Are you set on headphones or are you open to in ears? I absolutely love my Bose Soundtrue in-ears. You can find them on sale for under $100 pretty regularly.

I've had Sony MDR-V6's for 4 years now, they're great. $80 on amazon, and they have pretty good sound quality, but the main reason I enjoy them is they are durable as shit. I've been through 3 headphones on my PC, but my V6's have been through much more for longer and still work.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDRV6-Studio-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B00001WRSJ

even if theres a mic its still good for 70 dollars
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/kingston-hyperx-cloud-ii-gaming-headset

mdrv6 is good

dont buy anything with the word GAMING in the name

While this is true most of the time, blanket statements always have an exception. The hyperx's linked above are direct copies of "real" headphones (closed version, open version) with a mic attached. They're good.

Also, Geknaiir forgot to add guestmode to the link so here's a working link: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/kingston-hyperx-cloud-ii-gaming-headset?mode=guest_open

this man is speaking blasphemy about zowie too
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=zowie

takstar pro80

+1 for HyperX Cloud super comfortable especially with the velour cups.

Sony mdr-7506 (best cans you can get for the price, no contest

It'd help If you could specify a specific genre of music that you would like to listen to or if you want extra highs/lows or neutral, etc. Another important question is if you want closed or open back, but +1 on the v6 if you're not sure that you want anything special.

I don't really have a specific genre of music that I listen to.
I've never tried open back nor have I had a problem with closed back, so I guess I want closed back.

You recommend the mdrV6, but looking around online it seems the mdr-7506 is better in someway?
Honestly, I haven't gotten the opportunity to try out many headphones to know what "type" I like and Bass/Mids/Highs/Treble and other words mentioned in all the headphone reviews I've looked at doesn't mean much to me. As in, I can't say I understand the real effect it has on the sound.

The Sony's and the CAL! 2 are both reviewed really well all over the place.
There is no place close-by that has them to try out.
How do I pick?

I just picked up a Sennheiser HD 558. I don't have a lot of experience with decent headphones, but so far they've been awesome.

Although I don't know who well it would compare to the other ones mentioned in this thread.

Audio Technica M40x Headphones are a solid choice. They have good sound, solid build quality, earcup swivel and interchangeable wires (10 foot and 3 foot cable). They're $100, but you can find some pretty cool bundles on amazon that add on cool little accessories for just about the same price. I don't know if you have a preference or not, but they are closed headphones. (Little to no sound leak, but also harder to hear things in your ambient environment)

The M40s are not a very solid choice. The sound is ok but the sound stage is close to abysmal on those. For the price there is much better.

dont u get sweaty?

Sennheiser HD 558

Last Black Friday the sennheiser HD 598s went on sale for 100 bucks

MDR-7506s are amazing except for the coiled cable. They're still perfectly fine after being thrown by small children and their sound is really balanced.

>You recommend the mdrV6, but looking around online it seems the mdr-7506 is better in someway?

They're nearly identical. The mdr-v6 are supposed to have slight crosstalk between channels but it's not something you would notice unless you're doing very specific kinds of audio work. Also, for some reason, they have a slightly different frequency response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejCz5bWvBZM

0:34: MDR-V6
3:00: 7506

7506 uses the same driver but later models use a neodymium instead of the samarium-cobalt magnet that older 7506 and the V6 used.

Also that testing "methodology" won't get you consistent results anyway.

>Also that testing "methodology" won't get you consistent results anyway.

Of course not, we have no idea how far broken-in each pair he had was.

If you're talking about the mic, I'll trust two recordings off of the same mic on the same day a hell of a lot more than comparing fancy frequency response graphs made by completely different people using god-knows-what methodology. Additionally, he has the sound play into the mic for several seconds for a reason, and small differences in mic location wouldn't result in the different high treble that he saw.

