Samson SR850 Professional Studio Reference Headphones

I bought these headphones over 3 years ago, so I can speak about their build quality and performance over time. For the price (currently about $35), these are unbeatable in terms of audio quality and reliability. Three years in, they have barely any signs of wear - their build quality is fine. They are open backs, so they produce a wide sound stage, and sound very open. They are pretty neutral with a bit of a boost in the upper range. They are not base-heavy, but offer a good amount of base. They are very comfortable to wear with velvety cushions and a comfy headband. Minor gripes (that do not amount to taking off a star) are: I wish they had a slightly more balanced high end and a detachable cable. Other than that, these are very nice. For your reference, other similar open-back headphones I have are the Massdrop/Sennheiser HD-6xx. Are they better? Yes, but at almost 10 times the price, this is not a fair comparison.

Wow, just wow. TLDR right up front, these are fantastic headphones for the price. If you have any hesitation to buy them whatsoever, let me tell you that you won't be disappointed. Bass is a bit lower than some people would like, but hey they're open backs! My pair arrived in their retail box, which was kind of surprising as the box wasn't even sealed. Thankfully the headphones were undamaged and they appear to be brand new, although I honestly wouldn't care if they were used since they look fine. Included I was surprised to find a 1/4 inch (the big audio connector for amps and such) to 3.5mm adapter pre-installed on the unit. I was actually kind of worried that I accidentally purchased the wrong variant of these headphones, since the adapter looked like it was part of the cable. Thankfully my initial assumption was incorrect, and the adapter unscrewed revealing a 3.5 mm plug, although I must say the quality of this adapter is what fooled me. It's super nice and fits on the cable seamlessly! The fabric the removable ear pads are made out of is kind of strange, it's almost like a felt material but it doesn't have the same shininess to it. Nevertheless it is very comfortable for the price, and in general comfort of these headphones is quite good. The self-adjusting headband and whatnot is a straight-up clone of the AKG K240s, which certainly isn't a bad thing in this case. Samson have done a fantastic job replicating the design of the K240s while also managing to keep costs low. The non-removable cable is a bit of a downside, but the included cable is very high quality and quite long. Seriously I've never seen gold-plated connectors that look and feel this good. As an Australian drummer once said "they're are symphony of plastic, but AvE has taught me that not all plastics are created equal". That statement is definitely true here, as the plastic that Samson has used for the SR850s is definitely on the higher quality side. The headband is fake leather and the supports that house the audio cable for the other driver are made of metal (maybe aluminum?). Now, onto sound quality. Honestly when I had seen and heard all of the great reviews on these headphones I was expecting them to be quite amazing. Maybe it's not as dramatic as I expected, but these are my first pair of legitimately good budget headphones. The "sound stage" or 3D feel of the sound is definitely there, and while playing video games with gunfire or engines you can definitely feel the openness of the semi open back design. I particularly enjoy running around in Skyrim SE with them. I will say the bass isn't crazy heavy, but looking at the frequency response graph for these headphones they're actually somewhat more bassy than more of the higher end true open back headphones. This is fine for me though, I do like base but I understand the concessions that had to be made for these headphones to have such good soundstage. That's always been the trade-off for open backs, less bass and also way less noise isolation. And on that note, yeah they definitely don't block anywhere near as much noise as a set of earmuffs would, but I actually like that since I need to be able to hear things while I'm using my computer or listening to music on my iPod. As always with audio, it's very subjective and you may find that these are the best headphones ever for you, or you may hate them because they're not crazy bassy like most everything else made nowadays. (Looking at you Beats and Raycons!) I can't really find any other descriptive words to describe the mids or highs, because I'm really just a novice when it comes to audio. Maybe just... they're great! As far as durability goes I've only had them for a few days so I can't say much as to how I think they'll stand up over the long term. I will say that the non-removable cable is definitely once again a downside as far as durability goes, but if you're really invested in keeping your SR850s alive and you're handy with a soldering iron I see no reason why you couldn't add an aux connector connector. The headband and metal supports seem quite sturdy given the price, and I expect these to last for years to come. By then I'll likely have something better, but honestly if you're just into them for the looks, for content creators or streamers they look really cool and professional. I think if these things ever have some sort of catastrophic failure I'll either buy a new pair or attempt to fix these myself, as the design seems fairly simple. The ear cups are removable and seem to be fairly modular. I'm sure there are several replacements on various websites, and if you're handy with sewing scissors and a needle and thread you could probably even make your own if you were so inclined. I think some gel ear pads would be super cool to try with these, although I don't know if these headphones have enough of a cult following for some manufacturer to take on that challenge. Maybe if I'm feeling brave enough one day I will take apart the ear cup and speaker assembly to see how repairable they are from the inside, but for now I'm just happy to have a very good sounding set of headphones for my PC and iPod. 9/10, definitely five stars but a non-removable cable is probably the only downside. You'll know these aren't crazy bassy if you're in the market for open backs so that's not a downside in my opinion.

