Any recomendations for Headphones to pair with the Axiom Audiobytes shuttle controller when needing a quiet solution. After something with the same sort of price/performance we get from Axiom.
Thanks
Nathan

PS - My only expereince with headphones has been Audio Technica noise cancelling in ear phones for travelling.

How much are you looking to spend?

Are any of your goals to attenuate ambient sound getting in or the music leaking out of the headphone?

Open headphones are fine (I dont necessarily need to keep any soind leaking in or out). On price Im more after value for money and while Im unsure what a decent set costs Id say my budget is a couple of hundred

Nathan, for open back headphones with a high performance/price ratio consider the Grado SR60i . These are available for around $70-$80 in the U.S. Don't know about Australian availability.

Hi,

You don't have to pay the earth to get smooth, uncolored and linear sound from headphones that's similar in neutrality to Axiom speakers. I've owned the Grado SR125's for years -- they are comfortable with wide-band uncolored sound. About $150.

For amazing sound quality vs. price, don't overlook the Koss PortaPro --smooth, uncolored, with a slight bass boost in the lower octaves-- at about $39. The temporal pads and lightweight design make them extremely comfortable for long-term listening.

Comfort and fit is everything. There's no point in getting headphones with excellent sound quality that you want to tear off your head after 15 minutes because of discomfort.

Regards,
Alan

I have these Grados and love them. They're quite comfortable and sound great. For the price, they're hard to beat.

Grado might be difficult to find outside the United States. I'm pretty sure their distribution is limited in this regard. There are however authorized dealers of Alessandro headphones (they also ship worldwide from their website) which are re-branded Grado's. Same materials and transducers made by Grado.

http://headphones.com.au/pbrowse?catID=1&brand=Alessandro

I own a pair of Alessandro MS1 and thought they sounded good until I compared them to other headphones directly. My biggest problem with Allesandro and Grado in general is they don't scale well with volume. You can also see the problems in the frequency response. They have wonderful detail at low volume but as soon as you crank them up I can hear the inbalance in the upper midrange and they become fatiguing very quickly.

That's one thing I quickly found out when I purchased a pair of AKG 271 MKII and AT AD700. They maintain their balance at all volumes. Nothing sounds offensive or sticks out when you crank them up, everything just becomes louder. No listener fatigue.

Since you live in Australia and prices are more expensive I would probably look at these headphones in your price bracket. From my experience I found diminishing returns once I reached the Beyerdynamic DT880.


http://headphones.com.au/psingle?productID=5

http://headphones.com.au/psingle?productID=178

This right here is a textbook, ideal frequency response for a headphone. For proper tonal balance, headphones shouldn't measure flat or be elevated in the upper midrange and treble.

http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID=3221

Nathan, Grado does have an Australian distributor .

Thanks - great set of recomendations for my budget and aims. After some googling I can find them for around:
- Koss Porta Pro $90
- Grados SR60i $99
- ATH-A700 $149
- Grados SR125i $165
- AKG-271 $200

All are in the budget and I take the points esp about comfort and lineality as the vol changes. Any suggestions on which one?

Thanks
Nathan

PS no Beats?

What I am describing I don't think is the linearity changing with increasing volume but just that of a boosted upper range to begin with (see frequency response plots at headroom). Waterfall plots of the MS1 also show some stored energy going on in this region and by looking at the Grado, resonances showing up in the upper midrange on the impedance graph.

It just becomes noticeable once you start to increase volumes. At low volumes everything sounds great, cymbals especially sound better than the AT AD700 at low volumes. They have a lot of sparkle to them and in comparison the AD700 sounds dull. The only time I can listen to them at low volumes is if the noise floor is really low in the house because of how "open" they are.

I can tell you that the AT AD700 is one of the most comfortable headphones out there but they are big and ugly (purple grilles and gold frame). They can present a huge soundstage especially if you are into classical recordings.

The AKG 271 MKII is the most comfortable closed headphone I have worn. No clamping at all and I can wear them for hours without any comfort issues. This is in comparison to the Shure 440, Shure 840, Sony MDR V6, AT M50.

Both the AD700 and MKII will disappoint if you are a basshead or into thumping bassy music.

$200 is not a bad price for the MKII in Australia. Keep in mind it comes with two different pad options (leatherette and velour), two detachable cords (straight, coiled mini-xlr, 1/4" adapter)