High-end headphones
 

So I'm looking into purchasing some high end headphones. I'm most interested in the in-the ear noise blocking style as opposed to the monstrously huge stereo headphones. However, I know nothing of high quality audio equipment. What are the recognized brands? I've heard board members mention Sennheiser before. A friend of mine recommended that I buy from Shure. Can any audiophiles here provide me with some additional info?

I'm looking for something similiar - like those Bose satillite headphones you plug into your TV so you don't interrupt the rest of the house when you're watching Starship Troopers.

Do they have those things for computers? (I'd think so)

Those cordless headphones are not all that great. I have a pair and they keep losing reception totally. And when they do work, they sound awful. I do not recommend. Otherwise, I'm in the same situation. I need new ones.

CNET seems to really like the Shure E4c earbuds - but wow - those things are EXPENSIVE. And what's the deal with "surround" headphones?

I was never much for earbuds. I can only wear them for maybe an hour before they get uncomfortable. I prefer the larger style headphone, where it will encompass the whole ear in vinyl encased foam. Just a personal thing though.

I'm looking for earbuds because they are actually portable - and since I would be using these things on the bus, train, subway and while at McGill, I need something portable.

For the record, when I worked at Circuit City I picked up a pair of Sennheiser headphones that retailed $150 and cost $50. Best purchase $50 or less I've EVER made. They're huge, but they sound excellent.

Well seeing that you want it to be portable earbuds, I don't think they have the same quality as the regular BIG headphones by Sennheiser, but I could be wrong. As well, since it's porbable, I guess you'd want it to be not so expensive that it'd be devastating if you lost it. I had a pair of Panasonic earbud phones for some time and they were okay, but did hurt after a few hours.

And for the $50 phones Dopefish just posted, damn thats nice. But too bad it was only a special eh? I'd buy a few as gifts and what not.

I think that I'm going to end up buying the Shure E4g earbuds. They're going to cost me a few hundred CDN $, but they seem to be exactly what I want.

Just don't lose them okay?

Those things will be super-glued to my body (just like my cell phone and 30 GB black iPod Video) - I just need to wait for a proper eBay auction to get them at a reduced price. Either that or I'll get the E4c black - but their cord is super long. The eBay auctions for the E4g earbuds all try to scam you on the shipping - they're all at least like $30 US. I even saw one for 50 pounds - WTF.

http://www.head-fi.com

Join. Read. Post. Such a wealth of headphone information there it's not funny.

For canalphones/IEMs, it all depends on budget. At the entry level are the Shure e2c (a bit muddy and I don't care for them, although some like them), Shure e3c (a step up from the e2c), Etymotic er6i (Incredibly Detailed Presentation and Great isolation, but some think they're a bit TOO bright since they present a lot of detail in the highs), the Westone UM1 (I've heard great things but never had a chance to try them) and the Super.Fi 3. As you go up the chain, there are the e4c/e5c and the Etymotic er4p/s, the well-loved Westone UM2, as well as Super.Fi 5 and 5EB (most bass ever to come out of an IEM).


I personally reccomend starting with a less expensive pair such as the e3c or er6i - Canalphones aren't for everyone. I own a pair of er6i, but I'll probably be reselling them in the next few months because I find them rather uncomfortable and find myself using my Sennheiser HD-280 for Isolating and Portable use more often and my HD-580 for home use.

Words of advice: Avoid Surround Sound, and avoid BOSE. BOSE spends all its money on advertising and none on R&D - their phones truly suck. They cost 3 times as much as other headphones with similar levels of sound quality and the build quality is horrible (anyone who has ever touched a pair of Triports knows what I'm talking about). Surround Sound headphones have crap SQ.

When you say surround sound, you mean there are such things as "surround sound phones"? News to me, then again I'm not knowledgable of all these technical stuff.

Get Grados.

You're done.

What Megalith said. I bought some SR-60's for only $69.99 and they sound better than the $300 Boses my uncle has. They're pretty big, but well worth it.

I have the Shure E3C, pretty good noise blocking ability. When I have the music on low, it drowns out most of the abient noise from my computer and some of the loud car noises outside. When I have it on medium, I can't even hear a person standing right next to me talking. If you're going to get canal phones though, remember to clean your ears out... These things get dirty after a while and the manual recommends that you clean them after every use (lol) but just keep your ears clean and you'll probably be able to have a snugger fit and you won't need to excessively wash the rubber ear pads.

