Headphone Recommendations, ~ $50

[Michael_B]

My 11-year old son is asking for Beats headphones for Christmas. There's no way I'm shelling out that kind of money for, what I hear, are not-so-great headphones.

I'd welcome recommendations for an over-the-ear set that is ~$50. Since he's looking for Beats, I'm guessing he'd like a set that is biased towards bass (which is what I've heard that Beats are).

[Sugartune]

I have a set of Monster Beats Studio. (Generally) managing a hotel, I occasionally get dibs on some lost and found items. These were the best I've been able to come away with (after the guest decided they didn't want them enough to pay for the shipping back to Europe). They are very nice sounding headphones, but I wouldn't pay the $300 they were charging for them, no way. They don't sound too bassy, but they do deliver the bass nicely. They are nice though. The nicest set I've ever had. I use them for recording and rehearsing through a Jam Hub. I'd use them live too, like Gilbert, but they aren't "cool".

I wish I could find it, but there was a list of a whack load of tested headphones with a wide price range. They were all scored on their individual merits, as well as comparatively. The comparable Beats product was wayy down on the list for a lot of metrics. One of them was a ratio of the metrics to the dollar they cost. Again, Beats was well down the list. The top of the list was a Sony set for $130 or something along those lines.

Who even makes Beats these days? At least when they were with Monster, there's some sort of "credible" audiophile corporation behind it for those who don't necessary care much about Dre.

[Toadroller]

Headphones do seem to accumulate, don't they?

I've got a set of AKG K240Ms that must be twenty five years old by now. I've had to re-solder the cord a few times, but that's just a fun evening project for me.

Some Shure in ear SE something or others, mid-priced, great isolation but hurt for long term wearing.

I picked up some Audio Technica noise canceling for some across-the-pond flights and they've proven to be useful for home-office and noisy-airport phone calls... Or when I want to drown out the kids.

A set of Bose buds.. Very comfortable, but no isolation.

Grades have alway been tempting, but only if I get into a dedicated headphone amp.

[JohnnyB]

Who even makes Beats these days? At least when they were with Monster, there's some sort of "credible" audiophile corporation behind it for those who don't necessary care much about Dre.

Beats are now made by HTC, same Asian company that makes smart phones of the same brand. Monster did all the design, R&D, heavy lifting, and initial manufacture, but Monster's CEO appointed his son to ink the deal and he was over his head. After the Monster production run, Dre & Iovine walked away with the design and all the rights, and made a new deal with HTC. Read about the whole sorry story here.

BTW, if you compare $300 Beats with what you can get from Grado, PSB, or Sennheiser, Beats are a cruel, stylish joke.

In fact, you can get some "product of the year" quality killer-looking planar magnetic headphones (left) or stylish streamlined Beats-like foldable PSBs (center, right) for $50 less:

[JohnnyB]

Grades have alway been tempting, but only if I get into a dedicated headphone amp.

Just about any headphone will improve with the right headphone amp, and some, such as the AKG 240s really need one, but the SR60s don't really need a headphone amp to make iPods, laptops, and smart phone music come alive. They're very efficient.

As for affordable headphone amps, live it up! Some of these are just headphone amps, but the Meridian Explorer is also a dual clock high def 24-bit DAC at a mere $149.

[Sugartune]

Mine aren't too bad in the looks department, but not as nice as those.