Best Headphones- £50
Aug 2, 2011 at 1:27 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13

Hubert007

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Well I have around £50 to spend on new pair of decent earphones and when I say decent I mean something which will have a good bass and the sound will be clear and the noise cancelling has to be pretty good as well as I am going to use them in travel. Last thing I want the earphones to be comfortable and I want the **** things to stay in my ears when I go down the gym.
 
Tell me what you guys think about:
 
Sennheiser CX 870 - £46
 
Sennheiser CX 300 II - £27
 
Sennheiser CX 500
 
Sennheiser CX 680 Sports
 
So far my favourite pick is the cx 870 as they look great and from the reviews on amazon.co.uk they are great headphones but before ordering them I would like to get some more opinions from people which know more about headphones then me and maybe help me pick better ones.
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 2:03 PM Post #2 of 13
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/9267626/Panasonic-RP-HJE900E-K-Canal-Type-in-ear-headphones/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=hje900
 
Could be worth a look as they normally retail around £120 or so.  There'll be a few threads and reviews around headfi so have a look.  Not heard them myself.
 
Cheers.
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 4:55 PM Post #4 of 13
Thanks for the replay but I am looking for more then a half decent headphones and they may be really good headphones but I am looking something with high end finish like the sennheiser hence why I want to spend around $100 on decent headphones. However thanks alot for the information. 
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 6:03 PM Post #5 of 13
Explain your self ben! hehe as I said I don't know alot about headphones and from my point of view those look cool and sound really good as well.. If I had alot of money to spend on headphones i proabaly would go for some Westone's or some shures but yeah i got low spending budget and thats the most i can afford....
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 7:04 PM Post #6 of 13
hehe well to be honest the price is quite impressive and for short term use those headphones seem really good if they are as good as you said but I am looking for something good which will last and something branded well as I tend not to trust those not known companies...
 
Thanks :)
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 7:27 PM Post #7 of 13


Quote:
hehe well to be honest the price is quite impressive and for short term use those headphones seem really good if they are as good as you said but I am looking for something good which will last and something branded well as I tend not to trust those not known companies...
 
Thanks :)



To be quite honest, when you're looking at that price range and "branded" companies as you state, you're not going to find great bang for buck and solid quality. Especially in the build. At that price, commercial brands tend to aim their earphones at a wider market and don't make them particularly awe-inspiring.
 
If you take a look at this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/478568/multi-iem-review-186-iems-compared-xears-nature-n3i-xe200pro-added-8-01#post_6492051
 
You'll see that, in your terms, the lesser known companies come out on top, with some amazing ratings being given to sub $100 earphones (which is just about in your budget, below $90 more accurately). 
 
I've gone from Sennheiser CX-300s to Sennheiser CX-95 Styles, then I changed to Etymotic ER6-i's, and then Ultimate Ears 700, before taking the plunge to dual armature with the Westone 2. Now I've gone through Xears, DUNU, Sunrise Audio, VSONIC, Spyder Cable and to be perfectly honest in terms of price and quality they destroy my previous earphones hands down - with the exception of the Westone 2's, which only the VSONIC GR07 can match it and better it (but it's literally half the price). The Sennheiser CX-300s and that sort of earphone just don't cut it for the price, when you can get so much better if you take the dive into the "lesser known" companies. Frankly, if you read these forums for about a day, you'll stop thinking of them as "lesser known" and start respecting them as the upcoming companies in the HiFi world. 
 
Just today I was testing the HiSoundAudio Crystals with some Skullcandy's my friend had, and I laughed at the fact that they weren't just worlds apart in quality... more like galaxies apart.
 
Just my thoughts on it all. If you search enough you can find an amazing IEM for £50 that will blow all your suggestions out of the water, as well as stay in your ear when doing exercise (I go to the gym every day and need earphones that stay in my ear. Never had a problem with a good set). 
 