Grados aren't earphones or canal phones, they are huge headphones, and I find them a bit uncomfortable and just too big. Sound quality is good, but it feels like you have two huge speakers hanging right over your ears. If anyone is in the same room with you while you have these on, they'll probably hear the same music that you do.

I'm guessing that you're asking about wireless headphones? Sennheiser makes the RS 120 and RS 130, which are both pretty good-sounding. Obviously, a good pair of regular headphones in the same price range will beat them quite handily in terms of sound quality, but then you have to worry about cords and sitting close to the TV set, and a lot of high-end headphones need at least some amplification. They use standard RCA connectors, so you can hook them straight to a DVD player, or to a computer with a $2 adapter.

Oh, and since Megalith brought it up, Grados aren't even that good IMHO. They're OK sounding, but they aren't detailed at all, and they still use 20-year-old design and materials. I'd much rather buy a pair of Sennheisers or AKGs, especially now that the AKG K501 and Sennheiser HD280 Pro are both selling for about half of their original list price.

oh wait, I did buy a pair of K501s. ^^

My Dream Earphones are these.

http://www.ultimateears.com/custom/UE-10-Pro.htm

The Ultimate Ears Custom Fit Earphones. I'd like to know more about them but I thought I'd just through the idad out there.

I remember creating a thread similar to this right before the board crashed.

Someone recommened me a Sennheiser. It was like a $60 one that was really good. Any clue?

I'm heading into my last year Majoring in Anatomy and Cell Biology, and I'll most likely be in Med at McGill the year after that. I wanted to do an Honours degree, but the required research course is ridiculously tough to juggle along with 4 other classes if taken over two semesters. I would have done it during the summer, but I need to work in order to pay for school, etc... then.

Back on topic:

Does anybody know of a Canadian retailer that sells Shure E4g earbuds? The eBay auctions are all retarded.

I just recieved my pair of Ultimate Ears super.fi 5Pro IEMs, and they are awesome. Great bass, great mids, clear and crisp highs, and stunning resolution. I'm hearing things in my music I've never heard before, things I never even knew existed within the songs. I use the double-cupped rubber tips, and the sound isolation is great, I can't hear anything on the outside with them in.

With my other headphones, I had to turn my iPod's volume about 9/10 of the way up to hear them, with these, I only have to turn it about 3/10 of the way up at the most to get the same effect.

Truly worth the money.

Grados are an acquired taste. Ignoring the fact that they leak as much as speakers and that, being supraaural, they are incredibly uncomfortable for anything more than 10 minutes of listening, and ignoring their complete lack of any soundstage whatsoever, they're an INCREDIBLY bright phone that I personally don't enjoy at all. ESPECIALLY the SR-125 - that's kind of like a recipe for Tinnitus right there. The RS-1 have a wonderful sound, but if I had $700 to spend on cans there are choices I much prefer.

You really think so? I always thought that Grados were very appealing to people who've never heard high-end sound equipment before, since they have the basic tonal qualities of regular old stereo equipment, except better. The SR-60 and SR-80 are certaintly fun little rock headphones, at the very least...lots of mid-bass and treble impact, even if they won't win any awards for clarity or low/high extension.

Something like the K501 seems more of an acquired taste to me, since it has a tonal balance that's way off from what most mid-fi systems sound like. Plus, they're stupidly picky about sources and absolutely need amplification. I have a pair and love them, but I'm sure my roommates, who wanted more bass than a pair of Pioneer speakers with 12" woofers could provide, would hate them for their lack of bass impact.

I did set them down the path to redemption with a pair of PX100's, though. ^^

I always notice in these threads that there are a group of people who will say "Get Sennheiser!" and another group who say "Get Grado!". There are a couple of things that go un-mentioned: both of these style of headphones have VERY different sound signatures. In the end, pick based on what kind of music you listen to. Sennheiser 'phones tend to put you in the audience of a concert hall. Classical music is supposed to sound AMAZING with these. Grados on the other hand, put you right ON the stage, and rock music is just that: rockin'. And, the higher end Sennheiser headphones will generally sound like CRAP out of a portable player or receiver. 'Headphone amplifiers' are something most people into casual listening will read about, turn around, and run away.

