[supernick1990]

PC Speakers
low £0-£40
medium £40-£75
Creative GigaWorks T20
These are 2.0 speakers, so obviously lack a subwoofer, but they offer reasonable bass respone, since they feature Creative's BasXPort technology, which pretty much means that they have these upward cones that act like 'mini-subwoofers' on each speaker, so they're not exactly empty at the low-end. Anyhows, the best thing about them though is the clarity of sound - warm, clear, balanced and accurate, and more than loud enough to dill a 4m x 3m room when turned up.

There's also virtually no distortion until the speakers pass 80% of their volume, upon which you do experience some, although it depends on how well you've ripped your music collection, ie. algorithm and bitrates - I re-ripped all my CDs to 192kbps VBR to get the best from these speakers (I tried ripping some songs at even higher bitrates, but didn't notice any difference - this seemed to be the ideal tradeoff between sound quality and the amount of space a song takes up on disc). Constuction on them is impeccable, and the milled aluminium dials give them a real quality feel, as do the graphite front-casing.

The only downside is the piercing blue LED on the right speaker, but I just cut out a holepunch-sized piece of black duct tape to cover it, as the light was distracting me when I was watching movies in a dark room. Still, the most important thing is the sound quality, and at the price, they're an absolute bargain for anyone not wanting/needing acres of bass.
TrustedReviews - Creative GigaWorks T20

AngelInterceptor's reccomendation.

high £75-£125
Acoustic Energy Aego M

What happens when a hi-fi brand do PC Speakers? This. These are the clear winner in this price category for PC Speakers, offering incredible sound from very small satellites.

Full review here: http://www.trustedreviews.com/multim...-M-Speakers/p1

very high £125-£200
audiophile £200+

Hifi speakers
low £0-£30
medium £30-£60
high £60-£100
very high £100-£200
audiophile/for the stupidly pernickity and downright pedantic sound engineers £200+

Monitoring speakers
low £0-£30
medium £30-£60
high £60-£100
-Behringer MS40's I got for just £93

Now, they arnt very good (i would like some V expensive ones), bit quiet, but for the price they are great. High quality Digital Input, 2 analogue inputs, mini EQ (no idea why, but its there) and fairly punchy mid range sound. Not hugely bassy, but they are only 3.5 inch cones.

For just under 100 quid I would recommend them. I have used very good monitor's, and compared to them they arnt much, but for the price I would happily buy them again.
very high £100-£200
-QSC monitors for about £200, they are active monitors with built in limiters.Apparently at full whack they give 130dB at 1m which is loud!
audiophile£200+

In ear headphones
low £0-£30
medium £30-£60
high £60-£100
Nuforce NE-8

Actually got these myself recently after reading great reviews on headfi forums. Excellent mids and highs with brilliant passive noise-cancellation. Bass isn't perfect, but still a cracking set of headphones. By all acounts better than the offerings from Shure in this price bracket.

+ Very good sound quality and projection (soundstage)

+ Especially in this price range, rivals similar in-ear phones at £100+

+ Clear, gentle, detailed and filling vocals and trebles

+ Tight background bass, not exaggerated or booming or smeared

+ Comfortable around-the-ear, small flat profile

+ Design makes them easy for the gym - guaranteed not to come out

very high £100-£200
audiophile£200+

Closed back Headphones
low £0-£30
medium £30-£60
high £60-£100
- Beyerdynamc DT 770 pro (£80)
very high £100-£200
audiophile£200+

Open back Headphones
low £0-£30
medium £30-£60
high £60-£100
very high £100-£200
-Sennheiser HD650 (£180)
audiophile£200+

Amplifiers

low £0-£100
-Cambridge Audio A1 v3
medium £100-£200
high £200-£500
very high £500-£1000
audiophile £1000+

[omicronlyrae]

Wow. This is most awesome, and if enough people agree, I'll sticky this

Thanks for taking the time to write it.

[Planto]

No AKG love?

[HCD]

Agreed on the budget CX300s, that's for sure. So comfortable too!

[Planto]

I must admit I was more hoping to hear your opinion on the AKGs, since my old headphones broke and I'm gonna need some new ones :P

AKG studio headphones are pretty crisp. Good monitor phones is the point of them, I suppose. Nice clear EQ and whatnot. In honesty, though, I haven't tried out enough different headphone models to be able to compare effectively, though there is a clear difference between the AKG K171s and the lower budget Senn HD models, given it's only a £10-20 price difference.

[omicronlyrae]

yeah, ditto that - if people have information to add to this thread, post it here and either supernick or myself can add it in to the OP

if people could say yay or nay to sticking the thread, that would also be ace

[Planto]

Sticky it, aye, there's always plenty of people after new headphones.

[supernick1990]

K171's edited into the post. =]

[Planto]

The K-271s are a tad more comfortable as they're not on-ear unlike the 171s. btw.

[Juwel]

Mid-range headphones. Any alternatives, seeing as I can't find the Sennheiser HD515s in stock?

[Planto]

I had a pair of Technics RPF350s until recently when I broke them >_<

Pretty decent phones for £30 and they sell them in Argos all over the country.

[Juwel]

Originally Posted by supernick1990

What kind of music do you like, if it is things that require bass i hear that Skullkandy do a very nice pair.

I'm thinking that whatever's good for dubstep is good for everything. These Skullcandy things fit the bill?

[gbduo]

I have the Senn HD650 headphones (~£180-200) they are perhaps the best reproducing headphones for the money, much better than Bose!

But you are never going to get good sound with only a £200 budget on speakers, you won't get change out of £3000 IMO. (Source, Amps, Speakers)

[omicronlyrae]

Originally Posted by gbduo

But you are never going to get good sound with only a £200 budget on speakers, you won't get change out of £3000 IMO. (Source, Amps, Speakers)

unless you aren't an audiophile. in which case, it'll be fine. I have logitech Z4s, which are cheap at £50 odd. but they're absolutely brilliant for my needs, because I don't need perfect sound at the lows, mods, and highs. What i have is perfectly fine.

[gbduo]

Lol, fair enough, i am a bit of a perfectionist.

I hate, with a passion, cheap speakers which have no mid range, too much bass and tinny, nasty sounding treble which gives a thourghly wrong sound.

The cymbals don't crash, the bass sounds like the speaker is farting and you can't hear the singer. Yeh, that is a really good speaker. So, i would rather listen to the music and all the tracks in it, rather than just hear it.

[omicronlyrae]

well being an audiophile, i expect you would think that. I think my Z4s are ace. ^.^ and £200 is a lot to spend on audio equipment for most people.

[gbduo]

Oh yeh i agree...

£200 is a lot of money for anything, let alone a luxery, but y'know, you spend on your passion, don't you!?

[omicronlyrae]

aye of course ;yes;


oh in case people had missed it

-Stuck-

[gbduo]

It is not always about loud, but i see your point.

B&O is good, well amazing, I quite like Quad, Linn Kelidh, Kef and Musical Fidelity stuff as well.

Best thing about audiophile hifi is that you pick and choose the best components!

[Redemption]

Grado sr60's anyone?