Open-back headphones with detachable cables and pads you can still order.
Open grilles let sound pass both ways, which is why they are the usual choice for critical listening at home. Passive and wired, with replaceable pads, a detachable cable and a headband that is screwed rather than bonded. Every part that wears is one you can still order years later. They leak sound, so they suit a quiet room.
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At a glance: Open-Back Headphones picks compared, with buy links
In production since 1997 with every component still orderable: drivers, pads, headband, grilles and cable all come apart with no glue and no special tools. Open backed and entirely passive, so there is no battery, no firmware and nothing that stops working when Sennheiser moves on. The same pair of these is routinely handed down rather than replaced.
Open-back studio headphones with a spring-steel headband and replaceable velour pads and headband padding. beyerdynamic sells the spare parts, and the design has changed little in decades.
Open-back headphones with a detachable cable and replaceable velour pads. Sennheiser sells the wearing parts separately, so a worn pad or broken cable is a small repair rather than a new pair.
Open-back headphones with a steel-reinforced headband, removable pads and a detachable cable. They are passive, so nothing in them needs charging or updating.
Unchanged since 1984, and Koss covers it with a limited lifetime warranty that is the reason it belongs here rather than the sound: the company replaces a failed pair for a handling fee, for as long as the original buyer owns them. That turns the usual death of a cheap headphone, a cracked headband or a frayed cable, into a postage cost.
Limited lifetime warranty, replacement for a handling fee
The HD 600's warmer sibling, sharing the same chassis, the same parts list and the same complete absence of anything electronic. Buy this over the HD 600 if you find the 600 bright; buy the 600 if you do not. There is no durability argument between them, since they are the same headphone with different drivers.
The way into this family without the amplifier. At 120 ohms it runs acceptably from a laptop or a phone dongle, where the HD 600 and 650 really want something to drive them. Pads and cable are still replaceable.
In production since 1997 with every component still orderable: drivers, pads, headband, grilles and cable all come apart with no glue and no special tools. Open backed and entirely passive, so there is no battery, no firmware and nothing that stops working when Sennheiser moves on. The same pair of these is routinely handed down rather than replaced.
Open-back studio headphones with a spring-steel headband and replaceable velour pads and headband padding. beyerdynamic sells the spare parts, and the design has changed little in decades.
Open-back headphones with a detachable cable and replaceable velour pads. Sennheiser sells the wearing parts separately, so a worn pad or broken cable is a small repair rather than a new pair.
Open-back headphones with a steel-reinforced headband, removable pads and a detachable cable. They are passive, so nothing in them needs charging or updating.
Unchanged since 1984, and Koss covers it with a limited lifetime warranty that is the reason it belongs here rather than the sound: the company replaces a failed pair for a handling fee, for as long as the original buyer owns them. That turns the usual death of a cheap headphone, a cracked headband or a frayed cable, into a postage cost.
Limited lifetime warranty, replacement for a handling fee
The HD 600's warmer sibling, sharing the same chassis, the same parts list and the same complete absence of anything electronic. Buy this over the HD 600 if you find the 600 bright; buy the 600 if you do not. There is no durability argument between them, since they are the same headphone with different drivers.
The way into this family without the amplifier. At 120 ohms it runs acceptably from a laptop or a phone dongle, where the HD 600 and 650 really want something to drive them. Pads and cable are still replaceable.
120 ohm, runs from a laptop
Pads and cable replaceable
Passive: no battery, no firmware
Open back
Least expensive way into this family
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Product photograph, SennheiserTop pick
Product photograph, Beyerdynamic
Product photograph, Sennheiser
Product photograph, Philips
Product photograph, Koss
Product photograph, Sennheiser
Product photograph, Sennheiser