The BEST headphones for ipod

[thespeakerbox]

In your opinion, what are the best headphones ( under $100) for listening to an ipod?

 

[seedubs1]

I love these. I dont have an ipod though. By the way, this was from a previous post of mine.

try the koss PRO-3AA. They have a lower thd than most sennheisers at less than .1% and also have a 100db spl. Also, the freq. responce is 15hz to 20,000hz. Not too bad for 50 some odd bucks if you shop around. also, I may be wrong, but i think koss headphones come with a lifetime warranty. so as long as you dont get mad when playing your games and throw them against a wall, or hook em up to a big ass amp and blow the crap out of em, they should cover most stuff that happens to fail on them.

 

[thespeakerbox]

Do you know any site that can explain what the specs mean? Im fairly new to audio specs

 

[seedubs1]

um, you can try koss, but they stopped making these i think, but you can still buy them online. If you really need specs, try emailing koss. their customer service has been usually pretty good, or you can go to yahoo shopping and they have some specs, probably not enough if you are a true audiophile, but they have some freq responce and stuff, but one spec that I do remember thats not on there is the thd is less than .1%. Good luck in your looking.

 

[motard]

Portapros, or Koss KSC-35. They both have good drivers.

 

[seedubs1]

Yeah, if you are looking for earclips, dont go with what I said. The ones I said are larger, but will work really well for the sound. Also, they will work well for uses other than the ipod.

 

[thespeakerbox]

What about good headphones with noise cancelling capability? And is noise cancelling really worth it. I hear a lot of good things about the BOSE headphones, but after reading all the articles on this forum about bose sucking, i dont want to chance it.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Bose sucks? oh yeah

Umm.... I have sennheise HD280pro headphones that I got for $60 new with some rebates and an ecost sale. They don't have active noise cancelling, but they make a really good seal with your head and their earcups so it keeps the music in and the background out.

They're 64ohms so a little big of a high impedence (meaning they're a little harder to get loud volumes out of them), but my HDD based mp3 player is able to get a nice volume out of them at about 20 on a scale to 25. Max volume is too loud for me still.

 

[CSMR]

Originally posted by: motard
Portapros, or Koss KSC-35. They both have good drivers.

 

[seedubs1]

Yeah, whatever you do, dont buy bose. They are for old people who can get sucked into a product that is well marketed and cheeply made. Most of the componets made are plasticy. I did, however, make some guy with a car system mad by going off on this bose topic. His car system was bose. Sounded real bad and he paid about 3x what it would have been for a comparible jl audio system. Whell, back to my point.....dont buy bose.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: seedubs1
Yeah, whatever you do, dont buy bose. They are for old people who can get sucked into a product that is well marketed and cheeply made. Most of the componets made are plasticy. I did, however, make some guy with a car system mad by going off on this bose topic. His car system was bose. Sounded real bad and he paid about 3x what it would have been for a comparible jl audio system. Whell, back to my point.....dont buy bose.

Yeah, don't confront people about it if they already have it Or at least make it casual like "wow, I heard bose was nice but I think I like my system better"... and then take them to hear your system and let them judge for themselves.

 

[seedubs1]

Haha, yeah, learned that. My buddy took the guy to see his two jl w3v2 (12 inch woofer) hooked up to 1000 watts, and it blew the guy away. It was, needless to say, hillarious.

 

[BobTacoKing]

I use Koss "The Plug" with my iPod. Although very cheap at $14.99, it offers better than average sound and does a good job canceling outside noise. They are an in-ear type of headphone that fits snug into your ear and gets some getting use too. The best part is, if you lose them your only out 15 bucks! I give it a 4 out of 5

 

[Gurck]

The ipod's sound quality is inherently limited by its cheap components, battery-saving absence of bass and a token EQ. Any decent phones will make this painfully apparent. That said, if you insist, a nice portable pair with good isolation is the Shure e2c (canalphones) at around $60.

