# ipod earbuds - let's hear it



## matmude (Jun 1, 2005)

any opinions out there as to the best earbuds to use with your ipod? - personally i think (and many will agree) the apple standard issue buds blow - so far i've tried out a few pairs of high end phones; bang & olufsen, shure e2's & e3's and the etymotic er6i's - in my opinion i found the er6i's to be the best and have gone with those - it's like hearing for the first time!


----------



## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

I personally can't wear buds, so I purchased a pair of panasonic behind the ear headphones, they are great. I'm sure they're not the greatest quality, but they're decent.


----------



## Tulse (May 26, 2005)

matmude, where did you find the Etymotics? And, if I may ask, how much were they?


----------



## BJBond (May 4, 2005)

Tulse said:


> matmude, where did you find the Etymotics? And, if I may ask, how much were they?


.


----------



## matmude (Jun 1, 2005)

cpused on dupont at bathurst has them - they're $199 - not cheap by any means  

i heard carbon and the new apple store have'em as well, but i can't confirm that with certainty.


----------



## BJBond (May 4, 2005)

Thanks matmude.

And here I was humming and hawign over the $109 cost of the e2c's. 2 bucks is a bit much for me right now.


----------



## K_OS (Dec 13, 2002)

I do agree the standard Apple issue earbuds blow, the ones that my wife and I settled on and they give my wife good enough sound are the plane jane $30.00 Sony earbuds they're not expensive enough to blow the budget but they do a better job than Apple's, that and the fact that they hide the fact that you have a iPod stowed away in your pocket.

laterz


----------



## i stole this name (May 9, 2005)

The ER-6is ARE cheap. Conpare them to sennheisers or shures!

Personally - i use Sony MDR-EX71s theyre awesome and only 40 bucks, i cant tell the difference between then and the etymotics


----------



## matmude (Jun 1, 2005)

i stole this name said:


> The ER-6is ARE cheap. Conpare them to sennheisers or shures!
> 
> Personally - i use Sony MDR-EX71s theyre awesome and only 40 bucks, i cant tell the difference between then and the etymotics


yeah the shures can get ridiculous, the e5's go for around $450 but so can the comparable etymotic er4's also around $450 - for that price i'm expecting minuture musicians playing live in my ear


----------



## Mac Yak (Feb 7, 2005)

After trying several pairs -- including the Apple in-ear buds... twice! -- I currently sport the Koss P9 in-ear headphones. Koss is a trusted name in audio, and now I know why -- they work very well, and they're under $20 CDN. That's my $.02.


----------



## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

I've been using Apple's In-Ear Headphones with my iPod Shuffle for a couple of months during my daily commuter train rides - I'm quite pleased with these headphones. They are very comfortable and unobtrusive to wear, unlike the standard earbuds. Since they seal the ear canal they block a lot of ambient noise, and have much better sound (and bass) than the regular earbuds.


----------



## CN (Sep 3, 2004)

I liked the Apple In-Ear headphones (not too bad a price for pretty decent earbuds) too, but I found they looked really weird when I wore them...they stuck out at a weird angle from my ear no matter how I wore them. I felt really stupid while wearing them so I went back to regular buds, which I also find easier to take in/out quickly, which I need to do alot...not the best sound, but at least it blocks out some annoying sounds, and are easy and comfortable to wear.


----------



## mycatsnameis (Mar 3, 2000)

If you have the Apple version of the in-ear buds, have look at this article: 

This is very good advice. I bought Apple's in ear phones and got them to work but still wasn't satisfied with the sound (although it was still far better than the standard buds). It takes some playing to get them sealed but b/c the rubber is so flimsy they can lose their seal if you move your jaw (chew, yawn etc) or if the cord gets a bit of a tug on your collar. 

I followed Dan's suggestion and got the Shure E2c replacement foams and (again with a little playing around to get the fit right) they are a huge improvement without a lot of cash outlay. The sound is better (although perhaps not as much as he implies, IMO) but the fit is outstanding. I can eat, yawn, whatever and they stay perfectly sealed. There's a huge decrease in ambient noise as well compared to teh rubber sleeves

I bought the medium size since I used the Apple medium rubber inserts and these fit me well. 

To find them in Canada (since Shure doesn't seem inclined to ship across the border) the best deal I found was the SF Marketing site 

The other comment I'll make is that, once you've had a chance to play around with this arrangement, you'll find you can cant the foam sleeves forward so that the stem of each phone can sit flat against your ear. When I was using Apple's rubber sleeves, teh only way I could get a good seal, b/c the angle of my ear canal, was to have the stems pointing way out from my ears which looked a bit odd.

