Funny that this topic should come up at this time. My favorite Sony
MDR-EX71SL earbuds developed a short in the cord last week, so it was
time to buy another pair. The last set lasted for more than two years,
which is really good considering that I use them daily for hours at a
time and am not as careful with them as I should be.
This time, I decided to try some other brands and took the plunge and
bought the Shure SE100s from a store in town. At $100 it was expensive,
but I was curious to see if there was any significant increase in sound
quality.
The clarity and imaging were astounding!! Truly!! Listening to tracks
I was well familiar with was like hearing them anew: all sorts of
nuances I'd never heard before were suddenly very clear. The earphones
also did an excellent job of blocking outside sounds. I felt like I was
in a wonderfully exquisite aural cocoon.
My only complaint about them was the lack of bass, even though I tried
pushing the earpads further in my ear. It helped somewhat, but not as
much as I would have expected. I thought to put on one of the alternate
earpads to ensure a better fit, but had trouble getting the pads off. I
didn't want to risk ripping the rubber cover since I wasn't sure if I'd
keep the earphones. I never got to experiment to see if using different
earpads would help with the bass problem.
I convinced myself to return the earphones to the store because of the
bass issue, but the sheer clarity of the sound haunted me for days after.
Instead, I bought a pair of Sennheiser CX300s, which sounded just as
good as my old Sonys. They aren't really sound isolating, but they
deliver a good, even sound. No complaints at all. Problem is that
those Shure earphones were SO good, I couldn't deny the massive
difference in quality.
Now that my ears got a taste of the really good stuff, they weren't
havin' the Sennheisers, so I went online this evening and finally
decided to buy the Shure E4c-N earphones today on Amazon.com ($89!!!),
since they got even better reviews than the ones I tried a few days ago!
Assuming the E4C-N is as good as I hope it'll be, I'll probably keep the
Sennheiser earphones as a standby in case something happens to the Shures.
{}0+>|
Frank Glazer wrote:
I'm in the market for some new earbuds for ipod listening on the
train. It's been about a year since this subject was last mentioned
on list, I checked the archives but thought an update wouldn't hurt.
I want something very loud with strong, clear defined bass response.
They need to block a significant amount of outside sound so that i
don't have to hear chatter or rail noise. So what's everybody using
for earbuds these days? I'm considering one of the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Shure-E2c-n-Sound-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B000E5GKW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221435680&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-Vibe-Earbuds-Gunmetal-Black/dp/B000V5L5MG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221436093&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Research-ER4S-Reference-Earphones/dp/B000300Y9O/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3TBZ27N3IMN3O&colid=2ZPLTMQTI9YUX
http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Research-Portable-Earphones-Black/dp/B000XPG2QI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221434596&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-IE-10-Professional-Reference-Monitors/dp/B000JNNNBQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1221436137&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHE9850-Headphones-Advanced-Acoustics/dp/B00176TEGM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221435109&sr=1-1
or your recommendation under $175
Thanks in advance!
