Good Inexpensive Phones

[spklman]

what do you guys think of creative ep-830's. I think that they are the same ones that are bundled with the X-fi

oh also what is the difference between the EP 630s and the 640s

[CrowdAds]

[reventon]

Hello everyone

i bought koss sparkplug from amazon.com.
i received them today.

here are my initial impressions.

the packing was quite good as it was easy to open. Didn't had to fiddle with scissors or anything, was easy to open with hands.

The color of plugs were white, reminded me of ipod's stock earphones. but the quality of this earplugs is far better than those.

Used for 15 20 mins hearing various songs and felt that the quality of sound was quite good. compared to ep-630 or 640, the bass is very good and is quite punchy, and it doesn't overpower highs which is a gud thing. Also it does manage to isolate outside noise, though used them in house will have to hear them while travelling to see how they are.

as of now the earphones fit quite good in my ears so i am thankful for that as very few earphones suits my ears. Will have to wait for more time to so how they perform.

I have a question to audiophiles here, koss uses foams, is it a good option or the silicon ones are better, the default one is larger size and they have provided medium one but i am not able to remove this larger one, can you let me know how to remove them, as when i try to pull them i felt as if i would tear them. so can u help me change this

[CDRacingZX6R]

This is the best thread I've ever seen. It makes looking for budget phones much easier.

I was looking for a recommendation for my next set of headphones. I'm thinking about going to regular headphones. I've already got some decent budget in ear phones, like the CX300's, and EP-630s. They work good, especaly for outside in public places like the library were you don't want to bug anyone with your music.

But I'm looking for something a little better for when I'm at home or out in public where being quiet isn't a priority. Something with a little more BASS, and better highs.

Anyone got any recommendations under 40? I'm open to another pair of in ear, but the bass has got to be way better than the CX300 or EP-680s.

You guys got any recommendations for me?

[dfkt]

There's hardly anything "way better" than the ones you mentioned in that price range. The V-Moda Bass Freqs might be a little better than the CX300, but other than that I don't know. If you really want to step things up a bit you have to look at the $150 Future Sonics Atrio, which might be the best basshead IEMs at the moment.

[CDRacingZX6R]

Originally Posted by dfkt

There's hardly anything "way better" than the ones you mentioned in that price range. The V-Moda Bass Freqs might be a little better than the CX300, but other than that I don't know. If you really want to step things up a bit you have to look at the $150 Future Sonics Atrio, which might be the best basshead IEMs at the moment.

Yeah. I had a feeling that was the case. So none of the regular head phones like the AKG K 24 P, etc are any better bass wise really than the in ears I'm running?

[dfkt]

Personally, I can't stand the K24/26 (and their new equivalents), but the K181 might be right up your alley. Or the Beyer DT231.

[electriclinux]

Can anyone give me a quick review or comments on this cheap headphones (klipsh custom 1)?

[Neildo]

I got some sony MDR-e11LP's for i think $12 on sale. They are some on the cleanest sounding earbuds i've ever owned. i blow out drivers on even expensive headphones fast so i am hard pressed to spend a lot of money on something i will inevitably break. I had some MDR-ex75's and the right one didn't even last 3 months. thankfully the sony store exchanged them for me, but not even a few months later i was walking through a doorway really fast, got hung up on my headphone cord and ripped the wire. oops. that's another reason i don't buy expensive headphones. if i wreck cheap crap, i have no problem throwing it away. throwing out expensive crap pisses me off

[reventon]

Hello everyone.

this is a bit urgent.
i got a deal of cx300 for $19.99 brand new from amazon.com.
alternatively on ebay i have deal of ep 630 which i am not sure if they are authentic or not for just 10 dollars.

this is the link below for ebay..not sure if its allowed to post here. if not plz ignore.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Genuine-Creative...3A1|240%3A1307

can you please help me decide between either for sony se616 player..

thanks

[Aardvark]

In post 303 you made a comparison to EP630, so I assume you already own or have access to the EP630.

I have looked at the link and although the seller is in China, they are a power seller and offer a return guarantee. I bet the cost of return is greater than the value of the phones!!!!

The sub $20 price on CX300 is very good if they are the real thing.

I have not done a direct compo of CX300 and EP630, but I believe the driver to be 1mm or 2mm larger in the Senns. Most peeps say that the CX300 has more bass.

I still use my CX300 and they are OK, but if you can find a deal on CX500 I would go with those as to my ears they fix some of the shortfalls of the 300 model, in that the bass is more controlled and the top end is not as grainy.

[reventon]

@aardvark

my friend owns ep 630 which i use regularly whenever i can lay my hands on. i like them and from this forum i heard about cx300 which i didn't even knew existed. and i haven't heard cx300 so i don't know how they sound like. so i have to go by the suggestions on this forum.

yesterday too i used ep 630 with sony s616f and i was blown away by the sound quality of the player as well as ep630. was just wondering how the more expensive iems would sound like. though at this stage they are out of my reach.

for your reference here is the link of cx300 and i have no idea if they are real or not.

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-CX3...8069336&sr=8-1

can you explain the term top end being grainy...is it related to playing at maximum volume that the sound gets grainy?

i also got another ebay link which has the packaging of creative's original box for ep630 and i available at same cost which i think is more reliable compared to previous one.

if cx300 is more bassy than i guess i will love it more...do u knw any other advantage of cx300 over ep630?

sorry for troubling you with so many questions but i need to decide on this asap as the deal on amazon may not last long.

thanks

[Aardvark]

Hi,

I still listen to my CX300 but I am looking for an upgrade soon. I still enjoy them but I want clearer sound. My main hifi has top spec speakers and I am looking for IEMs nearer to this.

