screemin187

Does anyone know of alternative headphones to Quiet Comfort 3s. I know there are 15s out now too

About to purchase new headphones - but the Bose is my current stretched spend limit

Just wondered does anyone use alternatives that they rate highly and perhaps a few spondoolies cheaper


Thanks

Edit, oh and noise cancelling if poss

GuitarBizarre

Why do they have to be noise cancelling? Are you using them on the move or in a more personal situation?

Would you prefer over ear, on ear, or in-ear type headphones? The former two will sound better but won't block much outside noise. The third is generally best if you're on the move.

General warning btw, noise cancelling headphones generally don't sound anywhere near as good as an equivalent set of in ear buds, despite costing far more due to the noise cancelling tech. Noise cancelling in general is a bit of a no-go area if you want high fidelity listening. It just costs too much, and its never perfect anyway, meaning the noise cancelling thats supposed to let you hear more of your music, actually ends up degrading it slightly anyway due to losses in the system.

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screemin187

Over ear, cup type preferably, and less likely on the move, more in a room relaxing situation

I have tried the QC3s and the sound is phenomenal even from an ipod its way clearer, i guess they don't have to be noise cancelling, the selection i tried in the stores were and i set my precedent from that - i have a few sets but mostly entry level phones inc Sennheiser HDR120s. Just want a really good set as the difference in the apple store, bose store etc is amazing

On my quest to buy a decent set i'm also warned that noise cancelling technology is just as bad for your ears as loud music, is this true? They say the noise is converted to a frequency you just can't hear as opposed to filtered out some way. This takes me back to the "energy cannot be created or destroyed" crap from school. Does anyone know?

Nothing i have tried in a reasonable price bracket comes close to the QCs

Remedy

check the Beyerdynamic DT 770 (80 ohm) for the higher end and the Sennheiser hd280 / Audio Technica ATH-A700 for the cheaper route. My friend has a pair of the beyerdynamics and they are the most comfy headphone I've ever put on my head. If you wear glasses, you probably wont want the hd280's, they kind of clamp on your head, but they sound great. I bought the open version of the Audio Technicas (ATH-AD700) because of this, and I've been really happy with them, except they look pretty damn goofy on your head, but if you are just going to be in your house then it should be fine lol.

I would stay away from the Bose headphones, though. You are mostly paying for the name, not the sound quality.

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GuitarBizarre

Basically, the way noise cancelling works is that a small form of pickup on the outside of the phones monitors the ambient sound around you, reverses its phase, and then plays the phase reversed signal through the phones on top of the music. The idea is that if you take a sound, then play its exact opposite, it cancels them both out, and to be honest, it works.

Really, all its doing is creating static air thats highly charged with energy in two opposite directions. Standing waves in other words, just on a small scale. I doubt its PARTICULARLY damaging to be honest, since aeroplanes have used the same technology for years to deaden the noise of the engines during flight, but its definitely not good to be exposed to it frequently and for long periods of time at loud volumes (Which I suppose really, a headphone will always be, compared to a planes interior...)

From an audio perspective, the problem is different to just hearing damage (though obviously thats important as hell) The problem being, just as its impossible to create a perfect reproduction of sound, its also impossible pick UP a perfect representation of a sound, and those two facts result in losses from the music. Its converted from ambient sound, imperfectly, transformed into an opposite version, again imperfectly, then played back, which is ALSO imperfect, so not only do you not get perfect standing waves, you get interferences in the sound you hear. If you played a perfectly silent recording through noise cancelling headphones, you'd still hear SOMETHING, and that would be coming both from small amounts of interference in the device playing, and also from those losses in conversion.


If they're for home use, then really, there are two things that shouldn't be factors in your choice of headphones:

1 - Outside noise. Unless your house is noisy all the time, you're going to be in a comparitively quiet situation as opposed to on the move listening. This means closed back headphones, noise cancelling, and earbud type headphones are not the way to go. If you DO need some measure of noise cancelling, then go in this order, from most to least noise cancelling - Open back headphones, closed back headphones, earbuds, Noise Cancelling closed back headphones. (For earbuds, I mean the type that seal the canal, NOT the 'bundled iPod kind! Those damage your ears easily!)

It just so happens, that the same order is followed in terms of audio quality. Open back headphones sound better than closed back, and closed back sound better than earbuds and so on.

2 - The way you look. The best headphones I know of for any price are Grados. Specifically, the SR60s. They're FANTASTIC headphones, and my god they are not a fashion statement unless you are the god of cool himself. They look like world war 2 radio operators headsets.




Now, I know I'm getting beyond wordy here, but hear me out, theres a lot of reasoning behind why those types of phones sound the best.

1 - Open back headphones - These have a BIG advantage to offset their weaknesses in noise reduction. They don't have to worry about static pressure behind the driver, meaning they can be very efficient, very lightweight, and very powerful in equal measure. This gives driver designers and enclosure designers an easy time. The cabinet merely has to be as rigid as possible while allowing free air movement, and the driver designer just has to make sure it moves the way the current tells it to. This translates to MUCH better audio quality at a lower price.

2 - Closed back headphones - The next best thing. These DO have to worry about static backpressure, but the enclosures can be made very rigid and thus the driver designer has only a slightly more difficult job in front of him. They ARE considerably more expensive to show for it though.

3 - Earbud type headphones - A good option all around. They can be made with low backpressure if you vent the casing, like the denon AHC551s I favour. They seal the ear canal to reduce noise, the enclosures are SUPER rigid, they're discreet, they're light, and they reproduce mids and treble really well. Their weakness is bass. Because the drivers are SO small, they really can't reproduce a whole heap of bass. This isn't to say they CANT, but you'll be spending a bit to get anything super low out of them, and unfortunately, manufacturers, sennheiser especially, tend to overcompensate for this by giving them a HUGE upper low end bump in the frequency response, giving the illusion of huge bass, without actually reproducing any low frequencies. Denon AHC551s are a really goo buy for the money though. They don't go as low as grado SR60s, but really, not much does for any reasonable money.

4 - Noise cancelling headphones - These have all the flaws I mentioned above. Frankly, I don't rate them, but if you're really in need of trouble free noiseless listening, there isn't really much other option. Just be aware that to get either the 'audio quality' or 'noise cancelling' parts of the headphones to be worth listening to, you're going to be spending at LEAST twice if not 3 times as much as you would to get the same audio quality as open backed headphones.

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GuitarBizarre

Awesome, I killed it!

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