O/T: seeking advice on over-ear headphones

[Dale_Cotton]

I’m retired and tote a MacBook between several different rooms of the house throughout the day. My listening is classical plus jazz when I get into a music binge; otherwise podcasts and videos; my hearing seems to be 10-10,000 Hz, if the little hearing test app on my phone can be believed. Have been using a pair of Beats (Solo HD) over-ear headphones at my son’s recommendation, but after just a few years they've broke, so I now need a replacement. (Subsequent conversations with retail staff suggests Beats are well-known for breakage.) I can afford to and want to replace them with something of sufficient quality that I’ll never have to replace them again.

But I’m not an audiophile, don’t know any audiophiles, and find myself incompetent to wade through the on-line reviews. I wouldn’t even know how to locate a good audio forum. When I think of fora, I think LL, and I know a significant fraction of the LL forum denizens are (nearly?) as much into audio as photography.

Something I’ve discovered on my own is that there are now wireless/Bluetooth and noise-cancelling options, and it’s possible there is no longer a show-stopper hit in sound quality by going wireless. Of course, all else being equal, I’d love to opt for a wireless solution, but not at the expense of losing sound quality. IOW: I’d rather take a step up in audio quality from the Beats than stay at the same level or go backward. Another concern I have with wireless is whether I’d be trading one hassle — the phone-to-laptop cable — for another — battery and re-charging.

I’ve also discovered that there is such a thing as a pre-amp and a DAC, and that these are required for headsets with high impedance. I’d rather avoid the hassle of toting such things from room to room, if I can get away with it, while still getting good sound.

Finally, I’m in Canada, and would prefer to buy something without dealing with cross-border shipping, but that’s certainly not an absolute. Budget ceiling I’m thinking is about $800US/$1000Cdn, but that’s far from hard or fast as well. Just occurred to me that the sound output of the MacBook Air itself might be the bottleneck for a headset at even half that price. That’s how little I know.

Thanks so much for any input!

[BradSmith]

I'm not an audiophile, but I think that your budget takes you into the stratosphere of the headphone world.  I quickly found the following:

https://www.cnet.com/topics/headphones/best-headphones/over-the-ear/

Also, the link below is to a retail site named Massdrop with an interesting twist.  The products they sell are chosen by them based on requests from subscribers in special interest "communities". And one of their "communities" is Audiophile.  (they also have a photography community) Right now they have 4 over the ear headphones and the highest priced is about $400.

https://www.massdrop.com/audiophile

[Larry Heath]

I like the Sony Level Overs. About $250. Good sound, well made and lots of features, including touch control features, i.e. swipe and tap functions on the surface of the earphones.

[athegn]

https://www.whathifi.com/sennheiser/rs-180/review

I find these comfortable and work almost everywhere in my house and garden.

[tom b]

Just a reminder that cordless headphones need batteries of some type. My Sony headphone lasts about 6-8 hours before needing recharging and can't be used whilst recharging.

Cheers,

[Telecaster]

My over-ears, closed-back phones are audio-technica ATH-M50xs. I use 'em mainly for recording and editing recorded tracks. They're designed for this and so aren't hype-y sounding. Though for sheer pleasurable listening they might come off as a bit flat. Not expensive at all. I used to have a nice set of beyerdynamics (forget the model) but I gave 'em away as I prefer listening to music with my ears uncovered, even if that means using the tiny speakers in my smartgizmos. 

-Dave-

[athegn]

Have not have had to do so yet but I suppose, if I regularly wear the phones for very long periods, I could have s spare set of rechargeable batteries and a separate charger, and swap out the headphone batteries when exhausted?

[Farmer]

Some headphones will work without power if connected by a cable - I have some Sony noise cancelling that are BT and wired - the noise cancelling and BT requires power, but you can just plug them in unpowered, too.  It's a good feature.

[Dale_Cotton]

Thanks so much for all this input, which has been very useful.

The reviewer on BradSmith’s CNET link repeated in nearly every mini-review that the particular headset was “good for a cordless” or similar. Which of course suggests that a traditional phono-jack set would be better. And tom b reminds that cordless = battery = recharging. OTOH, I gathered from one of the links that one can use a cordless headset via the cord even after the battery has died, and Phil confirms this. But in all, I’m now leaning toward traditional non-Bluetooth+non-noise-cancelling.

Athegn points to Sennheiser which is a name I admit I have a weak spot for from its reputation in my youth. But not seeing a Sennheiser model with the feature set I'm looking for.

Telecaster's Audio-Technica model is fascinating because the price tag is so much lower than what I’d expect for something with a professional badge. They certainly look well-built and a truly flat response is exactly what I want. On-line reviews are very positive on the Audio-Technica. Thanks to Telecaster mentioning closed-back, I investigated that a bit more deeply. Looks as though headsets in the higher to astronomical brackets are all open-back. This gives a big-room sound, but it does so by not providing any acoustic isolation from the outside world. That’s a non-starter for me, since I occasionally do listening in fairly noisy environments, and also need to not disturb others by broadcasting sound from the headphones.

