Our Top Headphone Picks For Students Looking For High Quality Headphones And Accessories
Headphones for students have many requirements. They need to block outside sound so you can concentrate in noisy places; they need to be portable and durable enough to survive many trips in a backpack; and, they need to be inexpensive enough so that you don't have to survive high school or college eating Ramen Noodles (after all, Mac 'n Cheese is sooo much better).
We'd like to state right off the bat that if you want to listen to music for the rest of your life, be careful to listen at a safe volume. Poor sounding headphones can be much more damaging to your ears than a quality pair of cans. Poor sounding headphones often have peaks in the upper mid-range and lower treble that are harsh and damaging to your ears. The good sounding gear below will allow you to intensely enjoy your music without turning it up too loud just to hear the detail.
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Low-Cost Headphone Solutions For Students
In ear headphones are extremely compact and offer excellent sound quality, but they can be a little troublesome if you need to hear your surroundings. Nonetheless, they can make great headphones for students for blocking out noise while studying. Our favorite low-cost in ear headphones are the Skullcandy Titan and the Sennheiser CX300-II. In fact, the Titan may be the best-sounding earphones anywhere near their price we've ever heard. For listeners seeking a clean treble sound and great dialogue/speech intelligibility for watching DVDs and interpreting audio on computers, the small-sized beyerdynamic DT235 offers very comfortable and simplistic looks that belie great sound performance. Bassheads and urban music lovers will get a kick out of the Sony MDR-XB500 full-size headphone with its exaggerated bass, deep plush comfort, and throwback looks.
Mid-Price Headphones That Are High-Value For Students
We'll just tempt you with a few recommendations that could make a worthwhile investment for your long-term academic career. Etymotic Research is an originator of in ear headphones of many sorts, and their Etymotic HF5 headphones are simply phenomenal for their price. A phenomenal headphone for those looking to have a small compact can to throw in the backpack should have a look at the Sennheiser PX 200-II, a seriously good sounding and astonishingly well built headphone that folds like a pair of sunglasses for transport. One of the best sounding mid-sized closed headphones anywhere is the Sennheiser HD448 - truly stunning sound and ideal dorm room cans for sound quality aficionados on a budget. Students who need serious bling to go along with truly great sound, the Monster Beats by Dre Studio headphones will be a magnet for friends wanting to sample your huge jams.
The Sennheiser 280 Pro full size closed headphone handily folds for transport and storage, and is amongst the most famous cans of this type/price due to its flat tonality and great noise-blocking isolation. It is perfect for location recordists, film audio, and camera monitoring. For much more musical audio performance, the Audio Technica M50 slays most other headphones anywhere near the price, also fully collapses for transit, and works great directly from iPods too. Anybody in media production needs a serious working tool, and the closed-back Shure SRH440 is just such a headphone with a neutral, articulate sound likely to please the student audio enthusiast. But if open full size headphones are your thing and isolation is not required, the upscale beyerdynamic DT880 is an extremely accurate, slightly 'forward' sounding reference headphone sure to reveal every subtle nuance of the audio signal stream.
Lastly, all these headphones will sound significantly improved with a good amp, and since laptops are as common as backpacks on campus, the Total BitHead USB headphone amp should be a top consideration for any computer listening. The BitHead eliminates the noise found inside computers via its excellent digital to analog converter (DAC). You'll be amazed at what a great sound source your computer can become.
