[banyantree]

Can anyone tell me the absolute BEST earphones to purchase for the I Pod?
Which earphone gives the best performance sonically?


cheers and merry christmas.

I bought the Sony Phontopia ones - about £30 I think, got them from Amazon. Made a huge difference. They sit in the ear well, are comfortable and block out a lot of background noise without having to go to extra cost of buying noise cancelling ones.

[Jason S]

depends how much you want to spend and what you want

For the in-ear type

No Limit spending - Etymotic ER4's

£50-£100 - Etymotic ER6i's or Shure E2c or E3c's

<£50 - Sony MDR EX71's are a good buy

Some good reviews here, scroll down about 2/3rds of the way to get to the earphone section.

http://www.ipodlounge.com/reviews.php

[wbessada]

I've just been through the same questions and decided on the Shure E2c (although they haven't arrived yet) but saying that they all seem to have pros and cons. It's very difficult to get definitive "best" as headphone preferences are very personal. What fits one persons ears is uncomfortable for others etc. In terms of performance the general consensus seems to be that the noise isolators like the Shure/Etymotic are more effective at blocking out external sounds than the noise cancellers like the Sony NC11s.

Hope that helps.

[extremelydodgy]

The 'best' would be the custom-fitted in-ear monitors, although never having tried them I don't know how much better they are. I have had all of the others (Shure E2c, E3c, E5c, Etymotic ER-6i, ER-4P, ER-4S) and I can say that for me the Shure E5c is the best, with the Shure E3c and Etymotic ER-4P in joint second place.

[whats_this]

shure E3c's are excellent without getting into mega money and the noise isolation really does work, can walk down a main road and hear practicaly nothing, its dangerous if your not careful. If you can afford it go for the E5c's and buy me some 2 but otherwise the E3c's are excellent. They are very comfortable aswell which is a huge factor for me.

Just out of interest extremelydodgy how good are the E5c's and could you compare them for me to the E3c's in terms of sound quality, bass etc?

[banyantree]

Thanks for all the advice.
I would like to try the Shure E3c's or 5c' but i am slightly worried about the comfort level of this type of earphone. They look sort of akward to wear in the photos.

It would be tough to try on a pair of these for testing without actually buying them since they fit right into your ear canal. ( I would assume that anyway)
Does anyone know where you can try a pair without buying? It would seem mad to spend that sort of money without at first comparing them.

The sony ex 71's or 81's look a lot comfier but I really want great quality audio since I will be using apples lossless recording format.

merry christmas

[Jason S]

I have to say I've been impressed with the performance of the ex71's and for the price I was prepared to try them out before buying ER6i's - I didn't buy the ER6's because I couldn't tell the difference (personal opinion though we're all different)

[common]

With my IPOD i use some ER4P's with great results, for home listening I use a headsave classic amp and the converter cable that turns the 4p's into 4s's.

I got the ER4p's for £120ish, the cable for £25 and the amp for £100 - all really good value from the US.

[cwick]

banyantree - I bought some E3Cs from www.pjbox.co.uk . Spoke to them before purchase, and they stated they would charge a 15% restocking fee for returns if I wasn't comfortable with them. Not too bad considering they're in-ear jobbies, so any return is going to be a bit icky.

[extremelydodgy]

Originally Posted by whats_this

Just out of interest extremelydodgy how good are the E5c's and could you compare them for me to the E3c's in terms of sound quality, bass etc?

Sound quality = similar. sonic representation = more natural, less 'tinny earphones'. bass = a lot more. Physically they're nicer. Not necessarily a lot more comfortable to wear, but a bit more and also you can take them partially out of your ears without having to do a lot of cable gymnastics. It's not worth the upcharge at retail, but at the $350ish they're going for in some places I'd say they were a good choice if your budget extends easily to it. It, and the E3c/ER-6i/ER-4P/ER-4S for that matter is not something to buy if you want the sound of good headphones on the move, because it'll disappoint you... or at least, it disapointed me. However the hugely superior additional isolation and the much better totability is worth the sonic sacrifice IMO.

Im a big fan of the sennheiser headphones link the mx500 are the ones i went for

banyantree, there's alot of good recommendations above. Make sure you stop by the ipod studio when you get a chance. There's a whole bunch of info on this there...

M8 i have had the Sony Fontopias and also have the top Etymotic 4ps, i also have a 40 gig ipod, I went away to spain and was lucky enough to have my m8 who had brought his Sonys with him.

The 4ps are clear as a bell but as ive been used to the sonys i was a week bit dissapinted with the BASS, but the clarity was much better than the sonys.


If you have the cash get the 4ps, if not i think youll be hard pushed to find a middle of the road unless you actually try them, The sonys are good phones for the cash. The weak link if any is the IPOD although i love them, if i plug the 4Ps into something worthy of them they sound awsome.The ipod lacks abit of bass i think.

[alexs2]

Originally Posted by Tobez

If you have the cash get the 4ps, if not i think youll be hard pushed to find a middle of the road unless you actually try them, The sonys are good phones for the cash. The weak link if any is the IPOD although i love them, if i plug the 4Ps into something worthy of them they sound awsome.The ipod lacks abit of bass i think.

I'd also recommend the Etymotics,but would also agree that the internal amp of the Ipod won't do them any favours,and a portable H/p amp such as one of the Headroom amps can be very useful in getting the best out of portable players of any type.

Originally Posted by alexs2

I'd also recommend the Etymotics,but would also agree that the internal amp of the Ipod won't do them any favours,and a portable H/p amp such as one of the Headroom amps can be very useful in getting the best out of portable players of any type.

Agree with Alex2 entirely. A dedicated amp will help no end! I know many who use cmoys with decent results if you want relatively cheap and portable.

[banyantree]

surely there must be a compromise somewhere?
One of the appeals of the ipod is its portability. I don't really want to be carrying around another piece of equipment to amplify sound and bass.
Given that the 4ps are as expensive as the ipod I would have thought that something around the 50 pounds range would suffice.
I know I have to try out a few models to hear for myself, after all its all quite subjective. I listen to my music at home using a decent setup and i appreciate that the ipod will not sonically perform as well as that. However, i would like earphones which outperform the ready supplied ones.
I have yet to purchase the ipod 4G so any advice much appreciated.

merry christmas

Originally Posted by banyantree

surely there must be a compromise somewhere?
One of the appeals of the ipod is its portability. I don't really want to be carrying around another piece of equipment to amplify sound and bass.
Given that the 4ps are as expensive as the ipod I would have thought that something around the 50 pounds range would suffice.
I know I have to try out a few models to hear for myself, after all its all quite subjective. I listen to my music at home using a decent setup and i appreciate that the ipod will not sonically perform as well as that. However, i would like earphones which outperform the ready supplied ones.
I have yet to purchase the ipod 4G so any advice much appreciated.

merry christmas

Well, the Shure E2Cs are around that price and are well recommended....