In-Ear Headphones

I'm thinking about ordering some in-ear headphones. I found the Sennheiser CX300 set for $50 on Tiger Direct, and it seems like everyone who orders them is pleased. I'm fairly certain that those are the buds I'll be getting. I'm just curious if anyone has had any experience with these.

Another thing I'm curious about is a breaking in period. Is it necessary to break the headphones in right away? Also, how would I go about doing that? From what I've gathered from reading around, it involves playing some loud music for several hours straight. I don't want to bother doing that unless it is going to improve the sound quality in some way.

I can't recall a time that I've ever paid to have earbuds, so I want to make sure that my experience with the Sennheisers are as good as possible.

 

Yes, there is a "breakin" or "burn in" period where you would basically either use it non stop for one day playing music. When I first got my Shures, I listened to them for certain periods of time, playing a different range of songs. After 5 hrs of usage, the next day they sounded even better and felt good too.

 

So if I plugged them in to an older computer and made a playlist to repeat for a long time, I would be set? I'm not sure about what volume to set it at. I wouldn't want to ruin them by going too loud.

 

This is an interesting topic.

When I got my Bose Triport headphones, I did nothing to promote a 'break in.' Would it be necessary to do so with over the ear headphones as well? If so, is there anything that you would do differently in comparison to ear phones?

I ask because I am about to send mine in for a repair (the cord is splitting), and, while I'm not getting my hopes way up, I'm confident I will be getting a new pair.

 

You can even plug it into a MP3 player if you want to, as long as music is being pumped through them at med-high setting, they will "burn" and sound a lot more normal and have better mid range and base(did it to my DJ cans aswell as my Shures, and sounded alot better than when first plugged in).

More info about this here;

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58157

 

They just break in naturally, just listen to them at a volume you'd normally listen to them at. Actually, playing at a loud volume isn't the best idea as it's going to shock the new materials in the driver. When I got my stereo system I started off quietly and slowly raised the volume to play constantly over 4-5 days until just a little over my normal listening volume.

Breaking in a pair of bud or in-canal earphones isn't going to really do much, I don't think. I didn't notice much difference with my Ultimate Ears after a few days or weeks, and I like to think I have a pretty good ear.

 

I've used the CX300's and they are nice in ear phones, about the only ones that I've used that are nicer are Etymonic's which ring in at about $300 so those Sennheisers area good deal considering. I have a pair of Sennheiser PX100's and I never 'broke' them in, I just used them and they seem to sound great to me.

 

can I ask a question? I have a problem with earbuds. They almost constantly fall out of either one ear or another. I've tried many different ones over the years and the only ones that seem to stay in for any prolonged period of time are my iPod headphones. Now, I know these aren't regular earbuds. Are these ones better than ipod headphones in terms of fit? Will they actually stay in the ear?

 

So far ive gone through 3 pairs of headphones < $35 and they arent perfect and I dont like them much.

Seems a good pair is gonna cost much more...

 

What do you do to them? Throw them around? . If you are looking for good headphones, Sennhesier MX series (The base model) is a good line of earbuds, and there DJ Headphones are awesome(Once my three yr old Sony cans blow up somehow, ill go Sennheiser)

 

Sony EX81 is the best canal phone for under 100 bucks. GREAT sound.

Im on my second pair (first pair had the old wire insulation which just disintegrates). However I liked it so much that I was willing to replace one every 6 month. Luck has it that Sony replaced the material and its really sturdy. The EX81 is not the same as the EX71. 71 is much more bass heavy while 81 is more even.

 

I also had that problem before. In-ear headphones actually go into the ear canal and for a seal. I recently bought these from Best Buy, and so far highly recommend them:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826159701
They are the same price anywhere. They block out sound VERY well, it's hard to hear the person talking next to you.

I've never heard of a 'burn-in' period for headphones . . I'll have to look into that. Thanks for mentioning it.

But the Shure e2c's are definitely worth looking at. I find them to be lacking in the bass department (it's almost flat), but they are extremely comfortable and do an excellent job of sound blocking.

 

The EX81 is a canal phone that hooks around the ears. It wont come off easily.

Here is a review http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/sony-mdr-ex81-earphones-ipod/

 

Be careful...My Etymotic ER-6i's are so sensitive that I can hear whenever the hard drive is accessed with them plugged into my W3J. They really aren't good laptop earphones. Could just be the design of the W3J, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were quite a few other laptops that were the same way.

 

Josh, I think that's a usual problem of laptops with integrated sound cards. I had this problem with my old laptop too (not only with good headphones - with "worse" headphones it's just harder to hear). That's the main reason why I got the external sound card. My e1705 however seems to not have this problem, but then again I mostly use it with my external soundcard, not the integrated one so I might not have noticed it.

 

Actually.. just picked up a pair of CX-300's off eBay for $33CAD all in (watch out there are a lot of replicas). I really hope they fit my ears and don't keep falling out. So, we'll see what happens next I'll definitely post a small review after I play around with them for a bit.

