Looking for advice on headphones

[HighFibreDiet]

I want to get some headphones that I can use, and perhaps ds1 (9yo) as well. I want them to cost under 100 quid. I will be mostly listening to music from CDs, in the house, possibly while on my exercise bike. I want over-the-ear ones as I always find the in-ear ones uncomfortable (they seem too big to fit in my ears) and I don't care if they look stylish or not! The type that let you hear other stuff in the room would probably be appropriate as I don't necessarily want to block out the boys' cries for help while I'm exercising.

What should I be looking out for? What kind of frequency range is reasonable? I am nearly 40 so I would expect my hearing to have gone at certain frequencies, but I know that if I'm listening to stuff in the car I can often tell if high frequency bits are missing. (But we don't have a car at the moment so I can't check the specs this way.)

Waiting for a headphone geek to come along and tell me exactly what to buy!! Thanks.

To be honest I've had a couple of pair's of noise cancelling headphones and found them all to be a complete waste of money.

I now have a pair of simple in-ear Sennheiser's noise isolating headphones which cost me £15. I've used them on planes and found them to be way better than the cancelling ones. Plus I don't have to faff about with batteries.

The Sennheiser's came with different sized rubber earpieces so it was a case of just trying each size until i found the ones which best suited my ears.

I found the over head ones to be too bulky/heavy and got on my nerves for extended wear.

Not sure that helps you but there you go.

Why would OP want noise cancelling ones, if HFD wants to hear if boys are in need of help ?

I could recommend phoning my friend's Hi-Fi shop but he'd probably recommend borrowing a pair and trying them (he's like that) as people need to relax with the headphones "on" for a while.

Have just seen the prices on his web site and the cheapest are 90, then Bose at 99 and others go up to 300+ and they have the 1/4" jack, not a 3.5mm plug which a lot of portable players would use.

So, what socket will you plug into, and how long a cable would you need ?
Adaptors and extension 3.5mm male-to-female cables can be quite cheap...

Although the Sennheiser ones are a nice price they are ear-bud type, so it may be worth looking at these on Amazon: Sennheiser PMX 60 II Headphones which appear to be lightweight but won't go in the ear.

Before you spend £££, check out the Sennheiser PX100 for about £26. Not as convenient for exercise as the neck-band PMX60s but the sound quality is superb.

Thanks so much for your responses. I am looking out for the PX100. I almost got one on ebay but I think I got outbid...