Bose makes a pretty decent noise cancelling headphone, but as others have indicated, don't take abuse very well and unless the noise cancellation is a feature you are seeking can be beat for the price. One of the key questions you will also want to settle is "closed vs. open". Open headphones tend to have a better (wider, deeper) soundstage, while closed often reduce outside noise better. There are as many opinions about what sounds good as there are in loudspeakers...so settle some of the issues like open, closed and what you want to spend, then look for the sonic signature you prefer.
Hibuck...
Hi, Well, ... first like speakers, i would at least want a good flat response from 20--20 HZ. A little bass boost I guess would be ok, especially if it
is below the usual 70 HZ.
When I had my ears tested about a month or so ago, the person testing me threw a 9K sound at me, and I'll tell you what, it actually hurt. That was a surprise,
because in my left ear, above 4 K or so, it about 60 to 70 DB down. I can thank my older brother for that one when I was about ten. An air rifle does wonders
to ears. My right ear is where the major damage of the infection is. It is in the left ear too, but not as bad as the right ear. I'm looking in to a behind
the ear transplant which will bypass the ear canal entirely, and just go to the inner ear. This would be for both ears. Now, how that will affect my regular
hearing through the canal, I don't have a clue.
As to the closed or open phones, I don't have a prefference. I go back to the old Koss days. Those phones are still around, and they if memmory serves me
right do! produce lots of bass without the boost. I was just siting them as an example.
I live here in cowboy town, Tucson AZ.
Somewheres a long time ago, I did listen to a pair of Beir phones. (yeah, I mispelled it.) and they were supposedly ruler flat. The bass did not stand out
at all, kinda like the old Micro Accoustic phono cartridge. I wasn't sure if I liked them or not.
So, the uses for the phones would be, either to listen to stuff from my computer, or to listen to stuff from the headphone amplifier with a good preamp
attached. Open or closed I'm up for suggestions. It is to bad about the Boze phones, because they were amongst the most comfortable that I think I could
wear all day if need be.
As far as noise cancelling goes, nope don't want them. When I was at Best Buy, it's a pretty noisy place. I put on the Boze noise cancelling phones, turn
on the cancelling circuit, and I'll tell you what, not a peak of sound got through those puppies. That was almost erie sounding. If you want to know what
being deaf is like, I think that's a good glimpse.
As for on or over the ear, I think over is prefferred. The on ones tend to be kinda smallish, and don't seem that comfortable when attempting to positioning
them on your ears.
As for budget, I honestly don't know how much I'd want to spend. Now I did and still own some old Stax phones. They at the time were about $200. the slightly
newer drivers were better, but the highend I think would be as good as any speaker out there. the mids and lows were there strong point. i still have two
of the transformer boxes, with blown transformers. It would cost to much to fix them now, like $40 and up for eaqch transformer. So they just sit in the
box.
So that's it for this post. Thanks for all. I've been lurking here for awhile, and gathering lots of info. here and there. So keep the info coming.
Ray Bronk
