What earphones? €55 max budget

maxitwist

I recently lost my Sennheiser cx 300. I was quite happy with them but since the opportunity has presented itself, I'm wondering if I should get a different pair, what do you think of these?

V moda bass - €40ish
Zen Aurvana - €52
Cx 300 again - €35
creative ep-630 - €30 (like the cx 300 I hear)
sony fontopia MDR-EX71SLB - €40

does anyone know any american website that sells the Ultimate ears super fi.3?
I've seen them for $65 but none deliver hear.

Khannie

maxitwist wrote:

creative ep-630 - €30 (like the cx 300 I hear).

I have these. Sound is good, sound isolation is good. I have only one gripe with them and that is that they fall out of my ear more than I'd like (I've tried all the rubber bud sizes). I think my ear may be a funny shape mind you.

maxitwist

Thanks, anyone else?
my main considerations to buying are
1. sound isolation and
2. bass. I want something which actually increases the volume of bass instead of simply adding a distorting *vuf* in the background, hurts my ears.

if it help I mainly listen to metal and a bit of regae sometimes

sioda

Swear by the Sony ones noise cancelling is excellent for non powered phones and the sound range is excellent including the bass.

After two pairs of Seinnheisers and a few JVC and philips would never change from these

maxitwist

hows the build quaility on them?

Gran Hermano

Build quality on the Sony's is a know problem.
The cable on the MDR-EX71SLB is prone to disintegrating
after approx 9-12 months of use, especially near the ear-piece.
(Plenty of comments on the usual fora and on Amazon UK and US).

Skip a few rounds in the pub and up your budget for a pair of Shure E2cs,
superior sound and build quality with a 2 year warranty.

sioda

Have mine bout six months and find no degredation but incomparison to the Shures you get what you pay for

dulpit

Sennheiser's ftw!!!

They are the best headphones i've ever had... Had a pair of Sony ones that were similar, great sound but they kept falling out and broke fairly quickly...

maxitwist

Gran Hermano wrote:

Build quality on the Sony's is a know problem.
The cable on the MDR-EX71SLB is prone to disintegrating
after approx 9-12 months of use, especially near the ear-piece.
(Plenty of comments on the usual fora and on Amazon UK and US).

Skip a few rounds in the pub and up your budget for a pair of Shure E2cs,
superior sound and build quality with a 2 year warranty.

I have heard some people say that the seinnsheiner (how do you spell that?)
are actually better than the e2 at a fraction of the cost.

what do you make of the zen aruva or maybe those ultimate ears metro fi 2.?

thebman

I have the MX90 earphones:
http://www.style-your-sound.com/oss2/data/pdf/SpecSheet_Style_UK.pdf
http://www.style-your-sound.com/

Really impressed, cost 65 Euro in a local shop in Maynooth, Caltec I think.

Everyone I know is impressed by the sound quality and I use them on the train every day and they block noise out pretty well but not totally. You can hear the trains brakes as it squeakes to a halt as it usually does. Not too loudly though and I'm impressed by the ability of the earphones to block out noise.

I also have Sennheiser headphones and these are surprisingly close to them for quality. The headphones I have cost 65 Euro too but are too bulky for the train which is why I got the earphones.

They are pretty comfortable but take a little getting used to with their weird little gimmick thing that does work. These earphones will not fall out accidently (see PDF link).

I think the most annoying thing about them is the volume control which works and does everything you'd expect a volume control to do but is a little more awkward than it needs to be for the sake of trying to look cool IMO. I only got the style model because it was all they had in the shop that seemed decent and I had no credit card to buy online.

I'm sure you can get them for less than 65 online.

maxitwist

do those mx90 just sit in your ear? thats what it looks like but those ones allways fall out of my ears unless I am actually holding them in place

Khannie

Just thought I'd resurrect this one...one of the buds in my creatives went tits up just the other day. Those sennheisers look like the ticket. What did you go with in the end maxitwist?

pleasant Co.

Jeeez nobody resommended the Mylar X3's... they're only the best value for money for SQ buds you can buy

pwd

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AKG-Folding-Mini-Headphones-Closed-Back-Leatherette/dp/B00066UTBS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/026-6016291-1418867?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1188901783&sr=8-2

Had a pair of these. Got them for 40 euro in peats about a year ago, though they are signicantly dearer on that link. Recently one of the covers came off and was thrown out accidentally. Going to replace them. Way way better quality than anything else I have heard.

Khannie

Ah the buds are great for public transport pwd. You just cant beat them for keeping out the noise of the poxy train.

