Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Headphones?

Hi Murph,

Try a pair of Koss's "The Plug". They're surprisingly smooth, albeit with a bit of a hump in the bass, and neutral in the mids and highs. Plus they're a no-brainer at about $15, and come with a good selection of different-sized squishy foam inserts so you can get a good fit with the ear canal.

Regards,

I hate to disagree with Alan BUT those Koss plugs were junk imo, a waste of $15. I didn't hear them as neutral at all. To me they were all about fat bloated bass and the fit was horrible no matter what I tried.

I would suggest something like the ER6. I have a set of Altec Lansing im716s that were developed by Etytomic Research and they are leaps and bounds better the The Plug. The ER6s are reported to be very similar to the im716s.

Thanks all. Gives me some options. Too bad demoing head phones in the store is pretty much impossible.

My mp3 player needs are just really for background noise, I am almost always working away or reading a book when I have them on, so I'm never really concentrating on the music or how it sounds. I'll be happy if they are more comfortable than my wretched ear buds that came with the Zen and sound at least as good or a bit better.

The advice is appreciated.

For plane trips, I use a pair of Sennheiser HD-280s. They block out cabin noise really well and sound quite decent. My similarly priced Grados sound better, but don't block any sound whatsoever. And I'm not a big fan of sticking things in my ears, so "canalphones" are out.

I HATED the Koss Plugs. Sorry Alan. They are cheap, though.

For casual portable use (not air travel) I use a pair of Sony clip-ons (Sony MDR-Q22LP). Not audiophile, but better than ear buds, cheap, and durable (important for me).

Well, fit is everything. I'll disagree with you on the Etymotic in-ear models I reviewed. No bass whatsoever, none. Plus they were supplied with a skimpy set of inserts, none of which fit properly, so I requested more until I found some with a good fit. At the time, those were extra cost but I think Etymotic supplies them with the phones.

At the time, the Etymotics were $139. To show the variance, a friend of mine, a reviewer for Cnet, raved about these same phones that I dismissed. However, I was gratified to read that a number of users who posted on Cnet had the same reaction that I did.

So it may all come down to the fit to the ear canal. However, that doesn't affect midrange linearity, of which the Koss Plugs are very smooth.

Regards,

The HD-280s are 64 Ohm so you may want to check with your MP3 player first. They do sound interesting for applications such as airplanes and public places, though.

With my luck, my ear canal is square.....

[quote=MarkSJohnson]
If it is square, expect to have a lot of gain in the bass!

I bought a pair of Koss KSC75 over-the-ear phones that I like very much.

I read good reviews somewhere "official" then found the user ratings on Amazon were quite good. Of course, over-the-ear are not for everybody, but I find them the best compromise for my MP3 player in that don't need to have a perfect in-ear fit and don't fall out like in-ear buds, yet don't have the bulk and "hair-mussing" of standard phones.

These sound better than I expected, are very comfortable and, I think, are a real bargain.

Any experience out there with these two: Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio or Sennheiser CX300?

I want buds/in ear to replace the ipod phones. Something portable and comfortable, with good sound. I often stick the ipod(shuffle) and buds in my pocket. This has caused the rubber part around the buds to come off. The new ones I get should have a protective case or be designed to be durable going in and out of my pocket.