In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Topic: In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones (Read 4501 times) previous topic - next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

2006-02-03 00:21:49

Heyy folks'!! ..

i'm not quite sure if i am in the correct forum - section here but i'll just post my question here now

so, my question is, if some of you have experience with the EP 630 In-Earphones by Creative? .. at the moment i listen to my music on my DPA (Creative Zen Micro 6GB) with the standard earphones inclueded in the package (Creative EP 480) and i think the sound is really good and clear for earphones, but my problem with them is, that i often listen to music in a very noisy environment (e.g. school campus or city - malls, stationss etc.) and it pretty much sucks if you have to tune the volume so loud, that the quality of music really gets bad .. and now i want to know, if any of you can recommend the EP 630's or in - earphones in general (of course i am aware of closed headphones will provide a much better sound, but first of all good one's are much too expensive for me and i dont really cotton on to wearing large headphones on my head and run around with them all day !!) .. is the sound of the EP 480's comparable with the Ep 630's ?? .. because a friend of mine borrowed me his in - earphones (i dont think they are as good as the creative one's, they're from sony) and the sound is really strong in bass (dunno if this is right, cant express it really - sorry for my goddamn - sick english : \), the sound is fairly quiet and airless (is this the correct word? .. dunno, damn! :|) .. it kinda puts me off and i have strong doubts now about buying the earphones .. hope some of you have any advice .. thanks so far

greetings
magni

/edit: most of the reviews on amazon e.g. are quite good and for the german - speaking people here in the forum i got picture of a test in a magazine called 'Chip' (magazine for computer technics and so on ..), there the EP 630's came off really good .. then i also add a picture of the EP 360's .. mb. it helps in some way .. dunno ^^ .. thanks !!

--
the test:

the EP-630 in - earphones:

the one's i use now -> EP-480 earphones:

thank you ..!!

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #1 – 2006-02-03 01:01:37

I have the EP-630's and absolutely love 'em. I'm sure I'm going to get run over/not hear someone shouting "look out for that speeding steamroller !"/miss the girl of my dreams calling to me across the road but I love the isolation and decent bass.

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #2 – 2006-02-03 01:19:52

Yeh, cool .. thanks for your answer, i hope for some more !! .. and concerning the "convenience" of wearing in - earphones i have absolutely no problems with that, actually i like it even more then the feeling of the standard earphones, because they used to slip out if you move your head in some //stronger// way ..
so i'm really just interested in the sound - quality and it would be good to know how loud the EP-630's are (lower usage of the battery of my DPA), because the one's of a friend of mine (the form sony) are pretty quite : (((
and if you turn the volume of the DPA up, the soundquality again decreases : \ well, thanks for your answer(s), i hope for some more

greetings
magni

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #3 – 2006-02-03 02:37:14

I've just tried my first set of in-ear monitors, namely the Shure E3c's... wow! Not earth-shattering bass, but solid none the less. Certainly streets ahead of my $30 Sony earbuds. But more important is the volume issue.
As a pro sound engineer, I rely on my hearing for my livelihood. If I screw that, there goes my income. Now, on my no name brand MP3 player (whose volume control goes to 31) with my Sony earbuds, I'd have to run the volume at 25 in order to hear stuff whilst riding my pushbike.
With the E3c's, under the same environmental conditions, I had the volume at 12!! Now admittedly, they're not cheap, but for me, that's a very cheap insurance policy for my ears.
And no, I haven't bought a set yet. They were loaned to me by a friend for a week, but I want to hear the E4c's before I make a decision.
Another set that come highly recommended by those in the know is the Etymotic ER6's.

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #4 – 2006-02-03 08:20:23

I own the EP-630 and like them. But
- they are rather quiet compared to other earphones like the Koss KSC-75 (but not a problem on my iRiver H140). The rather strong bass however encourages to listen at a lower volume.
- being totally isolated is not something everybody likes. Same goes for the feeling of the phones touching the ear canal. I personally feel a bit uncomfortable with both issues. Canal phones also make interior 'noise' like breathing more audible than when using open headphones for instance, but personally this doesn't bother me very much.
- sound impression is that of a very direct sound with the listener being directly within the sound event. I personally like it, but this may not match everybody's taste.

