Entertainment For Lively Minds
MP3 Earphones
Posted by Excitable Boy on 12 October 2009 - 9:42am.
I want to upgrade my earphones for use on my beloved Creative Zen Vision M. My key wants are : good bass, comfort, robustness, and good noise isolation in and out ( I don't want people on the train to have to hear what I'm listening to!) Any thoughts on good/bad products around the £50/75 mark ?
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this might help.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/best-headphones-commuting
Sennheiser
CX300. Use the medium fit bud for best comfort, sound quality and volume. Excellent and reasonable price.
seconded
i bought a pair of these only this weekend and am, frankly, staggered at the sound quality. I foolishly bought 'em in a shop, but they're half what I paid on amazon.
Thirded
Bought these after reading about them here. Bought at Amazon about £15. I have seen them in various shops at £30-£40.
yup...
i meant in my post that they're cheaper on amazon than in the shops!
I had those
and they were great till I discovered in ear phones were irritating my ears. Now I have the PX200 - lovely.
Just bought a set of these on eBay...
... to-night for ST£30.
Agree
I had two pairs then went for the CX400s which are much more expensive, but frankly no better in terms of sound. Also I liked the CX300 loop around the back of the neck design and the 400s are trad Y shape. They do have a little volume control which I occasionally ise. If I lost them i'd go back to 300s though.
Aargh!
If only I'd read this five days ago.
I recently upgraded from the 300s to the 400s and have spent all evening (well, okay, all day) doing tests and trying to convince myself my new earphones are better. But they're not. They do have a certain clarity, but they lack the oomph and warmth of the 300s, and I hate the y-shaped neck thingy, plus the volume control is pathetic and that clip sucks.
Curses.
Furthermore
The top came off the volume control in transit somewhere so I now have a tiny little plastic spiggot I push with my thumb nail to change volume. Glad (err) you are also finding the 300s are just as good!
Sennheisers
I've the CX200s which are a cheaper pair but are excellent. The best headphones I've ever had for a walkman/discman/ipod. Perfect for a commute, block out the world, but have very little leak to advertise your listening to everyone.
I listen to my iPod at full blast on the train in the mornings - 6am train - and nobody can hear them. They also, with the iPod Classic, seem much louder than any headphone I've owned. Which is nice. I sometimes actually have to turn the iPod down....I've never encountered that before....
dont you worry about going
dont you worry about going deaf ?
How have you found
the Creative Zen generally? I'm on my second ipod and as I'm just past the warranty, the smug bastard will no doubt pack in anytime soon.
I've had my Zen Vision M
for over two years; never had any problems with it, it's never crashed or anything similarly drastic. The sound, to my ears, is pretty good (I upgraded my earphones to a Creative pair of higher quality than those supplied) although I'm too much of a technophobe to know how to change the bitrates or whatever. I just import CDs, podcasts etc onto my laptop then sync them to the Zen, quick and easy .
Looks-wise, it may seem a bit heavy and chunky compared to the 'pods, but it fits in the average pocket well enough, and can be justified by the multimedia options on offer. The capacity was huge at the time (60GB) but is obviously dwarfed now by the huge capacity of the latest i-pods. I don't think Creative have been very, erm, creative with developing their range of players and accessories, but at the moment, I'm still satisfied with what I have. I've got thousands of songs on there and still lots of unused space.
Sounds good to me
Thanks for that.
I have
an i-pod and a creative Zen and I would have to say the Zen is a much better piece of kit. Beats my i-pod on just about every level.It is my one truly indespensible gadget. If it were a woman I would marry it.
Panasonic
I have previously posted about my love of my earphones, which work in great sound conjunction with my iPod. Had a look on amazon, they seemed to have been ousted in favour of something new. I can't vouch for them, but I can vouch for these.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PANASONIC-ERGO-FIT-IN-EAR-HEADPHONES-BARGAIN_W0QQi...
Good sound quality / bass / ambient blocking. And cheap, so you aren't too peaved if you ever had to replace them.
Creative EP-630
Why spend so much? Surely you can't go wrong with these headphones. Given 9 out of 10 by the excellent Trusted Reviews: http://www.trustedreviews.com/multimedia/review/2005/12/12/Creative-EP-6...
And, they're being sold for only seven pounds and eight pence at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-EP-630-Noise-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B00... 611 reviews, and still bearing four stars. People must be pleased.
If you're determined to spend fifty quid, hell, get seven pairs!
Creative phones
I had a pair of creative thingys and they only lasted about 6 months before one of the channels went. I use my ipod every working day and getting the cable trapped or losing a channel is an unfortunate consequence.
I currently have a pair of Sennhesier CX300's which came in a very clever (and eco-friendly) cardboard packaging. Cost about 15 quid from Amazon. These are excellent.
Given the rate at which I get through earphones - I would rather spend the £50 on a number of replacement sets rather than 1 set which could break just as quickly!
But wierd...
I have a problem with my cx300s that no one mentions. Because they cut out the external sound it seems to create the same effect as putting your fingers in your ears. Try putting your fingers in your ear and then singing. What's that awful noise? That's you singing, that is. What's worse is that the cable seems to conduct the sound of every movement so that I experience the constant rumble of my footsteps or even just the bumping of the cable as I walk. The quality is fantastic but this side effect is annoying.
Exactly
I bought a pair of in-ear headphones and just could not get on with them, I could constantly hear my own heartbeat, which as well as being annoying was a constant reminder of my own mortality. Also walking the sound of my footsteps came booming through. So I bought a pair of iGrados which are excellent for listening to indoors but I'd never go out with them as sound leaks too much. It's back to the custom Apple buds for me unless someone knows of an exceptional set of buds, not in-ear.