 

As Chaz mentioned, the best in-ear earphones for <$100 are probably the Shure e2c. The ex81 are in-ear 'phones but are not canalphones as they don't go deep into your ear canal whilst forming an isolating seal.

Burn-in exists for most audio equipment be it a pair of speakers or headphones and of course to varying degrees. One headphone may change its sound drastically and others may not. And please that burn-in is a physical process (e.g settling of the diaphragm in a speaker to a more natural state from than it first made in the factory). There is also the psychological adaption to the sound presented, which is almost always the reason why most people are dissappointed when they listen to a more accurate headphone. This can be demonstrated most eloquently when someone listening to the Sony ex71 goes to soemthing like the e2c. A note: earphones such as the Shure e2c use a balanced armature and as such do not experience burn-in.

The actual burning-in is a matter of personal preference. They are those who play music constantly at a slightly higher than listening volume and stick their source and headphones in a drawer. I personally just listen to the headphones as normal.

 

I'll probably end up doing a little bit of burn in, but I doubt I'll do that much. Maybe I'll set up my old mp3 player with some tunes and have it go overnight.

How do I go about keeping them clean? I'm always worried about someone using them and leaving them gross, or that the organic build-up will clog something and degrade the quality.

 

If you use IEMs or semi-canal's, to keep clean, just dip tips in water and leave to dry (or hairdryer). For a proper job occasionally use diluted alcohol. If you use foamies with IEMs, replace after they look dirty enough

Regularly clean your ears and never share them. It amazes me some don't have the decency to follow basic hygiene rules. Ignore if you're more trusting/sharing/you want to get other person's number

 

Good call. I just won't share with grody people. I keep my ears clean because it feels good.

I had never thought of using music to get phone numbers. Given that my music library is, on a scale of 1-10 (one being not so extreme and ten being extremely extreme), a 9.5, I'd say it's entirely possible.

 

The Shure e2c's come with wax guards and they give fairly clear instructions on how to clean them. You also get three different versions of ear tubes and three different sizes for each. It's up to you which one you like; just make sure it seals right.

 

Another good cleaning tool are IPA wipes, great for cleaning the foam plugs on my Shures.

 

I wiped my foam plugs that came with my Etymotics ER-4i's and it ate through them :-D

Anyway, they're pretty decent, but my cable at the jack is going back after having them for a year. Shures are also great. But good luck getting a set of either for under $100.

 

under a 100 you say? I got mine for 59.99USD online. Forgot which website.

 

Which model/brand?

 

Shure e2c's. Street price is 99.00 USD, but I got mine off of Pricegrabber.com storefront(NOTE: The price is now 69.99USD now) http://www.pricegrabber.com/user_sales_getprod.php?masterid=1801015&lot_id=2711234

 

Oh, I meant the higher end shures, not the cheaper ones. They Ety's ER-4ic's market price are like, $180 adn the really good shures are aroudn $300. But both can be had for about half price if looking hard enough.

But I'm not sure if i'd get the ER4-ic's again or not... can't hear anything outside the **** things lol.

 

The higher end of the Ety's are around $300 also, I've tried a few pairs of them and they are very nice for working... they block everything out, and sounds good too.

 

Does anyone know what the tips are usually made out of? I've seen some pictures that make them look like rubber, while other pictures make them look slightly like leather.

I'm anxious to listen through Frances the Mute. There are some creepy parts on that CD. It seems like a good way to experience what the headphones have to offer. Pink Floyd - Echoes would also be a cool track to try out the 'phones on.

 

I believe some tips are made of soft foam, some are made from silicon, I'm sure there are other materials.

 

Yeah - the e2c's come with three different versions:
-Flex sleeves - translucent PVC
-Soft Flex sleeves - pliable rubber
-Foam sleeves - uh, foam.

 

Would a PCMIA sound card prevent this sort of thing from happening? Does anbody have experience with PCMIA sound cards?

 

The one everyone uses is the Creative audigy zs. Search for past threads, there are several reviews

I have no experience of it...but may buy it to accompany new IEMs I'll buy around xmas

 

yeah that's one of the best PCMCIA cards around. Many people also use Audigy 2 NX. Both are very good, but ZS is PCMCIA and NX is USB.

 

just waiting for an expresscard version now -_-

 

My Sennheiser CX300s arrived today. They are great. I wasn't expecting the fit to be this comfortable. The bass is awesome.

I am very pleased.

Now, if only my laptop headphone jack wasn't going out. Dell won't reply to emails anymore, it seems.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and find out if my Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 supports any lossless audio codecs (I don't want to have to use WAV). It'd be nice to have some of my The Mars Volta CDs in a lossless format for on the road.

 

You would need to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on audio equipment to be able to notice a difference between a 256/320kbit MP3 and a lossless file.

 

Hmm. That's good to know. The Creative doesn't support any lossless codecs, anyway. It's not a big deal. I wouldn't want to waste the space, I just wanted to see what all of the hype was all about.

 

that of course depends on how that MP3 is encoded (or on the encoder). There are certain MP3 encoder artefacts that will manifest themselves at any bitrate (depending on the encoder).