP9500, not the bassiest but the bass is articulate and accurate.

[johnukguy]

I'll second the Philips SHP9500/s headphones. They easily beat headphones that are twice their price in terms of sound quality:
 

 

[NinjaQuick]

Add a low cost decent amp+dac or just amp and they just... god they are good, and not just for the money lol.

Just now, johnukguy said:

I'll second the Philips SHP9500/s headphones. They easily beat headphones that are twice their price in terms of sound quality:
 

 

 

[Dackzy]

Jesus. SHP9500 are grainy as hell, they are okay/good for their 40$ sale price, they are bad for 50-60$ and they don't come close to a good set of 100-120$ headphones. Also please don't listen to zeos the deaf. He calls fairly bass heavy headphones for neutral (shr 1540), he can't hear big dips in frequency responses(af 180) and he has zero idea of how to actually describe sound.

 

Best open back bass you are going to find in this budget is the k612 bass, this does not mean they have a ton of bass, but the bass is extremely tight and extremely fast for their price. If you are just looking at the amount of bass, then DT990 has the most, but the highs are sharp, so they might hurt your ears.

For closed you could give the creative aurvana live, their frequency response is a lot like the TH X00, ofc the two headphones will sound different IRL, but they aren't that far from each other, but they don't isolate that well and the cups are small. Another option would be the K550 MK II or MK III, with these it is important that you get a good seal or else the bass won't be nearly as good as it can be. If you don't care about having good mids and just want deep bass, then DT 770.

[NinjaQuick]

2 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

Jesus. SHP9500 are grainy as hell, they are okay/good for their 40$ sale price, they are bad for 50-60$ and they don't come close to a good set of 100-120$ headphones. Also please don't listen to zeos the deaf. He calls fairly bass heavy headphones for neutral (shr 1540), he can't hear big dips in frequency responses(af 180) and he has zero idea of how to actually describe sound.

 

Best open back bass you are going to find in this budget is the k612 bass, this does not mean they have a ton of bass, but the bass is extremely tight and extremely fast for their price. If you are just looking at the amount of bass, then DT990 has the most, but the highs are sharp, so they might hurt your ears.

For closed you could give the creative aurvana live, their frequency response is a lot like the TH X00, ofc the two headphones will sound different IRL, but they aren't that far from each other, but they don't isolate that well and the cups are small. Another option would be the K550 MK II or MK III, with these it is important that you get a good seal or else the bass won't be nearly as good as it can be. If you don't care about having good mids and just want deep bass, then DT 770.

Uh.

 

Having owned HD600, 702 (ouch that peak), 1540 (discomfort, and gross), 880(not 990s), 990 (not 770s) No. These 9500 are the real deal. Get good amp gear or something. Grainy? I would never describe the SHP9500 as grainy, if anything they are too smooth and unoffensive. No amp, they are uncomfortably smooth sounding, like they make exciting stuff too... smooth. Like when the plane hits that perfect stretch of air, no turbulence at all, just eerie smoothness. Are they perfect? No, they need an amp.

 

I'm not listening to Z's review for reference here. I've owned a pretty wide variety, buying something other than the 9500s is nonsense.

[Dackzy]

36 minutes ago, NinjaQuick said:

Uh.

 

Having owned HD600, 702 (ouch that peak), 1540 (discomfort, and gross), 880(not 990s), 990 (not 770s) No. These 9500 are the real deal. Get good amp gear or something. Grainy? I would never describe the SHP9500 as grainy, if anything they are too smooth and unoffensive. No amp, they are uncomfortably smooth sounding, like they make exciting stuff too... smooth. Like when the plane hits that perfect stretch of air, no turbulence at all, just eerie smoothness. Are they perfect? No, they need an amp.

 

I'm not listening to Z's review for reference here. I've owned a pretty wide variety, buying something other than the 9500s is nonsense.

Gratz on owning other gear? That doesn't really mean shit though.... I can also play that game if you want. HD600, HD650, HE 560, HE 400i, UERM, K612, CAL, M50, porta pro, RE400i, Sony 7506, dt770 and many more and that is only the gear I have owned or own, there is a ton of extra gear that I have loaned for longer periods and then a lot of extra gear I have just tested for a few hours. 

