[Jed]

Just been thinking of a chrimbo prezzie for wor lass to buy me this time.

However where do i start. I have a pair which must be nearly 8 year old now.
They are Sony but i have to turn the sound up to max to get a decent level of db out of them.

Are there any around the £20-£40 mark that do a good job.
When i say good job i mean as good as a 5.1 speaker set.
I am more than happy with my 5.1 but i don't think the neigbours will be.

Any info, links and sexual favours will be greatly appriciated

Help a geordie week.

Jed.

[PaulBoy]

Jed - Are headphones anygood - Yes
£20-£40 isnt going to get you reference quality but I'm sure you know that
I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD555's (see review at top of page) which sound gr8 to me - they retail for £100 but mine cost £50
There are 5.1 headphones but not sure what you'd expect to pay (?)
I love 5.1 & have a nice home setup - I was pleasantly suprised how good movies sound thru the Senns but it is music where headphones really shine (IMHO)
HTH ... Paul
PS Have a look at this highly recommended headphone forum www.head-fi.org

[NicolasB]

The cheapest I'd recommend would be Beyerdynamic DT-231, especially the "Galactic" version, which costs about £40-£45. But there's quite a significant step up in quality from there to something like the Grado SR-60, and another big step up from there to the likes of Sennheiser HD580, 600 and 650.

[Jed]

thanks Paul and Nicolas.


I have kind of been scared off the 5.1 as it looks like i will have to plug them into the back of my all in one dvd player. Is this correct?.
I don't want to keep moving it in & out of it's resting place.

I play very little music through the dvd player, so they would only really be used for DVD late at night.

I have read about the cordless problems with hissing etc so thats another worry

God where now. Theres a thing. Volume. Like mentioned above i have to turn my dvd player to the top level to get a decent level out of my phones now. What should i be looking at so i know they are going to be better than mine now.

Been looking at those Beyerdynamic DT-231 and have seen some nice reviews and good prices on them but a very short 2.5m cable on them. Would need at least a 3m.

Keep them ideas coming and thanks so far.

Jed.

[NicolasB]

Been looking at those Beyerdynamic DT-231 and have seen some nice reviews and good prices on them but a very short 2.5m cable on them. Would need at least a 3m.

You could always buy an extension cable.

I have kind of been scared off the 5.1 as it looks like i will have to plug them into the back of my all in one dvd player. Is this correct?.

There are two completely different types of device that are referred to as "5.1 headphones": one is a pair of headphones with three drivers in each ear, and which requires a 5.1 analogue feed, the other is a standard headphone configuration on the back end of a device that accepts a digital input (DD or DTS), decodes it, then processes the result down to two channels using the Dolby Headphone algorithm (or some proprietary equivalent). The former is generally not worth bothering with, but the latter can be very good indeed (if a bit pricey). If you can afford something like a Philips SBCHD1500 that might work for you - they're cordless 'phones (so independent volume control), and the base station accepts a digital input from your DVD player or Sky+ box.

However, that's probably out of your price range.

[Jed]

Hi again NB.

Well i searched the net from top to toe for reviews of Sen rs120 and picked one up for £42. which seems a great price as the rest were £52 up over.

Things that led me astray were lying in the garden on a summers day & lying in the bath with the phones on. Sad i know but it sounds great.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Jed.