Headphones open or closed back

[Lawrence001]

All things being equal, open-back headphones are more natural, less coloured, and just sound more, erm, open. They leak noise out, and let outside noise in though.

Closed back headphones offer more isolation from the outside world, which can be advantageous in many situations.

Totally agree, always go open if the environment allows.

I've owned about 30 pairs over the years including stax lamdas but I've finally settled on the Hifiman HE500s as my end game cans. These can be had for about £300 but need some driving as do most planars. They can be driven from a normal speaker amp with an adaptor or fitting banana plugs to the cable in place of the jack (or go bare wire) so you don't need to buy a headphone amp. In return I've got the closest sound i could find to a good pair of speakers.

Below £150 I recommend a pair of Sennheiser HD580s (I luckily got mine for £50 with worn pads) and spend the rest on an amp. I love the little dot mk3 with them with upgraded tubes.



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