Aiwa HP-X223 headphones

[Jeff]

Just a suggestion for those who, like me, dislike earbuds. They give me a headache due to the way they sit in my ear and the sound is never very good.

I recently picked up a pair of Aiwa HP-X223 headphones for use as sound monitors while recording LP's to MP3. Today I tried them on my iPod (1st gen 10GB) and was blown away with how much better it sounded. I'm hearing a lot of things that I didn't even pick up on when playing MP3's on my B/W G3 with Soundsticks. I believe these headphones have only been on the market a couple of months due to Sony relaunching the Aiwa brand name and they cost me roughly $40.00.

Due to these being closed full-coverage headphones, it's doubtful you'll want to wear them while jogging or anything but considering the difference in sound, they might be something others are interested in. These also have a great deal more frequency response than earbuds, covering 5 - 25,000 Hz. Most of Sony's similar monitor headphones start at over twice the price. I'm in the USA and picked them up at Best-Buy.

Jeff

[Kenny]

hmmm... never heard of those. Gonna have to check the specs.

But for that price range, most audiophiles (that I know of) would recommend either the:
Koss Portapros
Koss KCS35

And for a bit extra, you could of even bought the Grado SR60's (arguably the best low-budget non-portable headphone).

[Wolfman200]

I have those too, and I like their osund as well. However, I picked up a pair of Aiwa HP-VX100's from audiocubes.com. They sound very good for a pair of earbuds, becuase they penetrate further into the ear canal(kind of like the etymotics). I like them a lot, and have that I don't think one or the other sounds better, just different. For example, the first time I used them (after breaking them in) I didn't really like them. After using them for a while, I was really pleased and didn't like the way the big ones sounded. Their isolation compares pretty well with the x223's, too. In any case, all my music sounds great on them with my iPod, and if you ever decide you need earbuds for pocket purposes, these are a good deal at $35 shipped. I've decided top keep my big aiwas next to my computer and my little ones in my pocket.

[Jeff]

For the complete specs and stuff on the HP-X223's, here is Aiwa's product page for them:

http://www.us.aiwa.com/default.asp?page=products&action=viewProduct&prod=392

I picked them up while I was out looking for something else one day and came across them. The specs sounded pretty good so I decided to give them a shot. I've been using them on my iPod most of today while working on other things and their sesitivity seems to be a good match for the iPod. As I mentioned in the first post, I picked them up originally for use as monitors while recording off of my turntable.

Worfman, thanks for the tip on the HP-VX100's. I'll keep that in mind if I ever find myself needing a more portable set.

Jeff