Upshot is that I’m now leaning toward the Audio-Technica M50X or M70X. This YouTube review shows a very interesting response curve comparison between the two A-T models and the Beats headset I already own:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yoAj-PRsZ0

If accurate, it certainly explains why the Beats gets such bad reviews!

[athegn]

Before my Sennheiser I had wired, open back ATs for a long time; can't remember which model but I guess no longer made. I my listening environment open back is ok.

My only real problem was the ear muff coating. When they degraded they left a black plastic ring round my ears. Maybe my skin badly reacted with the coating. I kept a spare pair of muffs ready for when I noticed the degrading.

I find my Sennheiser a bit more comfortable over long periods.

[Rob C]

Far from being any sort of sound expert - but I was gifted a set of Bose Quietcomfort 35 'phones and they are comfotable. They do Bluetooth and acoustic noise cancellnig, and teamed up with the iPad, allow for good listening anywhere in the house or outside; suppose it depends on how good your wifi signal, too, to feed the iPad.

Model: 759944-0010.

Need recharging now and then if used via Bluetooth, but not when plugged into the hole/jack for external 'phones.

Rob

[Larry Heath]

Just a reminder that cordless headphones need batteries of some type. My Sony headphone lasts about 6-8 hours before needing recharging and can't be used whilst recharging.

Cheers,

My Sony Level Overs work just fine if I have to plug the power cable in? They seem to last a good bit longer than 6-8 hours as well.

Later Larry

[athegn]

I should explain some of the negatives I mentioned regarding headphones.

AT black ear. My wife complained about sweating today as a consequence of her atrial fibulation. I then remembered that I had AF and even heavier sweating during most of the time I had my AT headphones. So maybe my reaction to those ear muffs was the condition of my skin at the time. My AF now cured, following ablation, and my sweating now gone; hopefully recent tests will allow my wife to have the same procedure?

Wired vs wireless. Due to some refurbishment of our house a larger part of my headphone listening now takes place in a room adjacent to the room containing my hifi. At first I used a very long and inconvenient cable, to extend the AT phones to this room. I decided to investigate modern wireless phones and soon came across Kleer technology used by Sennheiser. There were many good reports of its quality so I bought the Sennheiser RS 180 phones and am very pleased with the sound, range and batteries, unlike my earlier try with wireless phones; long before I went with the AT wired.

Wireless range. I said almost everywhere. My transmitter is on the ground floor and the phones work on that floor, most of the first floor, the attic, the garden and a small out house some 80 feet from the transmitter. The one dead spot (and here I hope I will not be banned from this family viewed site, in discussing rather personal matters) is in the  upstairs bathroom. The "waste" facility in that room is farthest from the door. If I am standing using it in the "conventional male position" i.e. facing squared the bowl I only have to move my head an inch or two to the right to get sound cut off; standing more to the left alieviates the problem. It does no matter whether the door is open or closed. I think that the reason is that the other side of the adjacent wall is the main plumbing system for the house i.e. pump, tanks, electronics and lots of pipework.

I hope these explanations will help others as the problems I have(had) may not affect you.

[Telecaster]

Had a look at my phones last night, and they are in fact ATH-M70xs.

-Dave-

[Dale_Cotton]

Rob C: whoever gave you the Bose 35s did his/her homework. Very well-respected combo of wireless and noise-cancelling.

Larry Heath: looking online for Level-Over suggests they are Samsung and get a good review. Don’t seem to be easily available where I am, but I sure like the looks! I suspect that if I did opt for a Bluetooth set I’d end up using them with the cable much of the time, so good to know from your experience and others' that’s an option.

Athgen: really great to get such a detailed picture of what it’s like going with a wireless/transmitter(?) system. LOL re your wasteful dead spot.

Dave/Telecaster: makes me feel better knowing you do have the 70 version after seeing the extra flatness they have over the 50 version on that graph.

When I wrote the initial post to this topic, it didn’t even occur to me to mention that I occasionally do audio editing as well as what Dave nicely calls pleasurable listening. Yesterday, I managed to re-revive my Beats with a new application of coat hanger wire plus gopher tape and a new $3 phono cable. No telling how long that lasts. I really enjoy their sound, which is apparently highly skewed to both bass and treble, but the whole range has oodles of clarity/precision, plus I don’t notice any frequency drop-outs. So I’m going to target my purchase in the opposite direction toward a flat response, low-impedance, wired and closed-back set so I have something that’s useful for editing, and so far the A/T M70x indeed seems to be the pair to beat.

Thanks again for all this fabulous input. Hopefully, someone besides myself gleaned a nugget or two.