Well my headphones finally broke. The cord that I play with could take no more abuse and has been slowly splitting apart over the past week, finally coming apart today at work.

The wire is actually 2-part, and the section that broke is probably replaceable, but they were mediocre Sony’s and I made the minimal effort to find the part with no success. So now I’m looking at the pair photographed here: Grado SR-60’s.

This is a pretty common set of headphones, and I guess its the best quality you can find for under $100. Reading reviews, I can’t find any complaints on the sound quality, but the criticism I keep seeing is that their open design leaks a lot of sound, so they’re best enjoyed in private.

But I need these for work, and I don’t want to force my impeccable, incredibly refined taste in music to everyone around me if they aren’t begging for it. So ideally I would need something that keeps the sound in, to my own deserving pinnae.

Do you have experience with them? Do you have a comparable set to defend?

Photo by James Hunter