Budget headphone recommendations

hi there, My last pair of headphones, beyer 440 were some 25 yrs old and about to give up the ghost. I presented myself at the music store, completely unprejudiced about the range in front of me - except for one thing, i last paid, all those years ago 25 quid, and i thought i would not pay big money if i could otherwise get a satisfactory replacement.
I tried the Grados, x2; a range of Sennheisers. The fifty quid Sennheisers , to be blunt, were pretty crap; the Grados felt ridiculous on the head - and looked stupid (IMHO!), although having said that , the level of detail was better than on the 50 - 60 £ Sennheisers. The Grados were also, the down side, terribly exhausting, because the sound is so upfront. I could not listen to them for any length of time.
This left the cheapest, the most comfortable ones and the least tiring, best balanced ones! My beloved Beyer 231 ! If you ever listen to slightly ragged digital sources, eg set top box, you will appreciate the slight treble recession and the fact that they are imminently wearable for very long periods of time. THe overall feeling to the sound is like have to small speakers strapped to the head, rather than a pair of tinkly headphones. ( i cannot comment on HD 600's though, but at 120 quid, they are hardly likely to be 3 times better....)
Waiting to be chewed to pieces for suggesting something cheap...and adequate

I have to agree with Tim, Grado's do not feel comfortable (IMHO). The squash the ears and just generally aren't that pleasant. They may sound marginally better that their immediate competition, but to be honest after an initial try I didn't want to find out - what's the point of marginally better sound if the experience isn't pleasant?

Up-market Sennheisers are very very comfortable. Sitting over the ears rather than on, with really comfortable pads - though the cheaper ones have reduced levels of comfort. But I seem to remember that Richer Sounds and a few other stockists ran a promotion pricing top range pairs at about ~£120.

Here is a link to a previous thread that might be useful.

Dave

Sadly the Richer promotion has stopped, so the 600's are out of my price range. The HD580's are there or thereabouts. Any idea how they compare?

Hi Mekon,

You can still get hold of cheap HD600's at Ask Direct. I got some last week and now only need to wait until February for the new Headline to arrive!!

Anyway, they cost me £120 including delivery and, at that price, they really are a bargain. The 580's are also very good, slightly less refined and not as broad an audio range, perhaps, but equally comfortable to wear and can be bought for under £100 at the moment.

The Grado's, whilst sounding good, were bloody uncomfortable - my ears felt like they resembled Graham Rowntree's* after a few minutes.

Dave


* Graham Rowntree, England and Leicester Prop Forward

Anyone tried the cordless ones such as the Senheiser RS85 (£99), how do they stack up compared to the HD580s (£89)?