Sennheiser HD 280 Professional Headphone, Black

Excellent Headphones worthy of consideration
The HD 280 pro’s have a nice quality feel, and balanced non-fatiguing sound. I’m reading about these other people rating these headphones as trash, they are anything but! …. Of course they have their take, and I’m sharing mine. I am also a professional studio musician, like the other recent reviewer. In contrast to what he mentioned, being to flat! That is the intent for their design, to be accurate in presentation for all frequencies. Not for overly accentuated frequencies, making a mix sound inaccurate. As a percussionist, I love bass too, but not at a cost of sacrificing a well balanced studio mixed recording. Granted, they will never sound like a set of Meze Elite Aluminum headphones, but they also don’t cost $4K.What they do provide is excellent value for the money.As far as the chord, I had no problem what so ever, a non factor.I’ve used this model for years, it’s reliable, accurate at a price that is more than reasonable.I liked them so much, I personally went the extra mile of purchasing the VOARMAKS Leather Replacement Ear Pads, which is available on Amazon as well. They compliment the HD 280 pro’s even more. They also improve the sound too. It’s subtle, but the soundstage seems to be larger, and the presence is clearer IMO. Nothing subtle about the improvement in comfort, and larger, fitting over the ear nicely versus the stock ones. Installation is easy as well. To me it’s a no brainer to purchase in addition.In Summary,Everyone has their own take, mine personally, the HD-280 Pro’s is no doubt, a worthy of purchase!For $85 especially!

Excellent sound, but . . .
the folks at Sennheiser must not have large heads. As with about every pair of headphones that I try on, I had to extend these all the way to fit. After a few months of daily use, the plastic headband began to develop small cracks. Now the cracks are growing and I fear that the whole thing will just snap one day. Unfortunately, that is one of the parts that isn’t listed as replaceable.That said, people who look at this headphone are looking for: a) quality sound synonymous with the name Sennheiser b) excellent noise reduction.a) The sound from these phones is excellent. The standard criteria are there. The signal is very clean, thanks in part to the oxygen free copper cabling used. Bass is controlled and precise so a timpani doesn’t sound muffled. Higher frequencies do not hiss and the phones are able to drive high frequency sounds and pull out details lost by consumer grade headphones. Soundstage is fairly narrow as some have said, but much better than consumer sets that sound like the sound source is inside your head. Of course, a DSP solution for soundstage expansion could help if someone didn’t like the soundstage.What people should realise is that most music is optimised for listening on a stereo system and not headphones. A search for “binaural music” will yield samples that show how music should be sampled for headphones. Anyways, the HD-280 Pros also have 64 Ohms of resistance so an amplifier isn’t needed.b) The biggest impression I got from these phones is silence. Not total silence, since with the headphones on I could still hear outside noise. Once the music starts playing, however, music is much clearer because background noises have been attenuated so effectively.That was the biggest attraction of these headphones. For my sound processing work, ambient noise from my computer and the outside world are suppressed admirably. 32 decibels is a lot of sound attenuation, far more than the Active Noise Reduction sets from Bose or even Sennheiser. The HD-280 Pros use passive noise attenuation. This means that for the phones to supress outside noise effectively, they have to be tight. They are very tight in fact. Four Newtons of force are applied, a number significantly larger than most headphones. If it weren’t for the thoughtful padding, they would feel as uncomfortable as firing range headsets. Passive noise attenuation also means there is no artifacting from electronic noise that is usually the case in Active Noise Reduction sets.If you have a very large head, a solution is to find in-ear phones (the expensive Etymotics sets have even better sound quality and noise reduction). If you are sensitive to tight headphones, a solution might be the Active Noise Reduction sets (although they aren’t as good sonically). If you listen to sound in a very very quiet environment, Grados or some other Sennheisers would probably get you that better soundstage for the money.If none of these situations applies to you, then these phones will provide better sound through their native excellent quality and their superior noise attenuation. After all, the listening experience with Sennheiser 600’s on an Audigy 2 card or a tube amplifier is diminished with that noisy computer fan in the background.All in all, these phones are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.*** UPDATE, October 20, 2009 ***Wow, well these headphones are still ticking after over six years and I’m pretty rough with my equipment! Cheap headphones break after six weeks for me because the cable gets pulled or I mess up the speaker so these Sennheisers are pretty solid.Just as I feared though, the plastic HAS cracked and you can see the thin wires (covered in plastic or rubber) exposed. Now that most of the plastic on the headband has broken off, the fit is quite a bit looser though the headband is still held together by a wide piece of metal. I just wish they would just make a nice metal headband to avoid the plastic cracking issue.While I like the fact that they aren’t so tight, I don’t like the fact that richness (low-end midrange and bass) suffers because of it. You can simulate this when listening by pulling the headphones slightly apart. It isn’t noticeable on light music though and might not be an issue with newer versions of the HD-280 Pro.The ear cushions on my 6+ year headphones are worn past the leatherette, past the foam and to the foam backing layer. The top is looking ratty as well. Replacement ear cushions are around $20.00 which isn’t cheap. I’ll probably skip that in favor of a new pair of HD-280s – especially if they’ve been redesigned for larger heads as some people are indicating. I’ll keep this pair around as beaters until they quit on me. However, now that I’ve quieted my working area, sound isolation isn’t as critical to me as it was before so I might take a look at other Sennheisers.

I got tired of buying cheap headphones that break easily and don’t regret paying extra for these at all. I’ve been frustrated why so many companies try to save a few cents making such thin cords that break in a few months only to lose money replacing them on warranty. This actually has a cord built to last and it’s coiled so it’s flexible. The cord is a bit short though for my setup so I use a cord extension to make sure it doesn’t get tugged and damaged.I’m not an audio professional but the sound quality is amazing to me and a lot more natural sounding. The bass it has feels like having a subwoofer. The frequency response is rated for 8 Hz but from my testing at typical listening volume levels it can only noticeably play tones as low as 11 Hz, which is still pretty good. It also surprisingly blocks out a lot of outside noise too, about half as much as the hearing protection I use at work.I also love that they’re comfortable and so adjustable. I like to pull one side behind my ear while singing so I can hear myself and they still fit to my head perfectly.

For the price these headphones are great. Extremely comfortable and lovely detailed sound quality. Cable length was adequate but if using away from the hifi amp you may need to purchase an extension like i did. Would recommend.