What earphones to get?

[naruto1988]

anyways, i need a pair of earphones, preferably under $30, to listen to music on my creative zen touch. my friend recommended these sony fontopias. should i get these? would there be a noticable quality difference if i just got these instead?

edit: i want a lightweight one, so in the ear or earbuds, but no over the ear ones...

 

[Gurck]

Like most Sony products, the fontopias are pretty bad and not worth even what it costs Sony to make them, much less the price they charge for them. I'm not into earbuds, but iirc Sennheiser makes a respectable pair in your price range.

 

[naruto1988]

i used to hear a lot about the mx500. i'm guessing this is the way to go?

 

[naruto1988]

uh oh...my ipod headphones are still alive. that means my zen touch is the problem. oh no =(

edit: i just checked both things. they work fine. this morning, i kept hearing this annoying static from the left earphone. what do you guys think caused it?

 

[Azndude51]

naruto1988, i actually own both pairs of those headphones, i just don't have the volume control on the lower end model. Let me tell you this, there is a HUGE difference in sound quality. I used the fontopias, then used the other set and i was shocked how bad they were compared to the fontopias. The fontopias are VERY clear and have AWESOME bass. However, i took very good care of my fontopias and they broke within a month, i can't hear out of one of the eardbuds. i have used the cheaper sony headphones for 2 years and they still work, although one has a slight, annoying vibration which came up recently. you can make your own decision based on my experience. I will probably buy another pair of the fontopias because i have yet seen any earbuds that have comparable sound quality at $25.


EDIT:
These have really loud and clear bass, but they are hard to put on so that they dont fall out. and once they are in properly, they're still really easy to pull out on accident. they're too annoying to use.

 

[ChaoZ]

Originally posted by: naruto1988
anyways, i need a pair of earphones, preferably under $30, to listen to music on my creative zen touch. my friend recommended these sony fontopias. should i get these? would there be a noticable quality difference if i just got these instead?

edit: i want a lightweight one, so in the ear or earbuds, but no over the ear ones...

I would go with the first one, don't EVER go with the seond one. They're crap; can barely hear, easy to fall off, die easily. I use the Sony MDR-EX51LP myself. It's pretty good; loud, easy to put on, won't fall off. The down side is that the bass is really weak.

 

[Azndude51]

Originally posted by: ChaoZ
The down side is that the bass is really weak.

i find that the bass is excellent compared to all other earbuds. of course, they're not going to be as good as real headphones that cup around your ear.

 

[Gurck]

Sounding better than the utter bottom of the barrel trash doesn't make the fontopias good.. this principle is what Bose relies on (in addition to massive advertising) to succeed, putting their crap in stores next to even crappier $100 boomboxes. The only sony headphones I've heard good things about (relative to similarly priced competition) are the CD3000s, which run about $400. Even those I suspect are subject to Sony's planned obsolescence (ie. break within a year or two). You could also look into canalphones, I hear a lot of good things about Shure & Etymotic. Not sure if you'd find one in your price range, but spending more would be worth it.

 

[LtPage1]

i love my apple in-ear headphones.

 

[CSMR]

So you're spending 10% of the player price on headphones, when the headphones are more important to how the thing sounds than the player?

 

[WobbleWobble]

I have the MDR-EX70SL and I absolutely love them. Very comfortable and the bassiest reasonably priced ear buds I've ever tried. Some complain they're too bassy but they can easily be modded to fix that.