picky headphone user

[Newbsss 0]

Hi all,

 

Would need your help since I am newbs to this headphone thingy. My current iCombi bluetooth wireless headphones was won from a contest in a local magazine. Guess what. The warranty is only available in Hong Kong. sigh. My neck band on both sides of the ear pieces broke. Had to mend it with paperclip and scotchtape. The sound is normal and meets my requirements and is foldable. That's what I like about it. Just that it's band is hard and easily breakable. Not those soft kind that can bend slightly. It's those rigid cheap plastic kind.

 

So I would like to ask if there is any recommendations on the headphones in the market that is

 

1) neck band / earclips (strictly no overhead bands)

2) would not be tight and yet would not drop that easily

3) good sound. Not really very particular but a decent average quality is ok

4) budget is $120

5) bluetooth wireless

 

Additional points

1) can use wired or wireless

2) foldable hopefully

 

Is there such a headphone?

 

Questions:

 

1) I am wearing specs so difficult to find 1 that can fit well with my specs. any pple wearing specs and have a good neckband to recommend?

2) Would it be better to a) get a headphones with bluetooth built in that comes with a transmitter or get a bluetooth transmitter and receiver and with a wired headphones? What are the pros and cons?

 

a) seems to limit the type of headphones i can choose.

have wider range for me to choose but still wired to the receiver which kinda defeat the purpose to have bluetooth if there is still wires dangling around you. Would still have to find a pouch or pocket to fit in the receiver.

 

I am so confused and indecisive. Can anyone help?

 

I saw a few models such as creative 140 which is only $29. lightweight and wired with good sounds based on reviews i read.

 

Creative 3100 is out of my budget but is what I want. Some reviews indicated head pain after wearing which is quite true as I try on a while at creative HQ and its kinda tight.

 

Is there any shop in SG that allows u to try a wide range of headphones before you buy? Igrado seems good but duno how much.

 

philips and pansonic and sony do not have any that I like. Grados and Koss seems to be out of my budget. Not able to find any audio techincal products at their site as trhey are still upgradeing the site.

 

sennheiser street style sucks. the rest are all overhead bands.

 

Please assist.

Edited July 23, 2007 by Newbsss

[Fuzzy Fuzzbucket 0]

hmm... im a headphone fan. hmm i dont own any neckbands or clip ons... i have friends owning igrado and they wear specs. igrado are just around S$75 Jaben at Adelphi has them and also Stereo at CWP... with $120 u can get Grado SR60. but too bad u dont want any headband...

[kehyi 0]

so many questions...

 

Is there such a headphone?

in a word, no. you'll have to give up some of your requirements!

 

Is there any shop in SG that allows u to try a wide range of headphones before you buy?

Stereo Electronics at Causeway Point and Jaben Network at Adelphi are the places to go. In fact, pls go and bug Aron (at Stereo) and/or Wilson (at Jaben) directly as your questions are too many to be easily answered here.

 

I *know* they'll be able to find something that will make you happy (although it probably wouldn't be what you started with)

 

[heady 0]

My $0.02 - I wear specs and because of this, I find neckbands very uncomfortable. Headbands are ok but I like IEMs best. The only problem I have with IEMs are that they are too isolating for those times when you need to hear the ambient sounds, eg announcements or people trying to interrupt your enjoyment of music.

[Newbsss 0]

My $0.02 - I wear specs and because of this, I find neckbands very uncomfortable. Headbands are ok but I like IEMs best. The only problem I have with IEMs are that they are too isolating for those times when you need to hear the ambient sounds, eg announcements or people trying to interrupt your enjoyment of music.

 

Hi all,

 

thanks for the replies.

 

Heady, wats IEMs? and with specs, headband will be better? cos I dun like that to hug my head, and my hair will be in a mess. some neckbands i saw has thin bands ard the ear area and thick bands after that. maybe to facilitate wearing of the specs.

 

Hi kehyi,

Well i can give up some requirements. shall bug them. thanks.

 

Hi Fuzzy,

 

igrado so cheap? wah must go check it out.

 

I saw a few people wearing those ear clips, i find that its ugly. not the wearer but the ear clips sticking out on ur ears. so maybe decided to let go of ear clips.

 

My main aim is

 

1) neckbands

2) does not interferece with my specs

3) average sound

4) below $120

 

can give opinions on the below question i have posted in my previous post?

"2) Would it be better to a) get a headphones with bluetooth built in that comes with a transmitter or get a bluetooth transmitter and receiver and with a wired headphones? What are the pros and cons?"

[Fuzzy Fuzzbucket 0]

Hi all,

 

thanks for the replies.

 

Heady, wats IEMs? and with specs, headband will be better? cos I dun like that to hug my head, and my hair will be in a mess. some neckbands i saw has thin bands ard the ear area and thick bands after that. maybe to facilitate wearing of the specs.

 

Hi Fuzzy,

 

igrado so cheap? wah must go check it out.

 

I saw a few people wearing those ear clips, i find that its ugly. not the wearer but the ear clips sticking out on ur ears. so maybe decided to let go of ear clips.

 

 

iGrado is that cheap. its original or former name is SR-40 which were headband phones... you may wan to cancel because its kinda tight. kinda clips your head... IEMs are those earbuds using different principle; different from earphones. IEMs dont use dynamic tranducers.

[[J]-ohn 0]

iGrado is that cheap. its original or former name is SR-40 which were headband phones... you may wan to cancel because its kinda tight. kinda clips your head... IEMs are those earbuds using different principle; different from earphones. IEMs dont use dynamic tranducers.

 

IEM don't use dynamic transducers? I think the Shure E2G uses dynamic transducer.

