Andertons Scoreboard: Best Closed-Back Headphones £20-£40 (2022)

If you live in a house share or have neighbours or you’re just a creative night owl, it’s not always possible to work with monitor speakers. That’s why we tried and tested the best affordable and high-quality closed-back headphones, that combine incredible frequency response and reasonable price point.

Andertons’ staff tried 5 models for you from some of the top headphone brands AKG, Roland and Behringer and rated them according to comfort, sound quality and build quality. If you want to find out more about our rating criteria, click here.

Check out the rest of our headphone ratings here:

• Andertons Scoreboard: Best Closed-Back Headphones £10-£20 (2022)
• Andertons Scoreboard: Best-Closed Back Headphones £40-£70 (2022)
• Andertons Scoreboard: Best Closed-Back Headphones £70-£100 (2022)
• Andertons Scoreboard: Best Closed- Back Headphones £120-£180 (2022)
• Andertons Scoreboard: Best In-Ear Headphones £25-£90 (2022)

AKG K52 Closed-Back Studio Headphones

AKG are one of the top brands that focus on headphones specifically. The K52 are designed to reveal any nuance in your mix: the 40mm drivers, with a 18Hz-20kHz frequency response, are ideal to monitor any element in your track, from bassline to vocals.

• Comfort – Our staff ranked how comfortable they found these on their heads. – 3.7/5
• Sound quality – Our staff rated how they thought these headphones sounded with this price point of £20-£40 – 3.7/5
• Build quality – Our staff compared how well the build quality and durability of each headphone was. 3.7/5

Total Score: 11.1
Final Score: 3.71/5

Behringer BH 770 Studio Headphones

Quality and price go hand in hand in the Behringer BH770. 53mm drivers and a 10Hz – 38kHz frequency response make for perfect headphones to work on your tracks as well as enjoying music on your commute or at home!

• Comfort – 4.7/5
• Sound quality – 3.2/5
• Build quality – 4.5/5

Total score: 12.4
Final score: 4.13/5

Roland RH5 Headphones

These headphones are specially designed for instruments such as Roland’s digital pianos and V-Drums. They provide high-quality sound and great comfort – ideal when you’re rehearsing for long periods of time.

• Comfort – 3.3/5
• Sound quality – 4.3/5
• Build quality – 3.5/5

Total score: 11.1
Final score: 3.7/5

AKG K72 Closed-Back Studio Headphones

AKG blends affordability and sound quality in the K72. These headphones work particularly well with low-end frequencies and have a great response between 16Hz to 20kHz.

• Comfort – 3.8/5
• Sound quality – 3.9/5
• Build quality – 3.8/5

Total score: 11.4
Final score: 3.8/5

AKG K92 Closed-Back Studio Headphones

Golden looks and golden sound are the key factors of the AKG K92. They were created with project studios and working musicians in mind, who are looking for a precise feedback on their music without breaking the bank.

• Comfort – 3.8/5
• Sound quality – 4.1/5
• Build quality – 3.9/5

Total score: 11.8
Final score: 3.92/5

Best Headphones £20 - £40

How We Rated the Headphones:

The Andertons team gathered together to rate these headphones and give you as many opinions as possible, not only the ones from our experts from the Pro-Audio team. We selected 20 people from our staff members from different departments, from drums to mail order and gave them the headphone to try and test.

There were 3 main categories we measured, we then took the average score from each category to see which one came out on top. The 3 categories went as follows:

Comfort – We consider how comfortable they feel on our heads! Considering the size of them, how the cushions fit our ears and how comfortable the material is, this is to make sure they’re good for extended use!

Sound quality – Here we’re looking as to how they generally sound, thinking about the frequency response and how they sound dynamically. In addition to this, we compare the sound against other headphones in the price range to see which one comes out on top!

Build quality – For this, we look at the general sturdiness of the headphones and what material they’re made from. While this also ties into the comfort of the headphones, we check to make sure they’re fit for the demands expected of them!

When doing these rankings, we took the price point into account. In our analysis, we focused on the range £20 – £40, to ensure we were comparing models in the same price/quality tier and kept you well informed!

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