is it YOUR earphones too?

[chesterland]

I've had my e-10 for nearly two months now and 3 days ago my right earphone fell out of its 'shell'. I checked it and it had a large crack in it. I then looked at the left one and found it had a crack as well but its not so big. I have a friend who has an e-10 and I checked both left and right earphones and they both have cracks in them. I wanted to gather some idea of what other users have found or yet to find. Since the accessories have a 90 day warranty I've sent them back to Iriver and from there they say they will do what they can. And when I get them back and they break in another 2 months. can anyone recommend a good pair of earphones. i.e. don't sound like crap.

Thanks

[Xonnie_316]

Guess what, my earphones just broke also, last week matter of fact. I had my mp3 player for a few months now, around September - October.

My mate at work had the same problem with his earphones,

the e10 ear phones don't last that long.

I'm right now searching the best earphones to buy for my e10

[EchoEvolution]

Koss Sparkplugs!!!!

[XDeathLoRdz]

Mine broke too... the right one cracked out too. I thought only me have the problem. Does it have warrently over ear piece?? Anyway i bought another earpiece already.

[Makaveli]

I've had my e-10 for nearly two months now and 3 days ago my right earphone fell out of its 'shell'.

What did you expect? Would you rather a well made e10, which is well designed and pure quality with crap stock headphones? or an average player all round which has slightly better plugs? I think that answers your question. Go to the store and buy some decent earphones that will last you atleast a year. If you can be bothered, spend some serious $$ and you might get some headphones that will last you 3-5years.

can anyone recommend a good pair of earphones. i.e. don't sound like crap.

1) How much are you willing to spend?
2) What type in-ear, headphones, earphones?

But, I would point you towards the Shure range of in-ear phones. That is if you have the money. I'm sure you could get them for under $80-$90US if you find the right seller. I personally have the shure e2's and they cost me $150AUD. I have never had a problem with them and its been around 3 years already if not longer.

I'll leave you with the statement... stock earphones suck, no matter what brand made them, what brand sold them and where they were put together.

[rjeeves33]

My two cents;

I replaced the stock earphones with a pair of Thumps that cost about $30 AUD. They were a big improvment as they are the inear type that seal out external noise. The bass was a little muddled but very deep. These unfortunatly broke at the plug connector so I then purchasedf a pair os Senheiser CX300. Man these rock. The bass is deep without being muddled and the detail in the mid and highend is awesome. I paid about $70 online for them and I'm pretty sure JB hifi sell them for about $80ish.

Rob

[Yggdrassilious]

Originally Posted by Makaveli

What did you expect? Would you rather a well made e10, which is well designed and pure quality with crap stock headphones? or an average player all round which has slightly better plugs? I think that answers your question. Go to the store and buy some decent earphones that will last you atleast a year. If you can be bothered, spend some serious $$ and you might get some headphones that will last you 3-5years.



1) How much are you willing to spend?
2) What type in-ear, headphones, earphones?

But, I would point you towards the Shure range of in-ear phones. That is if you have the money. I'm sure you could get them for under $80-$90US if you find the right seller. I personally have the shure e2's and they cost me $150AUD. I have never had a problem with them and its been around 3 years already if not longer.

I'll leave you with the statement... stock earphones suck, no matter what brand made them, what brand sold them and where they were put together.

Beg to differ here. stock earphones don't all suck. iRiver stock earphones are actually pretty good. Not just me but a lot of people, including the review staff from CNet.com think so too.

I have used many headphones of different style and different brands such as the Shure E2C, the Ultimate ears super fi. 3 Studio, Sennheiser MX75, Sony E888, A8, and some over-the-ear models from Bose....etc. just to name a few. Though these phones stand on the lower end of the high priced earphones, their sound quality and reputations are still on top of the headphone ladder. I have to say that the stock earphones from iRiver are not only comfortable, they sound pretty damn good and their colors go with the player. With appropriate burn-in and the right EQ setting they can sound pretty nice.

Also, the iRiver stock earphones go really well with the SRS WOW EQ. I personally think that with SRW WOW on, these earphones sound about as good as my E2C gets. Of course, the E2C isolates A LOT of background noise so it sounds clearer most of the times but when you compare them together in a very very quiet setting, you can hear all the layers and details from the iRiver stockphones.

