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Bragging topic: new headphones

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:34 pm
by brisk
I've had to splash some cash on some new headphones for my portable mp3 player, since my old Shure E2C's died. Or rather, the cable did and i'm not techy enough to fix it.

Anyway, it was the perfect opportunity to upgrade, and I had been looking for new phones for a while. Since I loved my E2C's, my first port of call was the E3C's, but I figured fuck it and bought the E4C's instead. Heres a pic of them:

Image

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with isolation earphones, but they really are superb for noisy environments such as street traffic, travel, etc..

The level of detail of the E4C is already impressive, and thats without the burn in (which i'm doing now). I was initially a little disappointed with the bass output which seemed a little timid compared to my E2C. But after a little fitting and EQ adjustment, i've got it nice and smooth without sounding too boomy. The high and mid-range is very impressive. This is without headphone amplification too, which was important since I want to keep things portable. I'm using the foam tips, which are now universal (I actually prefer the old E2C tips which come in different sizes - the medium one is slightly bigger than these, and fits my ears better). There are triple flanged tips too, but I had to cut one of them off to fit in my ear better. They sound decent, but the foam tips are more comfortable.

Anyway, I managed to buy them from an amazon market seller for £124.99 which is about £25 below RRP. People like Juggernaut are probably already well versed in isolation headphones, but for the uninitiated - try them! They take a while to get used to, but you'll hear your music in a whole new way.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:36 pm
by Freakaloin
i got bored after the word 'splash' and had to stop reading...sry...

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:37 pm
by Foo
I was looking at the E4g. Any practical difference you know of?

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:39 pm
by brisk
Foo wrote:I was looking at the E4g. Any practical difference you know of?
Just the cord length I think. No difference to the actual sound afaik.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:41 pm
by Geebs
I've got a pair of those, they're really nice even though they greatly increase my chance of getting run over ;-)

Only problem was, the jack died pretty quickly and I had to cut it off and solder on a new one (it's sealed and pretty inconvenient to replace)

For bragging rights, I also just bought a bunch of sennheiser HD-25s for my home studio.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:41 pm
by Foo
The more I read the more I think I'd be better plumping for the lower end Shure models anyway. I'd need to upgrade my player to get the most out of the E4 and 5s. For my usual Generic 128 & VBR 193 MP3S I'm probably as well off with a pair of E2s

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:44 pm
by brisk
The E2C is still a brilliant headphone for sure. They're also pretty cheap now, and you could probably pick one up for about £40-50. I'll probably stick mine on ebay, since i'm sure its quite easy to fix the wire and hopefully someone will want it :)

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:47 pm
by brisk
I'd quite like a decent pair of monitoring headphones for studio use, but I figure its more important to get some actual speaker monitors before that. I use my Sennheiser 650's atm, which are great for listening, but not the best for monitoring of course.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 2:00 pm
by Geebs
It's often a good idea to find a really shit pair of speakers for monitoring too - that's what most people will be listening on...

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 2:05 pm
by brisk
My label friends use the Alesis M1 MKII's and although they're generally quite flat, the bass response is still a little strong imo. My computer speakers are generally pretty good, but I always just play my mixes on all my audio gear to check if it sounds ok. I also have an old ghetto blaster somewhere which I should really test too :D

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 4:14 pm
by teriba
Get custom molds. Now. I got some for my e3c's and it makes a world of difference. Just call up a local audiologist and see if they can make them for you.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 4:17 pm
by brisk
teriba wrote:Get custom molds. Now. I got some for my e3c's and it makes a world of difference. Just call up a local audiologist and see if they can make them for you.
Hey teriba. I was gonna do that actually, but I read "somewhere" that custom molds don't actually provide the best sound quality.. but i'd still love to get em for the isolation/comfort factor. I'll look into it next week.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 4:24 pm
by Foo
I would imagine it can be a hit or miss process.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 4:49 pm
by teriba
How could they not provide the best sound quality? It's the best seal possible and they do nothing to influence the sound.

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 4:55 pm
by mjrpes
How helpful is a headphone amplifier? Does it just raise the volume, or does it actually improve the quality of the sound?

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 4:57 pm
by teriba
Improves the quality.