Headphones?

[Liven]

I plan on getting new headphones for Christmas. I am most likely going with Bose. I was wondering, from an audiophile's perspective, what is your opinion on the best headphones for a balance of bass and mids and highs? I love more bass because in my opinion, it provides more depth to the audio I listen to, but I don't like so much bass that it distorts the audio making it sound terrible. I am a balanced kind of guy.

So what are your thoughts?

[xoxo B'ni Dhana]

Ones that work.

[qaisr]

I plan on getting new headphones for Christmas. I am most likely going with Bose. I was wondering, from an audiophile's perspective, what is your opinion on the best headphones for a balance of bass and mids and highs? I love more bass because in my opinion, it provides more depth to the audio I listen to, but I don't like so much bass that it distorts the audio making it sound terrible. I am a balanced kind of guy.

So what are your thoughts?

This vastly depends on the price range. Not all Bose headphones even use the same audio driver and Bose tends to cheap out on driver quality for soundstage and isolation, which is typically what the premium is paid for.
Typically, I enjoy using open headphones because I like to hear my environment as well, but the cost is isolation, and typically tend to be flimsier to avoid dampening in the headband.

Within the budget range (0-50), the best cans you can get are the SuperLux HD668b, HD681 Evo, Takstar Hi2050/Pro80, or if you are interested in mobility the Koss PortaPro holds up incredibly well in terms of fidelity. The former 2 are highly bright and detailed, bordering on harsh at times. The Evo is bass centric whereas the 668b is incredibly balanced and high fidelity. Both have incredible soundstage, and as do the Hi2050 and Pro 80. The Pro 80 offers rounded treble, unlike the 668b, which is somewhat bright and silibant at times. The Pro80 is somewhat better than the Hi2050 in terms of balance, as the Hi2050 appears to have a more bass-centric frequency response as well. Both headsets pay a slight premium over the Superlux and Koss offerings due to it's solid acrylic body, and is likely somewhat stronger.

As headphones get more expensive, I feel judging their fidelity becomes more subjective. Some actually prefer the sound of the Sennheiser HD598 over the HD650 (in fact, many people do), despite it having drivers twice the price. Some prefer intimate vocals over distant ones, some prefer stout sound over mellowness. It really depends on what you listen to. However, the above headphones will easily crush top, brand name offerings at even the 100 or 150 dollar price bracket (I compare the sound of the Hi2050 with that of an ATH-M50). In my opinion, if you need to hear every nuance in music or don't produce music, those headphones will do just fine. Although I outgrew my cheap HD681Evo, I can still see its merits over the SRH840 I have today which costs 4 times the price.

[BigTex355]

I have enjoyed my Bose Sountrue earbuds and over-ears, but I am thinking of trying out some other earbuds. If anyone knows some really good earbuds for under $200, please do tell me!

[randomuser123]

If you want a very flat frequency response, check out the STAX headphones. They are amazing. I listened to them at CanJam (a headphone conference) this year and they were some of the nicest phones I have ever heard.

[Liven]

I have gotten a pair of headphones after some research.

I decided to get a pair of Samson RTE X because of price (only $99.99 w/o tax on Sam Ash), and the fact that it has active noise cancelling.

They have great balance. The bass is only OP if the audio playing has strong bass, but even then it has balance.

The noise cancellation is okay, not 100%, but good enough that I don't have to blast the audio like I used to with my earbuds.

The bass response only happens with noise cancellation on. I assume this is because noise cancellation uses low frequency waves to cancel out audio. I noticed the noise cancellation excels when battling low frequency ambiance.

The performance of the headphones is efficient. They work for 20 hours with one (average) battery, Amazon Basics charger and batteries work really well with them (i bought the high capacity cause why not?).

I love music. Even though this would not be audiophile approved, it is certainly better than what BOSE and Beats has to offer at the same price. (I gave BOSE and Beats a try, and they sounded terrible compared to the pair I got)

Songs that really trigger bass response:
The Hills - The Weekend
Emoji VIP - Pegboard Nerds
-Pretty much any song with significant bass has an excellent response.