Edit - CN see my last paragraph, it's a huge improvement.


----------



## Boomcha (Jan 29, 2004)

I have the Sony EX71's and I have had no problems with them. Fantastic sound, a lot of the time better than over the ear style enclosed headphones. I totally recommend them, perfect fit, the best sounding headphones I have ever tried. Friends of mine switched to them once they tried mine, people that had been using Grado headphones for years.

Jorge


----------



## Commodus (May 10, 2005)

Right now, I actually use the Sony EX81s that you have to order from an importer (like audiocubes.com). They're basically EX71s in white with ear hooks. They have a good fit - even if the hooks don't fit properly on your ears, it can be easier to get them on or off than the EX71s. They're comfortable for long periods of time.

Also, I like their sound. They have a less exaggerated low-end than the EX71s, but still have enough punch (if you make a good seal) to let electronic music shine. There have been a few times where I actually preferred the sound of the EX81s to my 200W Klipsch computer speakers.

If there's a catch, it's probably the usual earbud quirks: you'll need to clean them (and your ears!) periodically, and the cord is thin and prone to tangling. But I don't think I could go back to regular headphones after listening to these.


----------



## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

My wife uses the Shure E2Cs with her shuffle. She really lies them and bought a spare pack of the yellow foam parts. However, one of the buds snapped into two a couple of weeks ago. She sent them back (to the US) and just received the replacements. I prefer to use the Sony noise-cancelling buds (MDR-NC11) as they're really effective on planes. They are a bit of a pain in terms of cable management but reduce noise by 10 dB. I even use them on a plane without music just to reduce the ambient noise. I've had them three years and now the price is down to around C$120.

The AppleStore at Yorkdale has the Shures and B&O phones but I didn't see the Etymotics. However lots of places have a wide range of earphones as you can make more money on these than on selling an iPod.


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

i use the stock white earbuds at home (seems to get better with use or i have gotten use to them) and some cheap $10 panasonics from walmart when i go out so i don't get mugged


----------



## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

mycatsnameis said:


> ...I bought Apple's in ear phones and got them to work but still wasn't satisfied with the sound (although it was still far better than the standard buds)....


I started out using the largest rubber caps; they fit well however they made the In-Ears sound just awful. I experimented a bit and ended up using the smallest size caps. They fit as well as the largest caps but the difference in sound between the different cap sizes is remarkable. 

With the large caps I'd get no bass at all; it was all high-end and really shrill - I thought I'd made a real mistake buying these 'phones. However with the small caps the sound is excellent. I guess it's important to experiment with caps of different sizes with in-ear 'phones, whether they're from Apple or another manufacturer. Comfort is important, but correct positioning within the ear canal is crucial. Huge difference in sound quality.


----------



## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

I've noticed that when I use the in-ear buds that the sound quality varies from my iPod to my iBook -- the bass issue some folks have had were gone when used with the iBook. It could have been an issue of environment, but I don't think that was the case.


----------



## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

i stole this name said:


> The ER-6is ARE cheap. Conpare them to sennheisers or shures!
> 
> Personally - i use Sony MDR-EX71s theyre awesome and only 40 bucks, i cant tell the difference between then and the etymotics


I second that. I've been very happy with my EX71s as well. They sound much better with a headphone amp such as the cmoy, when used with the full sized iPods, but they sound great with the Shuffle, unamped.


----------



## mycatsnameis (Mar 3, 2000)

The Doug said:


> I started out using the largest rubber caps; they fit well however they made the In-Ears sound just awful. I experimented a bit and ended up using the smallest size caps. They fit as well as the largest caps but the difference in sound between the different cap sizes is remarkable.
> 
> With the large caps I'd get no bass at all; it was all high-end and really shrill - I thought I'd made a real mistake buying these 'phones. However with the small caps the sound is excellent. I guess it's important to experiment with caps of different sizes with in-ear 'phones, whether they're from Apple or another manufacturer. Comfort is important, but correct positioning within the ear canal is crucial. Huge difference in sound quality.



Make sure you check out the links in teh rest of my post, you can do even better than the rubber caps. The difference you describe b/w the large and small rubber caps is teh difference between not having a seal and having a seal. With no seal, the bass disappears (this means you had to wrinkle the large caps to fit them in your ears). 

Substituting the Shure foams for the Apple rubber caps improves the quality of the seal in your ear dramatically.


----------



## CN (Sep 3, 2004)

Thanks for the great info mycatsnameis, maybe I can finally get my in-ears working comfortably with your descriptions. The sound is good but the fit is weird, so I will definately check it out! Thanks!


