headphones for office Environment

[admin_exported]

please can you advise. i listen to my music in work via my iphone. i like to play my music loud. i use at present sennheiser cx 300ii .My work mates can here my music. Are there any recommended headphones out there i can use and not annoy my workmates. i.e. noise cancelling , closed units , in ear , on ear etc..

 

[John Duncan]

Not grados (since mine just arrived and they're p-ssing my workmates off no end).

I'm surprised they can hear the CX300s - are you sure they're in right?

 

[idc]

Not Goldring NS1000, they also leak sound. Reputedly the Senn HD380 and AKG K272 dont leak much if any sound at all.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the advice john. i was considering them. the cx300 are in. i've tried the three sizes.

 

[matengawhat]

sennheiser hd280 are great at not leaking sound might also be good to try the hd380

 

[John Duncan]

I think you have two choices - a good in-ear deisgn like the CXs or Shure equivalent, or some full size closed-back ones that cover your ears totally. They can be quiet hard to come by though - look at Denon and AKG for the latter, I think tha mjority of Sennheisers are open-back designs. The HD25 in its various variants is one exception but I found them very leaky too, because they're quite small and it's difficult to get a good 'seal'.

 

[matengawhat]

the two sennheiser named above are both closed back designs - my gf says the 280 are the best i.ve ever had as she can't hear them!

 

[John Duncan]

There you go then!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, for the past year or so i have been looking into the same things as you and hope i can be of assistance. i have been meaning to put up reviews and this has prompted me to at least provide some infomation.

It is true, the Goldring NS1000 do leak sound when pushed really hard but i currently use them in an office environment and have never had any complaints. office is open plan and have people quite close to me on the left and right. they are comfortable over long perdiods and sound excellent. My setup is such that they are plugged directly into a Firestone Audio Fireye DAC headphone amp, which is in turn plugged and powered via USB into the laptop. This results in an open and excellent sound at low (yet fully acceptable) volumes. this means that no sound is majorly leaked and the quality is of a decent standard.

Recently however after owning the Goldrings for over a year i sort of got bored and wanted to try some others, i also thought that i can keep them for commuting and by some heaphones which have no noise cancelling so the money spent is not purely for the NC technology, My travels took me to AKGs Closed Back 271 MKii headphones.

Bought them for £120 and i have since sent them back for a refund. Basically the detail was much better that the Goldrings and i am sure that after being fully 'run in' they would have surpassed the sound quality. the auto mute funtion when you take them off your head was a nice little touch as well. i sen them back tho because they were not comfortable over long periods (in my opinion) and there was a lack of excitement. They are designed for studio monitoring and the bass is exceedingly tight and refined, a bit too much for my liking. the other thing is they are massive. the AKG range may not be up your street as well if you are only only using na i phone or ipod to drive them. they require more power than most.

I will soon be ordering a pair of Audio Technica's A500 closed back heaphones to see what they are like. will let you know if you care to find out.

In short, i love the firestone fireye tho. previously had a sound blaster sound card running the headphones and this just blasts it out of the water.

Hope this helps anyway.

 

[matengawhat]

I thought the goldrings were terrible at leaking sound and wouldn't recommend them for office use and if i had someone sat next to me on a long flight would prob drive me mad and i don't listen loud - maybe they fit your head/ears better

 

[Anonymous]

i have been told i have rather large ears.

 

[Diamond Joe]

Hi Bob, you didn't mention your budget, but if you're looking more towards the bargain basement I can recommend Sennheiser HD202s, they're available for around £25, they're closed back and don't leak much sound, but I'll double check that tonight when I get to work, for the price I think they're very capable 'phones.

 

[idc]

I got a PC World salesman to wear the HD201s and if I stood next to him I could hear sound, above the noisy music in the shop. I prefer the HD201s to the 202s as the bass is more to the background and had greater detail. The 202s are for rockers, dance adicts and wannabir DJs.

 

[Big Aura]

I have HD280pro and we use them for the piano or iPlayer on the laptop, and neither use disturbs the other person watching telly/reading. That said, neither a clavinova nor re-runs of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe have an infuriatingly repetitive techno-beat...!

PS- turn your music down: you'll end up partially deaf in 5 years, and then won't be able to enjoy any music!!

Edit: you may also want to check that a bigger set of headphones can be comfortably driven by an iPod/iPhone.

 

[Anonymous]

cheers DJ much appreciated i love the cx300 mk ii's away fromthe office. I'd be happy to pay up to about 125 as long as they do the job and are not to big and bulky