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by dopamean 4418 days ago
> you can get equivalent quality spending ~$50-70

That's what he was asking for. I've frequently heard this and I believe it to be true but as a non-audiophile how do I identify a pair of $70 headphones that are as good as Beats' $200 ones.
3 comments
falcolas 4418 days ago
You listen to them. Listen to a piece of music that you know well, and listen to the two side by side. Ideally something which isn't all in one frequency range.

With better headphones, you will hear more detail in the sound. Words which sounded mushed together in the Beats will be distinct in better headphones. The mids and highs will come through much more clearly. Music will just sound better.

Beats have decent bass, but they're hardly the only ones with good bass out there, and many which have good bass are also capable of sounding better in the rest of the frequencies as well.

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superuser2 4418 days ago
This is an easy thing to say, but stores with a reasonable selection of headphones you can listen to are rare. The best option for your taste/budget at the Best Buy display, for example, are rarely the best choice for the money.

Many of the beast headphones aren't consumer products and aren't sold in mainstream retail outlets. I love my Sennheiser HD380s but I know about them because I'm an amateur engineer and they're great for live monitoring.

Really, just look at Sennheiser, AT, Shure, Koss, Grado, Beyerdynamic, ... Anything mainstream that's not Beats or Bose is probably worth looking into.

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ProAm 4418 days ago
There are several good posts on Hacker News and other sites that will frequently reference good headphones for the cost. I cannot find the exact one that I used (because after I got my headphones I forgot the information and probably wont need it for another 4+ years). But check these out and they might help [1][2]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7685327 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7658103

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superuser2 4418 days ago
Look at Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, and/or Koss. All make headphones in both price ranges which are (more or less) worth what they cost.
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