[nick_skr]

Hi there,

I see a lot of reviews and posts that talk about bass heavy earphones (in-ear) such as the sennheiser cx300 and the s-JAYS,etc.

I mainly listen to rock/indie/soft rock/singer-songwriter music so am a bit worried about getting earphones that pump out loads of bass!

If anyone could point me in the direction of some that are less than £50 and great at this kind of music that'd be great!!!

[spyder viewer]

I recently purchased a pair of CX300ll. It is important to get a good audio seal to the ear canal and as such come with three sizes of silicone rubber ear inserts. In terms of frequency response they are fairly neutral ie they only deliver the sound you drive them with. The bass response is severely attenuated if the ear phones do not fit properly and in this issue I have a number of points.

1. The rubber inserts are very soft and tend to collapse when pushing into the ear. (moistening can help).
2. They are not very long so hard to push in and pull out easily.
3. It is hard to get a good grip on them to twist them into the ear so I question how long the very thin cables will remain intact.
4. The LH ear piece cable is only 21.5cm long so the whole cable tends to hang from this ear. In my case it regularly works loose.

Properly fitted, they sound great from Rock to Classics.

[Steven]

Originally Posted by spyder viewer

2. They are not very long so hard to push in and pull out easily.
3. It is hard to get a good grip on them to twist them into the ear so I question how long the very thin cables will remain intact.

You should not be forcing them in otherwise you might end up losing a tip in your ear... Canalphone tips (with the 3 standard sized tips) across all manufacturers only sit at the entrance of your ear canal. For a deeper fit with no chance of falling out you want IEMs which come with fit kits

[spyder viewer]

What's a fit kit? Will I end up spending more on getting them to stay in than I spent on them in the first place?

[Steven]

Explanation and difference between canal phones and IEMs:
White noise and construction sounds

Fit kits come standard with all IEMs. See example

Custom ear plugs, hearing protection & in ear monitors :: Westone
Etymotic Research, Inc. - High-fidelity Earphones and Hearing Instrumentation
Ultimate Ears Earphones Headphones Personal Monitors
Shure - Earphones
Sennheiser: DJ/Studio Headphones

Note that I have linked to Sennheiser's IEM offerings, and not their canal phones CX range

There are one or two more but I have linked to the main players. I bought budget Shure E2C for my brother as a birthday present few years back as an introduction. I myself previously had Shure E4G (discontinued), and currently have the Westone UM2

nick_skr, you will find that manufacturers like to add a mid-bass frequency bump because it is what sells at the price range. You'd be more likely to find a balanced sound at the price range if you move away from in-ears and buy full sized