Headphones

[richardfinegold]

Well, if you read through the thread, PG, you will see that the consensus falls around Bose, Sony, and now the upstart Sennheiser. Not sure any of those can be had in pink. Also since noise canceling Bluetooth cans are a popular item these days there are many brands not discussed here that may possibly be had at a lesser price point, possibly in pink as well. I can say that I had a very negative experience with some Audio Technica phones several years back that cost about a third the price of the Sony, sounded awful and didn’t effectively cancel noise. WhatHiFi ?should have revised a few dozen of these in the last few years. See if you can check their back issues

[richardfinegold]

The website TechRadar gave the Sennheisers a rave and thought they were a good value relative to the Sonys

[pastoralguy]

Well, if you read through the thread, PG, you will see that the consensus falls around Bose, Sony, and now the upstart Sennheiser. Not sure any of those can be had in pink. Also since noise canceling Bluetooth cans are a popular item these days there are many brands not discussed here that may possibly be had at a lesser price point, possibly in pink as well. I can say that I had a very negative experience with some Audio Technica phones several years back that cost about a third the price of the Sony, sounded awful and didn’t effectively cancel noise. WhatHiFi ?should have revised a few dozen of these in the last few years. See if you can check their back issues

Many thanks for your input, Richard. Sounds like Sennheisers!

[pastoralguy]

Many thanks for your input, Richard. Sounds like Sennheisers!

Sennheisers duly ordered! Alas, not in pink but a nice shade of cream and white.

[richardfinegold]

Sennheisers duly ordered! Alas, not in pink but a nice shade of cream and white.

Great! Do we have to wait until the Holidays to find out how she liked them?

[Mal]

But which Sennheissers? The HD 650 is the best single audio purchase I ever made and I've used them as my goto for "serious listening" for over a decade. I've read good things about the HD 600, though. Who knows, they might be even better. Also, they both might have been superceded. The HD 660 S has replaced the HD 650, and is getting good reviews. Then there's the SENNHEISER HD 820 if you have £2000 to spare. If even the HD 660 S is looking a bit steep, might cheaper Senns come up to scratch? The Sennheiser HD 599 £129 is currently topping the Which? recommendations for "on ear" headphones. Summary: "Here, Sennheiser forgoes many of the latest headphone features such as Bluetooth and noise cancelling in favour of a laser-like focus on pure sound quality. They even have an open-backed design which some claim gives a more natural sound. And for this much money we’re expecting big things." (I like Which? thinking that £129 is big money - who knows, they might sound as good as the HD 650s, and I spent far too much!) Which? reviews 33 different Senns, and even more Sonys!

[Mal]

Many years ago, I bought Mrs. PG a set of BOSE headphones which she informed me today are not noise cancelling! I’ve said I will amend this dereliction of being a good husband by conspiring with Mr. S. Clause to upgrade these headphones to being noise cancelling.

Any suggestions, fellow boarders? Being Bluetooth and pink would gain me brownie points!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

For Bluetooth and noise cancelling Sony WH-1000XM4 tops the Which? list with a rave review - "a clear step above rival Bose’s flagship pairs, producing truly impressive background noise-cancellation as well as first-rate sound..." The only minus is "Feature-heavy app will be daunting for some..."

Warning - Some wireless Sennheisser's get "reasonable" reviews in Which?, but some are flagged with things like "too tight" and "inferior sound quality". So check them carefully before the big day!

[Mal]

I couldn't justify spending a lot on a pair of headphones, not for cheapskate reasons, but because I don't use them often enough to justify it. For a few years I have been happy enough with Panasonic RP-WF950H which link wirelessly via a charging base permanently plugged into my amp and have a good range for use in even further reaches of garden, where I mainly use them. Checked Amazon history - I paid £60 in 2011 and still going fine.

I decided recently to get a Bluetooth pair for listening to sound from phone or laptop. Based on this review I bought the Sennheiser HD 250BT and have been very pleased with them, especially having paid only £39.

Which? magazine gives these a good review. The cons seem to be of the "I can live with that!" variety, if I'm just wandering around the house/garden in them. Not too sure about them as an Xmas gift for the wife, though. Cons: "Build quality could be better, Don’t fold for easier transportation, No travel case, App could be easier to use."

Have you compared the sound quality of these to more expensive headphones? Which? does say they have "decent sound quality", but only gives them 3/5 for sound. The top recommendation Sennheiser HD 599 gets 5/5 for sound quality, but doesn't have the garden capability.

[richardfinegold]

Which? magazine gives these a good review. The cons seem to be of the "I can live with that!" variety, if I'm just wandering around the house/garden in them. Not too sure about them as an Xmas gift for the wife, though. Cons: "Build quality could be better, Don’t fold for easier transportation, No travel case, App could be easier to use."

Have you compared the sound quality of these to more expensive headphones? Which? does say they have "decent sound quality", but only gives them 3/5 for sound. The top recommendation Sennheiser HD 599 gets 5/5 for sound quality, but doesn't have the garden capability.

Why can’t you use the top Sennheisers in the Garden?

[Mal]

Why can’t you use the top Sennheisers in the Garden?

OK, I'll take that back there might be solutions, but there are all kinds of problems! From a quick Google I see people recommending just plugging them into the phone. But high end headphones can be difficult to drive, the quality might not be good enough. Plus the standard cable is long, awkward to adapt to a portable solution. To maintain quality you might have to use a Dac/headphone amplifier - and these might be really expensive if they also have to be portable. And do you really want to drag your relatively fragile, expensive headphone around the garden?

People are struggling to get HD 650s working on phones and tablets (haven't tried it myself!)

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/44sodv/sennheiser_hd_650_with_android_tablet/

Then again, less expensive headphones are usually easier to drive so it might only be the 6xx and 8xx series that are problematic. Indeed I see people saying "HD599 is really good with mobile phones..." So you might use it in the garden! But its open nature might not make you popular in the restaurant.

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/m51qfo/hd599_is_really_good_with_mobile_phones/

[antongould]

The ever kind Lady Gould bought me some Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones for Christmas and I have just been for my first walk with them ….. very impressed. ……..

[richardfinegold]

The ever kind Lady Gould bought me some Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones for Christmas and I have just been for my first walk with them ….. very impressed. ……..

Fantastic! What a gift!

[duncan]

The ever kind Lady Gould bought me some Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones for Christmas and I have just been for my first walk with them ….. very impressed. ……..

Also very impressed with these. My sister bought the lad a pair for Christmas. He’s a very lucky boy!

[antongould]

House trained? Might they squirt in your ears?

Very good ……