 

[jdsemler]

Are the e2c canalphones much different than the iPod in-ear phones? I, regretably, bought a pair of the apply in-ear phones, and they sound worse (to me) than the free ear buds. They sounded very "tinny" and the bass was worse than the freebies too.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: jdsemler
Are the e2c canalphones much different than the iPod in-ear phones? I, regretably, bought a pair of the apply in-ear phones, and they sound worse (to me) than the free ear buds. They sounded very "tinny" and the bass was worse than the freebies too.

Like comparing a Ferrari to a skateboard...

 

[loic2003]

I have an iPod 3G (15 Gigs with the four separate back-lit buttons) and I picked up a pair of E2C's a while back. They do sound much better, mainly because of the sound isolation they provide. I want to try out some of the apple in-ear buds but you can't take them back to stores for hygiene reasons, so I'll have to find someone walking around with them and mug them or soemthing... If I do have a go with some, I'll post results.

Only bad thing about the E2C's is the cost: £55 over here = $105. A friend works in a music store, however, so I got special discount....

 

[Maetryx]

So is it universally accepted that the OEM ear bud headphones, like the ones that came with my Apple iPod Shuffle, are crappy? If you go to something else, say regular headphones, does that drain the batter faster?

 

[BW86]

Alessandro MS-1's $99
based off the Grado sr125's

They might be open but they don't leak as much as people say they do.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Maetryx
So is it universally accepted that the OEM ear bud headphones, like the ones that came with my Apple iPod Shuffle, are crappy? If you go to something else, say regular headphones, does that drain the batter faster?

It would only drain the battery faster if you need to turn up the volume to get the desired volume you want. If a set of headphones has higher impedence, you'll need to crank the volume more to maintain the same sound level.

 

[PurdueRy]

Listen, if your listening to 128 Kb/s or 192 Kb/s music do you REALLY want to match it up with supremely accurate headphones? I listen to all mine at 320 and thats still compressing it quite a bit, however, to the point where its tough to tell. I would think about this before you drop the money on an expensive pair of headphones as, and you wil learn, the nicer the components, the better good sources will sound, but the WORSE compressed music will sound.

Playing 128 Kb/s on my HT can only be described as "boomy" and lacking in the highs.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Maetryx
So is it universally accepted that the OEM ear bud headphones, like the ones that came with my Apple iPod Shuffle, are crappy? If you go to something else, say regular headphones, does that drain the batter faster?

It would only drain the battery faster if you need to turn up the volume to get the desired volume you want. If a set of headphones has higher impedence, you'll need to crank the volume more to maintain the same sound level.

Comparing sensitivities is more accurate.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Maetryx
So is it universally accepted that the OEM ear bud headphones, like the ones that came with my Apple iPod Shuffle, are crappy? If you go to something else, say regular headphones, does that drain the batter faster?

It would only drain the battery faster if you need to turn up the volume to get the desired volume you want. If a set of headphones has higher impedence, you'll need to crank the volume more to maintain the same sound level.

Comparing sensitivities is more accurate.

I don't think sensitivity varies much for drivers in headphones....however...impedence does.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: rleemhui

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Maetryx
So is it universally accepted that the OEM ear bud headphones, like the ones that came with my Apple iPod Shuffle, are crappy? If you go to something else, say regular headphones, does that drain the batter faster?

It would only drain the battery faster if you need to turn up the volume to get the desired volume you want. If a set of headphones has higher impedence, you'll need to crank the volume more to maintain the same sound level.

Comparing sensitivities is more accurate.

I don't think sensitivity varies much for drivers in headphones....however...impedence does.

Impedance affects power usage how? You can directly calculate power usage from sensitivity and required SPL, given amplifier efficiency.

 

[PurdueRy]

Maximum power transfer only occurs with a impedence match between source and load. If there is a mismatch, the load becomes "harder" to driver. Max power transfer occurecs when

Voc^2/(4*Rth) = Plmax where Voc is the open circuit voltage of the source and Rth is the equivalent resistance.

Power = I^2*R so if you double the impedence the speakers become easier to drive. If you lower it from ideal, speakers become tougher to drive.

This is why receiver have a "nominal" impedence rating. This is where the receiver is intended to drive speakers with max power. Other impedences are possible, but lower impedences become tougher to driver as already mentioned.