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Although they were headphones, which I guess makes sense since they appear to use headphone drivers in most of their speakers anyway. However, they did sound decent as headphones go, but they were overpriced in my opinion (but hey, they're Bose so overpriced should be expected.)
I was actually looking for some headphones for evening HT use. At night when everyone heads to bed and I'm the only one up I like to watch some stuff on the DVR, but I don't care much for the sound from the little speakers in the LED Flat screen and the family doesn't want the whole system turned on. So, I started using headphones through a dedicated headphone amp and external DAC fed by the digital-out on the TV. The problem is - headphones that sound spectacular with most music, like my reference Sennheiser HD600's, sound thin with movies and just can't do the low end the way you would want to hear it when watching a movie. So, I set out to find some very high quality cans that give a realistic illusion of home theater sound while sitting on my head.
I read a ton of reviews, studied data on Headphone.com, and then listened to a lot of cans from AT, AKG, Beats, BOSE, Beyerdynamic, Shure, Skull Candy, and more than I can possibly remember. In the end I bought two sets for different purposes. In fact, now I have three sets of headphones, each for a different purpose, just like I do with speakers (although I have more than three sets of those.) I thought you guys might be interested in how it turned out.
First, a few comments on those that didn't make the cut - in my opinion Beats and Skullcandy headphones still sound like cheap junk. I certainly don't get it where these are concerned. And try as I did, I just couldn't get the bass I wanted from the AKG K550, which is supposed to be their best sealed headphone for bass reproduction. Those went back to Best Buy. The last set to get cut, but ones that almost made it, if it hadn't been for the eventual winner were the Shure SRH840's (from Parts Express). These were very good headphones and did some things exceptionally well. I would rate them among the better cans I have ever used, but they aren't quite Senn HD600's and they are pretty heavy too, and they didn't capture home theater as well as the winner, but again, they were very good, especially for the price. Still recommended.
The winner for the Home Theater headphone sound-off were the new Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro's. These have very nicely balanced midrange and highs, much better than my older DT990 Pro's in my opinion and closer to the HD600's. However, they also have a very cool feature - a four position bass response setting that is completely passive. In position one they are rolled-off a bit in the bass, in position two they are flat, in position three there is moderate boost below 100Hz, and in position four there is quite a bit of boost. I find that with home theater these phones in position three sound remarkably realistic with exactly the balance I was looking for when listening to movies, and the mids and highs are very good too. I highly recommend these phones.
The third set I picked up were a pair of Ultimate Ears UE6000's. I was not familiar with this Logitech brand when I started looking, but I was very impressed with the build quality and sound from these. They were, in my opinion, a cut above other headphones of their type that I listened to. These are active noise cancelling phones, with active EQ built in, and also have an in-line control for iPod and iPhone. I picked these up for use with the family's iPods and iPhones, and for use with the laptop. On my last vacation I took these along. When plugged into the laptop YouTube tunes sound very nice.
So there you have it, my three reference sets of cans:
Sennheiser HD600 for most music playback
Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro's for Movies and some rock music
Ultimate Ears UE6000's for portable devices when an active phone works best
And like I said, I auditioned a lot of phones before ending up with these.
Jeff B.
I was actually looking for some headphones for evening HT use. At night when everyone heads to bed and I'm the only one up I like to watch some stuff on the DVR, but I don't care much for the sound from the little speakers in the LED Flat screen and the family doesn't want the whole system turned on. So, I started using headphones through a dedicated headphone amp and external DAC fed by the digital-out on the TV. The problem is - headphones that sound spectacular with most music, like my reference Sennheiser HD600's, sound thin with movies and just can't do the low end the way you would want to hear it when watching a movie. So, I set out to find some very high quality cans that give a realistic illusion of home theater sound while sitting on my head.
I read a ton of reviews, studied data on Headphone.com, and then listened to a lot of cans from AT, AKG, Beats, BOSE, Beyerdynamic, Shure, Skull Candy, and more than I can possibly remember. In the end I bought two sets for different purposes. In fact, now I have three sets of headphones, each for a different purpose, just like I do with speakers (although I have more than three sets of those.) I thought you guys might be interested in how it turned out.
First, a few comments on those that didn't make the cut - in my opinion Beats and Skullcandy headphones still sound like cheap junk. I certainly don't get it where these are concerned. And try as I did, I just couldn't get the bass I wanted from the AKG K550, which is supposed to be their best sealed headphone for bass reproduction. Those went back to Best Buy. The last set to get cut, but ones that almost made it, if it hadn't been for the eventual winner were the Shure SRH840's (from Parts Express). These were very good headphones and did some things exceptionally well. I would rate them among the better cans I have ever used, but they aren't quite Senn HD600's and they are pretty heavy too, and they didn't capture home theater as well as the winner, but again, they were very good, especially for the price. Still recommended.
The winner for the Home Theater headphone sound-off were the new Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro's. These have very nicely balanced midrange and highs, much better than my older DT990 Pro's in my opinion and closer to the HD600's. However, they also have a very cool feature - a four position bass response setting that is completely passive. In position one they are rolled-off a bit in the bass, in position two they are flat, in position three there is moderate boost below 100Hz, and in position four there is quite a bit of boost. I find that with home theater these phones in position three sound remarkably realistic with exactly the balance I was looking for when listening to movies, and the mids and highs are very good too. I highly recommend these phones.
The third set I picked up were a pair of Ultimate Ears UE6000's. I was not familiar with this Logitech brand when I started looking, but I was very impressed with the build quality and sound from these. They were, in my opinion, a cut above other headphones of their type that I listened to. These are active noise cancelling phones, with active EQ built in, and also have an in-line control for iPod and iPhone. I picked these up for use with the family's iPods and iPhones, and for use with the laptop. On my last vacation I took these along. When plugged into the laptop YouTube tunes sound very nice.
So there you have it, my three reference sets of cans:
Sennheiser HD600 for most music playback
Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro's for Movies and some rock music
Ultimate Ears UE6000's for portable devices when an active phone works best
And like I said, I auditioned a lot of phones before ending up with these.
Jeff B.
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