Best cans under $50
Pros:
Dynamic range, good sound, comfy, light and compact.
Cons:
A bit bassy for acoustic music.
The Bottom Line:
These are perfect for a traveller or a DJ. The only person who should avoid these are acoustic-only listeners. Otherwise, they're a great buy.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I had bought a pair of Optimus headphones at Radio Shack for $20 about 4 years ago.They died out, I was sick of bad sound so I bought a pair of Koss KSC-50's to carry around in my backpack, they were great for $20, I'd advise you to buy them if you need a pair of knock-arounds, but I needed something more. I read reviews here and at headphone.com, I couldn't really find what was perfect for me.
Eventually, I narrowed it down to AKG-66's, Sennheiser 495's and the Stantons. I finally found a place in town that carried them and I gave them all a listen. The AKG's were okay, nothing great though. The Senns and these Stantons were about the same except for the fact that the Senns were TWICE as expensive. This was the deciding factor and I don't regret my decision at all.
I broke these in with a CD from various styles; I used Tranceport for techno, Howie Day for acoustic, Fantomas for rock, Deltron 3030 for rap and good old Thievery Corp for jazz. After breaking them in, the amazing range provided a great sound, they are plenty powerful to be driven by my portable cd player as well as being nice and compact to travel with. Since they are professional DJ headphones, they provide AMAZING isolation, perfect for trains planes and automobiles.
The only problems I can see is that they aren't really suited for acoustic music, as the range goes so low. In addition, they are a bit tight around larger heads, though I'm sure they'll stretch out eventually. I'd definitely advise the penny-packing audiophile to take a look at these.