I only have Grados so I can only comment on those. The brightness problem is easily fixed with a change of pads. Those Senn. HD-414 replacement pads can be modified to fit on Grado headphones and they tone the high frequencies down a good bit. Or you can do what I did: buy the limited edition HF-1 Grado, made specially for the Head-Fi forums. I believe there will be one more sale before they are discontinued, so you'd have to head over to the forum and check it out soon. The drivers of these are enclosed in wood, similar to the RS-1. Their sound signature is much warmer, less bright, less edgy, compared to the other Grado at the same price point (SR-225.)

I'd recommend the Grados for rock music for sure. They have great sound for pretty affordable prices. They are pretty ugly though.

For movies and gaming, I'd suggest getting the headphones I have: Audio-Technica ATH-A900's. They're about $200, and closed and pretty goddamn huge, but they are extremely nice sounding.

Some of us like the retro look. :)

Of course, any mod work done to Grados by headphile.com is stunning & beautiful. Wood is awesome.

http://www.headphile.com/page9.html

I got the Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 pro (like PiccoloNamek... <3) and I love them to death. At the time, it was a toss-up between the Shure e4c and these, and I chose this one after trying both after a while. It only cost about $250. These IEMs are awesome, and I use them for all my travels. I loved it. On shuttles and trains, the only thing I can hear other than my music are the vibrations of the engines on my body. When I enter crowded areas like food courts, the only thing I hear is my music. Sweet, beautiful, fucking awesome music. <3 again. Arainach has offered all the advice I'd give. head-fi.com is the place to go.

I really don't feel like signing up at that forum and asking noob questions, so I'll ask for a product comparison here. I read the CNET reviews for both the Shure E4g and the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro - they gave a higher score to the E4g despite the fact that the Ultimate Ears have two drivers while the Shure ones only have a single driver. Theoretically the Ultimate Ears set should have higher sound quality due to separate drivers for different frequencies - is this true in application? I'll be buying one of the two.

I got those Shure E4c headphones and I was very unimpressed. I spent all of that money on it and yet I basically had to jam it down my earhole just to hear it. Plus it always sounded like I was on an elevator. It actually made me want my ipod headphones back.

Maybe I have weirdly shaped ears or something but I wouldn't recommend it.

This all depends. I know they weren't reviewed by the same person, maybe the one who reviewed the E4gs felt more enthusiastic about them than the person who reviewed the Super.fi 5 Pros, even though they both thought that the particular pair they reviewed was excellent. Perhaps the person who reviewed the E4gs has never even heard sound from the super.fi 5 Pros, and vice versa. Some reviewers may have higher standards or be more conservative with their ratings, even if their subjective listening experience was excellent.

The slightly fragile cord of the super.fi 5 Pros may have lowered the score slightly as well. I haven't had any problems with it, although I can understand how some might. The part of the cord near your ear has a small metal wire inside of it, I can see how it might snap if you keep flexing it over and over again, so I try to keep mine in the same position all the time.

Also of note is that the average user rating for the super.fis is as high as the main review for the E4gs. Another interesting thing from the user reviews:

All I can tell you is that aside from the ocassional ear canal discomfort (which is most likely a personal problem), I totally satisfied with my super.fi 5 Pros.

I'm not really worried about the wire because there is a two year warranty. If it breaks, I'll just get it replaced. And it's not like it will stop working if the form keeping part stops keeping its shape.

True, but it's actually very nice to have wire secured over the ear. It has already saved me several times from having to re-insert my phones after accidentally yanking on the cord.

It really does depend on the person in my experience. I have friends who heard a pair of Grado/Alessandro and instantly fell in love (one now owns a pair of MS-1, one owns a pair of SR-325i with Headphile C-Pads). I have a few friends who just can't get used to them (myself in that group). It often depends on their preferred styles of music. People who exclusively listen to rock often tend to like Grados. Those of us who listen to either a mix or primarily symphonic/jazz tend to prefer other companies (Sennheiser in most cases, although I know a few Beyer fanboys). I may try and trade my er6i for a pair of SR-60 to mess around with, but for the time being I've been quite satisfied with the Senn world.

