falloutgirl Messages: 48 Registered: February 2011
Baron
I'm thinking of buying a pair of Skullcandy headphones for myself but I don't really trust the opinions of my friends who judge a headphone by how pretty it looks. I was wondering if anyone has experienced using it and how is it overall? I can't splurge since I'm just a student living off my allowance but I think Skullcandy's are well within my price range. I'm just worried it may not be worth it. I'm really unlucky with earphones/headphones and no matter what I do, they end up broken after a few months. I was thinking maybe if I tried buying headphones of better quality they'd last longer with me. What are other alternatives that I could look into? Thanks so much for the help
I've read bad reviews. It's a vanity product that prone to breakage.
My son got some that came with his mp3 player and they lasted about a week. He's very careful with his electronics, FWIW. IMO they sounded terrible even compared to the stock iPod headphones. You might look at some of the Sennheiser earbuds, I've heard they are not too bad as far as earbuds go.
What kind of music are you wanting to listen to? What is your source (PC, iPod, etc...) ? Are you going to be listening to CD quality or low bitrate downloads from iTunes? What is your budget?
Adveser Messages: 434 Registered: July 2009 Location: USA
Illuminati (1st Degree)
100 bucks buys you the indestructible Sony MDR-7506. If you don't want the warranty, you can get the cheaper but almost identical Sony V6/V600. The only difference between them is the grounding which the professional model uses two independent cold poles rather than just one you would find on the V6. No, I don't think you can really tell the difference.
You might consider the Grado SR60 or SR80, both of which can be had for $100 or less. At 32ohms they will be iPod friendly and they are built like tanks. Plus if you don't like them or want to upgrade in the future you can very easily sell them at places like the Head-Fi forum for near to what you paid for them.
I've not heard the Sony MDR-7506 that Adveser recommends, but have read that because they are billed as studio cans they have a sterility to the sound they produce. Most studio headphones are like this and will show most the flaws in your source material. From my understanding they also have a really nasty spike around the 2k region that many can not deal with.
By all means try out as many types as you can if possible. Bring your iPod to the store. Check on Head-Fi.com and see if there is anyone near you that can let you listen to theirs or if a headphone meet is going to be near you. The Sony's may be perfect to you, so please take our opinions as just that. Everyone hears/perceives things differently.
Adveser Messages: 434 Registered: July 2009 Location: USA
Illuminati (1st Degree)
I looked at a few graphs other than this one, but I don't see a hump in the 2Khz region. The sony's look relatively flat to me up to 10Khz. I wouldn't worry about the rolloff past 10Khz that is displayed.
I'm just repeating what others have experienced on the Head-Fi.com forum. What I don't believe in is published specs and graphs from equipment manufacturers. You have to listen for yourself. The specs are a good place to start, but nothing replaces actual experience.