Anyway, I absolutely love the iRiver stockphones. However, when the pair that came with the player breaks, I'm not going to spend any money to actually purchase another pair....just go for something else instead.

[Step666]

Originally Posted by Yggdrassilious

Beg to differ here.

Ditto.

The stock 'phones that iRiver players come with are not particularly good at all. Just because they're good for stock 'phones, that doesn't mean they're actually any good in the grand scheme of things.

It's like saying a 1970s Jetta is better than a Trabant - it doesn't mean the Jetta is any good, it just doesn't suck as much.


As makaveli said, all stock 'phones are crap. It's a well known fact.
Almost anything will be an improvement over them, including the afore-mentioned Koss 'plugs' which, IIRC, retail for somewhere around $10.

And I have to question the judgement of anyone who tries to claim that the stock 'phones with the E10 are better than a pair of Shure E2s. I can only imagine that maybe you haven't got the seal right on the E2s or that because you insist on distorting your music by using the SRS settings what you think is a lack of quality from the Shures is merely the lack of quality caused by the SRS eq.

[asiandavid]

oh wow, that happened to me about 3 weeks ago! i discovered the cracks about 8 weeks ago but it worked fine until those three weeks ago when i took them out in the car and found that one headphone had lost its cap. so i went home, superglued the cap back on and now one side has less volume and virtually no bass...so now i use my sister's dodgy panasonic CD player headphones which i don't like much because people on the train can hear my music even on volume 5-7. i thought it happened to me only.

[luckymint1]

The earphones for the ipod are probably the worst, but I think that's even on purpose. It's like forcing you to get something better. Even a shotty downloaded mp3 sounds worse with them on.

iRiver's earbuds are better, and they are okay if you're not really going for music quality. And if you don't have cd quality music, they might just be enough for you.

but I can tell a difference even with my cheap $30 retail earphones.

[Smileynator]

Same happned to mine, however I never stay with the original ones for long anyway

[Makaveli]

review staff from CNet.com

If you didnt know, they don't compare stock headphones with those of high priced headphones or earphones (and if they did, that would be moronic). They compare iriver stock headphones with those from apple, creative and other mp3 brands. It would be a joke and completely stupid to compare stockheadphones to anything in shure, etymotic bose's range.

their colors go with the player

I assume they are black :s? Why do you think aesthetic looks of earbuds have any importance whatsoever. Expecially comparing them to the colour of the player. Your better off comparing their colour to that of your skin tone .

you can hear all the layers and details from the iRiver stockphones.

I can't really respond to that, as its your hearing. But I assume that you have very very good hearing, because just looking at the stats of basic stock headphones, it is quite blatantly obvious that even the lowest shure earbuds (ie e2cs) would be leagues above the stockies. It is impossible to compare $150 earphones with 3 high precision drivers, to... I don't even know what they have in the stocks.

Anyway, I absolutely love the iRiver stockphones.

I'm not saying you can't love them, just that they are crap . And like said above, almost anything including those $10 sony earbuds would outperform them.

Anyway, i stand by my opinion of never using stock earphones. Really i'll be happy when companies evolve far enough to realise that no-one actually wants stock phones and that those gay little cussion for the earphones will either rip of fall off within a week. It will never happen though, so meh.

[clieos]

Let's be fair. Stock headphone are not always 'bad'. Yes, they are cheaper headphone compare to a pair of E5c, but are any thing lesser than a E5c a bad earphone? No.

iriver has been known to use OEM headphones from well known earphone manufacturer like Sennhaiser as their stock, I don't think any one can label Sennhaiser's earphones such as MX400 and MX500 as 'bad' by any mean (considering their price range, of course). The fact is, given it is only stock, iriver choice of OEM earphone is properly the best of any DAP maker.

On the other side of the story, if you look at the current earbud's market, MX4xx/MX5xx series is still considered by many to be a relatively good earbud (even in places such as Head-fi.org). If you must compare it to the best of earphone, than 99.999% of all earphone users are using 'bad' earphones (not to say that everyone has his/her opinion of which should be the best earphone).

