Hi all.

I am looking to get some decent headphones to replace the standard iPod
buds.

These are my main requirements:

Over head type: so I can just hang them round my neck instead of
fiddling with tiny buds

Closed: cut out some background noise on tube and stop bothing others
with sound leakage

Punchy Bass and crisp treble:

So far these are the ones I'm considering:

Senheisser HD 200
Senheisser PX 100 (for cheapness and sound - though not closed)
AKG K44
Technics RP F550
Bose Triport (If I'm feeling extravagant!)

Any advice on these or any recommendations for others greatly
appreciated. Prefer to spend around £40 to £50 ($70 to $90) but would
spend more if necessary.

Cheers guys

You said "crisp?" These fit the bill, although tad more money than you
specified.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.asp

Mine are great! I also own one of their ER-6 models as well. The ER-6i
seals off ambient noise a bit better than the ER-6 does.

B~

Simon French wrote:
Hi all.

I am looking to get some decent headphones to replace the standard iPod
buds.

These are my main requirements:

Over head type: so I can just hang them round my neck instead of
fiddling with tiny buds

Closed: cut out some background noise on tube and stop bothing others
with sound leakage

Punchy Bass and crisp treble:

So far these are the ones I'm considering:

Senheisser HD 200
Senheisser PX 100 (for cheapness and sound - though not closed)
AKG K44
Technics RP F550
Bose Triport (If I'm feeling extravagant!)

Any advice on these or any recommendations for others greatly
appreciated. Prefer to spend around £40 to £50 ($70 to $90) but would
spend more if necessary.

Cheers guys

I would spend the extra couple of bucks while the Euro/Pound is strong
vs. the US dollar, and get a pair of Sennheiser HD280. They are a most
excellent headphone, with a flat frequency response, and wonderful
isolation.

I have a pair, and use them in a live audio reinforcement environment
for PFL, troubleshooting, and doing a tape mix (when required). They
isolate enough that I can work on a signal with little background noise
while the band is playing at 100+ dBSPL. Guest engineers love them too
(coupled with my Whirlwind PA-1 H/P amp).

The iPod should be able to drive these, but may not be as loud as you'd
like. I'm not sure what the output power is on the H/P jack, but to
**really** get them cooking I need a headphone amp. They work just fine
off my Discman, although they aren't ear-splitting; that's probably a
good thing...

Cheers,
David Cull.

"Simon French" wrote in message
news:1100088714.14793@proxy
Hi all.

I am looking to get some decent headphones to replace the standard
iPod buds.

These are my main requirements:

Over head type: so I can just hang them round my neck instead of
fiddling with tiny buds

Closed: cut out some background noise on tube and stop bothing others
with sound leakage

Punchy Bass and crisp treble:

So far these are the ones I'm considering:

Senheisser HD 200
Senheisser PX 100 (for cheapness and sound - though not closed)
AKG K44
Technics RP F550
Bose Triport (If I'm feeling extravagant!)

Any advice on these or any recommendations for others greatly
appreciated. Prefer to spend around £40 to £50 ($70 to $90) but would
spend more if necessary.

I'm a long-time user of headphones going back to
some Telex phones I bought in the early 60's, followed by a pair of Koss
Pro-4s, and then on, and on, and on. To position my current tastes, let me
say that my *main* headphones for stationary listening are Sennheiser
HD-580s and Sony MDR 7506s. I use Koss UR30s for some casual listening,
monitoring and testing. My portable players include a Nomad Jukebox 3
playing .wav files, and an Audiovox CE149MP CD/MP3 player. I'm an avid
amateur recordist and owner and proprietor of the www.pcabx.com and
www.pcavtech.com web sites. I also use a number of different sound cards
and a Rane headphone amp with various headphones, including the slightly
unusual pairing of the LynxTWO audio production sound card with the HD-580s.

But, we're on the topic of In-Ear-Monitors (formal name for this product
category), so here are a number of items that I use, with US & UK prices.
They all may be worth consideration, just pick a price point!

