Open Back Headphones On A Budget.

June 15, 2009 3:54 PM

Could someone please reccomend me some comfortable open back headphones with decent enough sound for under £40? Prefebly they should have a short cable (as I keep triping over my Sennheiser's).

I'll be using them in conjunction with my mac, mostly listening to a lot of spoken word audio (tv shows, etc) and for light music listening.

Here's hoping you can help.

posted by nam3d to technology (7 comments total)

I don't have a suggestion for a headphone for you, but if the one you get has a long cable, it's easy enough to bundle some of it up using cable ties.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:58 PM on June 15

Oh, my- I am so totally biased towards the Sony MDR-7506. I have had this pair for years.

Does 99 US Dollars convert roughly to 40 Brit Pounds? If not, it's well-worth the bit extra.

Do a keyword search for them, as you will find much useful information, and some info on their bigger brother the MDR-7509 (with the bigger magnets, lower freq. range, and subsequently heftier price).

Hope this helps!

-Russell
posted by Bbbumpy at 4:17 PM on June 15

Grado Labs SR60 are 69USD. I've been using my pair for over 15 years, 10 of which were at work & over 40 hours a week. So that's well over 20k hours & still going strong.
posted by torquemaniac at 5:39 PM on June 15

Again no headphone suggestion but i own a pair of Sennheiser HD570's and the cable is very standard and replaceable. You can find just about any length on ebay for under $10.00
posted by laptolain at 11:33 PM on June 15

After much cable falling I switched to wireless headphones - stayed with Sennheiser. Lovely sound quality, and I can wander all the way round my flat and out to the bins without losing signal.

The only problem is that they're quite a bit more than £40. However, I've found them a good investment (three years old and still happy).
posted by Coobeastie at 2:03 AM on June 16

I love my Grado SR60s, but they have a pretty long (and thick) cord, so instead I'll recommend the iGrados. Same driver as the SR60, well within your price range, and they have a shorter (and thinner) cable than the SR60s. I'm using my iGrados even as I type this (and in fact use them more than the SR60s due to their more portable nature). Highly recommended if you're in the market for an open-air can.
posted by namewithoutwords at 5:45 AM on June 16

You can get a pair of Koss PortaPro headphones for £20 here. I love them, they're comfortable and give fantastic sound. Headroom likes them too.
posted by SamuelBowman at 3:53 AM on June 17