Are there any particular brands/models one would recommend for VGM? I know there are various "styles" of VGM just like with regular music (Meguro's metal/rock, Sakuraba's heavy synth, Mitsuda's ethnic/Celtic styles), but a lot of it is still synthed, just very well synthed.

I was thinking Grado SR-80s, but if there's something better, that'd be good. Also, one of you mentioned sound leaking out of Grados for others to hear. How bad is it, and are there any other fixes than modding pads for other headphones (I've found myself in a situation wherein I don't have much free time anymore) to fit? I work in an office with a lot of support calls and chatter going on around me, and while 'phones help to cut down the surrounding noise, I don't want to disturb anyone either.

Also, I find earbuds uncomfortable nearly to the point of being unwearable, so I'd prefer suggestions of either regular extra-aural phones, or mondo ear-swallowing phones like the Grados.

Errrmmmmm...anything that's still decent for VGM but won't cost me a week's pay?

Sorry, I really don't mean to be picky. It's just that it'd be for an office environment, and I'll still be getting up, moving around, putting them on and taking them off, and talking to other folks. Just need something for those stretches when I'm alone with only the Sarbanes-Oxley docs to keep me company.

Let's put it this way: what's the best sub-$130 set of VGM/synth/really-good-synth-you'd-swear-it-was-classical-Sung-Woon Jang-I-am-looking-at-you-friendly headphones I can get?

Thanks, I really appreciate it.

Any recommendations for some quality earbuds, I'm fed up with my Sony MDR81 earbuds already...damn wires. :)

Don't get Grado's if you don't want to disturb anyone. They're completely open, and, as a byproduct, give out nearly as much sound as goes into your ears.

I must grudgingly rescind any previous overt Grado-hatred I may have had. While I still believe the SR-125 should be removed from existence, now that I finally own a pair of SR-60 (I traded away my Etymotic er6i for them) I can admit that there are some things they do stunningly. They have no soundstage, they suck for anything Symphonic, and they leak like speakers, but there's just something special when you throw a good rock track on these things. Metallica is stunning, there are new parts of the Beatles that I'd never heard before (and I've lost count of how many times I've listened to those tracks).... they do have their strong points.

Because most of the music I listen to is Symphonic, I'm still a Sennheiser guy. But I can at least see where Grados are coming from.

Is there any headphones that are comfortable also? Maybe after 2 hours or so of listening? I've been reading some about Sennheisers, but most review complain about how they are uncomfortable.

I have a pair of Apple In-Ear phones and they sound pretty good, although they are a bit uncomfortable after a while of sitting in your ears. If you really want a comfortable set of earphones and don't mind coughing up the money for them, the the Shure EG4's.

I don't have them, but a friend of mine does and he practically lives with them stuffed in his ears. I know that he goes through countless hours of pouring over his schoolwork listening to his iPod and sadly enough, the iPod will die before he tires of the headphones in his ear.

I recently returned my Ultimate Ears S5FPs for a pair of Shure E4Gs. To put it bluntly, the E4Gs are better than the 5Pros in every possible way. The most prominent difference are the extremely smooth and clear midtones, which seemed lacking in the 5Pros, especially in the vocal range. Voices always sounded distant and lacking in volume, which made me want to turn the volume up. They have less bass than the 5Pros, but there is still plenty of it, and it is much tighter and more controlled. The terble is just as good and the sound as a whole is clearer, smoother, and more detailed. They are also much more balanced than the 5Pros. It doesn't seem to stress any particular part of the audio range over another.

More importantly, the phones themselves are much smaller than the 5Pros, and I can actually stand to have them in my ears for extended periods of time. The housing on the 5Pros was so big that it was constantly rubbing against my ears, and it hurt. A lot.

All in all, they're clearly a technically superior phone. I'm going to have Sensaphonics make me some custom ear tips soon, and then I'll really be in business.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...k/P1011458.jpg

Oh, and that reminds me: Mucknuggle, how are your Shures working out for you?

I am thinking about buying these, but wanted to ask for other opinions first. I want around the $100 - $150 range.

http://www.amazon.com/Shure-E3c-n-So...&s=electronics

I am not exactly sure what to get, but I just want something better than these damn apple headphones! And something that sounds great!