headphones

[kevinf]

is there any good earbud style ear phones for cd players. and is there anyway i can get an ipod headphone without buying an ipod. i dont have an ipod but the headphones just look cool. i know that this is a small thing to ask for but just want to know

[Hi Ho]

I have a pair of Sennheiser MX 500's. They sound excellent. They seem to have dissapeared from Newegg but the MX400's are the same thing without the volum control.

[sam21]

Sony MDR-E828LP

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...tSKU=MDRE828LP

Frequency response-12-22000hz $9.99

Panasonic RP-HV278-K
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs...del=RP-HV278-K

Frequency response 10-25000hz $9.99


your best bang for the buck right there for best overall bass,wanna spend more?Sony has a model in their Fontopia series for $39.99 with a frequency range of 6hz-25000hz

[Hi Ho]

I had those Sony's before I bought the Sennheisers and I can say from personal experience that the Sennheisers sound much better. Bass isn't everything. The Sennheisers do sound better with bass boost on but the Sony's couldn't match the clarity of the Sennheisers.

[Floppyman]

Sennheiser's are great, I own a pair of 570's (535's before them) and really like them. Also, here's a question to the audio experts out there: What is the benefit of a high frequency response range (e.g. 10-25k hertz) when the audible range of the average human is 20- 20k hertz? Or are the two unrelated? TIA.

[Statica]

The real world frequency response of the human ear actually is much smaller than the 20-20kHz that you represented. However, to answer your question - studies show that humans may not characterise some of the higher frequency sounds as much as the ones within the normal range as you represented. But, the higher frequency sounds do matter to the perception of quality of the sound you are hearing. It is also been observed that some frequencies (above 26k Hz even induces alpha EEGs responses) [do a search for James Boyk's papers]. I guess the inclusion of a greater range of frequencies in essence translates as a better listening experience.
Now for the bad news, as I said, hearing response falls off rapidly with age, and faster for men (I haven't read any study involving married men either )... the average ear is most sensitive around the 3kHz mark .. but has a more dynamic range response at 1kHz.

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Addendum: http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~boyk/spectra/spectra.htm is a much debated and much linked paper, it's a good read .. Cheers

[Floppyman]

Thanks statica. Now, if you are buying headphones to listen to solely mp3's the improved frequency range won't help at all, since the mp3 compression format takes out those higher frequencies that can't be heard. Is my logic right here? TIA.

[Mac Medic]

Another vote for the sennheiser buds, if you have a bit more in your budget I also have shure E3C buds that are just fantastic. If you really do want the Apple buds (which aren't completely terrible) you can get them from Apple, but they only come in a package with the ipod remote for $39. A better bet would be the Apple in ear buds, i have a pair but cannot get them to stay put in my ears. The sound is very good but it depends on a good seal of the ear canal, which i cannot get with these buds, they keep slipping out. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL....0.1.1.1.1.0.3

[mikezel]

So am I right in thinking that the sennheiser earbuds are significantly better than the ones that come with the iPod?

mike

[l4wgu4rd]

I a great fan of icemat stuff. They made realy cool headphones. I like'em realy much. And wanna buy'em, but i'm looking for some kind of review to know more about them. But they look realy awesome.

https://www.icemat.com/shop/default.asp?main=products