[Music] Headphones 2022... State of The Nation

[Bozza]

Apple AirPods Pro

After my first pair of (non-Pro) AirPods died, I vowed I'd not spend so much on a pair again. I then rapidly went through various branded AirPods-a-like from Amazon and they were all user dogshit.

I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket so treated myself when a deal came up on the Pros and they've been fantastic. They get three hours use most days, both when I'm walking the dog and out running.

 

[Eeyore]

I bought these last week. They are really good. I tried my neighbour's £300 ones and couldn't tell the difference.

I'm easily pleased

.Amazon product

 

[BN9 BHA]

Do people still use headphones? Most of the twunks when on the trains just play it out of their phones with no headphones . But never play anything good from the 80’s though

The type I see (hear ) that play loud music out of their phone are usually chavvy young teens. Look at me types, proper attention seekers.
I don’t use trains apart from to and from the Amex, seen a few on buses when I rarely catch one.
I feel sorry for regular train and bus users if they have to put up with this.

 

[Elbow750]

Apple airpods pro 2 on the move and a pair of vintage Electrostatic Stax SR5 for the HiFi.

Like Bozza I'd tried a couple of sets of cheap ear buds and was so disappointed. A small bonus from work and I treated myself to the Airpods pro 2 and haven't looked back.

 

[Gabbafella]

KZ ZS10 Pro. I use these for the journey to and from football. Detachable wire means I can attach a Bluetooth adapter on them.
These things are unreal. They have two tweeters, two mid range and a bass driver in each ear, they sound amazing. Think I paid about £50 for them.

Audio Technica ATH-M50x. Actually replaced my Bose with these and have never regretted it. Excellent sound quality, can be used wired or Bluetooth. I mainly use them for my PS5 or music at home.
One downside is they can pick up a lot of interference when on Bluetooth, usually when walking past traffic lights for some odd reason.

 

[AlbionBro]

Incidentally, I feel these are the worst modern phenomenon. They will bring on premature deafness and even death.
Let me explain the death part, there has been many a time some young scallywag has walked across the road, eyes glued to their phones and listening to stormz or some YouTube cranky kids.
They are clearly on a different planet until I toot my hooter, they are not alert enough even to give me the v's.

 

[1066familyman]

Apple airpods pro 2 on the move and a pair of vintage Electrostatic Stax SR5 for the HiFi.

Like Bozza I'd tried a couple of sets of cheap ear buds and was so disappointed. A small bonus from work and I treated myself to the Airpods pro 2 and haven't looked back.

Stax... Nice!

Have you heard many planar magnetic or dynamic driver headphones to compare against electrostatics? If so, any conclusions?

I've never tried a pair of electrostatics.

 

[1066familyman]

Incidentally, I feel these are the worst modern phenomenon. They will bring on premature deafness and even death.
Let me explain the death part, there has been many a time some young scallywag has walked across the road, eyes glued to their phones and listening to stormz or some YouTube cranky kids.
They are clearly on a different planet until I toot my hooter, they are not alert enough even to give me the v's.

Ok Grandad

 

[Elbow750]

Stax... Nice!

Have you heard many planar magnetic or dynamic driver headphones to compare against electrostatics? If so, any conclusions?

I've never tried a pair of electrostatics.

I've not tried any planar magnetic or dynamic drivers, but I do hear good things.

My Stax were an ebay punt and needed £80 of tweaking from a specialist to get the balance on the energiser right, but now they sound amazing. A good mate used to have some serious high end Stax Headphones when I was younger and into the HiFi stuff a bit more. So when I saw mine on ebay I thought go for it and have been very pleased ever since.

I've always loved the sounds of electrostatics, and am seriously tempted by some Quad ESL 57s. They are available at very reasonable prices, and if driven by a Quad 303 or similar not too bad a price.

 

[1066familyman]

I've not tried any planar magnetic or dynamic drivers, but I do hear good things.

