Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Are low cost earphones worth it? (Read 4519 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Sometime in the (hopefully) not too distant future, I might be buying a Sony Ericsson w810i as I've been told it has iPod or better sound quality. Would it be worth it to buy one of these earphones:

*  Sennheiser MX51
*  Koss KSC-75
*  Sony MDR-EX51

over the ones that come with the phone? If so, which of the three would you choose? I also wanted to know what do you think makes for a better compromise between space, quality and battery consumption for portables: LAME CBR, LAME VBR, Nero AAC or Vorbis aoTuVb5.

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Mekatype on
If so, which of the three would you choose?

Up to this day I've been making good experiences with Sennheiser products, both my earbuds and the real headphones are made by this company. The former are the ones used for my portable player, which were bought separately due to earbuds having been bundled with any of the portables I have called my own so far were always of comparably poor performance. Hence I clearly advise you to get decent alternative ones, with a recommendation for Sennheiser since in my opinion the company generally provides a good cost-performance ratio.

Quote
I also wanted to know what do you think makes for a better compromise between space, quality and battery consumption for portables: LAME CBR, LAME VBR, Nero AAC or Vorbis aoTuVb5.

For me the best compromise is Nero AAC at bitrates around 80/96 kbps (edit: average bitrates of the quality settings, don't use CBR), i.e. LC-AAC since HE-AAC has proven being a real annoyance being played back on my own SonyEricsson K610i mobile phone. Not because of decoding flaws, but due to the heavy power consumption of SBR, which had forced me to recharge batteries noticeably often, a problem which was sorted out with the switch to LC-AAC @ -q 0.31 (~75-80 kbps) in the meantime. 80/96 kbps are still low enough to spare both the storage space and the batteries while offering decent quality for portable use (check the impressive results of the high anchor used in the latest 48 kbps multiformat test, it was 96 kbps iTunes AAC).

About the other formats: LAME creates comparably large files at -V6 (lower quality settings aren't recommendable due to resampling), while Vorbis tends to quickly drain batteries.

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #2 –
i have been using KSC-35's for years and the comparative quality to the headphones that came with my Muvo and nano is like night and day.

suggest strongly you listen to some Senn PX 100's and some koss Porta-pros's.

it completely changes your listening experience.

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #3 –
FWIW, I use Sennheiser PX-100 mentioned in kennedyb4's post with my iPod Nano, and like them a lot - way better sound than the standard buds that came with the Nano.

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #4 –
Junon: thanks for the informative reply and suggestion . Which Sennheiser earbuds do you have and how do you think they would compare to the MX51s? As for the bitrate, my hearing is not really refined, but I like to guide myself by other people's recommendations in order to feel comfortable, and since guruboolez uses ~130kbps on his portable, I'd like to stay on that level. Now, as per the battery consumption argument you exposed (very good point, by the way), I'll limit myself to Nero LC-AAC or LAME VBR, so that would mean either LAME @ -V 5 or Nero AAC @ q0.42. Which would you rather use?


kennedyb4: thanks for the recommendations . Do you think the loss in portability if choosing the Koss is met with a worthwhile increase in sound quality?

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Mekatype on
Which Sennheiser earbuds do you have and how do you think they would compare to the MX51s?


The MXL 51s. From a technical point of view they don't seem to differ from your choice, the details provided by Amazon are identical to the MX 51s. Mine just offer some additional hold due to their neckband, which is needed for my jogging. Their quality is very satisfying for my personal needs and especially for this price class.
Quote
I'll limit myself to Nero LC-AAC or LAME VBR, so that would mean either LAME @ -V 5 or Nero AAC @ q0.42. Which would you rather use?

I'd prefer going for the latter. You seem to be highly concerned about quality, otherwise you wouldn't go for average bitrates reached by these settings. Though I personally find LAME -V 5 being transparent, a lot of users on these boards don't agree with that (just read the many thousands of "use -V 2" recommendations), while I rarely read anyone complaining about AAC @~128 kbps. Personal listening tests concluded that even 96 kbps are transparent to me, with 80 kbps already leading to impossibly to ABX differences on the vast majority of samples I've tested so far. I gotta add that I intentionally don't train my hearing for ABXing hard to find encoding artifacts, hence my ears aren't the best ones if it's about delivering reliable results.

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #6 –
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "low cost," but you can get some tolerably decent philips or labtech setups for ~$20 US.  Noise cancelling could even push you up to 35ish.  I like labtech's consistency in headphones, even though they probably wouldn't up too much of a candle to some midlevel sennheisers.

Hope that was helpful. (I hate earbuds, since they never fit me right, so I couldn't say about those...)

 

Oh and for the balance of quality and battery consumption, the compression is barely apparent and the sound quality is decent for aac @ 192 kbs (Though my mp3 player can play flacs, which kind of spoils my perception of anything lossy.)

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #7 –
When contemplating spending more on headphones than the player, you need to take into account where you will do your listening.

In my case, all listening is in the car via cassette adapter, or on a plane with stock headphones. The ambient noise in each case is so high that it makes no sense to spend large $ on the output.

If you listen in a quiet environment, maybe you can justify the expense... maybe not...

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Mekatype on
kennedyb4: thanks for the recommendations . Do you think the loss in portability if choosing the Koss is met with a worthwhile increase in sound quality?


Yes. Especially with the KSC 35's, they just fit in a pocket and are superb for the money. The px 100's are bigger but fold down to a very compact size.

Either would be easily spotted if you were riding a bike though and would not fit under a helmet though.

Earbuds have come a long way but I have never heard any that come close to the open easy sound of the Koss or Senns.

Places like Future Shop etc let you buy,audition,and return no questions asked so you can try them out with no risk.

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #9 –
Ok, so Koss KSC-75 and Nero AAC @ q0.42 it is then. Thanks for all the great advice .



While we're at it, I use the following EAC profile for backing up my rips to FLAC:

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/v5LE92C26...0_Id0_.CFG.html

Is it ok or should I change something? When converting the FLACs to Nero AAC, will they keep the tags?

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #10 –
Forget about buying the Sony MDR-EX51 ... they will most likely be shipped with your new cellphone anyway ... at least, this was the case with my W800i ...
The name was Plex The Ripper, not Jack The Ripper
 

Are low cost earphones worth it?

Reply #11 –
Quote from: JeanLuc on
Forget about buying the Sony MDR-EX51 ...
That and they suck hardcore...  I have the EX-71 and trust me there better headphones out there at similar prices.  Stick to the Senn's like people have been suggesting.
JXL