Advice on choosing the best headphones for under £100

Hi first time poster after browsing the main site via our friend Mr Google.

I'm looking for a new pair of headphones for under £100 but I have no experience with over ear headphones. I've always been an in-ear headphone user so I'm at a loss when thinking about purchasing over-ear 'phones.

The main use of the them would be for travelling to college on a bus along with walking so that's why I was considering over ear rather than on-ear as I don't want them to leak noise like a broken tap so the noise isolation is quite a high priority. As they will be mainly used for travelling, portability is a bit of an issue but not that much of a high priority as long as they don't weigh like bowling balls and can fit into a bag.

I listen to a wide range of music but mainly rap, r&b, rock and I'll be using them with an iPhone 4 if that is taken into consideration.

I've read the best headphones reviews on the main site, had a little look around and looked at a couple of choices but any expert advice would be very helpful and appreciative.

Fostex TH-7 Dynamic Closed Studio Headphones in Black
Shure SRH240A Professional Closed Back Headphones (SRH 240)
Shure SRH440 Professional Closed-Back Headphones (SRH 440)

Thanks

 

I think the Fostex would be good, but if you want to up the quality with the Shure, by all means go for the 440. I have three Shures and they are all excellent.

A note on isolation: Only a few select and very uncomfortable headphones have very high isolation, so you're doing as good as you can with these choices, unless you went to the noise-canceling variety, which adds cost and complexity.

 

Thanks, I think I'll go for the 440's unless anyone can suggest any other alternatives?


Another issue is also comfort when wearing the 'phones for a reasonable period of time. I wouldn't be listening to them for hours on end but I'll be listening to them for around 30mins-90mins at a time.

 

With a Shure 440 for example, the earpad openings are big enough that your ears don't get pinched, so whatever momentary discomfort you could have (not being used to headphones etc.) would go away quickly. The ones that are on-ear, or aren't big enough to avoid hitting your outer ear parts - they can be really uncomfortable for some people, because people's outer ear parts are so different sometimes.

 

Thanks for your help, I went ahead and ordered the Shure 440's.