----------



## limitnolimit (May 4, 2005)

I've been very happy with the Shure E3Cs, but a friend of mine is also very happy with the Etymotics 6i. I tried the Apple in-ear headphones but after two separate pairs, one of the phones died. The second time that happened it was beyond the 90 days within which Apple would replace them. The Shure and Etymotics phones are worth the money, but they are a lot of money...


----------



## theanticrust (Jan 24, 2004)

Lucky me, I have the Etymotic ER-4Ps, and they are amazing. And for what they are worth, they better be. Although I won my pair in a contest, so once again, lucky me.

Before those I had a pair of Apple In-Ears and I really didn't enjoy them. They sounded alright, better than stock but were generally muddy. Although the biggest problem was keeping them in my ears properly. With all in-ears earbuds you need a seal in order to get a good sound, well I kept losing the seal when I walked around with the Apple In-ears. I can't recommend them especially for their price but apparently some people are happy with them (one of them being a friend of mine).


----------



## Raj69er (Nov 20, 2003)

what are a good pair of ear buds in the $100-$200 range that are white? I want earbuds that match the ipod


----------



## Howard2k (Feb 9, 2005)

I tried a few alternatives. Some Sony (mid range) and Panasonic (mid range) replacements and found that the iPod ones were just better.

I have some Shure e2cs and they are excellent for noise canceling. But I like to know what's going on around me too and sometimes they cancel out too much noise. So for the most part, I stick with the standard buds but pull our the Shure's for special occasions.


----------



## mycatsnameis (Mar 3, 2000)

Raj69er said:


> what are a good pair of ear buds in the $100-$200 range that are white? I want earbuds that match the ipod


Well you can check out this link (etymotics er6i) or the first post in this thread, your choice.


----------



## i stole this name (May 9, 2005)

Or buy 4 sets of EX71s in white


----------



## Cliffy (Apr 18, 2005)

I have been happy so far with my Shure E2c in-ear's. I am using them at work, in a factory and find that even the standard inserts keep enough sound out. I'd like to try the foam inserts some day to see how quiet that would be.


----------



## ChocolateMonster (Jun 2, 2005)

I had the E2Cs and for their price, are very worth it. Think about it...you only have one pair of ears. A lot of times, especially out on the street, you have to crank the volume of your iPod to more than 75% to compensate for the ambient noise and that in turn, causes ear damage. Are your ears only worth the $40 or $50 spent on your perception of "good" ear phones? When you get older, the hearing aid will probably cost more than a decent set of earphones and then some.

I've recently got tired of the E2Cs and was on the hunt for another pair. I've tried the ER6is and I was really close in getting them, but further research yielded me to the world of dual-driver In Ear Monitors (IEMs) with a built-in crossover. I was pretty skeptical at first, but $550 later, I'm always wearing a grin with my iPod. The E5Cs are worth their value and saves my hearing down the road. I rarely go past 1/3 on my volume metre on the iPod.

Really, you get what you pay for.

On another note, this other company Ultimate Ears (UE) provides custom ear-canal-moulding earphones for meagre US$1000...pocket change. lol


----------



## ChocolateMonster (Jun 2, 2005)

Raj69er said:


> what are a good pair of ear buds in the $100-$200 range that are white? I want earbuds that match the ipod


Jump over to www.ipodlounge.com

They have a whole list of iPod related reviews (cases, earphones, etc). The most recent one being Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 Pro (USD$200) and these are probably the most affordable dual-driver IEMs.

Westone has some good products too.

But the ER6i or E3Cs should fit your needs perfectly.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

MDR-EX71s for me, although I'd love to have some higher end ones. people speak of the Etymotics as if Jobs made them! 

For my work, I use Grados. They sound fantastic, but are REALLY bulky for portable use. But, _I have insider info direct from Grado_ that they are developing a new listening product *intended for portable use!!!*

BRING 'EM ON!!!


----------



## chicken strip (May 22, 2005)

of all the buds i have the ipod ones are the best


----------



## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

Right now I use the stock iPod buds with the Griffin EarJams to make them in-ear. I do admit that they do look a little weird, as the stick out of my ear at a strange angle. The sound is much improved however, except for the heavier bass, which I have to compensate with the Bass Reducer EQ, which looses me a bit of quality, I guess.


----------



## mycatsnameis (Mar 3, 2000)

chicken strip said:


> of all the buds i have the ipod ones are the best


I doubt you're going to find many who would say the same in this thread.


----------

