Are expensive headphones REALLY worth it?

[JASR]

If you buy them, then yes they are … to the manufacturers laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[nmc]

So I'm after some sony wh-1000xm4 headphones, but they are £250. My issue is i already have some decent highly rated headphones that cost around £60. My primary use for them is watching films and want as good as sound quality and bass as possible, but will the sonys really be that much better than my £60 ones?

I've got a pair of these - I think they are very good but they are expensive - probably depends how much you'd use them

 

[BlueMoonday]

If anybody is after new headphones, there's a cracking Black Friday sale on Amazon. About to pull the trigger on some Audio Technicas

 

[Kompany Car]

I'm currently watching King Kong (2005) wearing my anker soundcore q90s and to me they sound amazing. They cost around £55-60 and I cant see how the sony wh-1000xm4 will sound so much better to justify spending £250 on them. You reckon I should stick with what I have?

Those Anker soundcore headphones are great for the price. If you were listening to vinyl with a decent amp and record deck or hi resolution audio then it might be worth it. But the audio you get over Bluetooth isn’t even CD quality, the closest you get is Sony LDAC but even that is only 900kbps vs the 1411kbps of CD audio.
To be fair however I do question the sanity of people who can perceive a difference at very high bit rates as the quantisation noise (compression noise) only impacts the very high frequencies up near 20kHz.

 

[jrb]

If you have a John Lewis near you check out their clearance department or their audio video department. They will have a stand or an area where customer returns, many not used, or hardly used are sold off a lot cheaper. Many of the products are still current stock. You still get the 2 year John Lewis warranty. There are always loads of headphones for some reason. There are plenty of different makes, Sony, Bose, etc.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Sennheisers with an enormous reduction here.
£180 down to £70

 

[1961_vintage]

No.

 

[jimharri]

No.

They're worth it if the people who stump up the money think they're worth it. I work in a noisy-ish environment in a factory, and I use a set of earbuds that cost €20 on ebay. Perfectly adequate for my needs.

And yes; I'm sure a professional sound engineer would have a fit if he listened to my earbuds. Am I worried? Er; no.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

They're worth it if the people who stump up the money think they're worth it. I work in a noisy-ish environment in a factory, and I use a set of earbuds that cost €20 on ebay. Perfectly adequate for my needs.

And yes; I'm sure a professional sound engineer would have a fit if he listened to my earbuds. Am I worried? Er; no.

The thread title is asking our subjective opinion. I’d agree that for most people who don’t have an exquisitely musical ear, then most cheap and cheerful headphones will do the job.

People will have differing wants and needs though. Some want a heavier bass, whilst others want a more dynamic treble.

If you can try before you buy, then everyone should get what they want.

 

[1961_vintage]

They're worth it if the people who stump up the money think they're worth it. I work in a noisy-ish environment in a factory, and I use a set of earbuds that cost €20 on ebay. Perfectly adequate for my needs.

And yes; I'm sure a professional sound engineer would have a fit if he listened to my earbuds. Am I worried? Er; no.

OK.