Headphones and settings recommendation

[sebastian10]

For those who like the iRiver T10 because of its great sound but are not happy with the low volume output, here's a great recommendation for headphones: The Sony MDRJ20. They have a sensitivity of 104 dB and they produce and much higher volume than the supplied iRiver headphones, which have great sound but low volume. These Sonys have excellent sound and higher volume output. Don't be put off by the cheaper Sony models, most of them sound like crap, but these are excellent. I tried a lot of models and I'm pretty picky when it comes to sound, and I'm very happy with these. I even tried the Apple iPod headphones that sell for $50, which are total crap.

Also, I found that the best settings for good sound and volume are the SRS at 01 to 05, Focus at Mid (or Low, if the source material has very good quality), Trubass at 10 and Boost at 60.

Enjoy!

[Sesquash]

self-deleted

[sebastian10]

I bet Bose products are very good, but their cheapest headphones are $100. A little more than I'm willing to pay for portable headphones.

[DD]

IMO, Bose products really aren't what they are cracked up to be - they are marketed in a way so that people who perhaps aren't so familiar with what defines great SQ, but seeing a Bose product and thinking "Hey, its Bose and it costs a bit more, so it must be good" they go and buy it. Of course, that's all IMO, and I'm not by any means saying that I can afford any better. Sound quality for a lot of people is about freq. response, soundstage, etc.

Etymotic are a great example of the kind of company I would recommend buying from- they're not all consumer based and that lot, and they don't bring out new products that often; they just research and produce great products like the er-4.

Shure are a bit more in-between... they make great products (and are renouned for their vynl cartridges and mics), but also have that more consumer edge on them. I love my Shure e4c, and will definately buy more Shure products in the future.

Before you ask, I have been in a Bose store and tried some of their stuff out.

Check out headfi.org.

[Sesquash]

self-deleted

[earmonger]

This sounds like Bose hype to me. I had my Shure E4 with me when I visited the Apple store in Manhattan, which pairs its iPods with Bose Tri-ports.

So I did some serious A/B comparisons, and, how can I put this technically? The Bose sucked. Highs were limited. Lows were empty.

The midrange was boosted so if you really want to hear the singer but not the band, maybe they're nice phones.

You can find the Shure E4 online for about $180, or about $40 more than the Triports, so maybe it's not a fair comparison. But that midrange boost is way obvious, and not for me.

[Sesquash]

self edited.

[Sesquash]

self edited

[Sesquash]

self-edited/deleted

[clieos]

I tried Bose Tri-port and used to believe their are quite good...well, that's before I have tried somethings better (two of them is in my sig.) with the same price (or less).

Tri-port is fine, but it is overpriced in the sense that you can buy other headphones with better performance in the same price range, which of course is the whole 'problem' many people have with Bose - too much marketing. I have been in Head-fi.org for a while and see argument from both sides (and trust me there are threads that run for years on this). The most important thing is to be open to all opinion, and try as many headphones as you can before settling to the one that fit you best, Tri-port or not.

[rgraff]

I have a T10, and listen to music that I've converted to VBR MP3 using very high quality settings (LAME V2 Fast). Until they broke last week, I was using Sony Fontopia in-ear headphone. The were OK for the price, but I'm in the market for something better. Over the holidays I tried out my brother's Etymotics ER•4Ps, and was shocked by how much better they sounded. Like another world of sound. I've also seen good reviews of the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pros. Any thoughts from those of you out there who have tried these audiophile headphones in the $150-$200 range? I ride a subway for part of my commute, and would like some sound isolation as well.

I look forward to hearing your experiences.

[earmonger]

IEMs--inner ear monitors--are just not comparable to cheap earbuds. That's why they are so vastly much more expensive.

I have tried the Etymotic 4P and the Shure E3 andE4 at length, and the Ultimate Ears briefly--perhaps too briefly--and I much prefer the Shure. Look around the Net--although Shure lists the E4 at $299, and authorized dealers have to post that price, you can track them down for $180 and possibly less. The E3s are good, but the E4 are a whole lot better, with a far more spacious stereo effect.

E3c and E4c are Ipod white. E3 and E4 are dark gray. The c makes no difference otherwise for each model number.

Etymotic fans, and there are legions of them, talk about the analytical clarity of the sound. They sounded sterile to me, a bit cold; sounds stop dead instead of reverberating. Maybe that's how the music was recorded, but I didn't think so. It was more as if the Etymotics just cut off the sound below a certain threshold.

Etymotic boosters also say how precise and clear and unexaggerated the bass is on the Etymotic 4P. That's because it's got no oomph. You may have to use a little bass boost on Shures too, but if you do, it's richer.

The Etys have a sharper high end than the Shures. If you're a classical music fan, you might prefer them. But the Shures have, for me, a better overall balance.

I also like the mechanical design of the Shures better. The Etymotics are on a pair of twisted, fragile-seeming cords that will send loud sound to your ears if they rub against your shirt or any other surface. The Shures have a thick, slightly stiff cord that seems a lot sturdier and doesn't have all those braided surfaces to rub against--though if you work at it you can also get cord noise through the Shures, too. It's the inevitable drawback of IEMs.

The Ultimate Ears also seem pretty sturdy, but I didn't like the sound as much--more middle, less overall balance.
But they were a demo pair, and I'm not sure I got the right earplugs with them.

With whatever pair you get, you absolutely must try out all the earplug types. Shures come with yellow foam ones and three sizes each of soft and hard(er) rubber; Etys come with foamies and a flanged plug and probably others I've forgotten. Every single plug has very different effects on the sound you get, and everyone's ear canals are different. It's worth the time to compare them all. Only one of the 7 Shure plugs sounds good for me--but boy, does it sound good.

One more thing: IEMs are very isolating. Great on the subway, great on airplanes--better, measurably, than noise-cancelling headphones because they shut out more decibels and don't mess with the sound of the music. But if you are wearing them and rocking out, look both ways before crossing the street because you may not hear car horns. Seriously. I personally am lucky someone had good brakes.

And hey, Sesquash, don't go away mad....

[rgraff]

Earmonger --

Thanks for your thorough and very helpful thoughts. I appreciate your taking the time to put them down.

I'll search out the Shures. My brother, who used the E4p's is a professional film/TV sound recorder. I imagine his needs for that work are a little different than mine.

All good things.

[pian_oman50]

I guess you wont hear that a lot of detail in subway anyway, I guess some mid-preis headphone with a good stuff-in-the-ear solution is gd enough. I d go for senheisser MX90, it works best for me for now though

[rgraff]

Thanks for the suggestion . . .

[tidelover1]

I love my Griffin EarThumps!!

[anudeglory]

Well I really like my Sennheiser CX 300 in ear-canal phones.

They are so good that I nearly got run over!

They block out so much background noise - for example with the supplied T30 headphones I had the volume up at about 20-25 for walking to work along a busy main road, with the CX300s I have the volume at about 8-10. If I put it back at the original 20-25 it feels like i'm in a club, well obviously without the smoke, lights,physical bass and alcohol lol.

And they were only <20 pounds from amazon too!