Decent Inexpensive Headphones?

Will Rickards

Storage Is My Life
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So my headphones at work are starting to fall apart, the rubber around the part you put in the ear became separated. Basically the glue wore out.

But just about every pair of inexpensive headphones I try doesn't sound right to me. I wish I could try out a good pair for a few days to see what it could sound like before comitting to paying over $100 for a pair of headphones.

I have the Philips SHS420. And these sound good (clear crisp sound) but in trying the others I think I'm actually missing out in some of the bass. This could be because they only go down to 20hz.

I tried the ipod headphones and while they are similar in sound, they aren't as good. I can't pinpoint this as they are very similar.

I tried a $8 pair of Philips SHE2642. These seemed okay but what I really noticed was the bass in these. Something I was probably previously missing. At first these sounded wrong somehow. But the sound is growing on me. But still probably not good enough. Too much overlapping of the sound maybe? Hard to describe.

What does the size of the driver tell you?
How important is that 12 - 20 Hz range? The 20Khz to 22Khz range?

So I'm tempted just to buy another pair of my original headphones. But is there anything that is decent in the inexpensive price range?
Maybe I've been missing the bass and it's supposed to sound this way?
 

MaxBurn

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I have several sony MDR-EXxxxx in ear headphones and they were OK and I think retail around $30-50 but appear to go for a lot less now.

Check into coplyfoam to get a good seal and tighten up the bass, they can help a ton. They have options for the apple headphones plus about all other in ear headphones. http://www.complyfoam.com/
 

MaxBurn

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Do you need the vi microphone part? When I use my triplefi vi's in noisy places I am totally happy as I can't hear the noise but people I am talking to say the mic picks up a little too much ambient noise. I'm guessing it is the same mic on the superfi. When I look around at airports and things I see plenty of people holding their mic wires up to their face too, so common problem.

I have also seen comments on the Ultimate Ears that the cords don't last very long on the units that have replaceable cords. Mine have been fine but there are a lot of comments out there.
 

ddrueding

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Feb 4, 2002
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Yeah, I was specifically after it for the mic capabilities as well. Thanks for the tip on the noisy mic, but I think that is a universal problem. Do you like the triplefi? It is a bit expensive...
 
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