in ear headphones...

[mylon]

Do any of you guys know some good in-ear headphones within a like 50$ price range.my like 3rd pair of skullcandy titans broke today and I'm done with their bullshit. Also, sorry if this is in the wrong section. Just thought you guys would just be more.....knowledgable,I guess

[kidshuffle]

i dont spend more that 20-25 bucks on earbuds. i just buy generic ones that have the mic so i can still use em with my phone

[Mr Hyde]

spoken like true audiophiles!

i just got some sennheiser cx400ii....not that they are audiophile quality but decent enough for that sort of price, although still nothing like as good as a proper pair of cans. to be honest cant see how anyone into dubstep could be listening to it from skull candy or generic phone in-ears, surely missing at least half of the music?!

[kidshuffle]

I had a pair of sennheisers, they actually lasted around 2 years beforre falling apart. They are worth the (slightly larger) investment.

[Gewze]

can not recommend Denon ah-c 260 enough. love them

[mylon]

yeah, i do still need to get a pair of over-the-ears and i didnt have that much of a budget. i also listen to a wide variety of music, a lot of which are not bass-oriented.
i have a question, though. i was gonna get these sony's 'cause they had 5-23,000 Hz range, compared to the titan's 20-20,000. the only other difference was that the titans had an 11mm driver and the sony's had a 9mm driver, so i got the titans.
do you think those cx400ii's are better? they look mighty fine.

[Intended Malice]

Worthless. Anything that could carry proper sound should not be inserted into your ear canal. I've lost partial hearing in both my ears due to various hobbies (swimming, cars, bass music etc...) and the last thing you could convince me to do is to put those ipod things on. (And I've stood next to bassbins without plugs.) I remember wondering back when the PSP came out how many lawsuits Sony would be served for partial hearing loss suits, luckily the sound output on it was mediocre--as are all mobile devices--and could hardly do much more than strain one's patience. Just get some full headphones.

If looking like everyone else while listening to harsh sounding screeches that resemble music is your chief priority, stop reading this now, otherwise... okay, never mind, I'll spare you the the whole Head-fi rant, and say if you even slightly value your eardrums stay away.

Plenty of bass oriented Koss products are out there for that, its brand that is highly under valued and sound quite well when hooked up to proper equipment, and they all carry lifetime warranty; even Sennheiser can't do that. Or you could save up and grab some Sennheisers, Grado's are more fashion items than proper listening equipment in my opinion, even heavily modified ones sound awful off of mobile devices which includes slave-labor Steve Job wigets and most, if not all, laptops which makes those 'in ear' things even worse.

[mylon]

wow, i shoulda waited and ordered the denons

[pompende]

@intended malice: insert earphones are DEFINITELY the safest way to listen to music on the go.
I agree that those ipod bud suuuuuck, and that you are able to find supra-aurals for less money than equal-fidelity inserts.
if you have silicon domes on your inserts you get ~25 dB of sound isolation. custom molds give ~35 dB of isolation. Thats a large reduction of outside noise and competing signal. That means you can hear your music fully while listening at a much lower level. When theres 20 dB of noise in your ear you might listen to your music at about 60 dB. if you eliminate that noise you can have the same listening experience with your music at ~40 dB.
Also, unless you have enormous circumaural headphones (that look like the hearing-protection you wear at a shooting range or on a tarmac) then you are actually getting about 10 dB less isolation than the basic Sony inserts.
if you are trying to preserve your hearing then get custom fit inserts lolol!
i do feel you about the ipod buds but you've got to be pretty dense and arrogant to think they're all like that...

[pompende]

[Pistonsbeneath]

ive used cx300s for a while now but i might trade up to ie8s or cx980s soon

[Intended Malice]

I must be both; as I went through the entire Skullcandy inventory--it being heavily invested in that market i think it was quite good market research--trying to see if they had improved since then, I was not once amused. Well, actually the price tag was funny... for all the wrong reasons, mind you. Those things you posted look more like something inserted in only the most sordid J-porn videos, that is before the snake fetish made its infamous debut, rather than proper listening devices. /Jermey Clarkson AKA Mr. Arrogant & Dense

I wonder what they sound like hooked up to a pre-amp, external eq, and then a 250-400 watt amp kind of setup playing a vinyl of Surge? I know its irrelevant to this discussion, but that is what I measure my headphones on; and yes they are as big as the ear protection used at the firing range. All I had was the display ipod, in extremely bizarre highlighter yellow no less, which was filled with pop and what I was told was punk. None of which interested me, but I believe that its typical of the uses these things have for the majority of the products in question.