First of all, I'm impressed by the sound quality coming out of these. They reproduce all ranges pretty evenly, and the bass is not completely overblown like so many other headsets you find these days (looking at you, Beats by Dre). I play bass and bought these to keep me from angering my neighbors, and these headphones produce every note I can play on it very well, even at high volumes - that alone makes them worth the pittance I paid for them. They allow a lot of ambient sound in, and when I have them on I can hear what's going on around me almost to the same degree as I can when I'm not wearing them at all. That's great for me, because I like being able to play a track on my stereo and hear it so I can play along on bass, but if you want something that isolates sound, these are not the headphones you are looking for. The build quality is certainly good enough, even a little bit better than I would have expected for the price, but it's not great. Of course this is totally understandable; for such a low price they had to cut costs somewhere. In spite of that, they feel sturdy enough and I don't get the impression that they'll fall apart any time soon. I must say, though, from a purely aesthetic view they look completely unimpressive; bog standard black on grey tones, nothing really interesting about their looks whatsoever. Also they look a little big when worn, but that's what you get with studio headphones, so it's not really fair to hold that against them. As for comfort, the self-adjusting strap works great, and the ear pads are nice and soft. They easily fit around my relatively large ears, and they hold their position on my head nicely without squeezing too hard. They do start to hurt my temples a bit after about an hour of wearing them, but I'm pretty sensitive to that kind of thing so it's true for most headphones on me. Honestly, an hour before I start to feel irritation is better than most. Overall, I am happy with my purchase, I would buy these again. They reproduce sound very well, and they are comfortable as far as over-ear headphones go. Looks-wise, they are very plain, and the build quality is only slightly above average, but they are definitely worth the price you pay for them. Four stars.

the perfect pair of headphones ever, affordable and most amazing quality. I also use these to play the electric piano and dude it sounds studio quality. Will forever buying these if it breaks in years

Allora per quello che le ho pagate vi garantisco che valgono molto di più, il range di frequenze è abbastanza alto quindi si sentono bene i dettagli, non è vero che non hanno bassi anzi io le trovo molto equilibrate, ed il basso mi piace proprio e preciso e pulito, sono 32 hom. una delle cose che ho guardato prima di prenderle è il fatto che hanno i padiglioni in velluto e non in finta pelle che dopo un pò si sgretolano tutte, infatti mai pià prenderò delle cuffie con quei padiglioni, e poi dopo delle ore non ho notato male alle orecchie sono abbastanza morbide da indossare, per ora difetti non ne ho trovati.

These semi open backs are a steal for the price! Very comfortable ear pads and headband. It makes anything you watch or listen to sound clearer and more open.

Looked cheap and ears get hot.. so I returned it. But its good for its price of $50ish

Très bien. Branché sur une batterie électronique, le son est bon, bien punchy et clair. Niveau qualité de fabrication c'est un peu cheap, c'est très plastique, ce qui justifie le prix bas, mais il est confortable et si vous ne jouez pas au foot avec ça devrait tenir. L'isolation passive est plutôt légère. Bien pour le prix.