Best Headphones for £25?

Nobull

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Hi all, my gf is replacing her 4 year old Technics RP-F350's which she is generally happy with but they are starting to fall apart and the padding is flaking.

The linked review says "average performance that's easily beaten for value" without suggesting any alternatives.

At the low end of the price range the Sennheiser HD201s are meant to be good and I've heard them in person they are impressive for the meagre price of ~£15.

I can also get a pair of the HD485s for £35 which is pushing the budget but I think they'd be worth the extra investment.

If anyone could recommend a happy medium between these 2 at the £20-25 price mark that would be great.

Cheers in advance
 
You can, surprisingly, get headphones in your budget that would also be a considerable upgrade to your Technics.

Beyerdynamic DT231 - available from Absolute Music for £31 (B-Stock). These are an all time classic which I've owned for many years and never tire of the sound.

Denon AH-D501 - available from Advanced Headphones for £24.99 (ltd offer, so hurry;)). Baby brother to some very highly rated headphones.
 
I would say for that money the HD201 would be an excellent choice to be honest with you, however the HD485's do offer a slightly bigger soundstage and more midrange clarity so in my mind would be worth the extra spend.
 
My office mate owns the HD201. We compared it to both my Sennheiser PX 100 and my Koss Porta Pro. We were both surprised to find that the HD201 sounds worse than both the PX100 and the Porta Pro. It sounds cheap and "incomplete" IMHO. Shrill highs and muddy all the rest. Really disappointing. Music was foobar/wasapi and lossless flacs through an iBasso D2+.
 
£12.99 wont buy miracles im afraid, ive certainly heard a lot worse for that price than the HD201's, but unless somebody is on an extremely minimal budget it does makes sense to spend a little more.
 
The HD201's are also not particularly well built. They sound okay for the price, but they do feel and look like a budget headphone, the dual sided headphone cable is pretty cumbersome also.

What exactly are they going to be used for? I say this because really there is a major difference between the headphones you buy to listen with whilst on the move, and the headphones you buy to listen with when you're sat in one place, purely to listen to whatever is pumping through them.

I'm assuming its the latter, but then I have no idea of the cable length the RP-F350s come with - which is probably a stronger indication of their use than the physical build.

My listening experience with headphones in that price range is fairly limited, but I would go for the HD202's (£26.99) over the HD201's - you might want to look into some of Sony's offerings too. I've had cheaper sony headphones in the past and I don't recall them being drastically bad. The Sony MDRXB300 for £27.99 look pretty well made and are reviewed well on amazon.
 
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+1 for the Beyers, classic styling and studio quality.

Advice ? Take your MP3/CD player with you and try some out.
 
For 'cheap' headphones, as tokyo_blues has suggested. My favourites are the Koss Porta Pro, there is a good reason they've been making these since the 80's with a lifetime warranty. The Sennheiser PX100s are comparable in sound. At the moment the Porta Pros are going very cheap on Amazon £17 approx. a bargain at the price.
 
Hi interesting read as I need to replace my trusty Sennheiser PX100, had them for 3 years and the cable has gone, been repaired twice and gone again.
Sound quality has been awesome on these but fancy a change.

Has anyone compared these to the Sennheiser HD202's ?

I would buy some more, but been shocked with the price of them now being double what I paid from play.com some years back.
 
For 'cheap' headphones, as tokyo_blues has suggested. My favourites are the Koss Porta Pro, there is a good reason they've been making these since the 80's with a lifetime warranty. The Sennheiser PX100s are comparable in sound. At the moment the Porta Pros are going very cheap on Amazon £17 approx. a bargain at the price.

have gone for a pair of these ....
 

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