Not sure why everyone just looks right past them… but the AKG K371 is extremely well rated, is $100-120 brand new, got a B recently on the Headphones.com guy’s closed back list.
It’s kind of bewildering to me how everyone jumped onto the FT1 train (cuz it’s new I guess) when there’s a perfectly great Harman target headphones for even cheaper than that… for the last 4-5 years.
Anyway if you’re on a train, you’d improve your signal to noise ratio greatly by having ANC. More than the sound quality improvement you’d get using wired or an amp IMO. If I were you I’d get a used set of Bose ANC quiet comfort, or Sony XM4/5, or a new set of Anker Q45. Hell, some of these you could have ANC on and still use your wired amp if you wanted to.
I just bought a set of these as well, waiting for them to ship to me. I’m getting them just as an experiment for my little EQ project, already have 3 other closed backs of various price point.
Seem like they should be pretty good, bass extends all the way to 20hz. Since you’re running your own amp, it should sound quite nice, and a bit of EQ wouldn’t hurt.
I still think ANC headphones or even IEMs as @pennsatc suggested is probably better for a train, but hopefully this works out well for you regardless!
I have a set of Sony WF 1000XM5, which are fine for sports talk radio in the morning, but for music listening on the ride home they just don’t cut it. Hardly any bass and not very rich sound. And they don’t go loud enough to block some noise even with the ANC.
I thought of the Sennheiser Momentum 4 in that category, certainly less than BOSE, but did not go there for the $200 budget. I sometimes run the Momentum 4 with wired, and it’s not bad at all.
I also thought the size for the Momentum 4 and some of the others might be just a big large. Certainly the case doesn’t fit in a pocket unless you’re a kangaroo.
Have you tried ANC earbuds/iems? Personally for shorter train rides and such that’s what I always end up grabbing. For longer plane rides I’d wear ANC headphones. Then when I get really bored I wear both! You won’t hear any noise until you open your mouth, haha.
UPDATE: Just got the HiFiman Sundara by recommendation and love them.
they fit comfortable, sound great, I can notice alot of the smaller sounds and hisses in Deadmau5 music and other electronic i’ve listened too that i’ve never been able to hear before on my cheap headphones.
Laptop drives them at a decent volume and good clarity, tried on my Motorola Stylus and its at about half the volume, figured this would be the case since its a cheaper phone.
Only downside I can think of to these, compared to my cheaper closed back headphones, is that they let all outside noise in, so I get to hear the bass from my neighbors garage stereo echoing in my house unless i have the volume turned way up.
So for anyone else considering these, that lives in the city with lots of noise, consider a sound cancelling headphone. I can live with it tho.
Considering in a few months getting a Dragonfly dac, they look enticing for the price and their size, for my use, the dragonfly is the perfect size to hookup to my phone or laptop. I wish they had an updated one that was usbc instead of A, that would eliminate the need for and A to C adapter for phones. and i’d rather use the C port on my laptop as I have many of them compared to A ports.
Some of us have capitulated and accept that mainstream Sony/Apple/Bose noise-cancelling products are the best realistic options for travel and city noise. I’ve owned each brand, and they all have mediocre sound quality but allow for lower volume listening.
Agreed 100%. The Apple AirPod Pro 2 are certainly not the be all end all in sound quality, but they’re all I use when commuting or in my office due to their portability, comfort and ANC performance; they sound decent too. They probably get 80% of my total ear time to be honest.
ANC and portability are the way to go when traveling!
I use Galaxy Buds FE on the go. Super cheap, good anc, Almost Harman tuning with some of the eq presets. It’s good enough for me when there’s outside noise and audio quality isn’t the number 1 priority.
I never use my Dragonflies anymore (I have black and cobalt). The Luxury & Precision W4 is far better, and the W2 is probably better also - Goldensound reviewed it. It’s on Amazon now at about the price of a DFB. Only 4 left… And it has the right USB for you.
You’ll get much better sound quality and driver diversity for less than $200 in an IEM than you will in a closed back. Plus, you can’t beat the portable form factor of an IEM, and many don’t need an amp to drive straight from a phone due to their low impedance and high sensitivity.