DEcent Headphones £100 - 150

[The PIT]

Title says it all. Mailnly for music listening live concerts via an external decoder from DVD's

[KvHagedorn]

Sennheiser HD580. I Have the 600s with an amp. Consider a good headphone amp if you want seriously awesome sonic detail.

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphones/full-size/sennheiser-hd-580.php

[The PIT]

Basically listening via a Creative DDTS 100 via spdif which isn't probably the best anyway. I can still overload mine HD 570's or is the crap audio from the computer system.

[KvHagedorn]

Crap audio is definitely from the computer. You can't expect much from that. One problem is that better quality headphones usually have higher impedences and really need an amp to sound good.

[Jammrock]

If you aren't going to pony up for an amp or better sound card any time soon, the Grado SR-60's are the best way to go, imo. They are standard 32 ohm headphones and cost ~$60 USD, so they will probably be in that neighborhood in pounds.

http://www.gradolabs.com/product_pages/sr60.htm

A cheap amp upgrade would be a simple Chu Moy headphone amp:

http://www.headwize.com/projects/showproj.php?file=cmoy2_prj.htm

If you're not a soldering tinker type, you can find well built, pre-assembled Chu Moy (cmoy) amps all over the place, and especially on eBay. For the money they are splendid amps according to just about anyone who has listened to one. They sell for roughly $50 USD online. If you piece it together you might save a little on the cost, but not much.

If you are going with an amp, jumping up to the SR-80's would be a nice upgrade and still stay within your budget.

Being a Sennheiser man though, I must mention them. The HD line are truly fantastic headphones. As long as you get one of the newer, lower impedence models you shouldn't have troubles driving it. The Chu Moy amp should be able to drive any of the new HD line models without difficulty.

Jammrock

[KvHagedorn]

100 pounds ~ $200. What about the new HD595? It's got a bit lower impedence but a bit pricier..

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphones/full-size/sennheiser-hd-595.php

[TransformX]

What about the HD-485? I've heard they were the best bang for the buck.

[Claymonkey]

I have to agree with the Grado 60's I still want a pair for myself after getting a pair for my dad. If you have a preamp I'd say get the 80's or higher. Honestly there is a point with the high end headphones that you don't get the full benefit of the headphones unless you have a headphone amp or a jack that feeds enough power to the phones.

Here's a review of that Chu Moy model. I've thought about building one for awhile now. http://dansdata.com/cmoy.htm

[Jammrock]

100 pounds ~ $200. What about the new HD595? It's got a bit lower impedence but a bit pricier..

http://www.headphone.com/products/he...ser-hd-595.php

Ah yes, the 595's. I have a pair and they are fantastic. I would have expected them to be >150 quid, but it appears they are not:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-HD595-Open-Headphone-ohms/dp/B0001FTVE0

I guess it helps that the electronics are made next door in Ireland. These and a prefabbed cmoy from eBay would hit right aroung 150 pounds, and would be wonderful to listen to, imo.

[Mehen]

Check forums - places like www.audioasylum.com/ or www.canuckaudiomart.com/

Check ebay for used stuff.

[az]

I've got HD595s (got them for ~120 EUR a year or so ago!) and love them. I also built a Cmoy headphone amp (which I don't use because my Terratec 6Fire has a good headphone out with pot already) - it's really easy