Headphones

just pay $50-100+ for sony mdr-v6 and there will not be any doubt

don't pay over $30 for earbuds unless they are custom or suck your dick

edit: custom ear fit. not talking about fancy designs

disagree.

i spent $300 on a pair of westone 3 IEMs, and they are the single best sounding pair of headphones i have EVER had the pleasure of owning. they come with a variety of tips... and you can get custom tips molded, but i go with the shure "black olive" tips. i prefer the westone comply tips, but they wear out too fast.

listening to my music on these made it feel like i was hearing it all for the first time again. and that sounds like a bullshit marketing slogan, but it's 100% unequivocally true. i actually went out of my way to hit westone's booth at NAMM just to tell them how amazing the 3s were.

as far as "dre beats" go, fuck that shit. that's marketing gone wrong and nothing more. but then again, anyone who buys anything that has Monster's name even remotely associated with it deserves to get burned, IMHO.

okay let me replace "suck your dick" in my last post with "hardcore anorak branded"

what i meant was, earbuds in the $30-100 zone are bullshit. nmost of this shit is the same, but you can always go to switzerland and get something made by magic elves that actually justifies the cost

Already very aware of all this business, but on the other side are brands like Sennheiser etc. really all they're cracked up to be? If so what are the best brands/models?

  On 8/24/2010 at 8:31 PM, Al5x said:

Already very aware of all this business, but on the other side are brands like Sennheiser etc. really all they're cracked up to be? If so what are the best brands/models?

this is what i meant with sony mdr-v6. get those. make sure it's not like v600 or one of the halfassed editions that sony also makes...

edit: and to explain my 'tude, once i got good monitors and a place i could make lots of noise i stopped using headphones entirely

i bought $30 earphones that had good reviews on Amazon a while back. Even after reading this, I till like them. they're very convenient. When I am outside there is too many distractions to really notice good sound. I also have Sennheiser HD555 for listening at home.

double post

  On 8/24/2010 at 8:43 PM, Hanratty said:

i bought $30 earphones that had good reviews on Amazon a while back. Even after reading this, I till like them. they're very convenient. When I am outside there is too many distractions to really notice good sound. I also have Sennheiser HD555 for listening at home.

yes i have some boss ones i got off the internet for $25 like six or seven years ago. they have foam pads that fill your ear like an earplug. pads come off and can be changed -- with a bunch that were all sorts of shapes and sizes. hexagon ones!! they're the only thing that lets me hear bass on the subway. all they've needed is new pads after a couple years. but, back home, doing musics, i'd never bother with them! if i'm waiting at the dentist's office, i'd take the mdr-v6's, because they sound better, and are much more comfy. on an airplane, i take my sennheiser "hd280 pro" headphones purely because they are like vice grip earmuffs and earplug earbuds during changing altitudes, i haven't wanted to try that

by the way, what seems to be the biggest benefit once you get past the $100 mark or so is the isolation factor. they may make sub-$100 headphones that do the same, but i've never seen them.

my first experience with this was with a pair of Shure E2Cs... the rubber earpiece (or whatever material you select as your personal favourite) actually completely occupies the ear canal. it makes for far better sound, even from more mediocre drivers. of course, the tradeoff is the inability to hear anything going on around you.

so a good pair of IEMs that offer full isolation like that will limit the amount of auditory distractions and bleed from outside sources. the great thing about the westone 3s is they actually have 3 driver elements for lows, mids, and highs. i honestly couldn't believe how good they sound. not to keep going on about it... but it's REALLY remarkable. i'm not an audiophile by any standard. most of my collection is V0 mp3s... but this is something far more fundamental than distortions imparted by lossy compression at that bitrate (something i still to this day cannot detect...)

i agree that most of what you see at your local crazy eddie's electronics is garbage. but like anything, a bit of research will uncover gems.

a lot of stuff is consumer-oriented too... so it's designed to make the casual fucksteak grunt "urrgh!! bass good!!! best phonz evarrrrr!!!", but the actual audio quality is actually well within the shit range (read: dre beats).

having said that, it all comes down to what sounds good to the individual, i guess. some people LOVE their dre beats, so who am i to argue otherwise? people listen to justin bieber and like him. he probably sounds great on "skullplug 3000 MAXXBASS elites".

maybe we should all chip in and make a WATMM-branded "IDM optimised" set of headphones based on one of these cheapo chinese platforms. then sell them outside hipster electronic shows in LA while wearing tshirts that say "music sucks".

  On 8/24/2010 at 8:52 PM, maus said:

we should all chip in and make a WATMM-branded "IDM optimised" set of headphones based on one of these cheapo chinese platforms. then sell them outside hipster electronic shows in LA while wearing tshirts that say "music sucks".

lol

AKG are pretty good

your mom is pretty good

  On 8/25/2010 at 5:17 PM, acid1 said:

  On 8/24/2010 at 8:52 PM, maus said:

we should all chip in and make a WATMM-branded "IDM optimised" set of headphones based on one of these cheapo chinese platforms. then sell them outside hipster electronic shows in LA while wearing tshirts that say "music sucks".

lol

ha! this must be how all startups begin.

  On 8/24/2010 at 8:08 PM, maus said:

disagree.

 

i spent $300 on a pair of westone 3 IEMs, and they are the single best sounding pair of headphones i have EVER had the pleasure of owning. they come with a variety of tips... and you can get custom tips molded, but i go with the shure "black olive" tips. i prefer the westone comply tips, but they wear out too fast.

 

listening to my music on these made it feel like i was hearing it all for the first time again. and that sounds like a bullshit marketing slogan, but it's 100% unequivocally true. i actually went out of my way to hit westone's booth at NAMM just to tell them how amazing the 3s were.

 

as far as "dre beats" go, fuck that shit. that's marketing gone wrong and nothing more. but then again, anyone who buys anything that has Monster's name even remotely associated with it deserves to get burned, IMHO.

I have these and it feels still like first hearing every time I wear them:

I often stay up at night for hours because I can't stop listening to them

i spent 120 USD on a pair of 5.1 surround headphones for the xbox 360, for making music i j ust use these sony ones i got at walmart, the cup flips over so you can hold them up to your ear without wearing all dj and cool-like and probably way better than anyone elses hear

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sony-Studio-Monitor-Series-Headphones/1957327?sourceid=1500000000000003142050&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=1957327

skullcandy can suck my fuckn dick