The CX300 are much better than cheap stock buds. The bass is quite deep and rather woofy like a sub woofer on a cinema system rather than a bass unit in a speaker.

The treble is grainy at all volumes............not quite as clear and bell like, but rather reedy. Similar to the Old Castle Kendal loudspeakers.

If you have heard real EP630, then I am sure real CX300 will be just as good but with a deeper bass, the kind that can make earthquake sounds.

I am sure that you will be delighted with either choice, but for my money I would go with the Senns

[reventon]

Thanks aardvark.

i think with a difference of around 12 dollars between the two may tilt the scales in favor of ep 630.

i will let u know of purchase.

my friend also has ep 640, but the treble is very very shrill..it hurts in ears. why is it so?
so he prefers ep 630 and so do i.

i thought may be ep 640 weren't burn in yet, so i told him to do so and he did. than also there was not much improvement.

why would it be so?

[anomo]

I adored my Ep-630's... Adored them. They were absolute bass monsters!

But I lost them over the weekend [i think ] and so I invested in a pair of pink Skullcandy IEM's this morning... @ €20 they aren't the worst earphones I've tried, lord knows the stock phones that came with my iPod just make my ears bleed they're so bad... And I look like a bit of an odd ball with 2 different types of jelly earphone tips as one of the many lumps of metal in my ears makes wearing the normal jelly-tip uncomfortable, so I've one small and one medium It feels wrong!

I compared the Freq. response between my old 630's and the new Skullcandy ones... The 630's have 6Hz - 23Hz whereas the SC have 20Hz - 20kHz.... This made me sad, really sad, as I knew the quality wouldn't be nearly as good in the SC-phones, but so far they have yet to disappoint.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... i'm not a huge "quality" nut when it comes to earphones. Once it sounds good and not too tinny or completely inaudible due to bass then I'm happy... But even I can notice the difference between really good phones and seriously bad ones, and fortunately was spoiled with the 630's.

Due to a new addition to my piercing family in my ear, I can't use my HD 201's as they squish the jewelry making my piercing grumpy But once its healed, I'll use those to keep my ears warm, but they leak in a lot of noise, so I won't enjoy my music experience quite as much as I would like to!

Come back EP-630's... Creative gave you to me as a present and I'd really like you back now, I miss you

And if you don't ¬_¬ I'll just buy the sexy Sennheisers I saw today that cost twice as much as you Or I might just buy you again ¬_¬ No one knows!

Edit: The Skullcandy phones have seriously let themselves down... Oh god >_< I'm not sure if its my laptops fault but dear god they sound AWFUL when there's a lot of electric guitar... *shudder*

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by anomo

I compared the Freq. response between my old 630's and the new Skullcandy ones... The 630's have 6Hz - 23Hz whereas the SC have 20Hz - 20kHz....

What those companies write on the packaging has very little to do with the real-life performance.

Most MP3 players (and even professional sound cards) don't reproduce bass below 20Hz anyways, and average humans hear up to 15-18kHz, depending on their age and health condition. Not to mention it's really hard finding music with even 30Hz basses in it, besides Miami Bass subwoofer test tracks.

Furthermore, useless specs like "20Hz-20kHz" conveniently forget to mention the measuring tolerances, which can be something like a +/-10dB roll-off for cheap phones.

The only way to know how these phones really perform is to listen to them. In other words: the Skullcandy specs are probably exaggerated, the Creative specs are utter bollocks. No headphone or commercially available speaker can reproduce 6Hz waves (and humans can't hear these frequencies anyway, only feel them).

Here you can download some bass test tones to check what the phones can handle in reality: http://www.binkster.net/extras.shtml#cd

[anomo]

Originally Posted by dfkt

The only way to know how these phones really perform is to listen to them. In other words: the Skullcandy specs are probably exaggerated, the Creative specs are utter bollocks

You cursed

Now that I'm over that... The Skullcandy phones aren't too bad. I just want my 630's back If I can't find them I may invest in the CX300's...

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by anomo

You cursed

I know, I've been watching too many Black Books, Young Ones, and Bottom episodes lately...

[no9]

Originally Posted by anomo

The Skullcandy phones aren't too bad. I just want my 630's back If I can't find them I may invest in the CX300's...

anomo you should check out the cx400 before you do anything to rash AFAIK they are the same as the cx500 minus the volume control.

[anomo]

Originally Posted by dfkt

I know, I've been watching too many Black Books, Young Ones, and Bottom episodes lately...

Black Books FTW You can't go wrong with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey

Oh I found my 630's so so SOOO happy right now! But I did just waste €20 on stupid Skullcandy 'phones Oh well, its not the worst thing I could have spent my monies on

[reventon]

sorry for troubling you all again.

some more confusion in my mind

i have been spoilt with 3 choices now - ep 630, v moda bass freq and cx300.

please help me pick one. or else i may have to do some random selection which i surely won't like to do with such audiophiles on this forum.

of these 3 i hv only heard ep 630. and they are good. can somebody throw some light on other two as there are both for $19.99.

i found these two different cx300 on ebay. one is from ny and other from hongkong. can you tell me whether both box packing are original or not. thanks

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-black-Sennhe...3A1|240%3A1318

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=160302374884

thanks