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What I look for headphones in general: •Lightweight •Comfortable •Out-of-your-head soundstage •Not particularly specialized for just one area of frequency response nor a strong V-shape •Good extension through bass & treble •A little bit of fun without being fatiguing for long sessions
What I look for in Closed Headphones: •As much of the above as possible •Wearing time with closed headphones is always more limited, but longer comfort = better •Ideally, designed for on-the-go. •Minimal occlusion/honking sound.
What Kind of Headband: My hair is thinning up top, so I am picky/easily discomforted. The best headbands for me have •A decent amount of padding •Pressure dispersed over a large area -(thin “bubble” headbands like Beats by Apple, Focal Listen, Sony PlayStation Gold, and the like are fatiguing in less than 30 minutes) •A dimple or gap at the center of the crown (the “fontanelle”) to prevent the worst hotspot •Possibly a gap to fit around the headband of my PSVR’s “Halo,” which other brands are starting to emulate.
Enjoyed Brands of Closed Headphone: 1.) Sennheiser 2.) Mr Speakers 3.) Fostex (TH 900, despite the V-shape it’s not as strong and overpowering as the Sony Z1R is for me, especially with a really nice amp) 4.) Beyerdynamic (T51p ONLY, most Beyers are tinnitus bright!) 5.) Audeze 6.) Focal (I actually quite like the sound and comfort of the Listen quite a bit, just wish the headband was better!) 7.) Audio Technica (It’s been a long time, and the headband arc is too long to properly fit me without some extreme bending, but get that right and fresh elastic on the “wings,” ATH has the perfect pressure distribution)
Tom.M.2
15
Aug 19, 2018
EvshrugAgreed. I think comfort is so important. Equal to sound quality. For whatever reason my luck has been bad with closed back for long sessions.
Tom.M.2I’m sure you can think of several reasons! Sweat and heat build-up are the obvious ones, also the pads seem to harden and eventually don’t feel like pads at all. Less obvious is the resonances and closed systems containing air pressure put more pressure on your ears and can leave your “Hearing” feel fatigued. A closed headphone really has to get everything right just to come close to sounding as good as an open headphone. There’s a reason I mostly have open-backed headphones, and why the Sennheiser HD 820 seems to justify it’s cost and stands out (to me at least) as the best closed headphone I’ve heard to date.
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