Headphones - what are you using at home and/or at gigs

I was going to add a comment to a recent headphones thread but thought I'd start my own.

I'm looking at getting some new headphones and of course I'm wondering should I fork out on the Sennheiser HD 25's? I will want to use them at home and out at gigs. Has anyone got or used these and can you share your thoughts. I've seen a few small comments from reviews suggesting they could be uncomfortable for prolonged use which is making me wonder should I look elsewhere.

I know someone who is a bit of a home sound geek who swears by Bose and I've also seen some good reviews for Sony and Pioneer ones. Which ones do you use (do you use the same ones at home and at gigs or do you have different ones) or what ones can you recommend? Any info welcomed :)

Also I take it that it definitely should be closed back phones all the way. Interesting to know if anyone actually uses open back ones though.

Closed back all the way - I bought HD25's 10 years ago and they're still going strong (I've literally just got round to replacing the headband padding, ear pads and the cable, but that's it) so they're well worth the money. If you want to be able to hear what you're playing next, these are definitely the headphones to get. They're also amazing headphones for casual listening, but I do agree that they become a bit sweaty if you wear them all day.

I had been using Sony WH1000's in my day job because of their impressive noise cancelling, but I definitely wouldn't gig with them (the noise cancelling is good, but doesn't operate when they're connected by cord vs bluetooth and the sound isolation from the cups isn't anywhere near as good as the HD25's). They're comfortable enough for a whole day and the battery life is 30hrs plus at the volumes I listen to. One of colleagues has the Bose equivalent and there's very little between them. The noise cancelling is *just* better on the Sony's, but then both the Bose and Sony can be updated via bluetooth from the app so I expect they'll catch up if they haven't already ;)

Sadly both sets of headphones are sat in laptop bags at the moment and I'm restricted to an Amazon Echo (kids!!)

Julian

I've never bothered with Expensive Headphones. I use a set of Numark phones which cost me about £20 and they are great.

I would actually quite like another set of the classic telephone headphones. I had one of those back in the 80's.

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Originally Posted by East Anglian Discos

I've never bothered with Expensive Headphones. I use a set of Numark phones which cost me about £20 and they are great.

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I use some Sony ones, thing they cost about £15 - on my second pair in 16 years so not bad value for money.

Use Sony headphones for DJing. They are stored in a hard case in the flight case so are only used for DJing. Really good and had them for 7 years. Probably will replace them with HD25’s when the time comes.

At home I use Nuraphones - https://www.nuraphone.com/products/nuraphone.

Brilliant for my damaged hearing. Like hearing music when I was 18 again. I will get the Nuraloop later in the year too.

PS - I didn’t pay that much. They were on offer on Amazon in April!

Beyerdynamic DT 770s for home use (love them so much)

On the road, a cheap pair of £20 headphones. They get bashed about too much for me to spend anything more on them and I only use them for monitoring, rather than 'listening'.

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Originally Posted by rth_discos

Beyerdynamic DT 770s for home use (love them so much)

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+1 for Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones, I recently purchased a pair and can say with no hesitation whatsoever they are the most comfortable headphones I have ever owned. The actual version (32, 80, 200 ohm) depends on what source you are going to be using them with

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Originally Posted by rth_discos

Beyerdynamic DT 770s for home use (love them so much)

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+1 for Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones, I recently purchased a pair and can say with no hesitation whatsoever they are the most comfortable headphones I have ever owned. The actual version (32, 80, 200 ohm) depends on what source you are going to be using them with. They're available from reputable suppliers all over the place for £105 post free.

Thanks for the tips on this. Some interesting thoughts and I will bear these in mind when making the purchase in the near future, cheers :):beer1: