Hi Mickey, if you're looking for something rugged I'd go for a Beyerdynamic DT770, 880, 990 or possibly a Sennheiser HD280 Pro. Those are close to indestructable. I'd say these are about middle of the road durability wise. They're likely going to be more rugged than cheap gaming headsets, but they won't hold a candle to the former I've mentioned above. Should be fine without a case but you probably wouldn't want to drop them too often. The main issue this headphone has I would say, is that the headband mechanism does tend to seperate off the headband on one side but I don't think it's too costly to get a replacement if that happens after a few years. However, for the current price these are a great deal for sound quality and I think they are the cheapest planar magnetic headphone available currently. They're based around that same design of the HE400i/HE400se/HE4xx which are my favourite headphones for sound quality south of 250 - 300 USD.
WISH I saw this post on Sunday! I showed them to him on amazon, and he chose to get the HiFiman phones
I just purchased 3 sets of phones. The Beyerdynamic DT770 set WILL be in the next round of holiday shopping. I purchased these so far all with extended warranties. It was not my idea really. Kind of surprised he cares so much about quality at 14, really proud of that. At first he was not to keen about lugging around phones that cost over $50, but then I pointed out the reviews here.
Showed him the HE-X4, and he chose that first. Strangely, he said that the DT770 (in his opinion ) did not look very rugged from a glance at the listing photos. Looks can be deceiving.
I also threw in these as I am still waiting for the topping Bluetooth Dac to get back in stock. Its a nice stopgap until the Massdrop order gets here.
I think I can drop them off at his school, if that's okay with them. I tried them out to "See if they work" Ear pads are a bit uncomfortable and get hot after 45 min. The sound quality was VERY FORWARD. It almost sounded like I can hear the driver distort a bit even when at half volume almost like cone breakup in songs I tried. Great for voice however. But they sure are open and almost too boosted in uber detailed in the midrange, and have a good balanced low range but seem to be missing the bottom octave thump of the typical phones at this price market.
I'm no Headphone junky. They do sound "Good" over bluetooth. Not what I would call High end by ANY MEANS.
But I purchased these so he has something other than a broken cheap Department store set of phones he was given.
I think they would sound better with the cord for sure. Out of the box? Not bad. They look good. But I can tell, these are not what I would ever call robust. Kind of like a happy meal of headphones. you are more excited about the toy and the playground.
I also got a set of these as this was his first choice (Purley for budget and he likes my Panasonic's)
They were on sale for $32, so I just threw them in the cart. Another 5 days before they get here, so hence, ordered the ones above as they were next day.
Now if the 5 year old niece can ever get over the Fascination with wanting to be a Unicorn? ...
Alas...
PRINCESS PURPLE.... Oh dear..
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