Upgrading I-Pod earphones.
Discussion
I've never used the iPod headphones for three reasons :
1) They were bright white and told everyone "I'm carrying a £300 highly desirable product in my pocket".
2) They didn't fit my ears properly.
3) They sound terrible.
I didn't want to go the £50 route, so headed into Dixons and bought a £17.50 pair of Sony earbud, groove shaped units and they are truly superb. Recently replaced them with the upgraded version (with much longer cable protectors) and they sound equally as good.
1) They were bright white and told everyone "I'm carrying a £300 highly desirable product in my pocket".
2) They didn't fit my ears properly.
3) They sound terrible.
I didn't want to go the £50 route, so headed into Dixons and bought a £17.50 pair of Sony earbud, groove shaped units and they are truly superb. Recently replaced them with the upgraded version (with much longer cable protectors) and they sound equally as good.
After getting myself an ipod over xmas I spent the next few days researching headphones. The standard ones are junk. It all depends on your budget but I ended up buying two pairs - a decent set of cans for home listening and a set of ear buds for using it outside. Both sets I bought were Sennheiser and like someone else mentioned, the bud type I bought were the MX500's. I bought them after reading several good reviews both on line and in What Hi-Fi. They're much clearer than the standard items, although they're a little lacking in bass for my taste. I bought them from Richer Sounds for £20. Other recommendations were the Sony MDR-EX71SL at £35 odd at Dixons or Shure E2C's, but they're £60 odd. The Shure are supposed to be about the best all round unless you want to spend silly money.
The only thing I found was that due to EU meddling, the max sound output of the Euro iPods is limited so some headphones may not be as loud as you'd like. Fortunately I found a software hack on the internet to restore the volume back to US levels, I can't remember the URL but have the exe on my laptop. If you want a copy, send me an email and I'll fire it over.
HTH
Phil.
The only thing I found was that due to EU meddling, the max sound output of the Euro iPods is limited so some headphones may not be as loud as you'd like. Fortunately I found a software hack on the internet to restore the volume back to US levels, I can't remember the URL but have the exe on my laptop. If you want a copy, send me an email and I'll fire it over.
HTH
Phil.
selmer said:
I've heard the Etymotic ones are the business, but expensive.
They are indeed though the only problem is that I can now hear the deficiencies of MP3 and the ipod DAC but they do sound fantastic when plugged into a CD player. I had the little sony in ear ones before that and they're alright though they don't have any mids what so ever which is what the ER-6's excel at.
bga said:
Flicking through a mates copy of Stuff magazine they really rated the Sennheiser MX500.
They're certainly the best I've used ....
docevi1 said:
1) They were bright white and told everyone "I'm carrying a £300 highly desirable product in my pocket".
.... and the headphones are black/blue so no-one knows what you're carrying in your pocket - it could be a £20 CD player. Unless of course you get it out.
Depends what type you want. I can't really advise you on the ear phones but if it's headphones you want there really is no other choice but Grado.
Prices start at about £50-60 but the quality is superb and the ipods have no problem powering them.
Sennheiser ones tend to struggle as they require more power to drive them and therefore drain the battery quicker.
>> Edited by beanbag on Wednesday 5th January 11:52
Prices start at about £50-60 but the quality is superb and the ipods have no problem powering them.
Sennheiser ones tend to struggle as they require more power to drive them and therefore drain the battery quicker.
>> Edited by beanbag on Wednesday 5th January 11:52
PJLarge said:
After getting myself an ipod over xmas I spent the next few days researching headphones. The standard ones are junk. It all depends on your budget but I ended up buying two pairs - a decent set of cans for home listening and a set of ear buds for using it outside. Both sets I bought were Sennheiser and like someone else mentioned, the bud type I bought were the MX500's. I bought them after reading several good reviews both on line and in What Hi-Fi. They're much clearer than the standard items, although they're a little lacking in bass for my taste. I bought them from Richer Sounds for £20. Other recommendations were the Sony MDR-EX71SL at £35 odd at Dixons or Shure E2C's, but they're £60 odd. The Shure are supposed to be about the best all round unless you want to spend silly money.
The only thing I found was that due to EU meddling, the max sound output of the Euro iPods is limited so some headphones may not be as loud as you'd like. Fortunately I found a software hack on the internet to restore the volume back to US levels, I can't remember the URL but have the exe on my laptop. If you want a copy, send me an email and I'll fire it over.
HTH
Phil.
Brilliant! I have a US ipod and the MX500s are going for £7.99 buy it now on Ebay!
Corin Denton said:
After getting myself an ipod over xmas I spent the next few days researching headphones. The standard ones are junk. It all depends on your budget but I ended up buying two pairs - a decent set of cans for home listening and a set of ear buds for using it outside. Both sets I bought were Sennheiser and like someone else mentioned, the bud type I bought were the MX500's. I bought them after reading several good reviews both on line and in What Hi-Fi. They're much clearer than the standard items, although they're a little lacking in bass for my taste. I bought them from Richer Sounds for £20. Other recommendations were the Sony MDR-EX71SL at £35 odd at Dixons or Shure E2C's, but they're £60 odd. The Shure are supposed to be about the best all round unless you want to spend silly money.
The only thing I found was that due to EU meddling, the max sound output of the Euro iPods is limited so some headphones may not be as loud as you'd like. Fortunately I found a software hack on the internet to restore the volume back to US levels, I can't remember the URL but have the exe on my laptop. If you want a copy, send me an email and I'll fire it over.
HTH
Phil.
Brilliant! I have a US ipod and the MX500s are going for £7.99 buy it now on Ebay!
This is the volume booster I use.
http://espen.se/index.php?category=1
Just adjusts the volume offset in the MP3 meta data - doesn't re-encode the files so it works ok as a hack.
There are places you can re-flash your firmware with the latest US version but doesn't seem much point as this does the same thing.
beanbag said:
Depends what type you want. I can't really advise you on the ear phones but if it's headphones you want there really is no other choice but Grado.
Prices start at about £50-60 but the quality is superb and the ipods have no problem powering them.
Sennheiser ones tend to struggle as they require more power to drive them and therefore drain the battery quicker.
>> Edited by beanbag on Wednesday 5th January 11:52
Grados are of course superb IMO, I use them at home, but one does looka bit strange when out and about with them
I've read that the MX500s are just too similar to the boggo Apple 'phones - I'm tempted by the E2Cs, but have found the EX71s on Ebay for about £22 delivered and they sound like they'll fit the bill without getting too expensive.
At one point, I was looking at sets priced around £100+ but I can't really justify spending that much as I tend to only use my iPod on holiday (the rest of the time its in the car hooked up through my Ice>link)
At one point, I was looking at sets priced around £100+ but I can't really justify spending that much as I tend to only use my iPod on holiday (the rest of the time its in the car hooked up through my Ice>link)
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