Help needed with selection of a replacement headphone.

[hadyp]

After years of occasionally listening to music (generally bass-heavy) on various wired earbuds, wireless earbuds and most recently, the noise cancelling Sony XM3s, I recently got back to hearing music on an ancient set of open-type headphones (Phillips SBC HP 840) which I had lying in my parents' house for a long long time. (audio source has been a phone/tablet mostly)
I am far from an audiophile, and these Phillips headphones are 15+yrs old - but even to an untrained ear like mine, these headphones sounded far far superior to all the other earbuds/headphones I've used.

So what's the problem? The Philips headphones seem to have a loose contact at the audio input jack, so the left ear speaker sometimes ends up at a much lower volume. Its not end of days yet, but its probably coming soon.

So, I had a couple of questions, hope you folks can help me out -
a. Any chance of getting these Phillips headphones fixed? (long shot perhaps....)
b. Suggestions for an open-type headphone that will sound good without necessarily needing a separate amp?
c. Any place in Hyd/Blr where I could actually get a trial run of the open-type headphones? or where I would have a return policy for a 'buy and try' (even longer shot i guess) ?

 

[Fapdda]

A. Most likely no, but you can ask local shops, they might be able to help you out.
B. If you have a budget of around 20k, Beyerdynamic or Sennheiser has some options.
C. Absolutely not. The only option you have is to buy with a return policy from Amazon or Headphonezone which is hard to find but not impossible.

 

[hadyp]

Thanks for the inputs @Fapdda

I was looking at reviews of the Sennheiser HD 650, and it appeared that they would not be a good buy without an amp. But then again, I normally don't listen at a high volume - so does that in itself negate the need for an amp? If you have any specific model suggestions for a set of headphones that will sound good without an amp, i'd be grateful. Source of music is likely to be a PC or laptop for the occasional listening session.
I will check out Headphonezone (had only been looking at Amazon so far...), thanks for the tip.

 

[rdst_1]

There is someone selling hardly used Hifiman Deva in the marketplace for 9k. They would make a very good entry point in the audiophile world and best part is that they don't need an amp to shine. Amping helps in every case, but they don't necessarily require it unlike high impedance options like HD650.

 

[hadyp]

@rdst_1 Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, looks like it got sold.
But I will check out the brand, it looks like that particular set is available at headphonezone.