If you have the money, I would absolutely, 100% get these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106299

Sennheiser RS 160

I have them, and they are awesome.
So much better than my Medussa's and Creative's.

And, they are wireless.
And, they dont make any hissing sounds when there is no noise.
Really good bass.
Comfortable.
I can pick out individual sounds in both music and games (but, they arent 5.1).

Really, THE best cans I have ever owned.

I'm not sure. They were my father's old pair. He thought he had broken them, but I figured out how to make them work again, so I got to keep them.

The best thing to do is go to www.headf-fi.org. It's a forum with tons of very in-depth discussions, from beginner level to engineer and fanatical hobbyist level, of every headphone and earbud you could ever think of. There's nothing out there they haven't covered and put out more information
about than you'd ever need to know.

If you don't mind in-ear monitors (I love them), check on the Shure ES215's. Very durable (both cord and housing), great sound overall and plenty of bass, but they can be equalized to perk up the full range, and great to use on your MP3 player or smartphone when you're not on your computer. You can get it with and without inline microphone at an extremely competitive price for its overall quality. I use mine on my laptop to watch movies late at night without disturbing anyone, to play games, and on my MP3 player. It isolates well and fits flush enough in the ear that I can even use it to fall asleep to tunes with.

I remember that I used to have a lovely pair of AIWA headphones that were fat and comfy and provided a nice level of sound without being all too pretentious about it. Just solid all around headphones.

Sennheiser HD 280 pro here. Look ugly, but are easy to pack and take loads of abuse. Whicj is grand, as mine travel loads in backpacks etc.

Burn in implies the operation of solid state electronics, like a monitor, over a period of time to detect flaws. You are talking about break-in, which is a mechanical process. And a myth.

The assumption is that you need to break in the phones to achieve the best sound, but the assumption is that A) change is always positive, and B) there actually is a change. It is also possible that the phones which sound perfect out of the box might degrade in quality (which is almost always going to be a subjective analysis in the end) over time. It is far more likely that after several hours of listening, your ear (and in turn, mind) becomes more accustomed to the sound of the new phones and more attuned to its unique acoustic qualities, and again the satisfaction or dissatisfaction with said qualities are again subjective.

There is no evidence that conclusively supports the authenticity of the break in myth. Every bit of supporting evidence I've ever seen is anecdotal, and therefore subjective.

I was hesitant to reply because debates between so-called "audiophiles" make debates about DRM seem like polite conversation at an ice cream social... I once fell victim to an argument with a guy who claimed that you shouldn't listen to music with eyeglasses on because the sound waves reflect off the lenses and produces a barely perceptible echo effect in the inner ear.

Compared to that guy, buying the burn-in story isn't so unreasonable, but yeah... burn in is the second biggest myth in audio.

The first? It's that BS about $200 a foot speaker wire sounding better than cheap speaker wire. In fact, expensive speaker wire in indistinguishable from a coat hanger. (though for several practical reasons, a coat hanger makes for bad speaker wire)

I've been a bit curious about some of the 7.1 surround headphones I tried at PAX last year, they sounded really amazing, but come with an amazing price tag. I seem to have issues hearing certain ranges of sound so decent sound is important to me.

Honestly I've done pretty well on cheaper headphones just going to the music store and picking out one of the pairs with a compatible jack. The people at music stores are pretty anal about sound quality and you can get out of the for 30 USD if you just want a comfy, basic pair of headphones that sound really great.
I'll pick one of those up on the way home from work tomorrow:)

I am a bit curious, can one really use one of those single piece systems to do 5.1 in a room (I'm thinking with TV here)? You seem to know quite a bit about audio, so I'm asking:)

Same

Sennheiser here also. If I ever win in the lottery I'm gonna buy a pair of these, though:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/ACS-T2-Dual-Driver-Monitor_Headphones_review

Full Disclosure: I was a tech support rep for Klipsch for three years. Love the products. Lukewarm on the company.

To an extent, yes you can achieve the illusion of 5.1 audio with a sound bar... but it is really just using reflected sound to mimic 5.1 But a sound bar cannot offer discreet channels. Sound bars are simply a single case design with a right, left and center channel. So, for the serious home theater buff, no, sound bars don't work. For the casual user who wants a richer sound than TV speakers without hanging rear speakers on the wall... yes, they can do an okay job.

