Best £225 Closed Headphones Under £225?

Thurrabred · 08-03-2006, 3:35 PM

Hi, I'm interested in investing in some quality closed headphones to go with my Creative HQ-2300D Dolby Headphone decoder. It'd mainly be used with 5.1 games and movies.

Are the Sennheiser HD650's closed? If not what is the generally accepted best pair for this price range?
When I say under £225, that includes ebay prices.

Thanks in advance.

**alexs2** · 08-03-2006, 3:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurrabred

Hi, I'm interested in investing in some quality closed headphones to go with my Creative HQ-2300D Dolby Headphone decoder. It'd mainly be used with 5.1 games and movies.

Are the Sennheiser HD650's closed? If not what is the generally accepted best pair for this price range?
When I say under £225, that includes ebay prices.

Thanks in advance.

Sennheiser's HD series are open backed,and if you are looking strictly for closed back phones,you could take a look at Beyer Dynamics some of which are closed,plus from AKG.

NicolasB · 08-03-2006, 3:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurrabred

Hi, I'm interested in investing in some quality closed headphones to go with my Creative HQ-2300D Dolby Headphone decoder. It'd mainly be used with 5.1 games and movies.

Are the Sennheiser HD650's closed? If not what is the generally accepted best pair for this price range?
When I say under £225, that includes ebay prices.

Thanks in advance.

Nearly all good high-end 'phones, including the Sennheiser HD650, are open-back. If you must have closed-back, you could try the Sennheiser HD25, HD250 II or HD280 Pro or the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro, DT250-80, or DT250-250.

Thurrabred · 08-03-2006, 3:55 PM

Well to be honest, the only reason I say I want closed cans is that I don't want a lot of sound leakage, as due to the nature of what I'll be listening I'll usually have the sound up loud and I have to consider other people around me.

Are the higher-end ones good in terms of avoiding leakage? If so I could definately go that way as long as it's within budget.

PaulBoy · 08-03-2006, 3:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurrabred

Hi, I'm interested in investing in some quality closed headphones to go with my Creative HQ-2300D Dolby Headphone decoder. It'd mainly be used with 5.1 games and movies.

Are the Sennheiser HD650's closed? If not what is the generally accepted best pair for this price range?
When I say under £225, that includes ebay prices.

Thanks in advance.

Hi - Not sure what you mean by "closed" (means different things to different people) - There is some excellent advice in the "sticky" in this Forum which goes into the different "sounds" from the likes of Sennheiser Grados etc - you'll get lots of advice here & over at www.head-fi.org - but be warned that place has a serious "wallet draining habit" on those who venture there (me included)

HTH - Paul

Thurrabred · 08-03-2006, 4:27 PM

Well by 'closed' I really mean that sounds aren't audible to those around me, I don't mind if I can still hear environmental sounds.

Head-fi just throws me into a world of confusion. So many different opinions on there.

**alexs2** · 08-03-2006, 4:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurrabred

Well by 'closed' I really mean that sounds aren't audible to those around me, I don't mind if I can still hear environmental sounds.

Head-fi just throws me into a world of confusion. So many different opinions on there.

Closed usually means the traditional fully enclosed type of headphones,which are as effective at keeping sound in,as in keeping external noises out.

Head-Fi is a very useful resource,but can be a bit overwhelming,as you say,simply from the diversity of opinions,but you can condense an overall view from much of it if you take sufficient time,and look through a variety of posts.

The HD series Sennheisers couldnt in any way be described as closed,as the sound leakage is very obvious,as is the intrusion of other sounds into them from outside,but the sound quality can be excellent for dynamic 'phones.

As Nic and I have suggested,take a look at the upper range Beyers,which can be pretty good,and also a few of the AKGs.

NicolasB · 08-03-2006, 5:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurrabred

Are the higher-end ones good in terms of avoiding leakage?.

No. High-end 'phones are designed primarily to give you the best possible sound quality. If giving you the best possible sound quality means allowing leakage (and it usually does) then they allow leakage.

The ability of headphones to screen out external sounds from the listener and to prevent people other than the listener from getting a lot of the sound are the same thing - the 'phones either allow sound to pass through or they don't, it's not a one-way thing. (Well... unless you get into active noise cancelling, but let's leave that on one side).

