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iPod touch Need Ear Bud advice please?!?

zepharus

zepharus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 7, 2007
684
2
I have a touch. HATE the apple ear buds they simply dont stay in my ears.. they always fall out and are uncomfortable. Can someone recommend some really good "in the ear" buds that sound great and are around $50? I looked at the vmoda vibe and they get great reviews, but im not wanting to drop $100 bucks on a pair as the wife would roll me.

thanks in advance
 
100 bucks eh?

that 400 dollar player isnt doing you any good without something to listen to

be a man and buy something decent
 
zepharus said:
I have a touch. HATE the apple ear buds they simply dont stay in my ears.. they always fall out and are uncomfortable. Can someone recommend some really good "in the ear" buds that sound great and are around $50? I looked at the vmoda vibe and they get great reviews, but im not wanting to drop $100 bucks on a pair as the wife would roll me.

thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Sony MDX71 or whatever the current version is will give you "ok" sound for around $50.

There was a deal on the Shure E2 posted at Fatwallet a while ago. $50-$75 I think and in an entirely different league than the Sony's, those normally go for $100. They are a bit bulky for "earbuds" but the nice thing is they have different sized tips with them so that you can get a custom fit.

I won't even tell you how much the 'good' earbuds cost! :)
 
Eh... Perhaps Ill liten to other options. Its not a matter of being cheap, or not being able to afford the higher price tag. I just thought I might be able to "slide by" and get good sound at a good price.

So cost aside what do you peeps recommend? Please be reasonable, ont drop $250 buds on me lol. and remember i really am looking for the buds that fit inside the canal with different size fittings to boot. Thanks in advance
 
zepharus said:
Eh... Perhaps Ill liten to other options. Its not a matter of being cheap, or not being able to afford the higher price tag. I just thought I might be able to "slide by" and get good sound at a good price.

So cost aside what do you peeps recommend? Please be reasonable, ont drop $250 buds on me lol. and remember i really am looking for the buds that fit inside the canal with different size fittings to boot. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

www.head-fi.org

Start readin'

Many, many, MANY opinions once you get into the $100+ range. Remember that everyone's ears and tastes are different. Some want tight bass, some want booming bass, some want shrieking mid-range, some want "neutral" un-colored performance.

Beyond a certain point the benefits are lost on a device like an iPod. In all likelihood you are NOT listening to lossless music, if you are listening to low bitrate AAC or MP3 files then they are only going to sound so good no matter how good the cans (headphones) you use.

If you listen to higher bitrate stuff you are still limited by the crummy amplifier in a portable device, so again, it's a path of diminishing returns.

For the record, most of the very good non-amplified portable headphones for ipods are in the $100-$200 price range.
 
triela said:
In the range of "MSRP $50", I'd recommend the vmoda bass-freq earphones over the Sony Fontopia. ...that is, if you like a little extra bass.

http://www.v-moda.com/collection/modaphones/bass freq.aspx
Click to expand...

I second this 100%--

Shure E2Cs sounded like crap to me and were a pain to wear, uncomfortable too

Sony 71's dont have that great of lows.. only give you mids and highs

the vmoda's have more low emphasis, but it's all there nicely
 
jmpage2 said:
www.head-fi.org

Start readin'

Many, many, MANY opinions once you get into the $100+ range. Remember that everyone's ears and tastes are different. Some want tight bass, some want booming bass, some want shrieking mid-range, some want "neutral" un-colored performance.

Beyond a certain point the benefits are lost on a device like an iPod. In all likelihood you are NOT listening to lossless music, if you are listening to low bitrate AAC or MP3 files then they are only going to sound so good no matter how good the cans (headphones) you use.

If you listen to higher bitrate stuff you are still limited by the crummy amplifier in a portable device, so again, it's a path of diminishing returns.

For the record, most of the very good non-amplified portable headphones for ipods are in the $100-$200 price range.
Click to expand...

I don't think most of the people on MacRumors want neutral sound. A lot seem to be going for bass performance mostly.

I've been using a pair of inexpensive Sennheisers for the last few years and while they're better than the included iPod ear buds, they're not remarkable. I was thinking of going upscale since I will be adding all of my classical music but even then, $100 is plenty since there will be external distractions.

Probably most people don't need anything over $100 because it won't help. The V-Moda Bass Fréq had a frequency response graph that was amusing. I must have been reading it incorrectly because it would seem that the deviation, instead of ±3 dB was more like ±30 dB but then, it's tough to get bass from such a small driver.

A friend mentioned that the person responsible for iMod said that the headphone output section of the classic was better than the model it replaced so there is hope.

I believe that Sennheiser provide good sound but ear buds are difficult to engineer properly. However, Circuit City seems to have specials on them right now. It just seems a big guess as to what is good to my ears.
 
Im not a fan of ear buds of any kind, they are uncomfortable, don't stay in the ear, and sound like crap. Just get a good pair of headphones.
 
lots

the Shure in-ears we use for recording are around 400 for the drivers and the transmitters w/ receiver packs around like 800 all for both...

i wouldnt suggest that though ;)
 
are the vmoda bass ones buds or headphones? I'm on the touch and the pic doesnt display
 
After tring all of them, I found the iPod in-ear headphones the best for fit and medium sound quality. At $39.00 and the included inserts they fit great.

