Will my Nano sound better with new headphones??

FleurDuMal

FleurDuMal

macrumors 68000
Hey guys,

I'm buying a Nano today. Just wondering whether anyone knows if the sound will be greatly improved by buying better earphones? Or are the included ones good enough (in my experience so far, earphones included with MP3/CD players are pants). If so, which would you recommend? I'm not an audiophile, but if I can improve my listening for relatively little expense I would do so.

My music is encoded at 192Kbs AAC, if that's important.

Thanks!
 
Yes I would say so. As for earphones it depends on what you're comfortable with but the in-ear phones are handy. I like the Sennheiser CX300. It's not audiophile but good for the money, pretty comfortable to wear, it keeps some outside noise out, it's not expensive and has a 2-year guarantee. £40ish.
 
Compared to most included phones, they're pretty good. Only you can decide if they're good enough, though. Listen to them for a while to see if you are OK with them, if not, get some new ones. You didn't tell us what sort of phones you were looking for (earbuds, in ear, headphones, etc) so we can't really help.

If you're looking for good sound and noise isolation, some in ears (I have Shure e3cs) would be good. If you want big phones, I don't know so much, other than I like these.
 
I got my nano at the weekend and I'm very pleased with my buds. It never occurred to me to buy new ones. Having said that, I haven't owned a portable music player for about 15 years until now so I have nothing to compare them with.
 
i've used a pair of shure e2c's and have some super fi 5 pros by ulitmate ears. i really like the in ear monitor type of ear buds. and they sound just excellent compared to anything. my acc files are encoded to 160kbps, i found that to be the best size per quality ratio to my ears. i find it to be great for portable use. i even have a really good sound with my cans and my homemade pimeta headphone amp. it makes everything sound so wonderful. if you are going to buy new headphones, then make sure you do a little bit of research. don't go out and spend money on a few different pairs that together cost as much as one really good pair. trust me you won't regret it.
 
Better earphones will sound better but whether you need them depends on what you will be doing while you listen to music. Try the ones that come with the nano. If they are not sufficient, come back. People will give you plenty of suggestions.
 
I think the sound quality would be improved by buying qood quality headphones, especially since you're ripping music at 192 AAC. However, I agree that it's a good idea to try the included Apple earbuds first. For one, I think these redesigned earbuds sound better than those that came with the previous version of iPod (to my ears, they get better bass response and fairly clear highs), and in experimenting with different bitrates, I was able to hear differences just through the stock earbuds (which is why I settled on ripping everything at 192). Depending on your purposes, they might do the job.

If you're not satisfied with the Apple buds, then, yeah, you should look into higher-end alternatives. I've heard improvements when I plug my over-the-ear home headphones into the iPod. When I'm on the go, though, I just use the stock Apple buds because 1) I love how light-weight they are, and I don't like carrying anything bulky or heavy; 2) I'm personally not a fan of ear canal phones, though there are a number of ear canal phones that provide great sound quality; 3) while I'm a stickler for audiophile quality at home, I'm satisfied with the job the Apple buds do when I'm on the go.

My only gripe with the Apple buds -- and keep in mind that this issue won't affect everyone -- is that the left bud doesn't fit in my ear too snugly while the right does. My ears aren't perfectly symmetrical, and so occasionaly I have to push the left bud back into my ear. A minor inconvenience, though.
 
Sesshi said:
Yes I would say so. As for earphones it depends on what you're comfortable with but the in-ear phones are handy. I like the Sennheiser CX300. It's not audiophile but good for the money, pretty comfortable to wear, it keeps some outside noise out, it's not expensive and has a 2-year guarantee. £40ish.
Click to expand...

Another recommendation for the CX300s here. Amazon also sells CX300s at around £20 which makes them great value for money.
 
MAC earbuds suck

The ear buds that they give you with pods, while better than most stock ones, still suck. To improve the sound for cheap, go with soft tips for them. Otherwise, JVC makes a decent pair of earbuds for $18. I can't remember the name but they're great. Also, the best for under $100 are either Entymotic buds, or the all time favorite, the Shure e2 which you can get on amazon for $69. I have used earbuds up to $300 and the shure are decent even compared to those. They don't have the most bass, but bass is REALLY bad on your ear drums when its in an earbud. The shures will kick the butt off of the ipod stock buds.
 
Sound does improve. I bought some Shure E2cs for £55 and they are great. Awesome balance on them and the sond quality has improved. They also block out loads of background noise so this cuts out background noise so you can actually hear the music better without any distractions.
 
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