How much would you pay for good headphones?

January 14, 2010 – 9:09 pm

Time for some consumer advice today.

I’m sure many of us have often thought about getting headphones – and I’m sure many of us already have a pair – but how much is a reasonable amount to spend? And what will a higher-grade (read: more expensive) pair do that’s worth the money?

I recently decided to invest on some new headphones. The AKG K 701′s to be precise. They aren’t exactly very cheap and you’d probably want a headphone amplifier to go with them, one which I incidentally also bought. I’ve also had some more reasonably priced headphones in the past: Sennheiser HD-555′s and going down in the price range, some Koss and Philips ones.

My opinion is that great headphones can make listening to music much more enjoyable. However, should you go all out and buy expensive ones like the AKG, or is it smarter to purchase something else?

No

Don’t get me wrong here – The AKG’s are great, and I’m happy with my decision to buy them.

However, I would not recommend them for everyone, because cheaper headphones are better value for most people.

I am by no means an audiophile or a hi-fi aficionado – in fact, if you ask me about ohms, impedance or such, you may be met with a blank stare – but I do enjoy the beeps and boops coming from the cans on my ears sounding nice.

So what do I base on my recommendation that everyone shouldn’t get the AKGs?

The sound quality difference in high-end headphones is less obvious

The Koss and Philips headphones I have previously owned were quite reasonably priced – probably around 50 USD or so.

What did they sound like?

• Koss: Okay but the bass was totally overbearing. Most likely because they were a closed headphone.
• Philips: Okay, less bass than Koss so overall I liked these more. Open type headphones.

The Philips headphones eventually broke. They had this auto-adjusting strap thing, which eventually just snapped and applying overly generous amounts of duct-tape did not help much.

Next, I got the Sennheiser HD-555′s. They are on the level many people may consider “too much”: I paid about 150 USD for mine.

What do they know? I loved the HD-555′s – they were so much better than the cheaper ones I had had before!

Actually, the difference between them and the cheaper ones was rather large. Clean sound, good bass but not too much… and very comfortable to wear for hours.

The really hi-fi stuff

After years of use I wanted to get something even better than the HD-555′s.

I decide to buy the AKG K 701′s after listening to them in a local hifi shop. I paid 340 USD for mine, which is quite a lot. Add to that a specialized headphone amplified at 160 USD.

The AKG’s have much cleaner sound than the Sennheiser’s. They have a wider soundstage, which is apparently a term meaning they can make the sound seem like it’s coming from farther away than it actually does (or something like that), and in general they have much more accurate response. For example, guitars and cymbals often have reverb or echo that wasn’t there with the cheaper phones.

When going from Philips to Sennheiser, I paid about 100 USD more for the whole deal.

When going from Sennheiser to AKG, I paid about 400 USD more.

You would expect the difference to be something like 4 times better, right?

The truth and the bottom line

The truth is that the difference is not 4x.

The difference is there, but it’s much less noticeable than when I just added 100.

In my experience, paying around 100 – 150 USD will get you a pair of headphones that are very good. They aren’t as great as paying even more, but I think at this point the differences between price start to be larger, and the differences between sound start to be smaller.

If you have been wondering how much is enough for headphones, I say go for the range of 100 to 150 USD. Of course, go and test listen the headphones before you buy. If you already have something at that range, I suggest caution unless you don’t mind spending more money on smaller enhancements.

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