Earphones

chameleon · 20 May 2006 at 23:46

I'm after a new set of decent in-earphones as I've finally killed my 15 year old Aiwas which have served me very well over the years.
I will spend a reasonable amount for good ones, hopefully with decent bass response.
Any suggestions or experience?

TooNice · 21 May 2006 at 00:01

Please define "reasonable" amount. To me that says Etymotics ER-4, Westone UM2, Shure E4 price range.

Although it could also be £50 (e.g. Sennheiser CX300, Shure E2C range).

AMDPower · 21 May 2006 at 00:33

TooNice said:
Please define "reasonable" amount. To me that says Etymotics ER-4, Westone UM2, Shure E4 price range.

Although it could also be £50 (e.g. Sennheiser CX300, Shure E2C range).

wow just did a search for those Etymotics ER-4 and i could not believe my eyes, they are nearly 200 squid :eek:

and that is "reasonable"?? then what on earth is "unreasonable", they are so slim what happens if you tug the wire and it comes out, that is basically 200 down the sink.

just out of interest are the Sennheiser HD650 have better sound than these Etymotics ER-4??.

chameleon · 21 May 2006 at 01:40

Well, I do look after them. My old ones lasted me many years and only recently got damaged. I am looking at the £50-100 price range so possible Shure E2c or E3c range... (E5s are just a bit too expensive!)

chameleon · 21 May 2006 at 20:28

Ok, I'm leaning towards a set of Shure E3c's but have noticed a gaming edition called E3g. There dosent seem to be much if any difference between them. Anyone know what, if any there is?

TooNice · 22 May 2006 at 08:12

AMDPower said:
wow just did a search for those Etymotics ER-4 and i could not believe my eyes, they are nearly 200 squid and that is "reasonable"?? then what on earth is "unreasonable", they are so slim what happens if you tug the wire and it comes out, that is basically 200 down the sink.

just out of interest are the Sennheiser HD650 have better sound than these Etymotics ER-4??.

Looks like the ER-4 price hasn't dropped much since I last checked. I thought they would be in the £150 range.
Still, "unreasonable" would be any of the custom IEM (of course, one could argue that the pricing is justified, but anyway). Example would be the Westone ES3, Sensaphonics ProPhonic Soft 2X, and Ultimate Ears UE-10.
In general, you do pay some pay quality/cost for isolation. So between the Etys ER-4 and Senn HD650, I would definitely lean towards the later (unless you have an absolute preference for isolating phones, or happen to prefer the Etys's sound signature).

Back on topic, I've not read any comparison between the "C" edition and the "G" edition. The later was only just released this years, and marketed as a solution for portable gamers (PSP, DS).

You may also want to look at the Etymotis ER-6 series, and the Ultimate Ears UE5 series. I believe that they are priced similarly to the E3C.

poltergeist666 · 24 May 2006 at 08:03

I have a pair of E3C's, that I bought after reading rave reviews. What I will say, is that if you like bass, these may not be the phones for you.

I find that you need to push them deep into your ears to get any form of bass, and no matter what ear cup I use, they get bloody uncomfortable, after what seems a short amount of time.