Bose-suck for the price.

The others were to lose or the was heavy or to high. Just make your adjustments on I-tunes or the iPod or iPT.
 
juanster said:
try the hennseiher cx 300 i just got mine from ebay for like 30 bucks
Click to expand...

I got a pair of those yesterday from Amazon for £15. I'm really surprised at just how good they are. Plenty of bass, really comfy, block out the sound perfectly. For the money I can't fault them. Be careful though as there are, apparently, a lot of fake ones on eBay with terrible quality issues.
 
xerikx said:
Sony 71's dont have that great of lows.. only give you mids and highs
Click to expand...

The 90's are much better, and around the same price these days.

That said lows were never the problem with the 71's (in fact they overdid it slightly).. the mid range was a little weak that's all.

Didn't like the cx300.. difficult to pin down but they were a bit 'cheap' sounding to my ears.

Decent flat response is going to be hard to get in something the size of earbuds I suspect though.. so it's always a compromise with what your ears are most sensitive to. Try to sound test a few... a decent store will have some demo models out.
 
TonyHoyle said:
The 90's are much better, and around the same price these days.

That said lows were never the problem with the 71's (in fact they overdid it slightly).. the mid range was a little weak that's all.

Didn't like the cx300.. difficult to pin down but they were a bit 'cheap' sounding to my ears.

Decent flat response is going to be hard to get in something the size of earbuds I suspect though.. so it's always a compromise with what your ears are most sensitive to. Try to sound test a few... a decent store will have some demo models out.
Click to expand...

It's one persons opinion vs. the others - that's how it always is with headphones

If I listening to my 71's compared to my Bose Triports or V-Modas, they have much inferior sound in all aspects, with my Triports ranking the best.
 
Quest for the perfect earbuds

I've spent a number of years trying to find the perfect earbuds.

I was a sucker for bang & olufsen's A8 earphones first. They had a great design and the midrange was great, but they were significantly lacking in the low end.

Next, I moved to Shure's E3s. Much better at the low end, but still didn't have as much oomfh as I was looking for.

Then a friend recommended the Entymotic Research ER-4 Micro Pros. These things blew me away. They are a bit pricey at $299, but I'm really happy with them. The only problem now is that I don't think I could ever go back to earbuds that are inferior.
 
MacRy said:
I got a pair of those yesterday from Amazon for £15. I'm really surprised at just how good they are. Plenty of bass, really comfy, block out the sound perfectly. For the money I can't fault them. Be careful though as there are, apparently, a lot of fake ones on eBay with terrible quality issues.
Click to expand...

I got a pair of these for my birthday and they arrived the other day. They're practically perfect, once I got the right adjustment rings on them.

I was surprised to see that there were white pairs available through an Amazon.com associate because Sennheiser doesn't make white (or at least, they're not on their website)--only black and silver. I ended up going to another source for a bit more but I have little doubt that they're the real things.
 
I got a pair of gunmetal V Moda Vibes off Amazon for ~$65 incl shipping a couple weeks ago. They are a significant upgrade over the supplied ear buds, IMO. They have pretty quality sound to my ears. Disclaimer: I am not an audiophile.
 
I have a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-CK7s. Excellent in-ear phones for $70, the catch is they aren't sold in the U.S. I imported mine from Japan through AudioCubes. The sound is great for the price and I really like the titanium construction. They feel more expensive than they are.

Review 1
Review 2
Review 3
 
Try the Etymotic ER6i. They are a bit more expensive than 50 bucks (like 60, max 70), but are much much better than any of the 50 bucks range earphones. Well worth the extra 10-20 bucks.
 
bousozoku said:
I got a pair of these for my birthday and they arrived the other day. They're practically perfect, once I got the right adjustment rings on them.

I was surprised to see that there were white pairs available through an Amazon.com associate because Sennheiser doesn't make white (or at least, they're not on their website)--only black and silver. I ended up going to another source for a bit more but I have little doubt that they're the real things.
Click to expand...

They are the real deal. Apple sell them in their online store for a frankly ridiculous price.

Great headphones though. If anyone owns an 1991 Mazda MX5 and they do a lot of motorway driving then these are perfect for bringing music (that you can hear) back to your journeys :)
 
Cache said:
Try the Etymotic ER6i. They are a bit more expensive than 50 bucks (like 60, max 70), but are much much better than any of the 50 bucks range earphones. Well worth the extra 10-20 bucks.
Click to expand...

The ER6is are indeed wonderful, however, I went through two pairs of the white ones in about a year, since the wire just just at the top of the jack seemed to get worn out. I admittedly did use them pretty much constantly during that time, so, they got alot of wear, but I wanted something that lasted longer for that price. So, I would be wary of buying them.

In the end I was so addicted I went for the VERY EXPENSIVE ER-4Ps. Which are lovely, and I have never regretted the cost. Of course, before you have been spoilt for a while by really good headphones, you won't want to pay that much.
 
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