If sonic isolation is your top priority then you might actually be better going for something like the Etymotic ER-4S. Those are not "closed-back" in the classic sense, they're actually "in-ear" 'phones which create a more-or-less airtight seal in your audtory canal - equivalent to having headphone drivers built into your fingertips and then sticking your fingers in your ears. Their sonic isolation is much better than you'd get from "closed-back" 'phones - something like 23dB rather than 12. Along similar lines (and also popular) there are several models from Shure - the E4C, E4 Pro, E4G or possibly the E5C.

StevieDvd · 08-03-2006, 6:11 PM

Audio Technica do some closed phones which provide good isolation in the terms you mean (least disturbance to others).

One of the tests I do on closed phones for commuting is getting the missus or kids to see how close they need to get to me to hear anything - with a higher volume in my ears than I would usually listen at.

The HD201s, HD25s, AKG26p**, ATH-FC7 all do this well at a budget price level.

My Westone UM2s do this (as would the Etymotics ER4s or similar IEMS) if you can get used to canal phones.

The ATH W100 was the one I bought for home closed listening but I sold it as it was a little too bright for my taste and the missus got used to the slight leakage of my more expensive HD650s.

However, unless you plan to do serious music listening you may be better off with a more modest budger and go for a Beyerdynamic closed set or Audio technica (they do some nice ones which are liked over at head-fi.org - but I've only personally tried the one model).

This is where my addiction started with a set of headphones for late night home cinema listening

careful your wallet content is in danger.

Steve

*Reano* · 10-03-2006, 1:05 PM

Oh dear your in trouble! If you can live with the in ears then go for the shure e5c or wait two months for their new ones that by all intents and purposes will be the best in earphones (this was said by owners of ultimate ear 5 and 10's costing serious money). You can get the e5c on eBay for that cost. I got my pair for less than your budget off eBay. They are very efficent and sound good even unamped but here is where the fun starts. You will hear them, be blown away by the sound. Then you'll come on to a forum like this and someone will talk about an amp! Then you'll try that and be blown away by the sound and you'll come onto a forum like this and someone will say get a cable and dac to feed into the amp then you'll get that and it will be time to upgrade your player and the cycle goes on and on.

PaulBoy · 10-03-2006, 1:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reano

Oh dear your in trouble! If you can live with the in ears then go for the shure e5c or wait two months for their new ones that by all intents and purposes will be the best in earphones (this was said by owners of ultimate ear 5 and 10's costing serious money). You can get the e5c on eBay for that cost. I got my pair for less than your budget off eBay. They are very efficent and sound good even unamped but here is where the fun starts. You will hear them, be blown away by the sound. Then you'll come on to a forum like this and someone will talk about an amp! Then you'll try that and be blown away by the sound and you'll come onto a forum like this and someone will say get a cable and dac to feed into the amp then you'll get that and it will be time to upgrade your player and the cycle goes on and on.

... "Hi, my name's Paul and I'm a headphone-aholic" ...

*Reano* · 10-03-2006, 2:04 PM

I prefer to say "a quest for perfectionist"

This week a headphone next week the Holy Grail

StevieDvd · 10-03-2006, 5:23 PM

I tried the Holy Grail on my setup and it did not make the sound any better, even allowing for burn-in.

Will be returning back to sliced bread.

Mr.D · 12-03-2006, 10:56 AM

I swapped a pair of HD600s for a pair of BD DT250 (250ohm version). They need an amp but the isolation is superb even at high volumes . The HD600s by comparisson are almost louder outside than in !

*Reano* · 13-03-2006, 2:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevieDvd

I tried the Holy Grail on my setup and it did not make the sound any better, even allowing for burn-in.

Will be returning back to sliced bread.

Thats because you didn't have the special holy grail cleaner from fuss peters at £24.99 per cleaning bud. Yes it looks like a cotton bud but it isn't, it has 'special cleaning fibres'

satinder · 16-03-2006, 2:44 PM

On a serious note i would recommend that you try both the Sennhaiser HD-280's and Beyer-dynamic DT770's as they are closed back and would suit your movie watching requirements. Theres no end to supposed improvements in sound by constantly upgrading but if you just want to get on with the business of listening then try the phones i mentioned.

Sat