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HeadRoom's 10 Best Headphones

This is where we boil down all our voluminous headphone knowledge to its bare essence and recommend around ten (or so!) headphones. In roughly ascending cost order, here they are:

For a great sound without ambient isolation, have a look at the Koss Porta Pro or the equally excellent, but better-looking, Sennheiser PX100. Our current favorite inexpensive portable-use 'sealed/closed' headphone is the efficient AKG K414P model. This little headphone sounds quite decent featuring a full punchy bass response & good treble range clarity along with a sealed-earcup [a.k.a "closed"] construction to provide some degree of external/ambient noise-blocking.

The Grado Labs SR60 has long been our recommended entry point for folks looking for excellent sound from an affordable open-earcup headphone. Our biggest-selling can in the Grado 'SR' series, the SR60 model likely delivers the best overall sound quality under $100 and represents amongst the best sonic 'bang-for-the-buck' values in the entire industry. It’s likely not the best-looking pair of headphones ever, but you're not going to mind appearing a tad old-school with a noggin full of awesome sound.

Its bargain $99 price tag makes the Sennheiser HD280 Pro the official “go-to” recommendation for full-sized, sealed/closed headphones. Obviously, great sound quality will win our hearts (& ears!) over every time but a very good ambient noise seal, plus the handy ability to fold up into a smallish lumpy bundle for transit, makes these headphones a really spectacular buy at the price. However, another $50 bucks up and you own the incredible DENON AH-D1001K sealed-back headphone, which we feel to be sonically superior to many headphones at nearly twice their price.

In the formerly-ignored, lowly 'earbud' category, the Yuin PK1 easily remains the most impressive earbud performer we've heard especially when mated with any dedicated portable headphone amp. Frequent travelers realize that 'ear canal headphones' (ECHs) provide far better isolation and overall sound quality than 'noise-canceling' or even high-end sealed/closed headphones. About the best thing to ever happen to an iPod or Mp3 player, the Shure SE310 is an ECH with a nice mix of excellent audio performance, great ambient noise isolation, and a reasonable price.

Shure’s older-model ECHs may have perhaps been a little hit-and-miss in the distant past -- ABSOLUTELY no longer! Their recent SE530 earphones not only sound truly impressive and deliver near-total isolation but the entire build quality/ergonomics/looks equation is a big winner. These miniaturized cans are simply superbly detailed, evenly balanced, and ultra-dynamic throughout the entire musical frequency spectrum, a rather rarified mix of traits even for top-shelf ear canal headphones (ECHs).

Moving on to conventional full-size "audiophile" headphones: For an energetic and very lively top headphone, the Sennheiser HD 595 almost comes close to it’s more elegant, smooth-sounding, and very sophisticated big brother HD 650 in overall audio performance but provides a more energetic "up-front", slightly grainy, and less laid-back sonic presentation. The HD595's efficient 50-ohm operation is also a nice plus and quite rare in this caliber of high-end headphone.

The newest incarnation of AKG’s flagship headphone is the K701 and, boy, does it sound amazing! After a rather lengthy initial break-in period, the K-701's sound eventually becomes textured, refined, and punchy -- a superb combination of sonic characteristics. Pair it up with a world-class HeadRoom headphone amplifier and a reference audio source, and we promise you one of the purest high-end listening experiences you’ve ever had. Speaking of pure reference listening, the intensely impressive Denon AH-D2000 headphone is one of the best headphones in the industry -- in either the closed or open categories -- and offers the kind of timbral clarity and tonal precision formerly unheard in closed-back cans, EXCEPT for maybe its warmer-toned big-brother Denon AH-D5000 model at double the price! Finally, the terrifically analytical beyerdynamic DT880 is supremely dynamic and precisely detailed throughout the entire frequency spectrum and is also amongst the most ergonomically comfortable full-size headphones on the market... And, of course, please don't forget our standard HeadRoom 30-day 'no-questions-asked' satisfaction policy absolutely guarantees you'll love whatever you hear!

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