My Favorite Headphones for Home Music Listening

Let’s try this again, yes?

A few days ago, I intended to give the featured spot in this oh-so-illustrious article to the Philips X2HR. However, what started as a delightful tribute turned into a eulogy, as I found out those wonderful headphones were quietly discontinued by their mega-conglomerate parents.

It wouldn’t do much good to write a whole article recommending headphones that you can’t even get anymore, so I went plunging back into the testing realm and combing through my small collection trying to pick a runner up. Although the two pairs featured in this article are technically my second-place picks, they’re still excellent performers for the money and importantly they are actually for sale on the market as of this writing.

I wasn’t paid or asked by any of the companies mentioned below to write this, and I don’t use affiliate links in my stories. I’m just a weird guy who spent the last several years reviewing audio gear, before shifting to cover more gaming stuff. Audio has been a hobby of mine for a very long time, and also a job thanks to almost two decades of freelance production work.

Criteria

Home listening is a different beast altogether than on-the-go listening. When you’re out and about, you’re probably using a phone as your main source of music, and you’ll need something easily portable and probably wireless. Noise cancelling is a plus when you’re sitting in a cafe or on a loud commute. Bass performance takes precedence for its wonderful ability to help create an audio cocoon for some peace of mind out on the road.

None of this matters at home. You can use wires. You can (hopefully) sit in a relatively quiet room. You might have access to devices with more power like an amp, computer, or receiver — though my picks below will still sound fine out of a phone. Open back headphones thrive more in a home environment, creating a wonderful sense of space while also keeping your ears cooler during long sessions.

I used these latter characteristics balanced by my personal tastes and new listening sessions to go through my personal collection and my review database and pick the winners here. This doesn’t mean you can’t use closed headphones or noise cancelling at home, or even just listen to some tunes on a gaming headset. These are just my picks that feel like they’re purpose-built to listen to things in a nice gentle home environment, and that might struggle if you take them outside.

HiFiMan HE400SE

These planar magnetic wonders usually sell for around a hundred bucks and are everything that you want if you’re a “price/performance” sort of person. They have huge open back drivers with a wide soundstage that’s wonderful for all types of music, and also great for movies and gaming. They have some small sculpting to their signature in the bass and treble regions that might irritate audiophiles but are otherwise an exceptional-sounding pair of headphones.

You can check out their official page here. Yes, I know it looks goofy, but that’s their real web site.

Planar magnetic tech takes a little more juice to run, but the 91dB sensitivity and low 25ohm impedance of the 400SE’s mean they should still get reasonably loud out of a phone if you don’t mind cranking things up. I’ve driven my pair just fine out of both PS5 and Xbox controllers, though I do have to get a couple of notches closer to maximum than with a standard gaming headset. I don’t like to listen at ear splitting volumes whether I’m at home or on the go, and with the sumptuous response here, you won’t really need to anyway — though amplifier-havers will see some benefit.

If you’ve never heard a planar headphone before, you’re in for a treat. They have their own wonderful sense of bass oomph and presence compared to many of their dynamic driver competitors. Normally, open back headphones don’t have very exciting bass unless they’ve been intensely tuned to feature it, but here the bass is flat and accurate and beautiful. Interestingly, wearing glasses has little impact on the bass performance. In fact, hovering the headphones slightly away from your ears and breaking the seal completely actually raises the bass response, which is quite different from how dynamic speakers perform. My point is, you can be sure you’re getting the right sound out of these even if you don’t have an absolutely perfect fit.

You shouldn’t have too much trouble getting a good fit thanks to the huge profile of the headphones and the highly adjustable headband. I can wear these on my larger than average head with about a third of the adjustment range un-used, and the spacious ear pads don’t run into my ears at all. The heavy nature of the metal support structure and large drivers means you’ll need to get these positioned just right on your head for a comfy fit, but once you find the sweet spot, they’re nice to wear for longer sessions.

I didn’t pick these over the X2HRs originally because of their weight and their slightly-harder-to-drive speakers. The Philips model is a touch less intense sounding out of the box as well, with less bite to the treble.

If you’re a gamer, this is one of my favorite non-gaming-headset headphones for that purpose. They have the best dollar-to-soundstage ratio I’ve yet experienced, so if you just want to hear where things are around you either in stereo or virtual surround, then dive in!

