Decent closed back or in ear phones for casual listening

You can get new beyer 770 (closed) or 990’s (open) on sale here for around $150 cdn at studio economic in Montreal, they are back ordered but expected in a couple of weeks

An old IPad Air 2 so what you are suggesting may be just the ticket.  

Do the Boses you have also have the Alexa and Google Assistant too? I don’t need the robot overlords to be on a pair of headphones. The only ones I see have that. It isn’t deal breaker. Any other suggestions?

I'm going to vote your mind.

10$ panasonic hje125 earbuds.

Why? Because I own like 4 sets. I listen all day on a set at work, have a set in the car for the gym, have a set in the studio and a spare set in the drawer.

Everything sounds good, neutral, natural and unfatiguing. I've been using them for so long because they're comfortable in my small ear canals and things just sound like they should.

I also loathe heavy headsets squeezing my head or weighing it down, especially for casual listening.

I bought some of these after you mentioned them to me in another thread, Chris. I agree with your assessment that they generally sound pretty neutral. Only problem on mine was that the right earbud vibrated - almost like the driver was rattling around in there or something. This was on spoken word material, and not played loudly. They really became unusable for me. I imagine I just got a bum pair, and honestly, they were $10. Not a big deal. If they hadn’t done that, I’d still be using them. They sounded pretty good.

The AT ATH-M50 are pretty good, they have a significant bass bump though. But they sound good in general. Better than the HD280s, certainly.

I bought this set on your rec and hated how they felt in my canals. Just for another alt point.

Interesting. If so, I was entirely unaware of it. My wife has a pair of them that her brother gave her. She wasn't using them, so I used them for several months and really liked them. Then all of a sudden, my wife decided she wanted to use them after all, so I went on eBay and found a refurbished pair. Pretty affordable that way, and I haven't had any issues with mine whatsoever.

All that to say, I've never seen the packaging for them, where it probably would've said something about the Google Assistant thing.

Again, Greg, if they really do have the Google Assistant, I didn't even realize it. I've never used that feature, and I don't have them "hooked up" to my Google ID or Apple ID or anything like that.

If you like the idea of over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones, especially with noise cancellation, there are dozens of options. The Sony version supposedly sound great, Sennheiser makes at least one or two that probably sound good, etc. There are a couple of inexpensive options on Amazon that I've heard surprisingly good things about, as well.

Appreciate it.

I was going to suggest these, but monkeyxx beat me to it.  I'd never track or mix with them, but great for recreational listening; both music and movies.  I've had my pair for well over 10 years; good build quality, too.

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