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  1. #1
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    what makes better headphones?

    shure
    ultimate ears
    sensaphonic
    etymotics
    what makes the best ones out of those and would they be a better choise than sony, creative, or bose? I am looking for the best possible headphone sound quality possible. and suggestions or opinions would be appreciated. thx

  2. #2
    Tyler Acoustics Fan drseid's Avatar
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    They are better because they sound better to the individual listening to them. Also, Frequently build quality is superior as well.

    Personally I am a Grado fan, but talk to 5 different people and they will give you 4 or 5 different answers as to which is the "best." The answer is whichever sounds best to *you* is the best.

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  3. #3
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    It depends on what you want out of a headphone (in your case, isolating in-ear earphones). The choices you listed are all poor value in terms of absolute sound quality, because they're in-ear phones which use hearing-aid technology which have certain limits to the sound... you're paying for the portability and superb outside noise isolation. An $80 Grado has better sound quality than a $200 Shure for example, but you couldn't use the Grados on a plane.

  4. #4
    Suspended markw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by spago
    An $80 Grado has better sound quality than a $200 Shure for example, but you couldn't use the Grados on a plane.
    Why not?

  5. #5
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    What would you suggest for good sounding headphones. I just wanted the best sound possible, mybe with noise cancelling so i dont have to blast it in loud areas.

  6. #6
    Music Junkie E-Stat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rocker82
    shure
    ultimate ears
    sensaphonic
    etymotics
    what makes the best ones out of those and would they be a better choise than sony, creative, or bose? I am looking for the best possible headphone sound quality possible. and suggestions or opinions would be appreciated. thx
    I'm not sure of your question given the words you chose. What makes better headphones? Higher resolution, better imaging, and wider bandwidth.

    Do you really mean who makes better headphones?

    I am very pleased with my Shure E-4Cs that I use with both a Sony Diskman and my constant traveling companion, a Dell laptop where I store a bunch of music in full wav format.

    Bose excels at it's marketing acumen.

    rw

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by markw
    Why not?
    Grados are open headphones. This means they let in sound, and they let out sound. Because there's no isolation, it's pretty useless on planes... rather like using most other stock earbuds.


    Rocker82, I find the in-earphones that you mentioned absolutely perfect for air travel because no other category of head/earphone provides as much isolation. They really reduce fatigue on long-haul flights. But they are not the best you can get for the money if portability and isolation are not the main factors in your choice of headphones. Obviously though for portable use, these two things are very important which makes in-ears very popular.


    I'd recommend the Shure E4c and the Ultimate Ears Super-Fi Pro as fairly decent phones if you don't want to go custom. The UE's are probably more honest as far as the limits of this type of driver technology goes and throws out a slightly bassy, quite balanced sound, but the Shure certainly feels more resolved. Shure will come out with the E500 later this year, which is a triple-driver phone with an interesting add-on technology allowing you to selectively listen to outside noise.


    I have certain problems with in-ears for regular use, because the tips and even the custom mould ends up irritating my ears with frequent use. Which is why when I'm not flying I use the Sennheiser HD25-1 headphones which isolates well and are quite portable.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rocker82
    What would you suggest for good sounding headphones. I just wanted the best sound possible, mybe with noise cancelling so i dont have to blast it in loud areas.
    Try Philips SBC HN060 Noise Canceling In-Ear Headphone

    That fits my tight budget $30 bucks!
    Last edited by Geoffcin; 02-15-2006 at 07:36 AM.

  9. #9
    Big science. Hallelujah. noddin0ff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The One
    Try Philips SBC HN060 Noise Canceling In-Ear Headphone

    That fits my tight budget $30 bucks!
    How come every post by 'The One' links back to the same web company (warehouse123) ? Leaves me shilly.

  10. #10
    nightflier
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    Earbuds

    The E500's will be a big improvement according to what I've read. One of the dangers of in-ear phones is the physical damage to your ear-drums that can be caused by excessive long-term use. On planes this is especially dangerous because people typically turn up the volume to drown out the outside noise when using lesser-quality buds. If flying is a factor, spend some time reading up on sound isoltion technology as this will protect your hearing.

    As a side note, the best upgrade to any pair of cans is a headphone amp. This will improve the sound more than anything else because most internal (read: iPod) amps-on-a-microchip are very limitted so as to fit inside those tiny cases. Of course, when you're on a plane, a tube headphone amp is not an option, but a portable amp like the Bithead, or even the somewhat bulky Grado battery powered one, can really improve the sound. Paired with a set of good-isolating earbuds, this would be your best option.

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