In ear headphones budget £300.

[Jamster123]

Anyone recommend anything ?

Considering ...

B&O play H3... Nice looking , but mixed reviews on sound
http://www.beoplay.com/newheadphones


shure-se425 , apparently best buy at this budget , recommended by what-hifi , but they look st.

http://www.whathifi.com/review/shure-se425

[probedb]

Look for reviews online, there's far more out there than WHF?. If you removed the B&O name they'd probably be about £50

There's a thread here http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

And also check out head-fi.org as this is exactly the sort of thing that forum is useful for http://www.head-fi.org/a/2013-head-fi-summer-buyin...

I have a pair of Westone UM3x, I'm happy with them as they are but really want to see what difference properly EQing them will make. I also have their custom earn molds for them which made something of a difference but don't seal as well as I'd hoped, probably due to the molds being a bit off or something. I previously had some Westone UM2 and was more than happy with those until they broke after 4 years of proper abuse.

[Ved]

I have Shure 315s and they're spot on. Very comfortable, isolate the outside world perfectly and sound magnificent. I don't think you need to spend £300 on them as you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference.

[s3fella]

Does anyone really need to spend 300 quid on in ear phones? What music and source would you listen to on them? If it's an MP3 player, surely the compromises of the source run out long before the capabilities of say a 100 quid set of in ear phones?

[JDFR]

Klipsch x10s - brilliant and not £300 either.

[probedb]

s3fella said:

Does anyone really need to spend 300 quid on in ear phones?

Yes.

[Jamster123]

I will only really be playing through IPhone , so I guess after a certain price , it could be wasted money.

I spoke with a chap at length today from richer sounds , he recommended Bayerdynamics , but they don't rate that well online.

I did have the klipsch x7s (which I dropped in a swimming pool ) and thought they were good but nothing special, the x10s have been replaced with the x11s I think , they get great reviews and currently high on my list.

Still reading online , have around a week before I'm off on holiday which is when I need them for.

[Jamster123]

probedb said:

Look for reviews online, there's far more out there than WHF?. If you removed the B&O name they'd probably be about £50

There's a thread here http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

And also check out head-fi.org as this is exactly the sort of thing that forum is useful for http://www.head-fi.org/a/2013-head-fi-summer-buyin...

I have a pair of Westone UM3x, I'm happy with them as they are but really want to see what difference properly EQing them will make. I also have their custom earn molds for them which made something of a difference but don't seal as well as I'd hoped, probably due to the molds being a bit off or something. I previously had some Westone UM2 and was more than happy with those until they broke after 4 years of proper abuse.

That's an excellent post just reading now

[Digger]

Out of interst what phones are you currently using? £300 seems way ott for iPhone usage!

[Jamster123]

I don't use in ears that often , mostly just for holidays. I had the x7s last year but dropped in pool , would like something better this year. I have a cheap set of pioneers but only use them occasionally . Really just looking to ensure I have the best product possible !

[probedb]

Digger said:

Out of interst what phones are you currently using? £300 seems way ott for iPhone usage!

Why do you think that? Modern iPhones are a very good source, you don't have to use MP3s and there's nothing wrong with properly encoded MP3s/AAC anyway.

You seem a bit snobbish about this. Dissing portable use as something that isn't worth spending money on.

[Mr_Yogi]

Love my Shure SE 425's, great sound, great isolation and very comfortable. You can get them in black if you don't want them to look like a posh hearing aid, although I like the clear ones

I'm sure the SE 315's are great too, they are the ones I was going to get but they were out of stock.

Edited by Mr_Yogi on Sunday 29th September 20:17

[Digger]

probedb said:

You seem a bit snobbish about this. Dissing portable use as something that isn't worth spending money on.

I have a pair of Sennheiser ie60's to use with my portable players. Yes they cost a smidgeon over £100 from John Lewis.

[survivalist]

I got a pair of Sure SE530's about 6 years ago at a hugely discounted price. When they eventually broke I replaced them with SE535s at the best price I could find online (about £330, from memory). I tried all kinds of cheaper options, but kept returning to these. Once you're used to them it's hard to go back. I've listened to the B&O and Bose ones and IMHO they don't get anywhere near the sound quality, even with MP3 - higher sample rates, lossless etc all improve the sound.

[stanwan]

I got a pair of those lovely looking in-ear B&W titanium ones. Sound was fantastic.

That was until they broke 3 weeks later - a quick google search reveals that this is a recurring issue and that the cords are cack - mine lasted 3 weeks. Fortunately Dixons travel refunded the lot. A Shame as the sound was lovely the first time I went for a run...

[StuH]

Hi Jamster,

As always you get what you pay for! Given your budget i'd try and stretch to my two favourite IEM's - Shure 535 or Phonak 232 - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/headphones/1290487/...

I'm a bit of a headphone addict and have owned or tried quite a range. One bit of advice if you are looking at phones of this quality is to consider an external dac/amp - as the improvement over the internal dac and amp of the iphone is quite considerable - the Fiio e7/e17 are excellent choices - or if you want to go the whole hog there's always the AK120

If you get a chance try and listen to the different models as they all have slightly differing sound signatures. Shure 535 is a great all-rounder with superb midband clarity, Phonak's are in my opinion the very best and have the sweetest top end, as well as adjustable bass response. If you want something a little cheaper the Senn ie8/80 is excellent and particularly good with electronica/dance music.

http://fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=10000001...

http://www.astellnkern.com/

[blindswelledrat]

Mr_Yogi said:

Love my Shure SE 425's, great sound, great isolation and very comfortable. You can get them in black if you don't want them to look like a posh hearing aid, although I like the clear ones

I'm sure the SE 315's are great too, they are the ones I was going to get but they were out of stock.

Edited by Mr_Yogi on Sunday 29th September 20:17

I have those and I love them too. Should be well within the budget and they sound brilliant.
Two things that make them superb for me:
1) They keep pretty much all sound in. You can have your music as loud as you want without bothering anyone
2) THe quality exceeds some of my indoor headphones that are proper sized and have no excuse for being worse than the tiny Shures. That includes some Bose ones and AKG ones I have.

One disadvantage: The clarity is so perfect that you hear sounds you wouldn't hear on other headphones. Whilst this is usually a plus it also highlights the imperfections so with the iphone you will realise that a number of your mp3 downloads are of a poor quality with a lot of white noise and stuff that you have never noticed with worse earphones. I deted about 20% of my iphone music when I bought them as I suddenly considered it to be too awful

[jinkster]

Bang and Olufsen Form 2 - brilliant and around £90 go and have a listen.

[Jamster123]

Ended up with the klipsch x10s , seemed best option going on reviews. Not bad price either .

So far pretty happy with sound , I'm no audiophile but they sound really clear as precise.

[BalhamBadger]

Having gone through multiple sets of earphones from the likes of Etymotic, Sony, Philips etc I find they all fail in the same way sooner or later. One ear starts to intermittently drop out before going altogether, at which point I bin them. Does paying more ensure a more robust build, or are they all just disposable goods? If I was paying £300 I'd need some reassurance they were built to last.