Headphone Roundup

Found yourself wondering that you need a pair of headphones but you just can't choose a pair right for you, or can't tell the difference between a Beats Audio headphone or a Klipsch set. You've probably come to the right place. You haven't got an idea about the right headphones for you, and you're just being fed the MTV standard of beats? Let's change that with a round up of some of the best headphones for less than the Beats Solo, for under €60.

MDR XB500i

Lets start off with the pair above, these are Sony's MDR XB500i's, the main alternative to Beats Solo's. For one very good reason, they pump out the bass at very respectable levels. Look no further if you want the kind of bass the Beats Solo's give, but less expensive and much much better sound. These are for you! But... what if you're the acoustic type and you just can't stand all that heavy sounding bass?

Pro DJ 100

KOSS created the Pro DJ 100 set of headphones for the budding music producer and sound reproduction wannabe, for the price, it's what you expect really. The KOSS set provide a characteristic sound at an unbelievable price, not heavy on the bass but not lacking either. Just what you need for your rock and indie band tunes. Now, that's not it for the audible range of headphones, there's also the all rounders...

HD 205

Along come the HD 205's by Sennheiser, widely regarded as one of the best headphone manufacturers for the masses. These studio grade but consumer level priced headphones provide the consumer with sound meeting the quality of headphones many hundreds of euros higher, ranking well above most headphones in its price bracket, that's for sure. There's nowhere else to look than this set if you want the best of all ranges for a decent low price.

So that's it really...  Well, not really, there's hundreds, maybe thousands of headphones out there to choose from, however being here all day scrutinizing each one wouldn't be practical. It's still all about what you, the consumer, wants. There's hundreds of great headphones out there, just got to choose the right one for you, but hopefully now you'll stray away from the kind of beats audio lesser quality that the mainstream has been fooled into. 

Headphones vs Earphones

Now that the various aspects of headphones have been pointed out so far to this point, what else would be left to say? The kind of headphones you would prefer to use, this would come down to two basic types. There's headphones that situate over your ear with a band over your head. Then there's the in-ear or earphone variety. These are preferred in most cases for portability and the discretion factor of them. Both have their advantages and disadvantages however.

In-ear style

In-ear style of earphones have the distinct portability advantage, that's for sure. They are easy to bring with you anywhere really and can stand up to varying levels of daily wear and tear and abuse. Earphones such as these can vary however in their design and sound quality. The main factor for most experienced audio entrepreneurs is what is called soundstage (perceived degree of sound 'echo' from the source). In-ear style generally can not compete with the level that headphones can. This is down to the size of the drivers (The actual miniature speaker within the piece) that are in earphones. Headphones can feature drivers from 40-70mm in size, this gives certain advantages which will be pointed out in proceeding paragraphs. Earphones though are limited to drivers at the 7-12mm range, the double digit variety being the more expensive. The final real advantage is power use, earphones use minuscule power at full operation, increasing battery life for any portable device. All in all, earphones still do endure a reputation for portable sound at a cut price.

Headphones

Along the lines of headphones.. the distinct advantage you can see immediately is the size. Headphones feature drivers that are well and above the size of their earphone counterparts and do not have much, if any, restriction on this (Audeze LCD-3 being a good example of this). Although a thought shared by many that headphones are the be all and end all of personal audio enjoyment, the more higher end earphones can keep up with headphones (IEM's are an example of this, IEM's are custom designed 'In Ear Monitors' costing many hundreds). Within this scope, most headphones do not stack up in the pro's and con's between both, but this is just for the average under 100 or 200 price range. When you go above this and get into the many hundreds or 1,100-1,200 range you will find where headphones really shine in comparison. Offering sound quality on par or exceeding the very best home theater or custom monitor speakers in a studio environment. Headphones such as these, and most well sounding ones do come with one major drawback, high power use. Not suitable for portable devices, and requiring amps. -- 

In final, yet again, it is up to the end user, what do you require and why? It's really that simple. Just pick what you want, within either your budget contstraints or be it style or more. Next topic? Style over function!

Quality triumphs Marketing

You've seen them everywhere, that is if you've been watching music videos by mainstream artists and DJ's. They are marketed as being the best of the best and a must have for any respectable purveyor of music. Even being promoted and named after the artist Dr. Dre. What is this mysterious item that I haven't revealed to you yet, something you probably already know the name of...

MONSTER Beats by Dre Headphones

The Beats headphones by Monster. Wondering why this is such a specific subject for this post? Well, these headphones, more than most others, have generated much media and social interest. For both the right and wrong reasons. Continually pegged as the expensive headphones for the well off out there, the Beats headphones have one major fundamental problem. They.. for lack of a better word ...suck. Here's why..

Lil Wayne wearing Beats headphones - result of marketing

The beats headphones are worn by the biggest mainstream artists, especially at concerts and in music videos. Resulting in big sales and profits for both the artist and Monster(Company behind beats). The problem here is the fact that the Beats are simply overpriced for the quality and sound they deliver. The Beats are manufactured cheap but look flashy and expensive. The price of these headphones range from €70 to €500. In fairness the headphones above €400 are worth their price, for the most part. Where it gets bad is in the sub €300 range where the ratio of quality to price increases. The manufacturing processes are quite similar between many headphone creators, however where Monster differentiates itself is in the premium for which they charge based on the build quality.

Beats by Dre - Worth the price?