The original shipments of this headphone came with a disgustingly bad cable that was very thin and cheap feeling, but more recent shipments come in a simpler recyclable box with a much nicer cable. If you get the original version, you might want to consider either an exchange or a third-party cable.

I’ve seen some reports of build quality issues with other HiFiMan products, but I’ve only had one small real issue with my personal HE400s. They shipped covered in a weird amount of packing material dust, but once I cleaned them off, they’ve been pretty great. I noticed in my original review that the grills on the sides were a bit loose if I poked at them, but I think this is just part of the design.

If you’re looking for something more analytical, check out the Sennheiser HD560S, which I recently picked as my favorite overall headphone on a technical level. It’s not quite as “fun” to listen to for home entertainment tasks, which is why it doesn’t show up here. It’s much more of a neutral-sounding tool that’s best suited to production and for picky audiophiles that want the flattest and most accurate audio. The HiFiMan has a more sumptuous and energetic sound that’s great for “real people,” so to speak.

Monoprice Semi-Open Back Headphones

If you’re on a budget and you still want some home audio excitement for fifty bucks, then consider these terribly-named Monoprice headphones. Yes, that’s their real name — and also a literal description of the product! You can find their product page right here. I see these on sale all the time for hilariously low prices far below their already rock bottom MSRP, so bargain hunters will almost certainly find a good deal.

This pair of headphones is actually a semi-open version of the iconic OEM product known as the Takstar Pro 80. Takstar themselves used to sell this as the Takstar HI 2050. If you see a differently-named headphone that looks like either of these — there’s a good chance it’s the same core headphone.

This OEM platform was the basis for several of HyperX’s award-winning headsets, and the sound signature here is a fun take on v-shaped boosting with enough detail left over to keep them from being bad. Bass is surprisingly present and natural for an open back headphone, though the subbass response is lacking some energy. The upper midrange and treble have a trademark Takstar edge that’s trying so hard to mimic the treble response of more expensive Beyerdynamic headphones. It comes impressively close, but if you’re treble sensitive you might want to EQ it down a little depending on the music you’re enjoying. Soundstage isn’t as wide as on the HE400’s, but still wider than most other Pro 80-based pairs that don’t have an open back design.

If you read my original review from last year, you’ll notice that I kind of hated these. However, I relistened to them a bunch both in preperation for this article, and for my review of the HyperX Cloud III headset earlier this year, and I think I must have been in a funk when I wrote that review. I’m not nearly as displeased with these now as I was last year, for whatever that’s worth, especially considering the low price these go for.

The adjustment range here isn’t nearly as high as on the HiFiMans. I have to wear them fully extended on my head. Fortunately, the headband pad is really awesome, and the ear pads are decent enough. The cable is permanently attached, but less prone to weird kinks than the cable on the Cloud III’s, and the plug is very solid and includes a 6.3mm adapter. There’s also a simple cloth bag in the box, but I didn’t care for how it felt so I got rid of it.

When you wear these at home, at first they seem more like they’re fully open rather than the “semi open” their goofy name advertises. You’ll hear everything coming in from your surroundings. However, their leakage to the outside world is shockingly minimal at normal listening volumes, which is interesting. Your friend/roommate/family member will have to get closer to you before they hear your song than with the 400SE’s.

You can go even cheaper than these with the Koss KPH30i. The 30i’s are simple on-ear headphones but they sound wonderful. If you’re looking for more bass response and a removable cable, the SHP9600 is a fantastic alternative that’s only a little more costly. However, I think their larger frame is just a hair less cozy than the Monoprice pair, and they don’t have as much detail in the treble range. If the SHP9600 more frequently lowered in price like its predecessor, it would have won the budget crown here instead.

I once said that I liked the SHP9600 more than the HE400’s, but after a ton of additional testing I’m not sure I agree with past Alex. It’s a lot harder to dial in the comfort on the 400SE, and the different tech inside makes them a little harder to drive, but once you get them both fitting well there’s just so much to enjoy in HiFiMan’s planar drivers. Also, in this modern era perhaps I’m still bitter at Philips for discontinuing the X2HRs and dumping the price down hard on the X3. If that can happen to two such iconic headphones in their lineup, anything is possible right?

Maybe it’s better to buy audio tech from a company that makes audio tech instead of a company that makes absolutely everything? Something to think about, at least.