I was thinking about Ety, but I really just can't spending more than 80-ish for headphones, I'm leaning against the iM3's right now, because my laptop speakers are pretty decent (Dell Inspiron 9300) and probably just as good if not better than the iM3, it actually has a small speaker at the bottom of the laptop that puts out only some of the lower frequencies, really gives it some thump for a laptop, and if I buy the Shures I'll probably get an iTrip and just use my iPod with my uncle's Sharp boombox thingy, one of those bigger ones.
You have them? Can you vouch for how they sound? If I'm gonna spend more than 100, I've already decided its going to be Shure E3C, the Ety's have a 5 foot cord, that is as big as I am, and I hate earbuds where the silicone bud thing is like this <<< (Ety) compared to my Sonys and the Shures <
Thats why my first venture into in-ear buds (more properly referred to as "canalphones") whether it be my first or first and last, was the el-cheapo Sony MDR-EX51LP. I was blown away, and can't wait to see how much better the Shures are. One of my friends actually got a headache from wearing mine, I actually find the fit and feel of them in my ear quite comfortable.
I wouldn't say I'm an audiophile, cause I certainly don't obsess over how things sound, but I can definitely tell the difference when moving up the ladder, for example, when I went from crap pack-ins to these Fontopias, it was amazing, getting my Logitech Z-5500s compared to my old cheapy A/L speakers, just as amazing. I'm still also thinkin they aren't worth the cash, there's something about the impendance on the E3C that, well, if you use them with a crappy source, like a crappy Sigmatel laptop codec, you'll get alot of hiss.
Yeah, its probably part of Apple's new "Made for iPod" campaign, I tend to ignore that kind of crap. I hate flat music, the Shures seem to sound like what I want, on head-fi, alot of the people that stepped up from the Sony MDR-EX line liked the way the Shures sounded. You know, I only do listen to 192+ and use EAC rips for my sources, but the other part of me is tellin me I don't need the E3Cs, because until 5 minutes ago, the MDR-EX51s on my ear were fine enough, I'll be grabbin some E2Cs off Amazon with 2nd Day Shipping.
Scrap what I originally said, simply put, I agree with what Gurck said, and on a sidenote, I often leave the EQ flat to get an accurate reproduction of what the recorders wanted me to hear when they mastered the song, unless I need to compensate for oddities about certain speakers/headphones, like weak mids on my Logitechs and excessive bass on my Fontopias.
