I read tmo's “cosmetic equipment + more research” post and was going send all this to him. But in the interest of preserving my keystrokes and the realization that the information here might be helpful to others as well, I've turned this into its own post.

Philips SHP9500

If you're looking for affordable over-the-ear headphones, check out the Philips SHP9500. They are open-back headphones. So, something meant to be used at home — definitely not in a library or public setting. They are so comfortable and they sound good with most types of music. They are great for playing video games and watching movies.

I bought them exclusively for playing video games. This is so I can hear when one of my kids wake up while I'm playing. But they turned out to be really good all around headphones for use at home.

Did I say they were comfortable? These are so comfortable that my wife, who is not a fan of headphones, asked me to buy one for herself. We now have two of these at home. We use them to watch movies at night while the kids are asleep. And it's been really good for that use-case too.

And the price? It usually costs less than $80. They are definitely what I would call “bang for the buck” over-the-ear headphones.