Koss "The Plug" $19.95 US$ I got a pair from Circuit City on a whim, and
they turned out to be easily worth twice the price. IMO an unbelievable
value. I notice that there are UK sources pricing them at like £12. The
sound is more like 580s than 7506s.
www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/files/graphics/$file/THEPLUG_lg.jpg

Sony MDR EX-70 or MDR EX-71 $33-40. More bass and treble than "The Plug" but
that might mean that "The Plug" is smoother. A little less efficient. I
notice that there are UK sources pricing them at like £25-£35. The sound is
more like 7506s than 580s. http://www.hogwildstore.com/sonmdrex71sl.html

Shure E-2 used to be about $80, now selling for more like $100. The E2c
differs from the E2 in terms of packaging. More highly robust than Hi-Fi.
Very smooth but rolled off at both ends. With a little equalization they can
sound very nice. Did I say that they are very mechanically and electrically
robust? I notice that there are UK sources pricing them at £77.00 and up.
The sound is more laid back than 580s.
http://www.shure.com/earphones/eseries_e2c.asp

Etymotic ER-6 about $120. Originally, I thought the ER-6s were horrible,
but I played around with my collection of earpieces until I got them to
be tolerable.
http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6.asp

Sennheiser IE3 IEMs turn out to be FutureSonics' EM3 EARS about $150. IMO
the best sound of the group discussed here. They are reasonably effiicent
and have excellent bass and treble response as well as smooth midrange.
http://futuresonics.umsebiz.com/stor...75&item=370255

Generally, In-Ear-Monitors deliver the ultimate in "close-up" sound. Many
take advantage of the physical seal and tiny enclosed volume to deliver some
of the most ear-popping but non-boomy bass you've ever heard. The E-2s have
enough bass roll-off that this is not usually the case unless you apply some
eq.

They inherently provide considerable reduction of ambient noise, which is
both the good and bad news. If you are using them and someone wants to get
your attention...

Yeah, I've heard good things about these high end in-ear phones, but I'm
not keen on spending so much money on something that I'll probably break
or drop in a pint of beer. I'm keen on something circumaural if poss

Cheers anyway


B. Peg wrote:
You said "crisp?" These fit the bill, although tad more money than you
specified.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.asp

Mine are great! I also own one of their ER-6 models as well. The ER-6i
seals off ambient noise a bit better than the ER-6 does.

B~

"B. Peg" wrote:
You said "crisp?" These fit the bill, although tad more money than you
specified.
http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.asp
Mine are great! I also own one of their ER-6 models as well. The ER-6i
seals off ambient noise a bit better than the ER-6 does.

Same here. I retired my Sennheiser Pro (I cannot remember the number of
them but they had a really stiff cord). They required a headphone amp to
get the low power Pod's output up to something that I could live with though
so the cost of a better in-ear phone would be offset by requiring an
additional amp for a quality headset. I am not talking about the $25
Boost-a-Roo thing either. It had way too much distortion for me. That
said, every phone has a different affect on the user (i.e. more bass, more
treble, less whatever, transparency, etc). Better if you could borrow a
pair from someone or visit a dealer who has a line like a good music shop.

Here is a site with a bunch of audiophile headphone info:
http://headwize.com/ubb/forumdisplay.php?fnum=1

Also, the Etymotic's customer service can't be beat. The newish 6i's tips
kept coming off in my ear. They admitted their was a molding problem and
replaced the whole set. They do take some time to get use to if you never
wore in-ear phones though.

Mack

Simon French wrote:


Punchy Bass and crisp treble:

So far these are the ones I'm considering:

Senheisser HD 200

Not too bad.

Senheisser PX 100 (for cheapness and sound - though not closed)

Why bother? Like buying diet cola.

AKG K44

Meh.

Technics RP F550

Crud.

Bose Triport (If I'm feeling extravagant!)

ICK.

By reaction to your budget is - get a pair of Grado SR80
headphones. For the money, they give you the best sound
in your price-range.

Simon French wrote in message news:1100088714.14793@proxy...
Hi all.

I am looking to get some decent headphones to replace the standard iPod
buds.

