If anyone wants some impressions of any of the following cans, let me know and I'll spend some time with them plugged into the Pandora.
AKG K701
Superlux HD681 (modded)
Stock Superlux HD681
Skytronics HP350 (modded)
Sennheiser HD595
Allesandro MS1
Sennheiser 280
Sennheiser PX-100 (modded)
Sennheiser PX-100 (modded)
Koss Porta Pro
ToaD
Please do - and also, please explain what you mean by (modded)?
Thank you.
What all of them? LOL
Modded cans are basically headphones that have had some modification. Mods can be as simple as changing the foam pads or as complex as mounting a different pair of drivers in the headphones.
Here's some links to how to modify Sennheiser PX-100s & Skytronic HP350s that I posted on a headphone forum I frequent.
PX-100 Mods
HP350 Mods
At the other end of the modding complexity scale is a DIY ortho type headphone thread.
DIY orthos
All might be overkill. Sorry if it feels like you're turning into a headphone product advice service. I appreciate that you've taken the time to truly evaluate what you're using and would like to benefit from your experience.
I work in a cubicle environment and travel some. What is the best seat of head/ear mounted speakers that I can:
1. Listen to at levels that override the general office hum.
2. Produce so little external sound that my office mates won't know I'm even using them.
3. Are comfortable enough to wear for 10 hours straight without resulting in red ears.
4. Produce very high quality sound (Jazz, SKA, Punk, Blues).
5. Do not require me to sell a kidney to afford.
6. Pack down so that I can throw them in the pouch on my laptop bag for going through security at the airport.
7. Durable - they're going to take a beating.
My main experiences with headphones (and yes, most of these are ancient):
a. El cheapo disposable ones that you can buy in the checkout lane are not worth the time it takes to open the packaging. I bought a few sets of these for my kids to use with some old Palm PDAs. They're not good.
b. iPod in-ear headphones. Wow - these are so bad that I'm shocked the iPod sold at all.
c. Sony's $50 ear buds sounded -ok-, but after 3 days use started to produce static cracks and were dead in 7 days. Low end sound was not accurate at all. Sound stage was worse than e.
d. Koss QZ Pro cups sound -ok-, but after an hour the fleshy bits of my ears hurt from being smashed down.
e. RioVolt in-ear headphones from a CD MP3 player I bought back in 2002 - these are what I go back to after every failed attempt at others. They sound pretty good and have turned out to be durable and comfortable. They sound WAY better than the iPod ones - and are on par with the Koss for everything but the low end. Good stage, great for Rodrigo y Gabriela, not so much for Cherry Poppin' Daddies. They produce accurate low end - just not much of it and can become a bit overwhelmed/mushy if the volume is pushed very far beyond standard levels.
So, I'm trying to find something that I like better than a 10 year old set of headphones that came with one of the very first MP3 players sold, are comfortable, produce solid sound over broad frequency ranges and have minimal 'leakage' to those around me.
Which ones would you recommend I check out?
