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Hardware Replacement iPhone earphones on test

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Tim S, 13 Feb 2009.

  1. Htr-Labs

    Htr-Labs What's a Dremel?

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    Last edited: 19 Dec 2016
  2. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    As far as I know "performance" is the sound quality as an absolute number. "Could it be any better?"

    The value is the "is the performance what you'd expect for the money"-gauge.

    I can't really tell how bad the Bose sounds, but maybe it just really failed on that particular song and otherwise was still above average. On the other hand "above average" is hardly what you'd expect at that price range. And atleast to me the overall touch of the earphones, headphones, just about anything, is important. Bad cables, cheap connectors... EWWWWWW. Make using both annoying and in some cases unreliable.
     
  3. Cupboard

    Cupboard I'm not a modder.

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    If they fail miserably at just that one song, they will fail miserably at more songs in wider listening and so will fail at life.
     
  4. barrkel

    barrkel What's a Dremel?

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    I don't know why you're all so obsessed about in-ear headphones. I find them incredibly uncomfortable, and only use noise-cancelling ones when I'm on a jet plane across the Atlantic. The iPod headphones that sit just outside the ear canal are far, far more comfortable than either on-ear headphones (they tend to compress the ears painfully after many hours) and certainly more than in-ear headphones.
     
  5. Sifter3000

    Sifter3000 I used to be somebody

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    Yup, in one. They weren't particularly awful (apart from the odd song such as Welcome to the Jungle), but there's no way they're worth £150 - that's 50% more than the hF2s, and as Htr-Labs says, they are a cut above in terms of audio quality.
     
  6. Meanmotion

    Meanmotion bleh Moderator

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    I know a few other people have already addressed the issue in a roundabout sort of way but I just wanted to clarify, £100 is not a lot to spend on headphones. It's the entry level for a properly decent pair. I'd not considering anything that costs less. And yes, I'm still lamenting the loss of my Shure SE530s.
     
  7. kenco_uk

    kenco_uk I unsuccessfully then tried again

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    My opinion is different. £100 to me is a lot to spend on headphones, let alone earphones. I've spent about £70 on a pair in the past and aye, they're pretty damned good, but I expect them to be. I've never listened to music through £100+ cans and I can only assume that the audio from them should sound amazing, it's what I would expect! :) I couldn't really justify the cost though, unless I was quite wealthy.
     
  8. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    As HTR pointed out in his post it doesn't make that much of a difference for most people as their sources [MP3 players] aren't that great to start with. If you don't use professional sources, why bother buying professional [and they'd be in the price range of the Ultimate Ears, HTR mentions] head/earphones?
    Even though HTR tends to write short stories instead of posts sometimes I tend to share his point of view on audio hardware. ;)

    Why spend $1000 on ... when you can get the same or a very similar performance with ... for $50?
     
  9. DorkSterr

    DorkSterr Hakuna Matata

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    WHat happened to your SE530?
     
  10. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    I'd wager that the point of better headphones is moot, as the battery life on the iPhone is hilarious at best.

    Example: iPhone - Three days between charges. Minimal phonecalls (I make and recieve less than two a week), about ten minutes of Bash.org, three daily alarms. Very few text messages. Yes, I was suckered by the gimmick of a touch screen phone. Yes, I regret it.

    iPod touch (1st gen): Closing on an entire week of 1-2 hours of music playback per day, and anywhere up to an hour of bash.org per day.

    Network hunting should not take four days of battery life away from the device. Both have wireless turned on, and the phone has bluetooth turned off.
     
  11. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Yeah this is where hobbies and personal favors come into play. I REALLY like high quality playback and thus, despite being a student, have speakers worth ~1000 € and headphones worth 100 €+. In the end it all boils down to what you REALLY want to buy with your money. I'm a student with little income, but I've never had any regrets about the audio gear.

    Once you pop, you can't stop. While I'm not looking to any more expensive speakers/headphones at the moment, there's NO way I'd be going back to lousy market speaker-sets anymore... Just make sure you never listen to anything better than you already own or you're boned :D
     
  12. n3mo

    n3mo What's a Dremel?

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    I don't get the point of investing in high-quality earphones and plugging them to iPod which just butchers music. Want quality? Buy a MD player and record straight from TosLink. Portable mp3 players are for people for which "suitable for most listeners" is enough. Some time ago I plugged my STAX SRS-3050 into friend's iPod, made me laugh my ass off.
     
  13. DorkSterr

    DorkSterr Hakuna Matata

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    Your friends music were probably 96-128kbps, try it again with 192kbps and up you will hear the difference(s).
     
  14. wafflesomd

    wafflesomd What's a Dremel?

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    Should have thrown in the Sony MDR-V6. The other headphones would not have even had a chance.
     
  15. tzang

    tzang Traditional Nutter

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    Should have thrown some B&O A8s into the review, it would have blown the others away on comfort and appearance ;)
    Sound quality is decent but it all comes at a price of nearly £100.
     
  16. mjb254

    mjb254 What's a Dremel?

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    I'm a mechanic by trade and a computer nerd by night, I purchased a Zune two months ago and not even a week into using the Zune the headphones blew and started to crackle so I bought some Phillips headphones and now the earpiece has broken away from the speak and all that is left holding it is a wire. I was wondering if the reviewers could provide a roundabout stress test as I do some pretty hefty work when crawling under eighteen wheelers.

    My basic question would be this, which earphone are the most durable and out of those which ones stay in your ears without falling out. I work in various positions, laying down, leaning over at horrendous angles, and other various oddball types of positions. I'm prone to having my headphones always fall out when I'm working which really ruins my my flow when jamming out and earning a paycheck.

    Any feedback would be really helpful.
     
  17. Cupboard

    Cupboard I'm not a modder.

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    Some decent canal phones would certainly stay in your ears, my Etymotic ER6s are a pain to get out.
    Whether they would last for a long time with lots of abuse I don't know.
     
  18. Stig

    Stig What's a Dremel?

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    I recently got a pair of Shure SE530s with the shure mic. Love them! Mic is really good quality, and the SQ on the phones is incredible. Absolutely 100% happy with the purchase :)
     
  19. n3mo

    n3mo What's a Dremel?

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    Nope, they were straight from iTunes (they use AAC afaik). The point is - there is no portable music player with decent sound quality, it's impossible. Good DACs (not to mention HDAMs) need more power than the whole iPod uses. MD players were (and still are) the best in terms of quality, leaving all ipods, Zens, Zunes and the rest of the crowd far behind - and they are still behind decent home audio. But that is easy to understand - you wouldn't like to carry a 65Ah accu in the backpack, would you? :)
     
  20. GregTheRotter

    GregTheRotter Minimodder

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    I actually would have liked to see the shure SE350s in there as well as the Ultimate Ears Superfi Pro's.
     
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