Hope that helps.
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 8:00 PM Post #8 of 13


Quote:
To be quite honest, when you're looking at that price range and "branded" companies as you state, you're not going to find great bang for buck and solid quality. Especially in the build. At that price, commercial brands tend to aim their earphones at a wider market and don't make them particularly awe-inspiring.
 
If you take a look at this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/478568/multi-iem-review-186-iems-compared-xears-nature-n3i-xe200pro-added-8-01#post_6492051
 
You'll see that, in your terms, the lesser known companies come out on top, with some amazing ratings being given to sub $100 earphones (which is just about in your budget, below $90 more accurately). 
 
I've gone from Sennheiser CX-300s to Sennheiser CX-95 Styles, then I changed to Etymotic ER6-i's, and then Ultimate Ears 700, before taking the plunge to dual armature with the Westone 2. Now I've gone through Xears, DUNU, Sunrise Audio, VSONIC, Spyder Cable and to be perfectly honest in terms of price and quality they destroy my previous earphones hands down - with the exception of the Westone 2's, which only the VSONIC GR07 can match it and better it (but it's literally half the price). The Sennheiser CX-300s and that sort of earphone just don't cut it for the price, when you can get so much better if you take the dive into the "lesser known" companies. Frankly, if you read these forums for about a day, you'll stop thinking of them as "lesser known" and start respecting them as the upcoming companies in the HiFi world. 
 
Just today I was testing the HiSoundAudio Crystals with some Skullcandy's my friend had, and I laughed at the fact that they weren't just worlds apart in quality... more like galaxies apart.
 
Just my thoughts on it all. If you search enough you can find an amazing IEM for £50 that will blow all your suggestions out of the water, as well as stay in your ear when doing exercise (I go to the gym every day and need earphones that stay in my ear. Never had a problem with a good set). 
 
Hope that helps.


 
Well as I said I am new in terms of headphones and when I think about decent headphones the companies which pop into my heads are big like Shure, Sennheiser, Westone, Pioneer, Sony, and Panasonic and when I see all those brands like Dunu, Vsonic or Xears they just don't ring any bells and I have no idea how I can purchase a product which I have never heard of before this is why I have decided to go for the brand like sennheiser which I am sure I will be happy about as they produce decent products and I can't really compare it with anything else which means I won't have any problems.
 
I am aware of the fact that $100 is not alot for decent headphones as from reading through some posts the standards here are high and most people tend to go for the expensive products which are $400+ like Westone's 4 or whatever. However I am not looking for headphones which match the quality of the pairs which cost over $400 I am just looking to get something good for my money which will look cool and sound better then normal apple headphones which came with my ipod.
 
I can see you went through alot of headphones and which ones would you recommend for the price range I am going for which I will be satisfied with..
 
Thanks :)
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 8:22 PM Post #9 of 13


Quote:
 
Well as I said I am new in terms of headphones and when I think about decent headphones the companies which pop into my heads are big like Shure, Sennheiser, Westone, Pioneer, Sony, and Panasonic and when I see all those brands like Dunu, Vsonic or Xears they just don't ring any bells and I have no idea how I can purchase a product which I have never heard of before this is why I have decided to go for the brand like sennheiser which I am sure I will be happy about as they produce decent products and I can't really compare it with anything else which means I won't have any problems.
 
I am aware of the fact that $100 is not alot for decent headphones as from reading through some posts the standards here are high and most people tend to go for the expensive products which are $400+ like Westone's 4 or whatever. However I am not looking for headphones which match the quality of the pairs which cost over $400 I am just looking to get something good for my money which will look cool and sound better then normal apple headphones which came with my ipod.
 
I can see you went through alot of headphones and which ones would you recommend for the price range I am going for which I will be satisfied with..
 
Thanks :)



That's my point, though, at that price range Sennheiser don't produce "good" or "decent" products. They produce average products at best. Big is not necessarily best, especially when it comes to earphones. You came here for the advice of other Head-Fi'ers, so naturally you trust most of these guys judgements, so why not read the reviews of the smaller brand earphones (like on Jokers thread) and actually be reassured by their quality? 
 
