Comment by flakiness
13 hours ago
A tangential question: What are the best bang per buck headphones these days (preferably wireless)? Not earbuds, but over-the-head headphones. Tell me your favorites.
(The internet is so polluted that I cannot find any reliable recommendation today so I'm doing a mini "ask HN" here.)
I found this forum last year https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php which opens the door up to a high number of lower cost manufacturers making very high quality products. although the forum audience (audiophiles) generally eschew wireless products and prefer open backed (loud for everyone else and no noise cancelling) headphones, there are all kinds of products discussed.
Audio Science Review is a tremendous resource. But dangerous from a time resource perspective. I choose my headphone amp (JDS Labs) after spending much time on that site.
My personal best bang-for-the-buck are the Yamaha Orthodynamic HP-1 headphones that I bought at an estate sale last year for $10 and paired with a JDS Labs amp for $100.
Audiophile headphones in the '70s cost $100-$200. That's like $600-$1200 in today's dollars. Are the AirPods "audiophile" level? Many people think so.
Wireless:
- Top tier general: sennheiser Hbd 630
- good enough: sennheiser momentum 4 (affordable)
- good ANC and “bassy”: Sony xm5/xm6 (‘muddy’ for some)
- I like the Bose ANC profile: Bose QC2
All of them have bad microphones (worse than wired ear pods)
All of them have good to great ANC
All of them are wireless
If you need a good mic then get dedicated headset for calls. Otherwise settle for “ok”
I didn’t include bathys/marklevin cause the new senn 630 outplay them on all fronts.
> All of them have bad microphones (worse than wired ear pods)
Yeah this is why people just buy AirPods Max.
Senn HD 490 PRO is an amazing and extremely comfortable headphone that has very affordable 1st party replacement parts (pads, cables) to boot. These are the first ones I've been happy with from day one. But they are wired & open back.
Best bang for the buck in terms of sound quality is probably the Hifiman HE400SE, which is less than $100, the AKG K701 and Sennheiser HD6XX, which are about $200. The catch is that you need a proper setup to drive them. But to be honest, getting the tuning you like that suits the music is more important.
HD6XX was too harsh in the highs for me. I think HD600s are tuned ever so slightly better.
Also base DACs from a MBP M1 (max) were fine to drive it for me. Both HD600/XX
I’m sure it’s a driving issue, 650/6XX’s treble is supposed to be smooth and veiled. I wouldn’t consider the 6 series at all if you only have an unbalanced setup, the difference on my DAC is night and day.
I have had a pair of the Tozo HT3 for a few months now. Not the most comfortable cans ever, but as low as $30 for wireless + low latency mode + decent ANC is a pretty good deal IMO.
Another vote for the HT3. My wife and I have one each, and we are perfectly content with them — nice battery life, decent build quality, good connection to multiple (two?) sources.
The ANC is not in the same league as a $300 pair, but one certainly would not expect them to.
I don't know exactly how to measure bang for buck, but my Sony XM4s have been holding up well, sound good, are decently comfortable for a day's work, the battery life is good, etc.
They do have some annoyances like not always sleeping correctly when left connected to my laptop, but overall they are easy to recommend
Bose Quietcomfort (i have the 2nd gen ultra now but I've owned other models too) live up to their name for comfort. Very lightweight and the earcups are large enough that they don't pinch. They may not have the best ANC or featureset, but I enjoy mine immensely
any ANC soundcore (anker) headphones or TEMU if you fancy rolling the dice. A colleague got a clone of the Sony 1000xm4, they sounded and look very similar.
For all day online calls, Jabra evolve2 65 are hard to beat for the price.
I'm still a big fan of my Bowers & Wilkins px7.
What is your main use case?
Conference calls? Get soundcores.
Actual music? Buy proper open backs and a DAC.
Any thoughts on the Ploopy?
https://ploopy.co/headphones/
Those are definitely not what you want for anything other than actual music production - they're designed for a flat frequency response which is really useful when mixing music, but awful for anything else.
If you want to go cheap and don't want ANC (eg. open back headphones) then there's a lot of good reference/studio headphones around. I have a wired Audio Technica M40X for home use and a wireless pair of M20X for travel; both are great in a quieter environment.
The two sibling comments were good suggestions. I have Sony XM3s that have been going strong for 6 years, sound superb, and have IMHO better noise cancellation than Bose.
For my kids I got Anker Soundcores, and for the price they are astonishingly good.
Ignore the thing about open-backs though, I have some extremely high end Grado open-backs and barely use them. My primary hobby outside of work is making music and I have a dedicated studio at home with expensive sound damping / proofing - the only reason to ever wear the Grados is if I'm going to be wearing them for hours on end. Even then, the Sonys are comfortable enough that I've never reached a fatigue point in them.
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