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Topic: Another recommendation for headphone and earphones. (Read 3354 times) previous topic - next topic
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Another recommendation for headphone and earphones.

Hello, here's yet another thread about recommendation for a decent pair of over the head headphones and a pair of earphones. I have no idea or experience about either one since I have always used the free pair you get when buying an mp3 player. I have a budget of about $70 for each item. I'll be using the headphones mainly for watching videos on my computer and from time to time music and the earphones for listening to mixed genre music on my commute. I'm not an audiohpile by any means so anything that will give a decent to nice sound quality would be good. And sorry for another one of these threads, I'm sure you guys are sick of them.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

BTW aesthetics is not as much important as long as they are black.

Another recommendation for headphone and earphones.

Reply #1
I always recommend that you listen before buying.  (But, I assume this is not possible with in-ears.)

For headphone/in-ears recommendations without too much "audiophile nonsense", try: GoodCans.com.    (These guys only recommed stuff that they sell, so the list is limited and possibly biased.)

When it comes to headphones "open" designs usually sound better than "closed" designs in a given price range.

Another recommendation for headphone and earphones.

Reply #2
I was able to get some recommendation from some friends. What do you guys think of these earphones? Any experience with them?

Denon AH-C351
Denon AH-C551K
Creative EP-630
Sennheiser CX300-B
Etymotic ER-6i
Shure SE115
Scosche IDR305md

I would say bass is not as important as clarity.
Thanks again.

 

Another recommendation for headphone and earphones.

Reply #3
I think most of these recommendations will be quite worthless unless you specify at least what kind of sound signature you prefer. For example, some IEMs on this list are known to be bulky bass monsters (Creative and to a lesser extend Denon), others have very a neutral and analytical sound (Etynmotic) many people would consider "lifeless", and some are an inbetween (Shure - don't know about the Scosche).

I wouldn't recomment the Sennheiser, unlike you're really a basshead on budget, as they sound very bathtuby.
I haven't heard the other, but the Shure 115 are not considered to be the best value around.

If you like a rather smooth and warm sound signature with decent bass and somewhat chary but nevertheless crystal-clear heights, I'd recommend the Phonak Audeo PFE 012, as they are fantastic value (www.audeoworld.com).
If you like a rather neutral sound signature, without any pronounced bass, go for the etymotic or the Audeo PFE 112, which have more bass than the etymotic, but less than the PFE 012 (value is still great but not as great as the PFE 012, as both IEMs are identical, and the 112 just come with different filters and more asseccories).

If you like bass-heavy phones which don't have their only virtue in delivering bass, the Hippo VB are considered to be the best choice around. Very good value in this department are the Klipsch Image X1, sold by amazon, which are identical to the Image S2, but half the price. The Monster Turbines are said to be fine too.

You may have a look at www.anythingbutipod.com - the reviews by dftk are very thourough and devoid of any audiophile-BS. He also posted a nice spreadsheet categorizing all the models he tested in the forum.

Edit:
Quote
I would say bass is not as important as clarity.

Oh, missed that line. You really should consider the PFE - they are quite unmatched in clarity for single driver IEMs, exept for the etymotic, which have a somewhat anemic bass though.