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Is anyone else here a headphone junkie?
I find myself buying around a dozen or so headphones a year (no joke). I'm not rough on my equipment, and can't remember the last time I had a pair of headphones fail on me. I just like the exploration of finding awesome audio. Especially awesome *budget* audio.
Right now I'm on a bass-head kick. At work (where I spend most of my abysmal life), I keep two pairs I use most often.
Cans: Panasonic RP-HTF600
Buds: House of Marley "People Get Ready"
What do you guys have? How do they sound?
Wow 10 a year? That's nearly a new pair every month... I usually just use the ones that come with the phone. But, I rarely listen to music as I did in my youth. Brings back too much nostalgia.
So now you have like 50 pairs laying around the house? Or you resell them...?
A dozen?? Wow. Same question as cookiedough, what do you do with the others?
Best ones i had were a Creative pair, but right now I'm using some budget Philips Extra Bass in-ears. These are pretty decent -- really good low freq response and no signal clipping at all. They are surprisingly sturdy. I sometimes wish they weren't so I'd have an excuse to get new ones. I mean, sound quality is great, but I'm itching to try something else.
I also had a good pair of Panasonic buds some time ago, but only lasted for a few weeks until I accidentally ran them over.
Have you had any experience with Audio Technica in-ears? Any advice?
To answer your question, I have never sold a set. I usually just give them away to friends, family, co-workers, etc. I like spreading joy... and audio bliss.
This week I bought six . Can't wait for them to get here. It's a weird problem to have. I bought three different models, and two pairs of each. One for me to try, and one to give away to someone who might need or appreciate it -- depending on how it sounds.
Panasonic makes a pair of $6ish buds they sell on Amazon that get pretty great reviews. They sound surprisingly decent for what they are. They have another pair in the $30ish dollar range (RP-HJE450K) that have a ridiculously huge driver. I'd love to try them out if I ever get around to it.
I've never owned any Audio Technica buds. I had some cans years ago (M50) . They sounded great, but were kinda disinteresting. I'm not sure what happened to them. For the price and the same sound signature, the Monoprice / Kicker ones sound very very similar at a fraction of the cost. If you have an egg shaped head like me, though, they unfortunately tend to get uncomfortable after long periods of use. Better for an "Ernie" shaped head, rather than a "Bert" one.
My true recording / nice cans I use at home are Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros. I've had them for around 10 years now. Sound isolation and comfort are both extraordinary, but you'd expect them to be for that price point.
I think it's more fun to find bang-for-the-buck budget stuff that contends heavily with the major dollar competition at a fraction of the cost. Kinda like with china phones.
I could not agree more with the bang for the buck idea when it comes to headphones!!
I have personally been through 2 pairs of Beats. I figured the first one was a fluke. Let me state first that I am very, very careful with equipment that I want to keep or use all the time.
Anyways, the first pair just flat out stopped working. Junk. No reason. I never bothered with them, just tossed them.
I bought another pair on sale at a big box store. Big suckers, sounded great, solid build it seemed. I was wrong. The external cable it came with came apart. Whatever. I bought another one. I fell asleep with them on and when I woke up, the can on the right hand side was coming apart. I played them for the last time with the base rattling in my ear.
Never again.
I have found that Xiaomi (v2) are great bang for the buck. However, I like the Soundmagic E10's better. At around $30 for these in the ear, I am happier with these than the large Beats cans!
Muahahaha. I also have some SoundMagic E10s. They're sitting in the cabinet next to me.
Insane sound. Tiny price. Frustrating plug housing. My fingers always slip while trying to unplug them. I keep contemplating scuffing them with sandpaper for grip.... but then they wouldn't be shiny.
Extreme First World Problems
How do the Xiaomi Piston V2s sound compared to the SoundMagic E10s? And how insane is it that there are so many knockoffs of the Pistons flooding the market?
The headphones that really, REALLY surprised me were these:
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I bought them with zero expectations. Just for the funny factor. When they came, I gave them to the girlfriend. She loved them, and put them on immediately.
Then she was like, "Whoa! You have to hear this!"
And I was like, "Whoa! I'm not falling for that!"
And she was like, "No! Really! You HAVE to hear this!"
And I was like, "You HAVE to be joking!"
They are doofy DOOFY headphones made for freaking CHILDREN. They probably sound like those $0.99 craptacular headphones from the 80s re-packaged in a crappy fuzzy plastic housing. They HAVE to! Why would they bother selling anything besides that in that kind of package to that specific market? They simply have to be crappy. There's no way around it.
Turns out they have a 40mm driver and sound.... surprisingly rich.
Blew. My. Mind.
[quote='WuddaWaste' pid='33971' dateline='1414011063']
Muahahaha. I also have some SoundMagic E10s. They're sitting in the cabinet next to me.
You gotta be kidding me... I got the E10 years ago on the HK fairs... payed 12 bucks for them back then. Still using them day by day
And they're still holding up? Nice!
It's pretty nuts that all of us have -- completely independent of one another -- converged on the the same super-obscure set of earbuds.
For earbuds my go-to are the Monoprice 8320 with Comply tips. They are amazing (for the price) and have a huge thread dedicated to them on HeadFi.
I also picked up a set of inexpensive cans when they were on sale ($30) that have worked out pretty well. I think there are several rebrandings of them floating around, but these are the specific ones I have been happy with:
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Great choice, @JoshMcMadMac ! I'm a huge Monoprice fan in general. I bought those Monoprice 8320 buds beofre Head-Fi went nuts for them after loving their predecessor (sealed, white extended bass buds).
Because of the shipping with Monoprice, I bought like 3-4 pairs with high hopes. When I received them, I couldn't get them to fit right. And as you bud-heads know, fitment is everything. I promptly gave them away to others who seemed to like them.
Fast forward 6 months, and those buds had exploded on Head-Fi. So I bought more. I threw on some of the Sony medium silicone tips (green inside) and they sounded pretty dang good.... but I still couldn't get them to fit right. Gave even more away.
How do you like the Comply tips? I've read so much about them but haven't convinced myself to pull the trigger yet. How often do you end up replacing them?