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Comment by saryant | Hacker News Reader

Nothing beats the Sennheiser HD-280 as an awesome pair of hacker headphones. For ~$80 you get terrific sounds, great noise reduction and amazing comfort.

I've tried previous iterations of the Bose QC line but I was disappointed by a) the battery requirement, b) the sound quality (poor and muddled by active noise cancellation) and c) the build quality---my pair died after a year and those things never did anything but sit at my desk.

I'm going on five years with my HD280s and I don't have a single complaint.

edit: I should add that I do end up using my iPod earbuds a lot. I should really buy another set of HD280s for work.

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Same here, I've been using the same pair of HD280s for years, and they've been absolutely wonderful. The only issues I can think of are:

1) They're heavy, so they cause cranial irritation.

2) The padding at the top has come loose, though that's easily fixable with some glue or tape.

3) They're not wireless. This is the biggest thing for me. After getting some LG Bluetooth headphones to use with my Android phone for listening to music on the go, wired headphones are really starting to bug me. However, wireless isn't practical for the hours-on-end of music listening that goes on while working, since the battery would probably run out (not sure about that though - the LG's are supposed to last 10 hours).

I love my 280s. However, lugging them around is a bit of a bother so I usually leave them at my desk.

When I'm on the move, I pack in-ear buds. Skullcandy makes the best: inexpensive and really great bass. My favorite are the Titans (http://www.amazon.com/Skullcandy-Titan-S2TTCB-047-Black-Chro...) but even the entry level Ink'd are a huge step above any other buds at that price point.

And people actually use the white Apple buds? I can't even keep those in my ears as they just fall out constantly.

When I'm coding the last thing I want is bass. My goals in that situation are:

a) Block out everything around me. b) Play music that helps me concentrate.

I find that bass is counterproductive WRT #2.

As for the Apple earbuds, they fit me and I can wear them for about an hour before my ears start to hurt. I keep them around when I need to be on-the-move. Personally I've never been a big fan of Skullcandy.

I do have a pair of Etymotic ER-6i canalphones. I don't use them unless I'll be using them for a while at a time since taking them in/out is a bit of a process but the sound quality is superb and they do a terrific job of blocking out my environment. They're magic on a plane.

Sennheiser in ear buds are the only thing that make mass transit survivable. The almost completely block out ambient sound, and I can listen to podcasts enven in loud environments.

The only caveat is that buds, especially when thrown into jackets and pant pockets, only last 6 months to a year, but are completely worth the 40$.

Really? Sennheiser makes some really open in ear monitors (IEMs) and buds. I've found them to not be so good for traveling.

I used to have Shures, then Etymotics, but the Etys broke. Now those made a plane sound like a quiet car ride.

I have a pair of shure se315 and, I love them. They block out ambient noise really well, and have a really nice even response. I would recommend them if you want an IEM with an even tone. Only downside is they are a bit on the expensive side.

Skullcandy? They are exactly that, and they sound terrible. "Really great bass" should have been your second hint.

> you get terrific sounds, great noise reduction and amazing comfort.

I've been using 280s at work for a few weeks now and I'm not really digging them. At home I have Shure SRH-440s, but replaced the stock pads with pads from the 840s (about $20 off amazon). They're monitor headphones so the response is meant to be flatter; the net result is notably quieter bass that sounds more "present" than pounding your ears. At first I disliked it but once you start listening for a bit you grow to appreciate it.

I have this exact pair with those pads. Really great but they get warm after a long while as all over-the-ears models do. Great sound though and very portable.

I love my 280's, but I have trouble hacking with them unless I leave one ear partially off. Their around-ear noise-canceling design puts the music front and center, and I prefer to hear the music in the background farther away when hacking.

That said, they've lasted 3+ years extraordinarily well, far better then the Sony MDR-7506's I've seen die in that time frame.

Meh, for closed over the ear headphones I prefer Beyerdynamic's DT 770 Pro. The only problem is that they put quite some pressure on your head. You have to like it and best should test them for an extended period of time before you buy them. For me it's not an issue.

Agreed, though I've always thought the pressure from the DT770 was fairly light - maybe I'm just used to heavier stuff. Isolation from outside sound is about as good as you'll get short of specialized headphones, or ones using active cancellation.

What I like most about them is that they don't touch my ears at all, so for me as well there's no long term discomfort whatsoever.

The headband on mine broke within the first 6 months from taking them on and off all day. Great sound, bad quality.

I was able to reinforce them and they are better than ever.

The HD-280's are great headphones, but the HD-380's are a significant upgrade. Better bass response and more open sounding. They sound extremely similar to my HD-595's.

After a bit of research the 380's do indeed seem to have a good rating. I believe both the 280's and 380's are collapsible but the 380's have an easier to replace cable.

Very good reviews online but a bit hard to get in shops (UK), most places seem to order them in.

You're right, the 380's do have an easier to replace cable. They're readily available from online retailers. I bought mine from DV247.com after reading Marco's review (http://www.marco.org/2012/01/27/sennheiser-hd-380-pro-headph...).

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