My son is a fan of Grado. Open back, very nice sound and if you ever have issues, service is quick and reasonably priced from The factory. After five years his developed a short in one wire. He sent them in for a fix and Grado replaced his wiring and upgraded the drivers for something like $50.
Model numbers tend to track with pricing, so the SR 80 is about $80 and the 125 is just over $100. Open back phones don't give booming bass like a closed back headphone, but in exchange they make very articulate and effortless music.
Love my AKG K240 Studio phones. Semi-open back. Replaceable cable and pads. Standard and mini connectors. $60 on amazon.
I guess it depends on how cheap. I absolutely think these may be the best deal in cheap cans:
https://www.amazon.com/Koss-KSC75-Portable-Stereophone-Headphones/dp/B0006B486K
They are known as the "Giant Killers," over at head-fi as they sound better than a lot of much more expensive cans:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/kos...ant-killer-in-all-the-hidden-gem-hype.638757/
I think I have like 4 pairs laying around. The only shortcoming is that the wire will eventually develop a break and they will become intermittent - mine usually last about a year. The good news is you ship them back to Koss and for $9 you get a brand new pair, no questions asked. They really do sound very good, especially for the $.
The Grado's are also very good - I have an old pair of SR-60's and they are hard to beat for the money..really fun cans...I loves em.
Steve
the porta-pro from Koss is very good also, but it's now selling at 40. I'm pretty sure I found them at 25 a couple of years ago. its a more traditional over-head phone, which always snags my hair, unfortunately.
They also sell a sporta-pro for 22 bucks, which is over-head. I haven't heard them, but wouldn't be surprised if they're very good.
Honestly, for anybody other than classical music or acoustic jazz listeners, the Audio Technica ATH-M40x gets my recommendation.
They have enough of a bass boost to satisfy most listeners but it isn't too distracting for most genres. They are fun sounding. The aren't fatiguing. They are easily driven by a cell phone. The construction is pretty solid and they have a detachable cord. They aren't too expensive.
For under $50? Probably a used set of Sonys from craigslist. If an adult listener asked about a phone under $50, I'd suggest saving a few more $$$ or I'd sell them one of my pairs.
There are very few new, name brand headphones that are widely available under $50 that I can recommend without reservation though there are many models I can recommend between $50 and $100.
Snob?
I'm wearing a pair of Sony headphones at work that I bought via craigslist for $20.
The lice were free so I feel like got a deal.
Couple low price phones I've been impressed by were the Griffin Woodtones for like $20 and the Marantz something 1s which were clearanced at Newegg for like $20.
Those aren't widely available at those prices though.
I had a pair of ATH-M50s but bought a pair of 40xs on craigslist for $40.
Oh, the Philip's SHP-9500s.
I paid a hair over $50, but they dropped to $50 right after. Not sure what they cost these days.
They are a bit like a budget version of the headphone that would result from an affair between the AKG 240 and the Sennheiser 598.