I’m going to guess that this blog’s audience is primarily creative-class desk jockeys who make the days go by faster with their headphones. Let me then ask you about your headphones themselves. What do you require? How big or small? Earbuds or on-ear? Long flexible curly cord or tiny thin strap? And what about your history with them generally? My own goes something like this.
I started listening to the Walkman when I was about 12. The phones were the standard, cheaply made kind that came with the player, with the exposed metal loop up top. It took no time to discover I preferred the kind with the top covered with plastic. I liked them on the large side; more comfortable, better sound (more resonance, probably). In high school my pair of these broke and I popped into Walgreen’s on 66th St. and Nicollet Ave. and emerged with one of those compact-case earbuds with the clear plastic front that rotated the strap back in the case, a stupid, more-trouble-than-it’s-worth enterprise I nevertheless routinely followed until the ‘buds–which, by the way, sounded like shit, if shit were made of tin–finally died from stretching.
For a long time, I felt lucky if a pair of headphones lasted six months. I got my first taste of pro headphones when I worked at First Avenue, where I did video on a couple of dance nights and occasionally DJed the main room before shows. Everyone’s listened to music on cans, but it wasn’t till I went to Seattle in 1999 that I sent all the way and paid something like $70 at the Lower Queen Anne Tower for a pair with the heavy, tight coil that pros and stoners used. I loved those things and continued buying their like for years afterward; I even got a pair sent to me when I wrote about them in a holiday gift guide.
The most recent change came around the beginning of this year. My girlfriend and I went big-box shopping one weekend, and at Best Buy I tried out some things at the Bose display. I fell for them instantly, and paid about $180 for a pair. (I’d just gotten a couple of big checks.) They’ve held up remarkably. They have a phone jack on the left ear and come with a threadbare strap that nevertheless takes wear well, and I picked up a wound cord for pro use (I DJ happy hour Wednesdays at Havana). I’m not sure how long they’ll last, but I’m guessing a long time.
So–what about you? Any odd stories or observations? Let’s hear it.
[Pic via Amazon]
Sennheiser PX100 for the gym, mowing the lawn, etc. They sound great, are durable as fuck, and aren’t too expensive.
When I travel, Bose QuietComfort 2. The active noise cancelling is a godsend, and you can leave them on for hours without hurting your ears.
Someone mentioned Koss PortaPros earlier. I agree that those sound absolutely amazing for lightweight, inexpensive headphones. Unfortunately, they break easily, are uncomfortable, and make you look like Lando Calrissian’s aide de camp from “The Empire Strikes Back”
I have retired too many expensive headphones — GRADO SR80, GRADO SR60, SONY V700, SONY V600. Currently I’m babying along some Sennheiser HD555 that I only use in the studio. I blew up a pair playing live and got them replaced under warranty.
My problems with earplugs is that I can’t find any with the proper fit/seal for my ears. Then if I somehow manage to them screwed in properly, after a half hour they make my ears itch.
My favorite these days for use outside the house are Sennheiser HD202. These are mad cheap - like $25. I got two pair for $40 somewhere on-line. I’ve A/Bed them with the HD555s (which are $100+) and while I can hear a loss in clarity with the 202s, they sound better than a lot of more expensive headphones. They’re light, cheap, and flimsy — which is why I bought two sets — but the first set has survived 6 months of walking around and a couple of DJ performances, so they’re sturdier than they look and feel.
@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: There’s a lot of ridiculous cable management widgets that different manufacturers have tried, but nothing beats a couple of rubber bands to coil up and clamp the slack.
The SR80s are definitely amazing sounding for under $100, but the cables go bad on them. Grado will replace intermittent cables for free (you pay shipping) but it’s a PITA that they always go intermittent aftr a year or two.
i’m in law school, so i rock some of those bose sound cancelling headphones from about two years back that let me either focus on some ambient jams or jazz when i want music, or on my tinnitus from playing punk rock in a concrete basement for four years of my youth.
they look ridiculous, but do the job.
Mine are Phillips “Virtual Surround” or something, and with my limited experiencie with headphones, I think they rock. The sound is so clear, and they cancel outside noise very well. They are in-ear and are incredibly cheap, like 20 dollars for a pair, and they even come with two different sizes of earbuds for you to try. I love them.
I’ve settled into:
1) Shure E4c’s that I’ve had for about 3 or 4 years now for when I’m out walking around. Not only do they sound loads better than regular ear buds, they are just isolating enough that I don’t have to deafen myself to hear the music over Chicago street noise. However, they’re not so isolating that I need to worry about not hearing car horns, etc.
2) Sony MDR-7509s. My swank headphones for home listening that I also use when recording music, or when working on DJ stuff at home.
3) Sony MDR-V150. Cheap beaters that I take to actual DJ gigs where I don’t really need to hear more from the cue channel than that I haven’t forgotten to turn off any effects/EQing after the last time I used that particularly mixing channel. I tend to use these for listening to stuff at work just because I don’t feel like hauling the bulkier 7509s everywhere, and while I love my Shure’s to pieces, I don’t want to wear in-ears for 8+ hours at work every day.
I pretty much used whatever pair of earbuds I could find cheaply, but a month ago I finally treated myself of a pair of Sony MDR-V6s. Totally worth it, although they are a bit of a pain to lug around. I’ve not given Grado or Sennheiser a try, but I absolutely can’t stand the way Bose headphones sound.
