Headphones! Noise canceling or Bass Boost?

  • 24 June 2012
  • 4 replies
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Userlevel 7
  • Retired Webrooter
  • 1455 replies
Hey everyone :D
 
I wanted to make a post about headphones because of an office discussion about which headphones give you the most bang for your buck!
 
So far in the last 2 years I have tried:
 
Beats by Dre:  $299-$399
The sound quality was really good and I loved that they cancelled most of the noise. I did however blow the speakers out within a week of purchasing them. Thank goodness for Best Buys return policy! ;)
 
Next I tried the Bose Quiet Comfort Noise Cancelling headphones: $299
These were fantastic headphones and had excellent sound quality as well as near perfect noise cancelling qualities. I did however re-evaluate my splurging with a credit card and wanted to keep looking at different headphones.
 
Finally I landed on the Sony Extra Bass Headphones 40mm:  $79
I found these headphones to have great sound and great bass for my particular genres of music. Plus, they were less than 80 bucks! For the $220+ dollars saved you could purchase a Zune or iPod to go along with the headphones. 
 
I was wondering what everyone thought the best headphones were that they have tried? 
 
I am also searching for a smaller, more casual In-Ear set of headphones but I don't want to sacrifice my sound quality and extra bass. Any advice for me in this area!? 

4 replies

Userlevel 3
Hey Mike-
 
Although I've never owned a high-end pair of earbuds (aside from my Westone in-ear monitors which are a bit different), I have used a fair amount of over the ear studio headphones throughout the years.  I'm sure that in-ear headphones by Grado or Audio-Technica would be excellent.  The Grado iGis run about $90 on the interwebs, or splurge for the GR8s if you're feeling saucy. 
 
It sounds like you like your headphones bassy.  In general I would recommend using headphones that are pretty flat as far as frequency reproduction, then EQ your music from the player/device to bias the low end.  That way you can always back that EQ off if you wanted to jam out to some jazz or classical so it doesn't sound like hip hop 😃. 
Userlevel 7
Hey Wes,
 
Thanks for the input!
 
The GR8's I am sure are great, lol! :D
 
They are a little pricy though and I think I might test out a pair of Klipsch Image S4's that are compared to the GR8's on a CNET Review. But your insight is what brought me to that review so thank you very much for the input!
 
 
 
 
Userlevel 3
Cool-
 
Let me know how those Klipsch S4s sound!
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Noise-cancelling headphones are designed to reduce low-pitched humming and droning sounds, which you’ll encounter in an airplane cabin and, to a lesser extent, on buses and trains (and probably boats, too, although we haven’t tried that).

 

Something for you :

 

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-headphones/

 

https://www.audioreputation.com/best-noise-cancelling-headphones-under-100/

 

https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/205625/the-best-noise-cancelling-headphones

 

I have Cowin E7 headphones

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