Best Headphone under $150

I am looking for headphone under $150. Any suggestion would be much appreciated.

 

I'd go with the Koss PortaPros, no questions asked. I haven't listened to all that many headphones, but went for the PortaPros after persistent recommendations here on SBAF. And they were certainly not wrong. In the past I've tried the Grado SR225i and the FiiO EX1, and while I don't have the audiophile BS vocabulary for describing these things, none of them came close to how good music sounds with the PortaPros. (I'm pairing them with a Modi MB and the FiiO E12DIY* with NE5532 opamp.)

If you can stretch things to $200-ish, then you might want to be looking for a good deal on HD600/HD650 or HD6XX. That would be the next logical step I believe. Though you should give us some details on your system, such as DAC, amp, music and format preferences, etc.


* I sorta don't even want to begin to imagine what @Psalmanazar must be thinking about this amp...

 

Checked the general advice thread?

 

Not knowing anything about your preferences, all one could do is list the phones under $150 - in other words do a Google search for you. Knowing what someone else likes is only useful once you know what they like and dislike and can compare it to some phones that you also have experience with and have formed opinions on.

Otherwise, it is like "recommend me a cheap date." and someone says "I like Sally."

Rotsa Ruck!

 

"compressed warm as shit chifi garbage"

Now...

Amped: K612
Unamped: HD598
Portable: Porta Pro on KSC-75 clips
Closed: Soundmagic HP150

 

NEED MORE INPUT.

 

1. HD 598 (or it's successor whatever it's called) on sale for 100 or less. 150-200? f**k off and die as the HD 600 gets to be 250 much of hte time and it's infinitely, God coming out of the sky in Monty Python and the Last Crusade better.

2. RSC 35. Porta Pro drivers on clip ons. Or get Portapro for headband. Portapro has more bass but you can dial int amount of bas with the clamp sliders. The drivers on these are slihtly more refined than KSC 75 and worth the extra 15 bucks or so.

3. Creative Aurevana Live! for under 50 bucks. Not worth 80.

4. Closed can for tracking instruments or watching HD porn in the library? Sennheiser HD 280.

 

Sony MDR V6 is an absolutely steal at 98$! Or MDR 7506, of course.

 

Do you mean steal as in Sony is reaching into your pocket and grabbing $100 for something worse than a KSC75?

 

I fell for the hype about this phone, I found it lifeless after changing to a KRK 6400, which had better detailing but a bass roll-off that was eunuch-like.

 

Cut out the inner stitching on the pads so the foam fluffs up in the middle and the Sony V6 is actually not bad. It's a compact durable beater. If that's what you need for $100, it's great.

 

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/sbafs-super-cheapo-headphone-comparison.1713/

 

It would be a mistake not to pony up another $50 and grab the 6xx when it drops again or even used.

 

Have they said anything about this lately? I'm a little skeptical about if it has been worth the issues for Sennheiser but maybe they are doing it again.

 

I haven't heard a peep from MD.

 

There's over 50k requests, which is bonkers number. You would think not doing it again would be leaving money on the table? Unless the math just doesn't work out for profitability or something

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx

 

I guess as long as they can get past the "lessons learned" stage re: cables, it could happen again. Didn't they make some wild claim that they were going to ship everyone longer cables in the end? Must have hurt someone's margin.

 

Yeah. Still haven't received mine but I bought a custom cable anyway so I don't really care. But according to what they said they're going to pay for manufacturing and shipping for over 5000 replacement cables.

 

Ah, so I didn't dream it then. I don't mind either, as the 6xx is a reference unmodded unit, mostly packed away right now- and I have a space stock HD650 cable, and another terminated balanced in reserve too (since I have a slightly audiobling cable on 650M these days).

Still, someone minds, and got bent out of shape enough to make a fuss, it seems. A bit odd.

 

Porta Pros can compete in the below 30 bucks category, but no way below 150. And I'm only talking about SQ here. Build is extremely flimsy, not even good for the price. Those cables break way too frequently. I find the highs to be very grainy and fuzzy overall, like a bad mp3-file from years back. Boomy mid-bass? They've got lots of it. I don't find that fun like many do, so there you go.

Senn HD5xx-series, CAL!, DT770 80 ohm and many others do stuff better in that price bracket.

Edit: HD6xx isn't that far from 150, either.