Choosing Headphones

[BlackKnight]

I finally bought a decentish MP3 player (Zen MicroPhoto) after using small dodgey ones for ages. Its great but the Creative headphones blow, and since I spent some cash on a player I might as well get a decent pair aswell.

 

Right now Im looking at the Sennheiser PX-100. Id prefer a behind the head, 'street style' pair but from reviews this one seems to have the best sound quality in its price range and looks cool as well - even folds up for portability.

 

Anyway the thing is I really only shopped around reviews for Sennheiser models... does anyone here have an audiophile's point of view on buying something like this? For all I know it would be better to pay out now for a better quality one or just settle for a higher end set of earbuds. Beyond reading a few reviews today I really don't know much of anything on this topic and any help would be appreciated. I don't want to spend too much, but my price range is pretty flexible.

[Ghosty]

I'd go with the Sony MDR-G42LP I've been using these things for about,... 3-5 years. never failed me. Frequency response is perfect for me (Newer models are: 16 Hz - 20000 kHz) Just the right amount of bass and treble.

 

as for the Sennheiser. I would go for it, most MP3 players cant even play a 22000 hz tone

[Shibathedog]

You can't lose with anything by Sennheiser.

 

heres a quick down and dirty guide to buying headphones/speakers

 

Frequency Response, The human ear can hear between 20hz-20,000khz, this is right when you are born, By now, its probably far less than that, even so, try and somewhat match it, the hz end is the lower bass end, and the khz end is more high pitched sounds.

 

the dB rating is its efficiency, the higher the better

 

THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is how much distortion they creat, the lower the better

 

Watts - Alot of people (especially in car audio) put way too much importance on this, Take this spec, and ignore it completely (unless you need to buy a matching amp) Saying a 150 watt speaker is better than a 100 watt speaker is like saying my computer is faster than yours because it uses more energy.

 

Theres some more specs but since your in the market for headphones you probably wont run into them.