Headphones between $70-$100

[Vixe]

Festive greetings, everyone

I'm looking to buy a late Christmas present for a family member... a pair of good headphones between $70 and $100.

I would prefer if it wasn't a headset, i.e. it doesn't need a built-in microphone, but it would be nice to have overhead headphones, instead of the in-ear ones. The person that it's for is not a gamer, and will purely be using it for listening to music and watching movies, so audio quality and comfort are the only criteria. It also needs to be compatible with Mac OS X, so USB sound-card headphones might not work.

Does anybody have a good suggestion? Personally I only know gaming brands, which is obviously not what this person is looking for.

But all opinions and suggestions would be appreciated; such as "don't buy Shure; no value for money" (that's just an example, not my opinion).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vixe]

I've got my eyes on the Sennheiser HD 212 PRO. Anybody with experience/knowledge got any advice regarding this decision?

 

[gefthebest]

Hello,

The sennheiser HD 212 PRO are good and typical music listening headphones.

However, I was going to recommend the Sennheiser HD280 Pro (http://www.headphonereviews.org/headphone/Sennheiser/HD280+Pro) because they are completely circumaural (over the ear) and have a wider frequency response. However I just saw that the Sony MDR-V700DJ are on promotion on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR-V700DJ-DJ-Style-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B00001W0DH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1293341272&sr=1-1)!...
I am myself a DJ and enjoy the Sennheiser headphones alot as my replacement headphones for the Sony MDR-V700DJ.

Hope that helps

 

[Vixe]

Thank you very much for the response.

The HD-280 seems perfect, but I've got one problem, and that is that I live in South Africa. All our online retailers have quite a large mark-up on items that only a few people buy, seeing as this is a niche market. Over here, the HD-280 is going for R2,150, which is $320. It's absolutely ludicrous to be so overpriced. The same goes for the Sony 700's, as the specials won't apply here. The HD212, however, I can find at a much more reasonable price, as it is more frequently purchased.

Considering that, would you recommend the HD212 Pro for a pure music listener? A person that would use the headphones at a laptop, and no DJing? Because personally I find it strange to buy DJ headphones just purely for music listening, even though it would most likely deliver the best quality/comfort. Do you have any suggestions which you might consider more reasonable, with that in mind?

I don't wanna get something cheap, but I also don't want something over-the-top... So I'm kinda in a pickle :/

 

[gefthebest]

Ha yea,

The HD212 are much easier to find... and they are good headphones, it would just depend if you plan on using them continuously for very long periods of time (like 4hrs+ straight), your ears would start to ache because they are semi-over-the-ear...
But it seems like it is just for music listening so they are good