My Current Headphone Collection
As we go into 2018, here is a list of all the headphones I currently have kicking around in random places in my apartment. If you want to read my list of my personal favorites I reviewed in 2017, click here!
You can click on the names of these headphones to see my original review for each one. I don't always keep the headphones I review. I buy all of my own headphones, and I don't accept review or promotional copies. I then sometimes sell them to make room for more. If you want to help support this nonsense directly with money, please click here to find out what you can do!
Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro Plus
I love this thing. I only wish it came with a carrying bag of some kind. The detachable cable, the comfort, the adjustable bass, the Beyerdynamic build quality, the face plates...this is a fantastic product. It's a pair of headphones that's good enough and centered enough around my own personal tastes that I have a hard time being too excited about other headphones.
Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 Ohm
For when I want the sound of the Custom One Pros, but with more speed and more refined/controlled bass. The DT770 is still my favorite studio headphone ever. I wish it had a detachable cable. I wish it could collapse in some way. I don't wish it came with a better carrying bag, because the nylon one it comes with is stupid and fun.
The Senneheiser HD598Cs beat this one in my wired headphone awards last year because it has features that are more geared towards the average consumer...but the DT770 is still my personal favorite, sound-wise.
Audio-Technica ATH M50X
I keep these around because they're decent for hearing flaws in audio recordings, and because they're a good standard to compare against, audio quality wise. A lot of folks who are just starting out in this hobby are going to either be interested in this pair, or be familiar with how it sounds. So, it's very useful to be able to compare other products to what is a commonly accepted standard for "competent," even if I don't always directly mention those comparisons in my reviews.
I don't approach my reviews from the mindset of an audiophile or even a pro. I'm trying to target people who are just out there, trying to figure out which headphones to buy. Whether or not they've ever actually bought a pair of headphones before. That's why my reviews tend to mention sound signatures enjoyed by the average consumer a little more than is the custom, because that's who is actually buying the most headphones.
Pioneer DJ HRM-6
These are an excellent bigger brother to the also-excellent HRM-5's.
I almost didn't find either of these headphones. I was wandering through my local Fry's Electronics last year, a store that I sort of loathe, and I discovered the HRM-5's. They ended up being an exceptional value.
That same store started carrying the 6's, and I'm a sucker for being able to get something right now without waiting for shipping, so I dove in.
These are a great, slightly more laid-back alternative to the aggressive studio sound of the DT770's and the M50X's. It's like if you had to take that type of sound, and make it a bit more palatable for normal users.
I love them. They're super comfy and super well-built.
Sennheiser HD 461 / 471
I recently wrote a three part series covering the Sennheiser HD 471, 461, and HD 200 Pro, which are all based on the same basic design.
It turned out that the 461 and 471 were pretty great for the price...and the HD 200 Pro was a curiously awful thing.
I'm not sure how long these will last in my collection since their sound signatures are a little redundant to things like my HRM-6. But it's nice to have cheaper headphones around that I don't have to worry about breaking.
Gaming Headsets
Steelseries Arctis 3
These are the M50X of gaming headsets. Excellent comfort, excellent sound, excellent mic. These are the standard I compare other gaming headsets to, again, even if I don't explicitly mention it in the review. I have to maintain certain pairs as my favorites so that I have some basis for what I'm talking about in other reviews.
In fact, this is the only gaming headset I currently own. Even though the last year saw the release of great new options like the Astro A10, the HyperX Cloud Alpha, and the Corsair Void Pro...something about the Arctis lineup still appeals to me just a little bit more. Everyone should probably just borrow their design/comfort concepts, and the microphone is stupidly good.
ONWARD TO THE FUTURE!
Who knows what my headphone collection will look like at the end of this year? It will probably include at least one more Beyerdynamic headphone, and one more gaming headset. And a few of these above will probably vanish into the ether.
I learned a long time ago that, once you get above a certain level of quality, headphones are just different instead of better. This makes it frighteningly easy to end up with a large collection of headphones.
I don't ever want to have a huge wall in my apartment that's covered in headphones. Instead, I have a couple of small shelves that I use to store them, and once those are full...I force myself to sell something, if I'm adding something new.
Thanks for reading!