After 1 1/2 years of mostly home-office, my company now decided to go back to the office 3/5 days. On top of that, we’re also moving into a new building which includes working in an open office. Not a fan of this, but i guess it’s the “hip” thing to do…
Anyways, for this situation i am looking for new headphones. Something that can keep out the office noise, which means i‘m looking for closed-backs.
As far as priorities go: first and foremost i am looking for comfort. The headphones will be on my head for quite a while.
Second is - of course - the sound quality (so please no Bose QC35 although they are comfortable as f). Mostly casual listening, no critical stuff. Nice, balanced sound, nothing fatigueing.
When it comes to budget… the cheaper the better, but i’d aim for around 100€ (120$, 85 Pounds?), not gonna crash the bank for the job. I will go over budget if it’s worth it.
I have a Fiio BTR3K which i’ll be moving to the office.
What i already have:
DT 770’s - can’t deal with the highs for longer periods, so i won’t be bringing them to the office
M40x’s - yeah, not comfortable enough for longer sessions
Any ideas are greatly appreciated, new workplace comes into effect in october.
IEMs are a go-to for me in noisy office environments. They tend to be more discreet than full cans and depending on tips isolate pretty well.
What kind of sound do you prefer? I like bass heavy in offices since it helps me drown out noise, but that’s my preference.
Not sure but the new Sivga looks not bad and not wrong.
But in this Price range is it difficult to find something nicely.
And the Market is small when you not compare the not good thing from the electromarket.
I’ve come up with a few options, however i’m not sure about the comfort on all of these:
Sony MDR 7506
Sennheiser HD 280 pro
Sennheiser HD 598 Cs
AKG K361 or K371
Yamaha HPH MT5
Can anyone share their opinion on any of these? I could go and buy them all and try them out myself, but i’d rather reduce the selection first. Testing out 6 different headphones (and returning them) seems like a big hassle (mind you that the next post office isn’t even close)
All of these are within the given budget (except for the 598 cs).
As for sound signature: some bass is fine, like @Etroze86 mentioned it helps with office noise. Like i mentioned in my first post, i’m not a fan of peaky highs. In general, a relaxed sound is fine.
The AKG’s are divisive some love the Harman tuned 371 others find them boring and prefer the 361
The mt5 with some hybrid pads are decent but I wasn’t a fan of them with stock pads
The 598 Have the typical Sennheiser house sound imo but I liked them but wait for a sale should you want them cause I think I got them for around 80-90 € 4 years ago
Other question how are you with iems ? There i could recommend tripowin mele or thieaudio l2 for you
Yeah I have to agree. I have the 280 Pros and they are good phones, just meh for music enjoyment. I looked and the 598 Cs is currently not available at Amazon. I personally use The BeyerDynamic Lagoon ANC Travelor for work and love them. I saw these and I thought they looked interesting
Audio-Technica ATH-M50X Professional Studio Monitor Headphones
I can also think of the Meze classic, which is more expensive in terms of budget, but perfectly fine.
Another would be Austrian Audio, which recently released 2 models with good tuning for affordable money.
I think @Deleeh is on the right track here. I’m waiting on a pair of the new Sivga’s myself for this purpose. If you wanted to blow your budget a little the Meze would be a good option.
@DuerumBen i do use IEMs occasionally (QKZ VK4 and KZ ZS10 pro), but i never even thought about using them in the office. Good idea, i will consider this, thanks!
Unsure about the Meze, they’re triple the price i’d be aiming for (at least in my region), but those Sivga’s sure look awesome and are much more affordable. I will add them to my list of possible options (as if that list wasn’t big enough already).
Isn’t Austrian Audio the team that made up AKG before they were basically sold?
