Hello all, I recently discovered these headphones and instantly fell in love. I was wondering if they are worth trying to find to own? I am not a collector, I would be using these regularly for music, mixing, and gaming. I just wondered if it would be worth the effort of hunting a good pair down?

Not for the price you are going to pay, you can get a new set of cans that will sound better and cost 1/3 the price.

If you like these solely for the aesthetic I'd suggest checking out the Koss PortaPros they have a somewhat similar look and are highly regarded for their sound quality

Edit: the KPH40 look even more like those pictured but I'm not sure about the sound quality

KPH40 is solid, it's a slightly less Bassy Porta Pro if memory serves.

I use to have some Sennheiser HD 425 about 10 years ago. I liked them so much but they wouldn't handle low bass frequencies in modern music. Taking that new music aside, if the source didn't have a large drum beat or excessive bass, they were really good. ** Having said that, the Sennheiser Outlet Store has the HD 560s for $99. The HD560s is a much better headphone than my old HD425.

By that logic every headphone looks like the one in the picture.

>I just wondered if it would be worth the effort of hunting a good pair down?

Depends, but most likely not if you're planning on having them as a regular-use main headphone instead of an added splash of vintage flavor to add among a collection of several.

It's a vintage headphone with a vintage sound. ("What Harman target curve?") While not bad at all for its age and context, having first come out in the mid-seventies, it's still very much a product of its time and will be almost guaranteed to disappoint if one is expecting a modern full-bodied sounding headphone. And for more critical stuff like mixing, no. Just no.

The low end starts rolling off quite early and does so fast, and the top end is uneven and rolls off as well. When I had a pair for a while a few years ago (felt like getting a bit of nostalgia kick - my dad had pair when I very little), they initially seemed both rather bass-light and with an elevated treble, making for a rather harsh sound signature, but turned out it was mostly just the rolled-off bass. EQ'ing the bass up evened out things big time, but also highlighted the limitations of the old drivers, they can't handle that much bass boosting before starting to noticably distort at even slightly elevated volumes. Modern consumer grade headphone bass is very likely simply not a possibility with these. Comfort's OK, though the flat and thin, yet large pads feel a bit unusual - they're sized like they could easily be circumaural, but they're supra-aural anyway. They're also quite hard to drive, coming in 2000 and 600 ohm variations. Not like they need a nuclear reactor to get to decent listening levels, but a headphone amp is definitely recommended.

If you're dead set on wanting to get a pair, get them for the vintage experience with appropriate expectations, *not* to get something capable of going head-to-head with modern gear and comparing favorably. And shop around, don't overpay. Look for prices around for which you could get them sold onward without much of a loss in the case you don't wish to keep them.

I meant like the retro look with the colorful foam pads

But those look completely different. The only thing they have in common is retro and colourful earpads.

You're right I should've said vibe or aesthetic

You should check out Sennheiser HD25's, they might not look as cool as those, but they are still made and you can get one new, so you don't have to pay some insane price on those used.

edit: forgot to mention that HD25's are closed back and 424's are open back.

Thanks everyone for the replies, you gave me some stuff to think about! I appreciate all the different angles of feedback given