Hey dudes, do any of you know of a good brand of headphones that isn't too expensive, but last long and have good sound quality?

The only brand I can think of is SkullCandy, but I've never actually used SkullCandy, are they good?

I have a pair of these - THX surround sound and comfortable. Designed for Gaming w/USB plug though. (I won a pair in a contest).

Skull Candy are a good pair. They have a mix of sound quality and comfort. If you just casually listen to music then I would recommend the Skull Candy brand. I use to use my Skull Candy pair, before getting Sony headphones. If you love sound maybe Bose could be the brand for you if you are willing to spend that much. I will be picking up a pair of Bose this winter.

Yeah, Bose are definitely too expensive right now.

I'll check out SkullCandy...

Try the lower end Ultimate Ears. It's a good mix of comfort and quality.

Cheers
Ted

I'm actually looking for actual headphones, not ear-buds, but thanks.

Well i have two bose headphones. One around-ear, one is in-ear. Both are good (in ear is the best for jogging cause its shape is better than other ear phones). You can try Dr Dre beats, they're even more expensive, they have built in Amps in them. I'd personally stay away from skull candy, they sound bad in comparison to high end headphones.

Grado are supposedly best value for money relative to how they sound and their cost. I dunno i dont have them so cant say for sure. Sony is similar to Bose in the fact its slightly bias towards Bass, people who work in audio hate Dr Dre beats, Bose and Sony because of the slight bias towards bass, they want it to emit frequencies evenly. However to the average person bass gives that richness of sound, as long as it isn't excessive.

Sony is probably the way to go, however they make a lot of Low End headphones and earphones also and it can be hard to tell the good ones from the bad ones, you'd have to go read reviews, but most reviews are written by people who don't really own other headphones so they cant compare them, therefore their review is uninformed.

Also avoid ebay. All the Dr Dre and high end sony headphones are fake on there. Even the ones that say are real.


I will say this advice. Going from a set of low quality headphones to high quality headphones you will not notice much difference. However after using high quality headphones for a while, then going to low quality headphones you will notice a big difference. (i guess ignorance is bliss?! lol)

Lol, alright, thanks a lot for all this. I'm gonna look at Sony, and if I find something, I'll post a link, so you can help me determine if they're high quality or not.

Sony Headphones 1
Sony Headphones 2
Sony Headphones 3
(I'm going to assume from the price, these would be low quality)

But what about these:
Other Headphones 1
Other Headphones 2
Other Headphones 3

Will do.

I edited my post with 6 links...all from Amazon, but hey, I gotta start somewhere...what do you think about those?

I was thinking more like these
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR-V700DJ-D ... 03&sr=1-17
I'd get those.

I'd skip those last three ones you've listed, i've not even heard of those. Those three sony ones appear to be the lower end ones. Seems to be what you are willing to spend though. However you may not notice might difference in quality anyway, as long as the new headphones are better than whatever you were using before.

You can understand the main quality of headphones by knowing two specifications about them; frequency response and decibel output.
Most common headphones have a frequency response of 20-20k.
That is 20 cycles per second to 20,000 cycles per second. The low number represents the bass frequencies and the high number the high frequency end. It is said that a person can't hear frequencies above 20k but for those who like a brighter sound, I find that headphones that rate higher than 20k tend to have a brighter sound. With the low number being the bass frequencies, the lowest I have seen is 5 but 10 is really nice too.
Decibel output (sensitivity) is important to consider if one likes to listen at loud volumes. If plugging in the large cup earphones, the hand-held music players don't put out enough to power the headphones adequately so then a higher decibel rating will help. I suggest 106db or higher if possible.

I have found nice headphones at ROSS, MARSHALL'S and TJ MAXX for $15-$25.

Newegg has a nice price on some Sony Extra Bass; http://tinyurl.com/25hpmq2
Frequency response, 5-22
Sensitivity, 100db

Frequency response is good but it refers to the frequencies the headphone is able to output. Rather than the bias towards low or high frequency they might sound like. You'd need to see the chart on the audiophile website to really examine the bias. For example two headphones may have a Frequency response of say 5-22 but one may still sound more bassy than the other. It really comes done to preference. Also depends on your mp3 player, you might want to consider better quality CD rips than what you may already have to really hear the difference. Perhaps go to a shop that has them on display and u can go test out all the different headphones.

Okay, now that I think about it, I don't mind ear buds (or those ones that actually go in the ear...so what can you suggest in terms of those?

Lol!! i'd only recommend bose. I dunno about other brands.