The most important part of an earphone is not actually the piece itself - it is the listener. If you didn't even pay attention to what you are listening, no earphone in the world will make any difference.

[Makaveli]

Agreed... crap is a little harsh. But I just want to be clear.. its really not worth paying postage and sending in your earphones to get them replaced. Stock phones are not supposed to last you ages (thats why you get 3 months). So to the original poster, there is really no point in complaining about the stock headphones, just save up and buy something better.

If you want to keep it cheap.. go koss, if not try something in the shure range.

[Yggdrassilious]

Originally Posted by Step666

Ditto.



And I have to question the judgement of anyone who tries to claim that the stock 'phones with the E10 are better than a pair of Shure E2s. I can only imagine that maybe you haven't got the seal right on the E2s or that because you insist on distorting your music by using the SRS settings what you think is a lack of quality from the Shures is merely the lack of quality caused by the SRS eq.

Perhaps you should try and read others' posts more clearly because I don't see anyone saying anything that translates to "the stock phones with the E10 are better than a pair of Shure E2s." By the way, forgot your closing quotation mark there.

Oh and, I merely said that the stock phones from iRiver sounds great with the SRS WOW so I don't know where the "you think is a lack of quality from the shures..." came from. Again, I never said that the shures lacked sound quality in any way. So don't be sneaky and make stuff up okay?

[chesterland]

I bought a new pair of ear phones. For $60AUD I purchased a pair of philips SHE9500. The in-ear type. I must say I was blown away by the clarity and bass reproduction. So now I will support that stock earphones are crap, even if the companies have their own reasons.

I'm outty

[Step666]

Originally Posted by Yggdrassilious

Perhaps you should try and read others' posts more clearly because I don't see anyone saying anything that translates to "the stock phones with the E10 are better than a pair of Shure E2s." By the way, forgot your closing quotation mark there.

Pedantry. 'As good as', 'better than' - it's a fine line.
You're still trying to say that a decent pair of IEMs are doing no better than the stock 'phones.

Originally Posted by Yggdrassilious

Oh and, I merely said that the stock phones from iRiver sounds great with the SRS WOW so I don't know where the "you think is a lack of quality from the shures..." came from. Again, I never said that the shures lacked sound quality in any way. So don't be sneaky and make stuff up okay?

I'm not making stuff up.
I know for a fact that the stock 'phones are rather poor, so for them to sound as good as - sorry, 'about as good as', I wouldn't want you to try and say I was misrepresenting you - then it's down to you perceiving the quality of the sound of the E2Cs to be as poor as the stock 'phones. Hence the comment 'lack of quality'.
It's a valid interpretation of what you said.

[clieos]

Originally Posted by chesterland

I bought a new pair of ear phones. For $60AUD I purchased a pair of philips SHE9500. The in-ear type. I must say I was blown away by the clarity and bass reproduction. So now I will support that stock earphones are crap, even if the companies have their own reasons.

I'm outty

You should have get the Creative EP-630 in DSE/Tandy for ~AUD25.

[asiandavid]

about the Creative EP-630, is there a big difference between that and the Creative EP-635? also, when you use them, can people around you hear your music? i travel on public transport a lot and listen to it on the train and i find it annoying when i can hear other people's music so i'm sure they find it annoying too. oh and the price at DSE/Tandy is actually $32.95AUD for the 630 and $37.95 for the 635. thanks.

[clieos]

Originally Posted by asiandavid

about the Creative EP-630, is there a big difference between that and the Creative EP-635?

No difference beside the color.

Originally Posted by asiandavid

also, when you use them, can people around you hear your music? i travel on public transport a lot and listen to it on the train and i find it annoying when i can hear other people's music so i'm sure they find it annoying too.

No, they are canalphone and no one but you can hear it.

Originally Posted by asiandavid

oh and the price at DSE/Tandy is actually $32.95AUD for the 630 and $37.95 for the 635. thanks.

Really? I saw a thread on Head-fi.org that they are selling it fro ~AUD25....Okay, maybe not in DSE/Tandy, but do check this out.