My Stax were an ebay punt and needed £80 of tweaking from a specialist to get the balance on the energiser right, but now they sound amazing. A good mate used to have some serious high end Stax Headphones when I was younger and into the HiFi stuff a bit more. So when I saw mine on ebay I thought go for it and have been very pleased ever since.

I've always loved the sounds of electrostatics, and am seriously tempted by some Quad ESL 57s. They are available at very reasonable prices, and if driven by a Quad 303 or similar not too bad a price.

Lovely stuff!

Enjoy

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I have some six year old Bose QC20s with the StayHear tips which sit just on the edge of the ear. Although not bluetooth, the noise cancelling is good (especially when flying) and they have a 20 hour battery life which is great when travelling for work.

I can't use earbuds as I get eczema in my ears so these would irritate (and I'd lose them anyway) and find the big on ear headphones make that worse as they get too sweaty so these are ideal.

 

[Elbow750]

Sony WF-1000XM4 (in ear/bluetooth) out and about, corded Bose (over ear) NC to plug in to the stereogram at home.

Are the Sony WF-1000XM4 as good as the magazine reviews? I'm looking for something for my son, but don't want to replicate my airpod pros 2 as he'll nick mine when he cant find his. He's a radio producer, so vocals, good noise cancelling and good ear fit for running are important.

 

[Poojah]

As somewhat of an audionoob, I spunked 300 odd quid on some Bang & Olufsen Beoplay HX’s earlier in the year, as I wanted some decent noise cancelling headphones for a series of flights I had. They’re alright, but as someone who didn’t know what to expect, they were below my expectations.

Just thought they would ‘blow me away’, and they didn’t. Noise cancelling was ok, sound quality was ok. Little more to add than that. They do look nice though, and I’ve dropped them a couple of times and they don’t scratch. The build quality is definitely there.

Recently bought a brand new car with B&O speakers in it, too. Again, they’re alright, but don’t handle bass as well as other upgraded manufacturer speaker systems I’ve had previously.

A little but underwhelmed by a brand I understood was well respected in a category I knew relatively little about.

 

[BadFish]

Cheap buds for sleeping podcasts.

Sennheiser HD 450 overear Bluetooth jobs for music and stuff.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Huawei Freebuds Studio NC headphones. Very comfortable, excellent noise cancelling function. Had Beats Solo 3 previously which were fine but a fault developed (well known by Apple) a few months outside of the warrantee and Apple just did not want to know so I will not purchase Apple headphones again.

Would Sir prefer a never ending warranty? That will be £50k please.

 

[sydney]

Bose paired with smartphone or iMac.

 

[pasty]

Sennheiser over ear blue tooth paired with my iPhone. Only ever use them when commuting. No idea what model as had them for ages and not written anywhere on them. Think they were about £150 a few years back. Can’t abide in ear things.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Are the Sony WF-1000XM4 as good as the magazine reviews? I'm looking for something for my son, but don't want to replicate my airpod pros 2 as he'll nick mine when he cant find his. He's a radio producer, so vocals, good noise cancelling and good ear fit for running are important.

Imho, yes.

Have not had much experience of other makes but had no complaints unlike some friends with those Apple things. Great sound and loads of hard/soft earhole size adapters!

Get them......

 

[Muhammed - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

Apple AirPods Pro

After my first pair of (non-Pro) AirPods died, I vowed I'd not spend so much on a pair again. I then rapidly went through various branded AirPods-a-like from Amazon and they were all user dogshit.

I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket so treated myself when a deal came up on the Pros and they've been fantastic. They get three hours use most days, both when I'm walking the dog and out running.

Yep.
I tried loads of £30 buds but since I had the apple airpods ones given as a Christmas present, have never looked back

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

In my experience.

B&O - form over function
Bose - Comfy and natural sound. Great for travelling.
Sony - Big sound. Bit bulky. Great ANC.
Airpods Pro - Lifechanging lack of FAFF. Great sound. Ok ANC.