Cheapest over-ears headphones with some sound quality?

[samwell7]

Hello Fello ASR Forum Members: In the screen is Stereo Review from September 1984. In my hands is the same, but new headphone, 36 years later. Let's give it a listen. View attachment 122953

I love my PortaPros, they changed my viewpoint on headphones and audio a bit.

 

[markanini]

Creative Aurvana Live!, Tyll liked them too.

 

[samwell7]

Creative Aurvana Live!, Tyll liked them too.

I can only find the CAL! 2 for sale in Australia , apparently they aren't as good but I really want to try the CAL!

 

[mkawa]

i agree with the koss porta pro/ksc75. they were my entry into headphones and my brother even still uses them as every day drivers after 20 years.

 

[Shirley Marquez]

How you measure your hearing? Are we talking about the measurable or subjective definition?
I do with simple youtube 20-20000 test tone and look at the digit when it goes totally silent. If you hear sine wave of 15kHz+ this is very very good. Most of my age friends hear even a bit less than me, that is LESS than 14kHz and all of us are 38-45smth.

Testing your ears with a YouTube video is not ideal because you're also testing the performance of the lossy audio codec. That will be either AAC or Opus depending on your listening device, and the bit rate depends on the resolution at which you watch the video. Using a lossless source like a test CD is better in terms of audio, but those don't have the handy on-screen display of the current frequency.

You are also testing the performance of your computer's DAC. But if you are here you already know that and you are using some sort of quality DAC, not a bottom of the barrel one on a cheap motherboard.

 

[Firefly00]

While Koss is serviceable unfortunately sound wise they are worse (in my book at least).
Never said those are fabulous to start with. With EQ and velour earcups they are fine all do lower bass will remain rough to say at least.
Keep in mind Sennheiser's or AKG's (which visually mentioned Superluxes copied) which are a steep up are around 200$ & still considerd as bang for $.

I want to see if I can take a KPH30i, rip out the drivers, put them in a machined aluminium build and sell them to Zeos’ subscribers for a stupid amount of money