Suggest you take your iPod to some shops and buy only ear gear you can
try before you buy. Also, pay attention to comfort first. If what you
buy isn't comfortable, you won't use it. Been there, done that!

Also search the web for the following web sites:

headphone.com

headwize(.org?)

head-fi(.org?)

But most importantly, buy only what you can try before you buy. The
most important thing is that the ear gear feels and sounds good to
you.

Like speakers, ear gear varies a lot and there's some personal taste
involved. Other recommendations can be worthwhile, but ultimately
trust yourself to choose what works for you and is comfy too.

I own (and love) the Grado SR80 that another poster recommends, but
I've never tried those with an iPod. My concern would be that
conventional, full-sized headphones like the SR80 don't seem
appropriate to something as portable as an iPod. The SR80 is just too
big to drag around everywhere. Grado also offers (or used to offer;
not sure of current status) the SR40, which is smaller, and also
sounds good; I own the SR40, but it's still a bit big for portable use
and doesn't fold for storage either.

I use a MiniDisc player for music on the go. With that, I use the
Sennheiser MX300 earbuds, which sound good to me, are small, fit well,
and are very cheap. There are other models in the MX line. However,
you may not like the feeling of having something actually, physically
being in your ear; that really bothers some people.

The Sennheiser PX-series headphones are small, they fold, and they
include a carrying case. I haven't heard them, but many people like
them.

Good hunting!

(snip)

Cheers all for the tips,

Would like to try before I buy in practice most shops won't let you.
Some crap about health and safety - probably just the shop assistant
being lazy.

Anyway, will check those websites out

S

N wrote:
Simon French wrote in message news:1100088714.14793@proxy...

Hi all.

I am looking to get some decent headphones to replace the standard iPod
buds.


Suggest you take your iPod to some shops and buy only ear gear you can
try before you buy. Also, pay attention to comfort first. If what you
buy isn't comfortable, you won't use it. Been there, done that!

Also search the web for the following web sites:

headphone.com

headwize(.org?)

head-fi(.org?)

But most importantly, buy only what you can try before you buy. The
most important thing is that the ear gear feels and sounds good to
you.

Like speakers, ear gear varies a lot and there's some personal taste
involved. Other recommendations can be worthwhile, but ultimately
trust yourself to choose what works for you and is comfy too.

I own (and love) the Grado SR80 that another poster recommends, but
I've never tried those with an iPod. My concern would be that
conventional, full-sized headphones like the SR80 don't seem
appropriate to something as portable as an iPod. The SR80 is just too
big to drag around everywhere. Grado also offers (or used to offer;
not sure of current status) the SR40, which is smaller, and also
sounds good; I own the SR40, but it's still a bit big for portable use
and doesn't fold for storage either.

I use a MiniDisc player for music on the go. With that, I use the
Sennheiser MX300 earbuds, which sound good to me, are small, fit well,
and are very cheap. There are other models in the MX line. However,
you may not like the feeling of having something actually, physically
being in your ear; that really bothers some people.

The Sennheiser PX-series headphones are small, they fold, and they
include a carrying case. I haven't heard them, but many people like
them.

Good hunting!

(snip)

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 12:11:54 GMT, Simon French
wrote:

You can get some Sennheiser HD 25 SPs from HeadRoom for $89.00 or buy
some British Airways versions from the Concord (same thing, only with
the BA logo) for about $60 on ebay. They're a close headphone, very
comfortable, they don't look expensive or fancy, and come apart rather
easily to avoid breaking, a nice feature for a mobile headphone.

They're quite comfortable and sound nice, though I admit, haven't been
able to compare them to the Grados yet.

Andy Katz

Simon French wrote:
Hi all.

I am looking to get some decent headphones to replace the standard
iPod buds.

These are my main requirements:

Over head type: so I can just hang them round my neck instead of
fiddling with tiny buds

Closed: cut out some background noise on tube and stop bothing
others
with sound leakage

Punchy Bass and crisp treble:

Sony MDR-7506 (they're foldable, too) ... the 7509's have more, but
(to me) unrealistic bass