Note, the job they can do gets worse in open architecture rooms... You know, living room opens out to kitchen and dining room, high ceilings, etc... Because there is so little to reflect sound off of. The hardcore HT geek needs a rectangular room with 8 foot ceilings, not a lot of windows, etc., but we can't all afford to have dedicated rooms like that (least I can't). Actually having real rears mitigates a lot of those problems.

And the thing is, very few of them have the impact of a traditional 5.1 set with 2 sides, 2 rears, and a center (and sub).

All that said, those Palladiums I linked... I have sat in an acoustically perfect room, with high end gear and listened to those speakers. I listened to a perfect analog recording of a live Diana Krall (audio guys LOVE Diana Krall) performance and closed my eyes. You could hear the breaths between words. You could here the sound of her shoe hitting the foot pedals on the piano before she pressed down on the pedal. It's breathtaking. It is as if the music were being projected through the very throat of God.

Then I put in an Elvis Costello CD (can you believe she's married to Elvis Costello?) and (note: I am a HUGE Elvis Costello fan) and it sounded like shit. Of course, Elvis is awesome, but this was a CD pressed in the early 90s, made from original analog recordings transferred to digital with only a cursory attempt at remastering... and everything that is flawed about digital recording was front and center. Because the speakers can give you the highest highs and lowest lows, you can hear the clipping from the compression used in the transfer. It sounded like what jaggies look like in graphics.

My own home theater speakers are big and sound awesome, but are far far far more modest than those beautiful Palladiums.

You get what you pay for. Usually. 'Good' headphones start at around >$70. Cheap headphones are usually muddy or lack clarity. Headsets are usually inferior in terms of decent sound reproduction. Avoid anything with a celebrity's name on it or with the word 'Skull' in the name without exception.


I personally love my Audio Technica AD700s for gaming and my (mostly non-bass-centric) music. Google around, they've been pretty much the go-to entry-level audiophile grade headphones for gamers for several years now. Amazing soundstage, great clarity and detail, superduper comfortable.

Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Grado, Shure, Beyerdynamic...these are all pretty old, solid brands. They tend to all have different sound signatures though, what may be better for gaming may not better for music, and vice versa. Some (Grados) tend to be better for, say, rock music and so-so for everything else.

For gaming the biggest things are soundstage (the accuracy of the stereo imaging, quality phones can give '5.1 headphones' a run for their money while having better sound quality) and comfort. That's why I recommend the AD700s, they're widely considered to be best in class with regards to soundstage and comfort. But if you're upgrading from crappy headphones you probably can't go wrong with any reasonably decent set from one of the reputable brands.

Also if money is an issue bigger is usually cheaper. The big ear muff ones tend to be a lot cheaper for a given quality than the smaller over the ear ones than clips than ear buds than ones that actually go in the ear canal.

For on the go <3 my Shure e2c, but at home it's a lot more comfortable, not to mention affordable, to listen via my Sennheiser HD477 set.

If you don't use speakers at all I would advice you to spend at least or around $100 for decent headphones. First, the quality and comfort will be a lot better than cheaper ones and they will hold for a longer time so it's more of a decent investment (probably loses value unless you buy something really state of the art but that's unnecessary). Remember, comfort is very important and therefor buying on impulse is probably not a good idea, go to a local store and try them on if they allow it.

Recently I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD418 which lie in the budget section and while they're decent for the price I would have picked something better if it wasn't for my speakers that I use 99% of the time.

Not strictly of any use to the OP but I get to tell my bargain story :)

January just gone I was casually looking for a new pair of phones myself (after my low end Panasonic ones finally gave up the ghost). I was meandering around my local market and car boot sale, picking up some veg and doing some browsing. Then I spotted a rather interesting box under a pile of indiscriminate rubble: Some nice looking Sennheiser ear phones, unopened on the corner of a boot sale stall. After a bit of questioning I found out they were an unwanted present and they wanted £15 for them. I noted down the product number and over a nice bacon butty, did a bit of googling to see what sort of price they go for brand new, expecting maybe about 20 quid or something. After a swift double take and nearly choking on my breakfast I recomposed myself and while trying to hide my grin, went back to the stall with my 15 pounds in hand. Turns out they were going for between £150 and £180 on the net. Bargain! :D

Needless to say they’re by far the best £15 headphones I’ve ever owned! The sound clarity is amazing and there is a huge difference in build quality.

Back on track, I’d seriously recommend Sennheiser. They seem to be the go to brand if you’re prepared to part with the cash and even their lower end stuff is impressive. I don't think you'd be dissappointed if you picked up a pair.