 

I will still call them grainy as hell, because that is what I hear in the mids. Saying 9500 can beat headphones twice its price is to a degree bending the truth, sure they are better than a bad set of 100 or 120$ headphones, but they are worse than a set of good 100-120$ headphones.

They are 40$ worth headphones, no amp and DAC can change that. For all I care you can hook them up to a Soekris 1541 or a RME adi 2 DAC or a meier Classic and daccord or a schiit yggy and rag (these are all very respectable DAC and amp setups), they will still sound like a pair of 40$ headphones when comparing them to any of the other headphones running of the same setup. They also scale badly, but that is to be expected from a 40$ headphone, just like grain is.

 

Also getting shp9500 when you have a budget for far better headphones, simply doesn't make sense. You can get more detail from basically any of the headphones I listed, except dt770 (those are basically just bass headphones). The quality of the lows, mids and highs would all basically again be across-the-board better on any of the headphones I listed. 

 

Plus this dude is in the EU, so buying SHP9500 for him would be like you buying 3 sets of them in the US, maybe even 4 sets.... at that price they are insanely bad value. 

 

Also that zeos comment wasn't directed towards you, it was more for the other guy and just as a general statement.

[NinjaQuick]

1 hour ago, Dackzy said:

Gratz on owning other gear? That doesn't really mean shit though.... I can also play that game if you want. HD600, HD650, HE 560, HE 400i, UERM, K612, CAL, M50, porta pro, RE400i, Sony 7506, dt770 and many more and that is only the gear I have owned or own, there is a ton of extra gear that I have loaned for longer periods and then a lot of extra gear I have just tested for a few hours. 

 

I will still call them grainy as hell, because that is what I hear in the mids. Saying 9500 can beat headphones twice its price is to a degree bending the truth, sure they are better than a bad set of 100 or 120$ headphones, but they are worse than a set of good 100-120$ headphones.

They are 40$ worth headphones, no amp and DAC can change that. For all I care you can hook them up to a Soekris 1541 or a RME adi 2 DAC or a meier Classic and daccord or a schiit yggy and rag (these are all very respectable DAC and amp setups), they will still sound like a pair of 40$ headphones when comparing them to any of the other headphones running of the same setup. They also scale badly, but that is to be expected from a 40$ headphone, just like grain is.

 

Also getting shp9500 when you have a budget for far better headphones, simply doesn't make sense. You can get more detail from basically any of the headphones I listed, except dt770 (those are basically just bass headphones). The quality of the lows, mids and highs would all basically again be across-the-board better on any of the headphones I listed. 

 

Plus this dude is in the EU, so buying SHP9500 for him would be like you buying 3 sets of them in the US, maybe even 4 sets.... at that price they are insanely bad value. 

 

Also that zeos comment wasn't directed towards you, it was more for the other guy and just as a general statement.

In short, you're wrong, there's no grain. Got it. A point that takes that long to make isn't a point worth making.

[Blademaster91]

14 minutes ago, NinjaQuick said:

In short, you're wrong, there's no grain. Got it. A point that takes that long to make isn't a point worth making.

They take the time to make a point and you can't say anything except "you're wrong". Maybe they aren't grainy to you but there are plenty of other reviews saying they are. It is really tiring to see people blindly recommend something because zeos thinks they're amazing when it isn't always the best value.

[Dackzy]

42 minutes ago, NinjaQuick said:

In short, you're wrong, there's no grain. Got it. A point that takes that long to make isn't a point worth making.

kek dude. Plenty of the reviews you can find on them say that they are grainy and I also think they are grainy.

You can't even argue, you just say "you're wrong" WP. I took the time to make a arguement, show my side and I was hoping to get just a okay discussion about them, but I guess you just can't do that....

 

Also what kind of BS is " A point that takes that long to make isn't a point worth making." If everyone was like that, then holy fuck our society would be very very different and not in a good way.

