The Best Headphones You Can Get For Less Than $50

Yeah, that's right, these bad boys will blow your ears off. No, not really, but for around $30 on Amazon, the Sennhesier HD 203 Circumaural Headphones are you best bang for the buck. First off, lets get to the main subject about headphones; do they sound good? 


Sound


Yes, the advertised frequency range is 18-18,000 Hz, which is about what the 203's put out. In my personal tests, the frequency was about 23-18,500; which is still below and above the human hearing range. Distortion is only present at the 55-63 Hz range where some, might I add very little, static comes through. But to the normal, iPod/iPhone user, the specs don't matter, so yes it does sound very good, almost comparable to many of Sennheiser's $120-$130 headphones such as the Sennheiser 450's. The trebles are at times drowned out by the bass, but the treble remains clear. Bass is very good, but on songs such as "Daft Punk, Voyager" where the melody is in the very low bass line, the volume had to be turned up so that the bass could be heard; not to say that these headphones won't handle the bass, it's just that they aren't as loud, which is acceptable.


Grade: A


Comfort 


These headphones are not the most comfortable things in the world, sure you can listen to them for about 2 hours straight, but then you need a 10 minute break. The main discomfort comes in the ear cup pads. These can be replaced for user pads, but the stock pads are a bit small, the material is decent but says cool and does not heat up the ears. The headband has one long, and very nicely padded strip which is made of the same material as the ear cups but is not as bothersome as the ear cups since your hair in in the way. For all you bald folks out there, the strip should suffice for very long listening sessions.


Grade: B+


Other Notes


The other problems I had with this headphone was the cord, it is way too damn long, 8 ft! While this is nice if you want to plug these into a home theater system with the included 1/4 in. plug, and sit on the couch at the same time, the cord does get tangled but only in one or two areas. 


For testing I used all FLAC (uncompressed) audio on a Pioneer 5.1 600W Home Theater System, a iPod (256 Kbp\s MP3), and a laptop with a 24-Bit Sound Blaster Advance Card.


Music Used (With Respect to artist and song, no copyright infringement intended):
1812 Overture (FLAC)
Daft Punk (FLAC everywhere except iPod)
 -Around the World
 -Voyager
 -One More Time
 -Human After All
 -Alive
AC/DC (FLAC)
 -Iron Man 2 Soundtrack