For those of you not needing Bluetooth: Grado headphones are infamous for being permeable to environmental sound. They’re also infamous for sounding f—king fantastic. I recommend the SR-125s, which pretty much mark the inflection point of the price-to-quality curve.
Yeah, great, until all that bass begins to loosen your fillings and you get massive headaches.
I’ve been burning through headphones since the early 80’s, these are far and away the best buy I’ve found. Sound, comfort, and quality are incredible. You can find them on sale for around $20 from time to time. (They appear larger than they really are in the photo. They are of a size comparable to most 80’s portable headphones).
https://www.amazon.com/Koss-PortaPro-Headphones-with-Case/dp/B00001P4ZH
At that price, I’ll definitely check them out. Thanks!
Are the 225s worth the extra $50 over the 125?
SR 125’s connected to a discman:
Heh
I had a circa 1993 Panasonic portable CD player that managed to survive long enough for me to compare it to a fifth-gen iPod. In terms of gain, the Panasonic couldn’t be beat.
Nowadays you can use an in-line headphone amp to get the same results, though. Never used one as I tend to keep my Grados at home where I can use them with my audio receiver.
Have a friend who has the 225s. I didn’t notice much of a difference, but then again my hearing has some roll-off in the higher frequencies due to very mild tinnitus. I’m content with my 125s.
Wow… do people actually talk to their headphones?
Bye-bye headphones! I am off to work in the garden!
Indeed.
Yes. When you see someone in PortaPros you know they understand.
Back in the 80’s, I always wanted to have these, but I could never justify the cost.
As an aside, check out this scan of an old DAK mail order catalog from 1984. Talk about a blast from the past.
how is the sound via bone conduction headphones comparable to regular headphones? treble? bass? mids?
I haven’t used them, but friends say bone condition sounds like ass, tends to be muffled, and the transducers on the ones they have tend not to stay in place, causing cutout.
Also I’m betting that if you have more than average… Face tissue… They’d scale towards the crap side sound-wise.
This “problem” is the entire point for me. If there’s somebody I want to communicate with, I’ll take them off.
Seriously, having no capacity for sound isolation or noise dampening /at all/ is sort of the opposite of what most of us are paying for - the ability to clearly hear the music or words we’re actually trying to listen to.
[quote=“Daemonworks, post:14, topic:80080, full:true”]Seriously, having no capacity for sound isolation or noise dampening /at all/ is sort of the opposite of what most of us are paying for - the ability to clearly hear the music or words we’re actually trying to listen to.[/quote]I think you’re missing the point of these sorts of headphones. They’re not really there for excellent sound fidelity (although I’d assume they’d try do what they can at this price), but are there for hooking up to your phone/ipod/etc. while you’re out and about. That’s why they’re cordless, and why they don’t cover your ears - they’re for people who are mobile and need to hear what’s going on around them, but still want to listen to music/talk on the phone/etc.
If you want “the ability to clearly hear the music” then you’re probably not planning on going jogging at the time. It’s not like earbuds or any other mobility-friendly headphones are going to give you superlative sound quality. You either want an audiophile-level speaker setup or some studio-grade headphones.
It looks like you can’t wear these if you wear glasses?
You know noise-cancelling headphones? Well, these are the opposite. I got a pair at Woot and they went into the junk drawer after using them outside one time. Yes, I know the point is to allow amibient sounds in but they make enjoying the music impossible. Maybe if you are in a completely quiet room and you want to hear you mother when she hollers at you from downstairs, or something.
When I’m wearing ear buds at work, not being able to hear others is a feature not a bug…
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