Earphones: What's the difference anyways??

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andyhdz

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Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. Thank you. OKay guys I'm sure I'm not the only one here but what exactly is the difference among earphones these days? I'm a complete novice when it comes to music/noise so explain it to me from that perspective. I'm perfectly happy with the standard earphones that come with the shuffle but would getting the mac's $40 in ear headphones really make a big difference to a novice like me in enjoying my music? Are some earphones really worth spending more than $140?? Educate me please. :)
 

iceman_dl6

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The Apple in ears make a world of difference in terms of sound quality only IF they fit in your ears. For me, they are perfect!
 

DylPod

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Just listen and then you'll know. Buy something at a local store where you can return it if you don't think it's worth the money.
 

-James

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I'd consider the Sony EX71's as an alternative to getting the Apple in-ears, if i were you. They are super-comfortable and offer sound that's probably equal to the Apple in-ears.

But if you're happy with the stock earbuds and can't really notice any difference between different earphones then there really isn't any need to get some new ones, especially not $140+ ones, they're for freakish audiophiles.
 

Doug Gilmour

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james_shadow07 said:

especially not $140+ ones, they're for freakish audiophiles.
:D!!

Honestly the best way to tell the difference between headphones would be to listen to them. As obvious as it sounds, giving a pair an audition with some of your music will do more than anyone explaining to you why they think the bass is good/weak, the frequency response, isolation, etc. If you have the chance to go to a local shop which has a good amount of headphones, which are ready to be tested, and listen to them with your music, I'd jump on it!

Good luck,

-Dan
 

wyneken

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Somebody here made the comment that almost every piece of audio gear sounds good -- until you compare it to something else. Earphones are no different than regular speakers (or anything else) in this respect. If you walk into the local audio store and listen to the same music through different speakers, you can always hear a difference. It may be hard to explain exactly what the difference is, or whether one is "better" than the other -- but you don't have to be a "freakish audiophile" to notice that no two pieces of audio equipment sound exactly alike.

If you're happy with the stock earbuds, then obviously you don't NEED to change to something else. But it's always interesting to check out the alternatives -- especially if you've got a local store where you can try out different earphones with the same piece of music. Take your iPod, so you can listen to music you know well. I personally think that upgrading earphones (and speakers) is a relatively cheap way of raising your whole musical experience to a higher level. With a really nice set of phones you can hear things that you never knew were there before.
 

Nicholas Payton

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The trick is to read reviews when deciding what phones are right for you, if the review is more than a page in length it is worth considering, there is usually enough info to tell you exactly why they gave it the review they did. Should you find something offering a comparison then you have really hit the jackpot. Go over it carefully, There are several posts of this kind here.
As for the major differences in headphones there are some I can think of: comfort, sound quality, and sound dampening. Comfort is important for obvious reasons. As for sound quality it is usually true that the more you pay the better it gets, however there is a problem with this, After a point the sound quality of the headphones becomes irrelevant because of the sound quality of your source, As you are using a iPod shuffle I assume that you are using iTunes, and that you are using 128mbps MP3 encoding (iTunes default), at this quality nothing over $100 will make much difference. The final thing to consider is sound dampening. This comes in 2 forms: Noise canceling and sound isolation. Noise canceling uses batteries to add sound that interferes with and eliminates much of the outside noise such as airplane sound and car noise. But has little effect on voices and other disturbances. There are numerous companies that do this. Sound isolation however is a totally different thing, it places the headphones inside your ear and physically blocks all noise. There are only three companies that do this being Shure with the e2c, e3c, and e5c; Etymotic with the er6 er6i and the e4 series; The final company is ultimate ears but their phones are custom made and have a bottom line price of $500.
I Have done extensive research through reviews and product manuals on the various sound isolating models and intend to purchase either the shure e2c ($80-120) or Etymotic er6i (110-150) shortly. As has been said before if you are happy with your stock headphones keep them, but if you want something more, Such as sound dampening I would look at the 2 models I am considering. Good luck!
 
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andyhdz

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thanks...

Thanks for all your feedback. I've read most of the posts here and will probably try out the sony earphones since $40 or so is pretty reasonable for me. I just didn't want to "waste" a chance to increase my music experience. Thanks again.
 
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