 

4 reviews on head-fi mentions some grain

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/philips-shp9500.20549/reviews

and then DMS3TV also did a review on them

 

Just because some people can't hear given things, doesn't mean that they aren't there. Look at the M1060, a ton of the reviews don't mention the ringing, but holy hell they ring. Some people just can't hear it.

[johnukguy]

LMAO! Read the comments in that review. That kid got absolutely spanked as the know nothing that he is. Thanks for the laugh but next time, at least choose a review that isn't thoroughly debunked in it's own comments. 

[Dackzy]

41 minutes ago, johnukguy said:

LMAO! Read the comments in that review. That kid got absolutely spanked as the know nothing that he is. Thanks for the laugh but next time, at least choose a review that isn't thoroughly debunked in it's own comments. 

I just picked the reviews that came up when I searched for shp9500 review and had grain in them somewhere. Also most of the comments are by Zeos fans.... I think we all know how trustworthy Zeos is (not trustworthy at all and same goes for the people that refer to him)

 

And again, just because you can't hear it, doesn't mean that it isn't there. M1060 is a amazing exsample of this, because a lot of people can't hear the ringing, but it is still there and you can see it in measurements

[marcussmj]

Nope, going to agree with Dackzy here, there are better ways to spend that money and the Philips is not it. Grain is a bit tough to grasp because it is not immediately apparent and does not show itself very quickly to the untrained ear. 

[MV95]

2 hours ago, johnukguy said:

LMAO! Read the comments in that review. That kid got absolutely spanked as the know nothing that he is. Thanks for the laugh but next time, at least choose a review that isn't thoroughly debunked in it's own comments. 

My dude pls. Honestly it's not even close to being debunked. It's just people going "It's grain-fi", "no it's not", "nuh uh is true", "It isn't".

 

Pretty immature, and did not even close to debunking anything if you ask me. And like what marcus said, grain's not that easily understandable, but tbh, if you actually do have enough experience you'd be able to tell it. Or just long enough hearing time and 0 bias tbh

[IFPMaximus34]

all headphones under 100euro are grainy if you cant hear grain your need to check ears,or its in your dna cant detect it cause your ears send less signal to brain to process higher frequency spectrum its no shame its genetic or also you can have high blood pressure to do more exercise be much more active,cut off sugar drinks once for all and you hearing will improve detecting higher frequency spectrum.

[NinjaQuick]

19 hours ago, Blademaster91 said:

They take the time to make a point and you can't say anything except "you're wrong". Maybe they aren't grainy to you but there are plenty of other reviews saying they are. It is really tiring to see people blindly recommend something because zeos thinks they're amazing when it isn't always the best value.

Except I bought these ages ago and just now saw the Z review. Not blindly recommending anything. Legitimately recommending them because I've barely touched other sets since getting mine.

 

Edit: Just checked, yeah, that's smooth highs.

[Spuriae]

2 hours ago, NinjaQuick said:

Except I bought these ages ago and just now saw the Z review. Not blindly recommending anything. Legitimately recommending them because I've barely touched other sets since getting mine.

 

Edit: Just checked, yeah, that's smooth highs.

 

Peaky treble with a dip at 3k then greatly elevated response 4k-10k, with a fairly strong enclosure resonance at ~4.5k. Smaller resonance at 8k and another one at 2.5k that's masked partially by the upper mid dip. Philips does a good job of tuning the response to offset the resonance energy (see Grado CSD's for combined peaks and resonance), but it still leaves the final product with a combination of grainy highs and ringing.

[johnukguy]

23 hours ago, MV95 said:

My dude pls. Honestly it's not even close to being debunked. It's just people going "It's grain-fi", "no it's not", "nuh uh is true", "It isn't".

 

Pretty immature, and did not even close to debunking anything if you ask me. And like what marcus said, grain's not that easily understandable, but tbh, if you actually do have enough experience you'd be able to tell it. Or just long enough hearing time and 0 bias tbh

You obviously didn't even bother to read the comments and supplied a video from some no nothing who knows nothing about audio. Well done shooting your own case down. At least provide a review from someone with at least some reputation and standards in future, not a relatively unknown know nothing. This has zero credibility.

