Today, were comparing three of the worlds most popular cans.

It occupies the middle of Grados reasonably priced Prestige Series.

Perfect headphones for thosegraduating from Beats by Dre.

Each of these headphones are incredibly popular for their own individual reasons.

Lets talk about why.

Design

The design of a headphone isnt just about looks.

The Grado SR80e has a distinct retro look and feel.

The ear pads, while pleather, are nice and cushy.

The adjustable bars click very smoothly between options for larger heads.

The Sony MDR-V6 and MDR-7506 occupy a nice space between the other two headphones.

Theyre light like the Grados, but feel a bit sturdier.

They come with a coiled cable, which I appreciate, but it isnt detachable.

So if you prefer straight cables, youre out of luck.

Sound

The most important part of picking a headphone, obviously, is how it sounds.

It also sounds pretty good on the more acoustic-y side of pop as well.

This alone makes them my favorite of the bunch.

That may automatically disqualify them from your search, depending on what youre looking for.

The ATH-M50x, on the other hand, is a closed headphone.

The highs are still remarkably clear on the M50x, and the bass packs an awesome punch.

If those are your genres, these are the cans for you.Approaching Nirvana never sounded so good.

They also arent lacking in any frequencies like the SR80e and the M50x, either.

As a result, the Sony doesnt excel at any one genre, like the Grado and Audio-Technia.

However, no genre will sound lacking, either.

Itll sound pretty great no matter what you throw at itrock, electronic, classical, or otherwise.

If you listen to a lot of different genres, the Sony is a great all-arounder.

More important than you probably think.

The SR80e feels a little weird when you first put it on.

You might be tempted to write it off immediately, but give it a chance.

Once you get past the first few minutes of wear, the SR80e is actually very comfortable.

After a while, I forgot it was even on my head.

The ATH-M50x is kind of the opposite.

The pleather ear pads envelop your ears so snugly that they can get a little hot, too.

The MDR-V6 (pictured above) and MDR-7506, once again, fall in between the other two cans.

For closed headphones, the Sonys are decently comfortable.

For other genres, the M50x is the worst of the three.

You get the idea.

Of course, these arent the only three headphones in the world, eitherjust three of the most popular.

Remember,your holy grail of headphoneswill be different from everyone elsesits all about your budget and needs.

Photos byRyu1chi Miwa,Jonathan Grado, andCharli Lopez.