Grab Sennheiser's fantastic HD599 SEs for under $100 from Amazon USA
An absolute steal on a pair of Sennys.
Sennheiser's legendary HD 599 open back headphones have been a consistent fixture of the German audio brand for nearly a decade, being a a brilliant pair of open back headphones with a vast soundstage and neutral, reference-style sound profile. In the USA, you can benefit from a big discount on them from Amazon in a limited-time deal that's brought them down to $90, which is one of the best prices we've seen on them in quite a while, down from a previous price of $200.
Open back headphones, for those who don't know, feature earcups that have been left open, so ambient noise from the enviroment around you, while noise from the headphones are let into the outside world. This helps to provide a more natural sound with a wider soundstage. I've experienced open backs with testing headphones and gaming headsets for the last few years, and they do offer a much vaster soundstage than more traditional closed back cans out there. The HD 599s are no different.
These Sennheiser cans also provide a neutral sound profile, meaning that no specific part of the mix will have too much prominence over other frequencies. This balanced sound profile means you're listening to music as the creator intended, with a bit of added warmth to ensure that the music isn't too fatiguing. It makes the HD 599 a suitable headphone for a task such as audio mixing too, given you're hearing music as it should be, as opposed to with more bass or treble, for instnace.
The wide sound stage, combined with excellent imaging, means that these headphones are also great for gaming. In games like Counter-Strike or Warzone, they're great for precisely locating your enemies by the sounds of their footsteps. These are ideal for long gaming or listening sessions too, with the velour ear pads providing significantly better long-term comfort than the average gaming headset, especially for glasses-wearers. Too often, headsets aren't suitable for glasses-wearers due to those earcups, so this is a welcome addition.
It's important to stress that the HD 599 are headphones, rather than a headset, so you don't get an integrated microphone. Thankfully, if you already have a dedicated USB or XLR microphone this will provide much better audio quality than the average headset mic. Likewise, these are wired headphones with a (detachable) 3.5mm cable, but thankfully with a 50 ohm impedeance you can drive them easily even with your motherboard or laptop's integrated audio - although a DAC/AMP provides an even better listening experience, such as the Chord Mojo 2 I've got at home (although I should stres that there are cheaper options available from other manufacturers, such as the excellent Astell&Kern HC3).
The HD 599 are a great set of headphones that outperform some of the best gaming headsets money can buy in terms of comfort and audio quality, and they're an absolute steal at this reduced price from Amazon.