[Clean]

Klipsch image S4



I have em, and they are a little over your budget, but I can play tunes by loefah, Distance and Pinch, and enjoy them. Bass on them is awesome.

[mondays child]

Shure do really good ones up to about 250 quid.
And they are that good.

I got a pair of 75 quid one's and would never buy anything else now.

You get complete isolation from outside noise.

And the sound is amazing.

[zerbaman]

spoken like true audiophiles!

i just got some sennheiser cx400ii....not that they are audiophile quality but decent enough for that sort of price, although still nothing like as good as a proper pair of cans. to be honest cant see how anyone into dubstep could be listening to it from skull candy or generic phone in-ears, surely missing at least half of the music?!

I used to find them quite bassy at high volumes. So much so that I don't feel vibrations in my ear drums.

[Maccaveli]

I've never used them personally, but everything I've heard about in-ear earbuds from people who know points to them being extremely damaging for your ears. I'd never go near them.

I use a pair of foldable Sennheisers, cost me $100AU and for what they are the sound is great. Very good bass response, can listen to deep stuff without missing much (beyond the obvious feel of the bass).


Also, earphones that say they produce down to 5hz are full of shit. Humans can't hear below 20hz and with drivers that size its unlikely you'll get any audible response below 30hz.

While we're talking about headphones, I'm thinking of getting a pair of Sennheiser HD518s for home listening but I've heard people say that they don't have much bass unless you're using a headphone amp. Will plugging them into the jack on my receiver give me the same effect?

[pompende]

everything I've heard about in-ear earbuds from people who know points to them being extremely damaging for your ears. I'd never go near them.

mate...do you know anyone who works at HARL or NAL? I ask because I see you are in Australia...
afaik, the people in those labs agree with you that inserts like ipod buds are terrible. However i believe that they would also rank the inserts recommended in this thread far above the headphones you have posted with regard to both safety and fidelity.
I totally understand your disbelief that a tiny driver can provide good bass. once you try it you will get it tho. obviously you're not going to feel it any more than you would with over-the-ear phones...i swear to god tho a good set of inserts provides a better listening experience (both subjectively and objectively) than a pair of headphones ever could.

[jrisreal]

I gave up on earbuds...don't like any pair I've ever heard. I walk around with my sennheiser 280's around my neck because I can't stand the way my buds sound.

[Maccaveli]

everything I've heard about in-ear earbuds from people who know points to them being extremely damaging for your ears. I'd never go near them.

mate...do you know anyone who works at HARL or NAL? I ask because I see you are in Australia...
afaik, the people in those labs agree with you that inserts like ipod buds are terrible. However i believe that they would also rank the inserts recommended in this thread far above the headphones you have posted with regard to both safety and fidelity.
I totally understand your disbelief that a tiny driver can provide good bass. once you try it you will get it tho. obviously you're not going to feel it any more than you would with over-the-ear phones...i swear to god tho a good set of inserts provides a better listening experience (both subjectively and objectively) than a pair of headphones ever could.

Well yeah, I've got a mate doing a music course at uni and his lecturers recommended students stay away from them to avoid hearing damage, however they also recommended custom inner-ears that are specially designed to cut out delicate frequencies without sacrificing sound quality or something like that. But the OP in this thread isn't talking about customs that cost hundreds of dollars, he's talking about some shitty Skull Candy ones that cost $50.

All I'm saying is, at that price range you'd be better off with something else.

[pompende]

Well yeah, I've got a mate doing a music course at uni and his lecturers recommended students stay away from them to avoid hearing damage, however they also recommended custom inner-ears that are specially designed to cut out delicate frequencies without sacrificing sound quality or something like that. But the OP in this thread isn't talking about customs that cost hundreds of dollars, he's talking about some shitty Skull Candy ones that cost $50.

All I'm saying is, at that price range you'd be better off with something else.

well... ask someone who studies hearing not music. i know this is going to make me sound like a dick but you don't know what you're talking about...you aren't even responding to me! i agree ipod buds suck! .... from a hearing conservation standpoint there just isn't anyway to say that supra-aurals are superior to inserts. again, i agree that buds suck! i'm guessing you (and intendedmalice) simply aren't aware of what else is out there.

$25 sony inserts are slightly inferior in sound quality to $50 koss portapros but they provide a better overall listening situation if you listen in noise