In conclusion, it really comes down to a few simple points. Never be fooled by marketing and what an artist on TV or at a concert wears. You might be buying what the masses are fooled into, but you'll appreciate the quality of a lesser known or less marketed but superior in quality and sound than something like Beats. Now that all is said and done... Proper headphones on the list next week!

Got the gear, need the tunes

So you have your headphones sorted out then. You have your pre-amp, got the right device to listen to your music on and you're all set and ready to go. What is the next step? Listening to the music of course. Sounds simple, right? Well, it's not that easy.

There's a growing trend that streaming music is the way to go. It makes sense too, why use up space on your device when you could just stream your favorite music without having to store anything. Benefits ranging from  less space on the device is required so it could be a cheaper model, and no need to worry about syncing with your computer anymore. So lets say you have that sorted out, you want to stream music, where from?

Streaming music, with a Zune HD

Spotify, Deezer, Last.fm, MusicHub, Grooveshark, TuneIn, Di.FM - These are just a few options for streaming music. Which is right for you? Well, no worries. It's all down to what you need. High quality music? You'll be paying for it. Fast Streaming? You'll pay for that too. What you can expect however is that a few of these companies do offer a completely free (albeit ad supported) service for streaming music! Just depends on who you pick. Personal opinion would have myself choosing Spotify for free streaming, or if you want something more high quality and diverse then Last.fm is for you.

Last.fm - Music Streaming Service

So, how does this relate to you and your headphones? Well, you could have the best headphones on earth, the best amp, and the best device for playing the tunes. But if said tunes sound like they were recorded with a cheap earphone mic, you won't be experiencing anything close to what you could be. Some of the streaming services, although contrary to what most believe, do actually stream high quality music as if it was bought from sites like Beatport or Soundcloud in the highest quality they offer. The quality of the music makes the difference!

Free music streaming service - Spotify

So before you go out with your brand new expensive (or inexpensive) headphones and all the rest, just don't forget, the quality of what you listen to is just as important as what you listen to them with. Next week, who knows, we might just talk about the revolution that headphones have brought about to the modern world and how we all listen to music nowadays as opposed to 10 or 20 years ago. See ya then!

Sound Satisfaction

When you look at a pair of headphones, proper sized headphones, the first thing that would come to mind in most people isn't portability. Which is a problem for manufacturers of those wonderful devices such as the Zune HD mp3 player and mini-amps like the FiiO E7.

Zune HD Player

Why would you want to have either product? Well, the device you play your music off of makes all the difference. Headphones are rated for a certain impedance, which basically means the amount of resistance and power requirements they have. The higher the impedance, the higher the power requirement. We talked last week about amps and how headphones in general don't require much more than a watt of power. This is true in most cases. However, there's the more high end headphones out there!

Audeze LCD 3 Headphones

Coming into the realm of headphones that cost upwards of €500, you will notice that they require their own amp to function or a very good player. Which brings us back to the Zune HD. The device you play your music from really does make the difference. Try it for yourself. Get yourself a decent pair of headphones, play some high quality tracks and switch between your phone and your computer. Your computer in most cases will make for a louder volume range. Much better than you would get from something like an iPod.

iPod Touch

However, if you have a decent player, like a Zune, you'll notice very little difference in loss of volume over something like your standard smartphone. Try it out, see what you think. If you can't, well, you could always just buy a pair of Beats headphones and pretend you're doing it right. Next week, well, who knows. I usually say I'll cover something but I do anything but that. See ya next week for more headphone related goodness!

Amplify your experience!

Are you listening to music reading this right now? If so, you might want to know that the experience you're having could be made quite a lot better. Wondering how this is possible? Read on to find out!

This would really interest those of you who are wearing headphones, or earphones. Quite a large possibility one would assume. It comes down to these basic points; Headphones and earphones need very little power to operate; Nothing out of the ordinary you would imagine. Even high-end headphones, require less than a watt to operate. So the question arises, if power demands are so low then why is a separate headphone amplifier required? Why need them?

A dedicated headphone amp is essentially a low output power amplifier that has been designed specifically to optimize headphone performance. That's the basics of it. More power means more volume, in turn making for a better overall experience.

Listed below are some examples of headphone amps with their coreseponding prices:

• FiiO E7 - €30
• NuForce Icon - €65
• Grado RA1 - €350-€400
• NuForce Icon - €400 - €450

Ranges for these amps go from the cheap and portable to the permanent and insanely expensive. But if you require the best experience from your expensive headphones, or are just looking to improve your daily walkabout earphones, then an amp is a must, you'll hear the difference without a doubt!

Next week...  XLR vs Standard inputs, which is best?

Decisions, Decisions...

When you're listening to your music as you go about your day, do you ever think about what you're listening to your music through?

It seems that many people don't realize that the right headphones can make such a big difference to the experience you get.

Here's a shortlist of some of the greater headphones that you might want to try out, all that aren't so expensive!

• Sennheiser HD203 - These are an easy going pair of headphones for not so much cost
• Audio Technica ATH-M50 - Regarded to be the best headphones for under €70!
• KOSS Dj Pro - A quirky company not known so well.
• Logitech UE200 - The only in-ear headphones in this list, though quite amazing!

It all really depends on what you require, if you need the portability, can't go wrong with the Logitech UE200's, having a pair myself, they are quite the useful and easy to bring with, set of earphones.

If you need the increased sound presence, you cant go wrong with any of the top three headphones listed.

All comes down to personal need, portability, and quality you require!

Next week, possibly discussing the kinds of headphones you'd be able to get, super-aural, closed back, and more!