 

[skatropic 0]

Cheap IEMs use dynamic transducers (<$150). These include all ATH-CK(1,5,6,7) models except for ATH-CK9, which is using balanced armatures drivers. I also think Shure's E2 uses dynamic drivers. The Westone UM1 uses Balanced Armatures. Other expensive (>$300) IEMs use 2 or more balanced armature drivers, like the triple.fi and UM2s.

 

Iem refers to In-ear-monitors. Unlike typical earphones, they sit in the ear canal, providing an excellent seal that cancels out 25db-40db of ambient noises. That is, if you get a good seal. The noise cancelling far surpasses a lot of noise cancelling headphones (normally 10-25db) of ambient noises. There are also much portable unlike headphones.

 

P.S. IEMs doesn't ruin your hairdo and specs.

 

A lot of dynamic drivers usually have either more mids, lows or highs. Balanced armatures produce sound that is almost balanced with no extras of highs, mids or lows. The cheapest dynamic driver that has an almost balanced sound would be the Mylarone X3s.

 

Don't go for wireless. They use extra batteries to power themselves up. Waste money only. If it goes weak, you can't listen to it anymore.

 

 

[Stereo_Electronics 0]

A lot of dynamic drivers usually have either more mids, lows or highs. Balanced armatures produce sound that is almost balanced with no extras of highs, mids or lows. The cheapest dynamic driver that has an almost balanced sound would be the Mylarone X3s.

 

 

I don't understand the part about balance armature drivers sounding very balance with no extra highs, mids or lows.

 

Did you mean that Etymotic Research ER-6i, Shure SE320, Westone UM1, UE Superfi 3 studio and Altec Lansing iM716 which are all single armature driver IEM, sound just as balance? Or did you mean that balanced armature driver sounds more balanced than dynamic driver?

 

[nofing 0]

He probably means no over emphasis on any part of the sound spectrum? So it's probably a case of balanced armature drivers sounding more "balanced" than dynamic drivers. Lol. This is getting me all confused.

[skatropic 0]

Nofing gets my point. Balanced armature driver USUALLY doesn't over emphasize a specific sound spectrum.

 

i mean balanced armature drivers sound more balanced compared to dynamic drivers. A lot of dynamic drivers emphasize on a specific sound spectrum, say the creative EP630 which emphasizes a lot on the bass, making them sound kinda boomy and muddy.

 

Then again, i heard that if there are 2 or more balanced armature drivers in an IEM, the sound becomes different unlike single balanced armature drivers. Like the UM2s, the bass sounds really big compared to the UM1. I think it is due to the dedicated dual balanced armature drivers where 1 produces the lows, and the other produde the mids and highs.

 

"However, multiple-driver earphones tend to have the problems of inaccurate spacing and emphasis in the bass department, thus losing some fidelity. This is compensated by a couple of technologies, such as routing a balanced armature to handle a dedicated range of notes, utilizing a specialized port (or air duct) to allow air to flow through the armature for increased efficiency, and utilizing inline crossovers to ensure accurate reproduction of high, mid, and low notes to rectify these weaknesses." -- quote from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/headphones about balanced armature drivers.

 

Whatever it is, both driver technologies have their pros and cons.

 

I don't know if this is true, but i've heard somewhere in the forums that stated that balanced armature and mylar drivers are prone to humidity. Is this true?

 

[[J]-ohn 0]

Nofing gets my point. Balanced armature driver USUALLY doesn't over emphasize a specific sound spectrum.

 

i mean balanced armature drivers sound more balanced compared to dynamic drivers. A lot of dynamic drivers emphasize on a specific sound spectrum, say the creative EP630 which emphasizes a lot on the bass, making them sound kinda boomy and muddy.

 

Then again, i heard that if there are 2 or more balanced armature drivers in an IEM, the sound becomes different unlike single balanced armature drivers. Like the UM2s, the bass sounds really big compared to the UM1. I think it is due to the dedicated dual balanced armature drivers where 1 produces the lows, and the other produde the mids and highs.

 

"However, multiple-driver earphones tend to have the problems of inaccurate spacing and emphasis in the bass department, thus losing some fidelity. This is compensated by a couple of technologies, such as routing a balanced armature to handle a dedicated range of notes, utilizing a specialized port (or air duct) to allow air to flow through the armature for increased efficiency, and utilizing inline crossovers to ensure accurate reproduction of high, mid, and low notes to rectify these weaknesses." -- quote from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/headphones about balanced armature drivers.

 

Whatever it is, both driver technologies have their pros and cons.

 

I don't know if this is true, but i've heard somewhere in the forums that stated that balanced armature and mylar drivers are prone to humidity. Is this true?

 

So which means the creative aurvana sounds more balanced than the crossroad mylar?And creative aurvana sounds just as balanced as westone um1?

 

I'm wondering now looking at my old er-6i why are the treble and mids more prominent than the bass....

 

I'm just puzzled by the fact that if all single armature drivers are balanced by default then why all single armature iems all sound different, like some bassier and some not....

 

 

 

 

 

[skatropic 0]

I said USUALLY, not all.

 

It really depends on the sound signature of the brands. I find Creative bass is much more prominent. For me, the Etys are more balanced and more into clarity. If you are too used to bass heavy phones, you may fing the etys lacking in bass with more prominent mids and highs. The westones, focus more on the mids.

 

Its all up to your preference. i like a balanced and clear sound.

[Newbsss 0]

whoa whoa

 

so technical...im a newbbssss. think im gog for creative bluetooth adapter set cb 2500 and getting a creative 140 neckband. reviews indicated gd bass. hehe. im a bass sucker. hehehe.

 

anyone gotten the creative cb2500 audio adapter?

[nofing 0]

@[J]-ohn:

It's not so much the number of drivers or the type be it balanced or dynamics. The tuning matters too as does the sound filters. Even things like the wire would influence the sound.