2009-12-11 Looking for Headphones
While walking around I use either the Apple earbuds (specially when all I’m doing is listening to podcasts). When listening to music, eg. in the office, I use the Koss Porta Pro that I bought as a cheap replacement for my Shure in-ear headphones.
But now I’ve started working in a large office again, people are talking on the phone and discussing stuff. I work better after 17:00 because people start leaving the building and clients no longer make phone calls. My hope is that getting good headphones allows me to add an hour or two to my workday. The guy sitting in front of me owns a Bose Acoustic Noise Cancellling® Headphones. Switching them on is like entering a dreamworld. Everything’s so quiet. But people on hifi-forum.de don’t like the Bose sound. They think they are too expensive. And I won’t link to their website because they have popup ads for their own products! On their own site! How stupid can you be. Facepalm!
He also offered to sell his Beats by Dr. Dre Monster “Studio High Definition Headphones with Powered Noise Cancellation” – but the hifi-forum.de people don’t seem to like those, either. Too expensive for a bass slinger, they say.
So, what to pick? @stfn42 writes “I chose Sennheiser PXC450 over the Bose QuietComfort 3” – well, that’s a start. And expensive, too. But that gives me some search terms to use in the forum. What I do is look at all threads that involve a comparison and note the other headphones mentioned.
I found some recommendations for the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 – available from Promusig next door for CHF 259.–
Buying from a local shop is important because then I can give it back or have it repaired without having to send it in. And now, after having bought it, I find that there’s just one shop on toppreise.ch that sells it – and it’s selling the headphones for CHF 263.– Hurray!
I went to the shop and wore the ANC7 for a bit. Unfortunately I don’t have cute little monkey ears, so I have to fold them a bit in order to get them all into the cup. It was ok. The music color changed quite a bit with the noise reduction switched on, but nothing too bad. Noise reduction also wasn’t fantastic. But I bought it because it got much better reviews than the Dr. Dre Monster. We’ll see how it goes.
Tags: Headphones
Gadgets
Music 
2007-11-12 Koss Porta Pro
I was browsing the web for new headphones to use in the office. There’s some sort of defective contact in the cables of my ShureHeadphones. I already cut the cable once and soldered a new plug onto the rest. After a week the problem returned. I’m going to get rid of them. And I think I’ll go for something cheaper this time. An no in-ear headphones!
So I was looking for reviews…
I liked the advice given on headphone.com. It was divided into various categories and I picked “Replacing Cheap Headphones”. If they had a shop in Switzerland I would have ordered from there. I ended up ordering the Koss Porta Pro from K55. A small shop here in Zürich with friendly people. I’m having the headphones delivered to the office directly. This is the first time I did this. It feels weird. I took the Koss Porta Pro instead of the Sennheiser PX 100 because I liked the old school look.
The headphones cost me CHF 99 including delivery.
Tags: Gadgets Headphones MP3
Good choice IMHO
I love mines
– PierreGaston 2007-11-12 13:55 UTC
Apparently it has already been sent off… Perhaps I will be able to enjoy my music in true retro style starting tomorrow.
This is true old school: First model appeared in 1984! [1]
Hehehe.
I also like the Koss Limited Lifetime Warranty.
– AlexSchroeder 2007-11-12 18:06 UTC
Well, I’m wearing it right now and I’m happy. I have such a large head that I’m afraid of too much pressure on my ears…
– AlexSchroeder 2007-11-14 10:32 UTC
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