Can earbuds do bass?

[Mr Peabody]

I paid about $20.00 for a pair of Sony portable headphones that sounded pretty good. I use them with a small AM/FM walkman type radio for commuting. I got tired of them hanging around my neck when I wasn't wearing them and walking to the building or home so I wanted to get earbuds so I could just tuck them away. I've tried a couple pair and have been disappointed. The first pair was a cheap pair of Koss that were horrible, no bass or anything else they sounded very muffled. Next I tried a $10.00 pair of Sony's which still don't have bass, decent mids and rolled off highs, they're tolerable but I want better. Now I'm wondering if the earbud design is capable of doing any good bass response and if so at what price. Oh, I also tried a pair of earbuds that came with my nephews Gameboy or some hand held mezmorizer and they really sucked, extremely tinny. I saw a pair of Sony that cost $50.00 that was recommended for I-pods. I don't want to spend that kind of money to be disappointed. And here's the real kick in the pants, I can't even go back to the headphones I had and liked because my daughter sucked them up in the vacuum cleaner and that, needless to say, destroyed them thoroughly.

[anamorphic96]

I paid about $20.00 for a pair of Sony portable headphones that sounded pretty good. I use them with a small AM/FM walkman type radio for commuting. I got tired of them hanging around my neck when I wasn't wearing them and walking to the building or home so I wanted to get earbuds so I could just tuck them away. I've tried a couple pair and have been disappointed. The first pair was a cheap pair of Koss that were horrible, no bass or anything else they sounded very muffled. Next I tried a $10.00 pair of Sony's which still don't have bass, decent mids and rolled off highs, they're tolerable but I want better. Now I'm wondering if the earbud design is capable of doing any good bass response and if so at what price. Oh, I also tried a pair of earbuds that came with my nephews Gameboy or some hand held mezmorizer and they really sucked, extremely tinny. I saw a pair of Sony that cost $50.00 that was recommended for I-pods. I don't want to spend that kind of money to be disappointed. And here's the real kick in the pants, I can't even go back to the headphones I had and liked because my daughter sucked them up in the vacuum cleaner and that, needless to say, destroyed them thoroughly.

In my experience you can't get good sound out of ear buds without spending a fortune. Even then, they still dont have the full range sound which I get from over the ear style headphones. The absolute best bargain I have heard in my opinion is the Sennheiser PX100 or PX200's. Both are great and will cost you around 40 to 60 bucks. Both are light weight but of the traditional nature your using. But the SQ is there IMO. Alternates to these would be the Grado SR60's. If you really want to spend some money look at the upper end Grado's and Sennheisers.

[teledynepost]

What you want are in-ear models that insert into the ear and seal with a foam jacket or some similar material. The first ones I got were Koss 'the plug' or something like that. About $15 bucks, heavy bass, but were too large and they always fell out/didn't seal good. They had the foam jackets. Now I use some Sony's I got for $40 (model MDR-EX51LP), full bass extension. They are a little quiet though.
But still, you're going to 'hear' the bass not feel it, so it won't be perceived as being as loud.

Edit: oh yeah, and the Sony's jackets are some kind of rubbery material, silicone or something. Foam inserts are more comfortable but get nasty after a while and sometimes they sloooowwwly fall out/lose seal. A couple of contact points in my ear were sore from the Sony's in the first day or two, but now they are fine.

[minidiscuser]

I've recently been asking myself the same question in regards to ear buds doing bass. I decided to bite the bullet and buy an mp3 player as an after-Christmas gift to myself. I have a pair of Sony EX71L that I bought last year for my minidisc player, but I found the sound a little harsh on the ears when listening to for extend periods of time. That aside, I spent a decent bit of time last night looking for a decent pair of ear buds to buy. The two most recommended pairs were the Shure E2cs and the Etymotic ER6i. Both of these ear buds tend to be around $80 or so, depending on where you buy them, although I'm sure they can be had for a bit less through eBay. I decided upon the Eytmotics because they seemed to be a little more popular. I'd give you my opinion, but they're in the mail as we speak. Head over the www.head-fi.com and check out the forums for some in-depth reviews. I can give you an update come Friday or so when both my Ipod and ear buds should be here and ready for experimentation.

I hope this at the very least gives you a place to start.

[E-Stat]

Now I'm wondering if the earbud design is capable of doing any good bass response and if so at what price.
I think it is a matter of how effective an ear seal you can achieve. I replaced my ten odd dollar Sony earbuds with the middle-of-the-pack Shure E3Cs and am very pleased with the results. While the Sony earbuds go in your ear. the Shure's fill your ear canal and include several different inserts. By no means will they shake the room like my U-1s, but they do produce qualitatively good bass for a headphone design. Not to mention better resolution overall. They go for $189.

rw