I don't believe in break-in. Also it wouldn't show up in FR.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/measurement-and-audibility-headphone-break

Using the same mic is a prerequisite.
Different mic position makes a big difference even if the mic wasn't breaking the seal. By just sticking it in that way isolation and FR become a mess.
https://youtu.be/ejCz5bWvBZM?t=37
https://youtu.be/ejCz5bWvBZM?t=226
The difference starts in the mids.
I don't even know the frequency range of the analyzer, whether it's logarithmic or linear.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDRV6.pdf
Look at the grey lines on the bottom in the top left graph.
Same headphone, same microphone, same day.
Different positions.
And that's without screwing up the isolation.

>I don't believe in break-in.

With these two headphones you'd be very wrong.

>Different mic position makes a big difference even if the mic wasn't breaking the seal.

If the mic isn't breaking the seal then the highs are exactly the parts that it wouldn't effect on this analyzer -- certainly not the rolloff. The phasing effects of the mic location become harmonic (unless your distance is high, as in, think feet) and you can't see them on a low resolution analyzer like this; certainly not in the 10khz range.

>innerfidelity

Credibility ruined.

https://warosu.org/g/thread/33610564#p33611973

I used an example for inconsistent measurements.
You complain about the measurements being inconsistent.

10/10 logic.

Show me measurements that show break-in on these headphones.

Very mature. Explain how in the world mic position in a closed lid is supposed to cause very high frequency rolloff, and none below that -- a peaking, even.

Explain how a diaphragm is supposed to not change in physical consistency as it's worn in.

Hey if I can just pitch in a quick question amigos:
So is it definite the mdr 7506 has better sound than the cal! 2?

I never claimed that?

You're trying to combined the two things I did say.
1. His measurements won't be consistent. Mostly due to HRTF. In case you didn't notice there's his hair between the driver and the mic and all around the cup. (sample size = 1 is a big no go as well)
2. I don't think break-in is a measurable issue.

HRTF could case the peaking and rolloff anyway.
http://www.ap.com/images/audio.tst/2010/07/pinnae.png
Lots of varation as you can see.

That doesn't matter?
What matters is whether or not it affects FR measurably. If it affects other things but not FR it's not relevant in this case.
It's also unlikely to be linear or headphones would break fairly quickly. However if it slows, even if it were a noticable change, it would only be an issue if one pair is brand new and the other isn't.

Again, just show me measurements and I'll believe you. So far you haven't done that.

>You're trying to combined the two things I did say.

If you read what I said in the beginning I noted that break-in would be the probable cause of a difference in FR between headphones that should otherwise sound the same.

>1. His measurements won't be consistent. Mostly due to HRTF.

The only difference in rolloff in your link is due to ear size, which is a very special variable in HRTF (and the only one to apply directly to closed-ear headphone testing). I'm pretty sure his ears didn't suddenly mutate and change size between tests.

>In case you didn't notice there's his hair between the driver and the mic and all around the cup.

Yes I'm sure that his hair caused a 6db difference in audible treble noise. "All around the cup"? Are you listening to yourself?

>(sample size = 1 is a big no go as well)

Not this again.

>What matters is whether or not it affects FR measurably.

Many people talk all the time about bass changing due to burn in. People that have a large collection of headphones and swap between them regularly and don't get especially used to any one sound. Diaphrams are physical objects that would quickly wear into their typical physical consistency after being used after being manufactured. The idea that burn-in doesn't exist or can't significantly affect FR is the contentious view here. I'm sure that if it exists most expensive headphones are burned in in advance for obvious reasons, but it's entirely within the realm of possibility that the current manufacturing line of some old cans isn't.

>It's also unlikely to be linear or headphones would break fairly quickly. However if it slows, even if it were a noticable change, it would only be an issue if one pair is brand new and the other isn't.

Of course. It's entirely possible that one pair of headphones is brand new and the other isn't. That has always been a possibility.

Who knows, maybe his 7506s are outright broken, in some way. That's where sample size would matter.