The potentially negative issues are facts of any canal phone. IMO the EP-630 are good phones very much worth their rather small money.

But there may be an alternative: new Sennheiser CX-300. Priced more or less comparably they came out better in a recent test by a german audio magazine.
Still hard to find at the moment.

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #5 – 2006-02-03 13:43:07

Yeh, i read the stuff written in 'AUDIO' about the Sennheiser CX-300 now (thx for the tip!) and they say the CX-300 are definately the better alternative .. but this magazine is the only one, who got these InEar's atm : \ .. so i think i'll wait until they'll be released in on the 10th Feburary, so i can read some reviews of other magazines / people, who have tested both (EP-630 and CX-300) .. because the Sennheiser cost almost the same (just 8€ more ..)
but to all other peolpe, feel free to still share your experiences .. i would be really thankful for them ..

thanks and greets
magni

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #6 – 2006-02-03 15:27:16

I personally would choose the Shure line of canal headphones if you are getting canal phones. Etymotic and Shure are safe bets, but having owned both the Shure E2C and E3C I would say that for the money you pay its the best deal. You can get the e3c for about 130 dollars online, and trust me, its so worth it. Its sometimes more expensive being cheap.

//just my 2cents.

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #7 – 2006-02-03 15:49:05

Quote

I personally would choose the Shure line of canal headphones if you are getting canal phones. Etymotic and Shure are safe bets, but having owned both the Shure E2C and E3C I would say that for the money you pay its the best deal. You can get the e3c for about 130 dollars online, and trust me, its so worth it. Its sometimes more expensive being cheap.

//just my 2cents.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=361679"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

In a recent test the Creative's scored almost as high as the E3C's, at 1/10th of the price. There's also a topic about it on HA.org.

edit: Oh, the topic starter already mentioned the test.

I'm quite happy with the Creative's by the way. The only drawback is that I can't use them on the street (too dangerous).

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #8 – 2006-02-04 15:35:18

The EP 630 are pretty good but I found a new in-ear from Philips which are pretty good as well. I wanted something that had good clear all around sound and not cost me a paycheck to get. I got these yesterday....and I can't put them down. The sound is absloutely amazing! The Bass is good and brings the music to life. The only thing I can compare it too are the Shure E3. I will buy 1 more sets as backups....and I will definately recomend these to all my friends.

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #9 – 2006-02-04 16:00:39

Quote

I've just tried my first set of in-ear monitors, namely the Shure E3c's... wow! Not earth-shattering bass, but solid none the less. Certainly streets ahead of my $30 Sony earbuds. But more important is the volume issue.
As a pro sound engineer, I rely on my hearing for my livelihood. If I screw that, there goes my income. Now, on my no name brand MP3 player (whose volume control goes to 31) with my Sony earbuds,
Another set that come highly recommended by those in the know is the Etymotic ER6's.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=361583"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

your a pro and using sony earbuds ?

get the shure ones or etymotic. listen and learn

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #10 – 2006-02-04 16:16:27

Please amend the title. One's is just ones. (No ')

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #11 – 2006-02-04 18:15:20

Yeh, sorry for my english .. and unfortunately i can't edit the title of this topic , even though i am topicstarter : \ .. i think a admin has to do so .. thanks at the admin in advance !!

greetings
magni

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #12 – 2006-02-04 18:42:12

I use Westone UM-2s with custom molds.....head-fi is an evil forum

Expensive but the sound is awesome!

In-ear-plugs vs. ordinary ones

Reply #13 – 2006-02-04 21:21:43

Quote

your a pro and using sony earbuds ?

get the shure ones or etymotic. listen and learn
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=361862"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Touche.
To be honest, I'd never looked into the possibility that there might even BE high quality portable devices. It wasn't until someone let me listen to the earbuds that came with the iPod Shuffle that I realised there might actually be better quality portable headphones/earbuds/etc out there. That was when I started looking around, and then a freind told me about the Shure's... and now my ears have been opened, so to speak.

Notice