To cut a long story short: I recommend Shure's SRH440 - currently £58 on Amazon.
If you want to read the why of it...
My headphones had been hanging on by a thread and I was hoping to invest about £100-£150 on my next pair... but that is just not an option right now. Anyway, after disaster struck, I ran out to the nearest shop and got the cheapest pair of Sony I could find (anything!) just to keep me going - £20... Oh why Sony?! Why would you create such an abomination!!! I don't know if it's all the mixing work I have been trying to improve on lately but my ears were truly offended and I took them straight back.
Later, I hunted on the internet... I realised I had to up my non-existent budget to around £50 to get something that would hopefully just do the basic job.
So what can you get for £50?... Not a lot.
So looking further up the chain - in my ideal budget of around £100 - after a tonne of research and reading a million reviews - I would have probably plumped for the Audiotechnica ATH-M50X - then to the M40X - still out of my budget... M30X - just about! So what else is around?... Well flying under the radar were the Shure SRH440... which seemed to have accumulated solid reviews, beating the Audiotechnica M30X but not quite their M40X. It looks as though the Shure 440s were built to compete with the £100 headphones, but didn't quite hit the spot; but at £58 - they looked good enough to me!
The only concern people seemed to have was their comfort, some reviewers stated that they couldn't wear them for long and ended up in pain with sweaty ears. I was more concerned about their sound. As it happens - they feel lovely. But I'm a small lady with a small head - so maybe that's a factor??!!
Anyway - if you're absolutely broke and can scrounge £58 quid - I recommend them. I can hear mistakes clearly in my old mixes. Don't get me wrong their clarity is not mind-blowing. But they seem to give good, balanced, honest feedback and will suffice for the level that I'm at right now... Until the day I get to listen through a £200 pair of headphones
great advice! It can be hard finding a nice set of headphones wading through the mud of Amazon reviews 