I can understand why you're weary about going for a smaller brand... but in all honesty, you're going to get better and you won't have problems ordering them/sending them back if they are faulty. It's all pretty much the same as bigger brands, so I don't see what the problem is. I took the dive immediately after the Sennheiser's by going with Etymotics (relatively new at the time) and I haven't really looked back since. Sure, Westone and Ultimate Ears are big brands, but the earphones I owned were a lot more expensive than your budget so they were aimed at a much smaller market and therefore had a lot more quality in them. 
 
Have any problems? What sort of problems? You experience the exact same problems with big brands as you do with small brands. Bigger brands are not better products, nor have they ever been. Think of it this way, the smaller the brand, the less quantity created, therefore the higher the quality control is for their products. Brands like Sennheiser churn out thousands of earphones a month and will more likely suffer breakages than the lesser known ones which the manufacturer spends more time over.
 
Who said you can't get decent earphones for $100? I didn't... For $100 you can get plenty of decent earphones. I listed several brands that have earphones (a lot of their products) under $100 and are fantastic. I linked you to a thread for you to check it out, some of the brand names I mentioned have been reviewed in depth there. DUNU has their entire range under $100 and their build quality is solid; Xears has all their range for under 50EUR and sound great. Head-Direct Re-ZERO, Etymotic MC5, MEElectronics A151 and the list goes on for earphones under $100 that are great value.
 
Aug 2, 2011 at 9:22 PM Post #10 of 13
Its hard for me to find some headphones which I like in the reviews as I want my headphones to look cool and high quality for the price I am paying and most of the headphones in Joker's review thread in 3C are really ugly and look low quality the only pairs which look cool are like Monster Lil'Jamz, Earjax Lyrics and Ultimate ears metrofi 220.​
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Lets take a look at the Jays t-jays three from the review they seem like a decent pair of headphones and scored pretty well in the review but I don't see how I can pay $100 for those headphones I mean look at the picture:​
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I mean if you look at them they just look like the headphones which you get in poundland the plastic looks low quality and there is nothing which shows that this product is $100 which in my opinion is quite alot for pair of headphones atm as my income is close to nothing. However I do understand that those headphones are most likely better when it comes to the sound quality .​
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Now I can compare them with the Sennheiser CX 870 which are the same price or even lower then the Jays. It seems like this product looks like high end product which cost alot of money and as a person which don't know alot about headphones this product seems like a better option for me and I am aware of the fact that the sennheisers will probably produce lower quality sound then the other ones.​
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However I do understand what you mean some people prefer something which looks crap but the inside counts for them more which in this case is the sound but I am one of the people which prefers half as good but the inside and the out side has to be good. However I am glad that you brang those points out as it made me think about the stuff and I may look into some other headphones and I would be glad if you point out some headphones which will look good as well as sound good as so far the design work lets me down on most of the reviews :frowning2:
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Thanks​
 
Aug 3, 2011 at 7:24 AM Post #11 of 13


Quote:
No offence. but you put these things in your ears and listen to music.  They are not a pair of trainers.
 
If you want decent sound and bling factor though, save up and get the Monster Dr Dre things - they have instant 'gangsta appeal' and will make girls submissive to your charms and boys bow down with respect before you.


I get your point but I am one of those people which likes to have the quality product to look at as if something looks good and sounds half decent I would be happy with it and I don't get why the smaller companies make such good drivers for headphones but can't make half decent casing to go with it... 
 
 
Aug 3, 2011 at 11:01 AM Post #12 of 13
Looking low quality doesn't mean they are low quality. I'm not sure why you asked about earphones when your mind is pretty set on the CX870s and aren't willing to listen to solid suggestions. Jokers thread clearly rates build quality and you can see that he rates some of the 'uglier' earphone highly.

If you're looking for a fashion statement then you're not going to get a great response from people here.

However in saying that, you should look at the DUNU range then.
 

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