[johnukguy]

20 hours ago, IFPMaximus34 said:

all headphones under 100euro are grainy if you cant hear grain your need to check ears,or its in your dna cant detect it cause your ears send less signal to brain to process higher frequency spectrum its no shame its genetic or also you can have high blood pressure to do more exercise be much more active,cut off sugar drinks once for all and you hearing will improve detecting higher frequency spectrum.

This is complete bollocks that you just made up lol. Thanks for the laugh though.

[Dackzy]

 

2 hours ago, johnukguy said:

You obviously didn't even bother to read the comments and supplied a video from some no nothing who knows nothing about audio. Well done shooting your own case down. At least provide a review from someone with at least some reputation and standards in future, not a relatively unknown know nothing. This has zero credibility.

now you try and read the comments. Most of the short ones are basically just "I don't agree", quite a few of the longer comments actually agree with him. There is also quite a few Z/Zeos says something else aka the blind sheep. Basically, all of the comments can be boiled down to "I agree" or "I don't agree", since most don't really argue why they agree or disagree. As you also can see by the like and dislike ratio that it is a headphone where there are very different opinions about and I am almost certain that a lot of the people that like the SHP 9500 to the degree that some of the commenters do don't have much experience in audio, meaning little or no ear training, not tried a wide variation of gear, hell it might also be their first "proper" headphone. Why am I almost certain of this? Because it is a such a low budget headphone, which appeals to people that aren't that into audio or want to get a taste of better than razer headset audio and there is nothing wrong with that.

 

Metal571 also complains a bit about the highs in his video review about them...

 

I don't think that you understand that you need a somewhat trained ear and experience to understand what grain is. If you can't hear the grain, then good for you or bad for you depending on how you want to look at it. It doesn't mean that it isn't there. 

 

Also he has more credibility than Zeos. He used to work in a studio, until his former wife left him and took a lot of his stuff, meaning he lived of his hearing to a certain degree. While Zeos was a construction worker for a good part of his life, plus you can see Zeos countless times not noticing a big dip in frequency reponses or calling headphones with a good solid bass boost for "neutral" and boring, and not noticing ringing in headphones. I still don't trust him blindly, I don't trust any review blindly, nor should anyone do that. Nor do I think of him as a credible person (I don't think any reviewer is that), but I would certainly "trust" what he says about a headphone a bit more than what Zeos says.

 

 

But this basically all comes down to this: Why would you go out and buy SHP 9500, when you can afford headphones that simply are better in detail retrieval, imaging, the quality of lows, mids and highs, while not having grain and having a wider soundstage. It simply doesn't make sense to buy SHP9500 when you can afford better headphones.

 

Plus the OP is in the EU, meaning suddenly SHP9500 cost 125€ or more new (most actually seem to be 140€+), they are definitely not worth 125€. You can get K612 for 109€ and they are a fair bit better than SHP9500, if closed is more OPs style then he can get creative aurvana live for 71€ they are also better, if he wants the DT990 then he can get the LE version of those for 133€, the beyer DT 100 is also a fairly solid closed headphone for 128€, the K550 MK II can also be found new for about 150€.

It is about finding the best headphones for the OP in a given budget.
 

Also who are you to talk about reputation?

[MV95]

2 hours ago, johnukguy said:

You obviously didn't even bother to read the comments and supplied a video from some no nothing who knows nothing about audio. Well done shooting your own case down. At least provide a review from someone with at least some reputation and standards in future, not a relatively unknown know nothing. This has zero credibility.

What makes you think your boy Zeos knows his stuff? He's a paid promoter more than an actual legitimate reviewer

 

DMS is actually a pretty legit guy, and honestly I can really trust his ears a lot better than Zeos'. Z gets comfort right, sure. But that's about it, really.

 

And look at that CSD graph dude, pretty bad stuff

 

And this is not coming from some guy who hates his treble, frankly. My audio arsenal consists of stuff many may consider bright, but I consider neutral due to the smoothness, and it's extended, perhaps even pronounced, but controlled highs (HD800, Sony EX1000).