Best Headphone for Ipod.- Advice

[kathir]

 

[kathir]

Hello there,

Back in 2007, I bought a AKG ( whatevery, Looks like K701 model , around the ear) for appr. 100 € and I loved every bit of the music from this headphone.

Early this this year I got a Sennheisser HD ** ( not *** ) roughly 90€ as well for my sistre as gift. But after trying both my old AKG and new one she choose the old one .

It looks like I bought a cheaper model from Sennheisser. Now I miss the old sound quality .

I was about to buy AKG K701, but the sales rep mentioned it may not be the best choice to use wiht Ipod as K701 would need a amp or more power to drive or something like that.

So now, can you please give tell me which is the best headphone to use with ipod classic. budget ( 250 - 400 Dollar)

My priority on requirement is

1. Audio Quality. - clarity of instruments, details, Sound stage.

2. Built quality & mobility - I am not a good care taker

3. Noise cancelling - Like that idea as I on flight often but I am not sure if I would need it. I am happy without NC as well.

it would be helfpul to have your idea or proposal or advice.

Thanks in advance,

 

[quadpatch]

It's an interesting (and probably common) idea to look for something that sounds good straight out of a portable player. As long as you realise that proper amping will make everything sound better (or a lot better) and your epectations are reasonable then that's fine. Since you're main mission seems to be looking for the best sound quality, I'd assume that's why you were here anyway, then I would recommend dropping the active noise cancelling feature entirely. When the noise cancelling works well it does damage the sound and this is why open back headphones sound better. If you want to only get one pair of headphones you need to ask yourself how much you will use the feature. Unless you tavel on planes a lot I'd recommend a cheap pair of good isolating in-ears for that and spend the rest on proper headphones.

As for the sound - it seems like you would not like anything too bass heavy and for this reason I would lean towards the B&O H6. It's light, great for portable use, is closed, but very well balanced and sounds great straight out of an iPhone (I assume an iPod is the same).

I'd be curious what Dalethorn thinks of this recommendation however...

 

[dalethorn]

When a rugged build quality plus uncolored hi-fi sound is a must, I think GMP 8.35D. The B&O H6 I prefer when ruggedness isn't an issue, but even that preference is a tossup since the H6 mids are somewhat up-toned (a word I made up just now), so where the 8.35D mids are neutral to slightly dark, the H6 mids are not arguably better. The v-moda M100 is a real possibility for ruggedness, but the buyer would have to be willing to engage the iPod Bass Reduction EQ (which results in a very good but slightly dark sound).

One more caveat: The iPod Classic we had did not interface well to the B&W P5 we had, so we switched to the iPod Touch. I suspect the older iPod classics may have had problems with modern low-impedance headphones, but newer Classics may have fixed that (or maybe not).

 

[kathir]

Thanks for the Reply and suggestions. I googled a bit about the proposals.

Yes. I look for music quality Mostly I am gonna play ( MP3 and Apple lossless in Ipod classic. )

I also notice that V moda has quite a lot of quality complaints. I am planning to buy in US during my trip there.

Beoplay looks like nice but it is reaching my max Budget. ( ofcourse I will get it, if that is going to convince me )

I see in LA Bestbuy sells B&W P7 also at the same price 400 . My home theather is made of lovely B&W (684 series) speakers

IS AKG k551 is worthy as well ? because in the review it is stated " too expensive" - means too expensive for the Quality of music it can produce?

I will try AKG, P7 over this weekend. how about Beyerdynamic 32 ohms 860 ?

 

[JoelSim]

The Beyerdynamic DT880 32Ohm is very nice, as are their Tesla T..p series, ie T51p and T70p.