"this train is for drogheda, calling at tara street, dublin connolly, howth junction, portmarnock, malahide, donabate, rush and lusk, skerries, balbriggan, gormanstown, laytown and drogeda."

I like the extra "lock into your ear" feature on those sennheisers. Pretty sure I'm gonna go with them. I'll report back when they arrive.

zilog_jones

Gran Hermano wrote:

Build quality on the Sony's is a know problem.
The cable on the MDR-EX71SLB is prone to disintegrating
after approx 9-12 months of use, especially near the ear-piece.

This has happened to me - the rubber has come off half of the cable inbetween the two earpieces - however this is my own fault as I got it caught in my jacket zip one day and the small cut developed into a big split in the rubber (it's that weird floppy cadmium-free stuff they have to use on cables these days thanks to RoHS). They have since been relegated to my PC headphones to avoid further damage. About 10 months later, the headphones still work fine

Kwekubo

Those Sennheiser CX-300's do indeed look pretty decent for basic sound isolating earphones. Anyone got any suggestions for good prices for them on-line, or perhaps in a bricks-and-mortar shop in the Dublin area? Most of the ones for sale on eBay have out-of-date packaging, so I'm a bit wary of taking the risk; apart from there I can't find anywhere that matches the €35 quoted by the OP.

long_b

My memory - 18stg + p&p

Soundman

Khannie wrote:

Ah the buds are great for public transport pwd. You just cant beat them for keeping out the noise of the poxy train.

"this train is for drogheda, calling at tara street, dublin connolly, howth junction, portmarnock, malahide, donabate, rush and lusk, skerries, balbriggan, gormanstown, laytown and drogeda."

I like the extra "lock into your ear" feature on those sennheisers. Pretty sure I'm gonna go with them. I'll report back when they arrive.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who hates the intercom on that route. I travel it once a day. It's bad when you are trying to conduct a phone call for work and that kicks in. That or the driver on the mic who doesn't realise it is at an excruciating level.

The best in ears I have found from the ones I have tried, I don't even know what they are other than Phillips. If I want really good sound I just use the cans I use for work. Sony MDR-V6. Best headphones ever.

maxitwist

Khannie wrote:

Just thought I'd resurrect this one...one of the buds in my creatives went tits up just the other day. Those sennheisers look like the ticket. What did you go with in the end maxitwist?

forgot about this. I was gonna get the vmoda bass but I couldn't justify spending €50 on them when the sony and sennheisers were €30 on play.
But now I think I will get the mylar xb's

I looked at the mx90 but that type of design always falls out of my ear.
I looked at the ultimate ears metro fi 2 but couldn't find them under €70 once shipping was included. Looked at the shure e2c to as I heard someone found them for £30.. but I could not find them at that price.

So if anyone knows where to get the shure e2c or UE metro fi 2 for €50ish tell me
if not I'll get the xb's

zilog_jones

I got some CX300s for my new iAudio 7 (which is awesome BTW) for €45 in Currys - I was too impatient to buy them off the net! Still €20 cheaper than in Maplin though.

Compared to the Sony EX71s, they sound quite different - the good kind of different though. It's as if the EX71 are kinda pre-equalised for loads of bass and not much in the middle. The CX300s seem to be more consistent throughout the frequency range. Unfortunately this makes noise a lot more noticeable, like interference on my PC's on-board sound (never noticed anything before with the EX71s or my hi-fi) and hissing from tape recordings. Also, my old 128k MP3s all sound awful now

They don't seem to cancel noise as much as the EX71s either, though i have yet to try the other ear yokes.

Overall I'm pretty happy with them.

Kwekubo

maxitwist wrote:

So if anyone knows where to get the shure e2c or UE metro fi 2 for €50ish tell me
if not I'll get the xb's

Amazon stock the e2c at around £30.00, P&P included (roughly €45), but of course they don't ship outside the UK. If you know someone in the north or in Britain who can forward them to you, though, then that's not a problem; I've an auntie in London so I'm considering ordering them via Amazon myself.

dub_skav

iheadpones.co.uk have the Shure e2cs going pretty cheap right now.

spideog7

Sry for lifting this out of the grave but I got the Ultimate Ears Metro.fi2 for E35 on amazon.com
I thought it was an amazing price they were marked almost 50% off at $45 with free shipping in the US so I'm getting them relayed through my contacts
I hope they're good was going to go E2c but they seemed a little bit bulky in the ear and were more expensive than those ones in the end anyway