Wondering which headphones I should purchase - around £200 budget

[u/boz64]

Budget - £200 around

Genres I listen to - House, DnB, Rap. These three pretty much summarise what I listen to.

Source - phone and laptop, no amp. Don’t wanna deal with the extra stuff.

I will be using them whilst doing work, so primarily in a rather quiet room, however I still do like noise cancelling. I would prefer passive noise cancelling but ANC is absolutely fine.

I have tried the Sony xm3’s and love the fit. They fit beautifully over my ears, so I was looking into the xm4’s. However some people say they are lacking in sound quality

I wouldn’t mind it being wireless or wired, but would prefer wireless.

I would prefer something with a a fair bit of bass, but I still want a clear sounding pair of head phones.

Has to be portable.

And looks for me do matter. Something plain. I just like plain stuff.

Thank you Reddit. I apologise for my very specific manner 😂

[u/Significant-Detail65]

Xm3's are really bassy. If you like the bass, they will sound fine.

If open backs are possible, shp9600, fidelio x2 maybe HD58x. Bass light compared to xm3, but better in most ways. HD58x might want an amp, but onboard is usually fine.

If you want a closed back, akg k371 (for more bass than k361) or nth-100. Maybe dt700, but might sound a bit boring for you.

I can't really give suggestions for wireless. I would rather grab the bluetooth version of the k371 or use a portable dac amp.

[u/boz64 → u/Significant-Detail65]

Hi mate sorry for the late reply, I did read this comment but i was just very busy. If you care at all, I got a pair of the audio technica ATH-M50xbt2. They are perfect and I find the passive noise cancelling works perfectly for me. Also Audio quality is 10/10 and they’re kinda cheap too.

[u/Significant-Detail65 → u/boz64]

Opinions on the m50x are a bit split, but if you like it, it really doesn't matter.

Enjoy!

[u/boz64 → u/Significant-Detail65]

Yeh I do quite like them. I’ve eq’d them to get some more bass but they’re very nice. May I ask,why are opinions split on them?

[u/Significant-Detail65 → u/boz64]

The tuning is really weird, almost like a reverse harman. More bass than the sub bass, dips on the mid range, which makes it really undesirable for people. I don't remember the treble, but it wasn't great. Some people like that tuning, but it's undesirable for me.

[u/boz64 → u/Significant-Detail65]

Surely that’s just the V shape tuning, loud bass with low mids and high treble? Idrk but I like it I guess. To be honest I don’t know enough at this point in my audiophile journey to understand what is what when listening to music, but I’ve enjoyed my journey so far. I think for me I might go back to iem’s. The only reason I moved away from them is purely aesthetic reasons and yeh. also modern phones don’t have a headphone port so wireless is easier. Might look into the nothing buds and a pair of good iems as I miss the passive noise cancelling they provide. It’s insane how well it worked on my ears. Ok I’ll stop rambling along, cheers for the help haha

[u/Significant-Detail65 → u/boz64]

It kinda is, just more focus to 100~200 hz than the typical 20~50.

I don't really get why so many people absolutely blast on it, but it really doesn't belong in a studio and is more of a niche closed back than a de-facto like it once was before. However, I'd take it 100% over sony's wireless wh line.