I’ve noticed recently that my ipod earphones are starting to get a bit tinny and have a distinct lack of bass. What is good? I’m looking for some in the ear ones, as they seem to be more versatile for hats, etc. A friend has recommended me some Bose ones, any other suggestions?

Ta.

C

sennheiser are good – I have some CX400 and very happy with them. Fairly reasonable price as well depending on how much you wanted to spend

i’ve got some of these

you can get them from play.com and amazon as well… really good sound, esp. for the money. They come with various different size buds to fit your ear.

I was thinking about £30 to £40, but it seems that the good earphones can set you back a pretty penny (£70+). Is it worth going the extra mile and splashing out on that quality of earphone? Seems like a lot of money to me. But I suppose you get what you pay for.

CP, cheers. I can’t believe I didn’t check out the Richer Sounds web site – if there’s anywhere to go for music equipment, it’s there. That’s the sort of money I’m after spending (maybe a little more) but the write up seems to be ticking all the boxes for me.

So it’s 2 for Sennheiser, 0 for the rest.

i think rather than just ‘comfort’ the different sized buds are to get a good seal on your ear – there is a big difference in sound quality with them fitted well, and not quite in the ear right, so make sure you have a play with the different sized buds to get a good fit.

v-moda (i have a pair) are rather good for “isolating” the music
from the surrounding sounds, but you can still hear things like
sirens !

I used a pair of Shure E2C’s most days for 3 years (until i broke one of the cables). They would come in at the upper limit of your budget. They have a great sound & come with a lot of different buds. You can buy packs of just one bud type from Shure. Once you get the fit right i’d suggest doing that.

I’ve now upgraded to SE420’s & their sound quality is something else.

Sennheiser’s are unlistenable. Buy some good isolation earphones from Shure or UE. Pay as much as you want to pay!

I have Shure earphones, really great isolation is as much a benefit as the sound quality with them.

I have the E5Cs at the top end but also use the E2Cs for running and these are still great quality and a world apart from the standard ipod issue.

Count – I went from E5C’s to the new se530, when the cables finally die give the new version a go, it’s got a little more punch, it just seems able to carry more and the response is a little better. They don’t look as good though.

Another vote for the CX300s. Cheap but excellent performance for the price. I’ve no doubt you will get even better performance from those higher up the range but I’m terrible for breaking/losing pairs of headphones so £25/30 a pair is about my limit. For that price there’s nothing touching the Sennheisers.

Shures for me also. I spend a lot of time on planes and I can easily wear my Shures for a 14 hour flight in complete comfort. The sound isolation (with the expanding foam sleeves) is far more effective than they very showy / expensive ‘noise cancellation’ headphones that you see lots of people wearing (on planes).

m – are you allowed to use mp3 players etc on planes now? i wasn’t sure as they used to say no electrical equipment to be used – must admit i haven’t been on a plane for a while – i always seem to go on me holidays on the ferry.

I think it really comes down to what fits your ears, and that’s not easy to judge until you’ve used them for a while. I have some Etymotic Er6i that I was convinced were a waste of money until I’d worn them in and got used to them. Now they are the comfiest earphones I own, and deliver (to me) better sound and isolation than Shure, Sennheiser, or any others. I wore them with the sound off on a transatlantic flight just to block the engine noise and they were perfectly comfortable to sleep in.

yep, you can use them on planes. just not at take off or landing. you can even use your phone on some ryanair flights now – if you’re stupid enough to pay for the privelige!!!!

you can use most things now so long as they don’t transmit. the take off and landing thing is there to give you a better chance in the event of an evacuation, rather than any aircraft systems issue.

Etymotic, klipsch, shure, all make models at about £50 – £100. Don’t bother with noise cancelling, get isolating. Noise cancelling phones have had half the money go into a circuit to produce the cancelling waves, far better for it all to go into the drivers etc. Make sure they fit your ears or you wont get good sound at all. One proviso is that you need to take extra care crossing the street.

I got Klipsch custom 2 from amazon and they are amazing. Regularly had my ipod on until 3am cos its just so good and I cant bring myself to turn it off!

Worth mentioning that you need reasonable bitrates for it all to be worth while, no point in spending >£50 on <128kbps.

Afternoon,

Just thought I would add my two pence worth. I have had a few sets of earphones in my time including in ear Sennheiser, which I found in all honesty not to be that great with relative low base levels and the ability to drop out of my ears no matter what size bud I put on them but could be my ears. Shure are great headphones as are the new B&O but depends on what you want to pay. For the gym and bike etc I use Koss sparkplug, great isolation as the actual bud moulds to your ear cavity, search on the net and you can get a set for under 20, which in my eyes is a bargain. They can be base heavy but I quite like that. Hope that helps.

£168 for the Shure SE420-EFS, are you mad? you could buy a new XTR chainring for that 😀

I used a pair of Shure E2C’s most days for 3 years (until i broke one of the cables).

The cable snapped on mine as well, just where it bends near your ear.

Only lasted me a year though!

Gone back to the Sennheiser CX400, which for me, are actully feel more comfortable to use.

I must have weired shaped ears 😉

If anything the base and soundproofing are better on the Sennheiser.

The cables on the older E2C’s (like mine) crack due to the cold apparently. Mine were cracked in about 15 places in the end, much like ski’s up there ^^. One “crack” somehow ended up about about 10mm long (i had some insulating tape around it). Eventually one cable got to be intermittent, prompting me to get the se240’s.

Ski, if yours were a year old you’d be able to get them swapped on warranty. They have 2 years & Shure apparently are good at honouring it. Wish it was 3 years.

Dibbs, i got an XTR crankset just before the price hike, so hopefully won’t be needing chainrings for a while yet 😉

CX300 £17.99

Sony PFRV1 Head Mounted Speaker Headphones

Only £339.00 😯

Gonna chuck in my four-penneth, FWIW. I’ve used Sennheiser CX300’s which are cheap and cheerful, a mate had the Shure’s, replaced three times under warranty, finally replaced with Denon AH-C550’s, which are very good indeed, and just around the top of your price range, at £60ish. They have, however, just introduced a new in-ear ‘phone for £25, which ought to tick all your boxes, Denon kit is extremely good quality. I’ve also got a pair of Etymotic ER6i’s with custom eartips, which are excellent, if, at £150, kinda pricey. By far the best ‘phones I’ve ever used, tho’, are the Ultimate Ears Superfi 4vi’s, which have a mic and remote control for my iPhone. These were $124, but are just amazingly good, I’m continually amazed at how good these sound with 320kb files. UE’s actually start from around $25, so there’s probably something there that’ll suit. I got mine from earphonesolutions.com, and their service is excellent. The thing to point out, tho’, is that a lot of people critisise the sound quality of music files on iPods, when in fact a good pair of ‘phones will show that at higher bitrates you’re hearing differences in the quality of the original digital mastering; the Led Zeppelin ReMasters are bloody awful, for example, yet the Buddy Holly Original Master Tapes disc on RCA is incredible, for recordings made fifty years ago. Good ‘phones will repay the outlay by allowing you to hear those differences, so spend more than you might at first expect.

Thanks grahamb, did not relise they come with a 2 year warranty 🙂