I’m not a big fan of large headphones that cover your whole ear, so right now I have Sennheiser PX 100s. Actually an accidental purchase - the 200s are much better, leather (fake probably) cupping around the ear to keep out more ambient sound - but the sound quality is good, they’re affordable ($30-60 most sites), they fold up like sunglasses, and the bottoms swivel so you’re less liable to break the speakers off if you step on them or squish them in a backpack. They won’t last forever, but they have a 2 year warranty and won’t bust your budget to replace.
I’ve always been an in-the-ear guy, but I hate most earbuds, as they’re called. Every iPod I’ve ever purchased (I’ve owned five since 2001), the buds have never been removed from the box.
For the last two years, I’ve been using the Shure E series — first the E2s, and then when they broke (cord split), I upgraded to the E3s (about $189, I think). Generally, I love them — they really fill my ears with sound, and are de facto noise-canceling even without actually having that (very expensive) technology — but recently Shure’s made it harder to buy the foam attachments I prefer, which fill your ear canal comfortably. So I’m less in love lately, because instead they want you to use these more plasticky-foam black cones, and they just don’t mold to my ear as well.
I’ll probably switch to something else sometime in ‘09.
I would like to meet and torture the person who invented earbuds. I know that some of them — the Shure E2C/E3C/etc. line in particular — sound great, but most of them sound horrible compared to an over-the-ear pair that can be had for the same price.
Like cgray, I am an ardent user of the Sennheiser PX100s. They sound great, they fold up easily, and if I need to eavesdrop on my office mate’s phone conversation, I can just slide them away from my ear ever-so-slightly. They were also only $35 on Amazon.
For cost to quality (both audio and product), I’ve generally sworn by Sony MDR-EX (I think… earbuds, not in-ear plugs). A lot of “audiophiles” swear by some Koss over the ear headphones that cost, like $7.
Heard a lot of good things about Sennheiser, though.
I prefer in-ear, just so i can unplug and pu them in my pocket instead of having to carry around a bag for over-the-ear ones. I’ve been buying the same pair of ~10 dollar Sony ones for years.. they last about a year and are surprisingly decent!
[www.amazon.com]
I just replaced my old Sony MDR-V700’s after the the hinge over the right earpiece gave-out one day (better than the previous pair, I suppose, which fell out of my backpack and were ran over by three lanes of traffic). Now I’ve got a pair of Grado SR225’s and they sound fucking brilliant.
I can’t stand earbuds…just putting that out there.
For home use, I have a pair of the Alessandro MS-1 manufactured by Grado. They’re especially good for listening to guitar-based music, which is predictable insofar as Alessandro principally manufactures amps and the like. They go for $99 a pair over at Alessandro’s website (like all things in life, a used pair might be found for considerably less on eBay). I haven’t modded them with new pads or cables or the like, but they sound great to me as is, even without a pre-amp.
On the street, I use the pack-in Apple buds, which, apart from screaming “rob me, I’m not aware of my surroundings!”, I find work pretty well. I understand that the bass response has subtly improved with each iteration, and I’ve noticed that the sound quality actually varies from iPod to iPod - I guess this is pretty well documented, but anecdotally, my iPod Touch sounds way better than my old iPod Photo ever did. Have they improved sound up and down the product line? Is this just wishful thinking?
I also have a set of Koss PortaPros, which have phenomenal bass response for such a non-luxury set, richer than even the Alessandro, maybe. The only problem is that they are extremely uncomfortable, owing to the exposed metal band that runs over your head. My hair gets caught in that all the time. But, for around $30 bucks, they sound terrific.
@Weezy F Baby: Yeah. The ones I’m talking about are basically these without the over the ear dealie-bob. Sony’s MDR line are basically all decent… I guess they’re just different ear holding methods.
I use black Sony earbuds with one of those rollup cases (maybe the exact same thing you described). I like them because they aren’t nearly as blaring a “Hey, jack my expensive shit!” sign as the white ones that comes with an ipod. I was using Sony monitoring headphones for awhile, but they eventually just became too damn awkward.
I used earbuds for about two weeks, after I got my first iPod. Never again.
I currently am using my second set of Phillips (SBC HS430, if the random numbers on them are the model). The sound’s not bad for relatively cheap headphones I picked up from Target, and much better than the Maxell headphones I used to use. Both kinds of headphones seem to last about six months to a year.
My first headphones were whatever came with my CD player (so, Sony of some sort), which I used until they broke.
I’m sure good headphones are well worth the cost, but I’m on a student budget. The less I spend on headphones the more cash I have left to blow on CDs.
I’m pretty adamantly Sony when it comes to headphones — everything else always sounds … odd. I wonder why that is?
When I was in film school and learning how to use the Avid, I laid out for my first expensive headphones, some Sony studio monitor monsters, and they lasted nearly 10 years. I adored them so.
Since then, I’ve alternated between various Sony models (over the ear, hook over the ear, earbuds, whatever), but I’m very happy with some little white earbuds I’ve had for about 9 months that move between my iPod & desktop office computer. I got ‘em after trying a pair of those idiotic Skullcandy things that lasted, I kid you not, THREE DAYS before they completely crapped out.
Grado SR80s for me.
I only wish they were available with a shorter cord. I like using them on the go, so the long cable tends to get in the way of things.
I’m firmly in the earbud hating camp.