Headphones

[Stephen Coates]

I did have a look on ebay and saw some second hand U2410s going cheap, so I might pick one up, or I might wait a bit and see about upgrading to something newer.

[Harrison]

Also consider Sharp as they have been winning awards for their monitors and being good reviews for the last few years. They do some nice 1440 and 4k resolution monitors.

[J T]

I'm rather liking using my Bluetooth headphones. The lack of a cable is actually quite nice. It sucks having to charge them though, and sometimes the Bluetooth connection drops when there's no audio for a period. I don't know if that is an issue with the headphones or an issue with Windows 7's bluetooth driver.

I'd happily upgrade to some better ones at some point, but I don't think I'd get one without an optional cable as not everything has Bluetooth.

I got my first pair of true wireless earbuds almost 2 years ago. Before that I'd had one of the 'earbuds wired to a little neckband'

It's really nice having zero wires and they're pretty good for video calls too. But I have come close to losing them a couple of times.

I also have a cheap set of aldi 'over ear' wireless headphones. It took a lot of messing about with EQ to get a sound that I was happy with - but they were very cheap.

[Stephen Coates]

My U2711 is still my main monitor as it has such good colour accuracy for photo editing. And still great for 1440p resolution too. Plus the legacy connections come in useful.

You can still pick up a lot of u2410's secondhand. Under £60.

I just got a used U2410 on eBay for about £45. Turns out to have a slight blemish on it but its only noticeable on really dark screens. Not bad for the price, given how much they were new. I've been using a ThinkPad with a 14" 1920x1080 screen and a 17" Trinitron on my main machine, so its nice to be able to see things again without eye strain!

[Kin Hell]

I might have an Acer Predator XB271HU for sale sometime soon if anyone might be interested. - 2560 x 1440 IPS Panel; G-Sync; 165Hz.....

[Harrison]

A long time later I finally bit the bullet and bought some high end headphones yesterday. It was Amazon Prime day and the Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones were in the sale. The Amazon exclusive version was cheaper then the standard white or black, and are dark grey with copper accents and logo.

They arrived today and I'm not disappointed. The case is a really nice zip up hard shell with charging and 3.5mm cabled stored nicely inside. The headphones rotate so go flat in the case, meaning the whole thing is quite small when packed away.

I'm really impressed with the build quality, which is to be expected from Sennheiser. And the padding in the ear pads and headband have to be the softest and most comfortable I've ever felt, and fit prefectly over your ear.

They were really easy to pair to any Bluetooth device and I hadn't realised they have a cool feature where they detect when you put them on and instantly turn on, and turn off when you take them off. That's really cool. And the app is very useful as you can adjust the EQ a lot of you don't like the default setup.

Setup via the app was quick and the right ear touch gestures work really well. Tap to start/stop. Slide you finger up and down for volume. Pinch 2 fingers together or apart to increase and reduce noice cancelling. Swipe left our right to skip tracks. Pretty simple to use.

Sound quality is brilliant. A lot of headphones seem to be all bass and treble, and not much middle. These have a great range and really nice bass. I listened to a few music tracks and could hear things I hadn't before on headphones. And having a much more balance range means vocals are very clear and to the front. The biggest noticeable difference is on live tracks from concert recordings.

I had to test them with the greatest guitar solo of all time. The remastered 4k version of the Pink Floyd Pulse concert, with Comfortably Numb. It sounded amazing. As well as David Gilmore's solo everything was so precise and clear. Supurb.

Very happy with these. Worth every penny. And a 2 year warranty too. I am just going to keep these for indoors though and use my cheaper Sennheiser headphones when gardening or walking the dog.

Definitely going to be using these when watching films late at night to avoid the compaints from my wife when the sub normally cuts in.

[Kin Hell]

It's just over 12 months since we were talking Headphones H....

Do you mind me asking what you paid for them?

& is the noise cancelling true cancelling? - As in you can't hear anyone talking to you from the side....

[Harrison]

Indeed! Exactly a year. Time flies. I decided to just use the cheaper ones I'd only just bought at the time. But I kept nearly buying the Momentum 4s a few times and finally decided to just do it, and I dont regret it.

Yes they do have true noise cancelling. It isn't quite as good as the Sony XM5s I've tested in a store, but it's nearly as good. The reason it isn't is by design. Sennheiser decided to make it so some sound was still present for safety reasons for awareness of surroundings. You can turn the level of noice cancelling from full to transparent across 4 increments. When fully active I can hassle hear myself clapping loudly so they do cancel a lot. I've not tried them outside yet as passing traffic or people talking would be the best test. I bought them mainly for use at home so the NC isn't really the main feature I'm bothered about, although with my son at home for the summer it could be useful to block him shouting at his friends online playing Minecraft together!