so I got my Etymotic ER6i yesterday. 2 things.

1. are you supposed to use the ear filters OR the ear tips? why are both included?

2. I compared them to my buddies Noise Canceling headphones. for Noise Canceling, the Bose did much better. (they are 4x as expensive, as well)

duke,

sennheiser hd280 pro would do the job just right there. I believe they generally go for like $120.

Devil,

I am glad you like them, i really would like to give those a listen sometime.

Zod,

1. The filters go in the unit itself to keep earwax from getting on the drivers. The tips are to make unit fit in your ear better.
2. I am not surprised.

PITTM - I looked at some reviews for these headphones and they do seem like they'd work well for my purpose - I'll definitely go into a store and check them out. It also seems like they can be found for less than $120, which is a nice plus. Thanks! Much appreciated.

You should be able to get Sennheiser HD600s for $300, and they're very good. Grados are very popular but I'm not a big fan. One thing to keep in mind is that HD600 are open headphones. They will sound very loud to the person in the same room with you (not suitable for reasonable volumes in a work environment with cubes, for example). The AKGs mentioned are closed and quieter to the outside. Of course you will hear outside noises less too.

Colored. But some like that sort of sound. "rich warm smooth" if you like them or "fat wooly bloated" if you don't.

I have the HD600 but I don't know that they are necessarily better than the HD580s. I can't recommend the 580s because I've never heard them but I suspect they sound the same if not very close, and in any case are probably a much better value.

tx. just to be clear - do the tips go over the filters? it doesn't look like both can be used at the same time.

jeff,

if you are telling duke to get the hd600s i disagree with this advice for a few reasons.

1. he wanted some sound isolation, the 600s literally couldnt offer less sound isolation. I have had my roommate who lives across the hall ask me to turn down my headphones. that is not isolation.
2. the hd600s are possibly the worst deal in the headphone world. why? because the hd580s use the exact same drivers, can be bought used for like <100 bucks and with a simple modification(replace the 580 grilles with 600 grilles[$18 bucks from sennheiser parts] you have pretty much exactly the hd600s.

re: RS1's- THESE LACK SO MUCH BASS IT MAKES ME CRY. The HF-1 is the best headphone grado has ever made imo and all of their other stuff is kind of garbage. i know this opinion is a bit controversial. but i would say that imo grado is the most overrated headphone company in a tie with sony.

zod.

if you take off the tip, you will see a little screen on the top of the part the tip was on. this is the filter. They come with filters in them, but once the filters are clogged with earwax they need to be replaced. The tips go OVER the filters.

Well for one thing, I was replying to the original post. For another, I pretty much already made the 2 points you just made. So I'm really not sure where you're coming from.

Not sure what you mean there either, since if anything the RS1 is very tubby in the bass - at least the pair I heard. But in any case I basically agree, Grado headphones are colored and overrated. But then, if you like the way something sounds to you, that is what is worth paying for.

jeff,

i thought you were responding the the guy above you about the hd600s and it would have made no sense if you were. my bad.

By the way, regarding the drivers for the 580 and 600, it's my understanding that they use the "same" drivers, however either
1) the drivers are built with better tolerances for the 600 than the 580, or
2) the drivers selected for the 600 from the big batch of them are closely matched

Either way this has some value. How much is up to you. This is not uncommon, and not a ripoff (unless they are misleading you.) For example, if you play golf you can buy Dynamic shafts or Dynamic Gold shafts. The Gold are more expensive, naturally. The difference? They are the same shaft. The Golds are labelled such because they are selected from the entire batch to be the ones with the closest weight tolerances to the original spec. This technique has the advantage of not requiring tighter, more expensive manufacturing tolerances.

Note that this has the double whammy effect of also diluting the quality for the regular shafts. All the best ones are taken from that pool, so overall variance goes up even more for them than the original manufacturing.

ok, my review of the Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio vs. the Etymotic ER6i

I'm a noob to IEC headphones, and ordered both of these to compare (and return one). it took a while to adjust to each of them - putting them on requires reading directions! either that or I'm an idiot.

I first tried the Ultimate Ears, and they kept falling out until I realized they were upside down. then I read the directions, and used the R&R method to put them in. much better! they sounded great.

then I tried on the Etymotics. they looked easy to put on, but to get really deep in my ear I needed to pull my ear up and out, like the directions said. mission accomplished, I played some tunes. they sounded similar to the UE, but I liked them better b/c the cord was longer, and they were easier to put on.

but then I tried the UE again, and wow! they sounded a lot better. much deeper bass, much fuller sound in general. I tried the Etymotics again, and sure enough they didnt sound as good as the UE.

now I was torn, b/c it was between the better sounding phones (UE) vs. the easier to use ones (etymotics). I put the UE's on a few more times, and realized they were actually quite easy to put on. so they are the winner.

thanks pittm!

I think the UE super.fi 3 Studio will be my next purchase. Thanks for that review.

HeadRoom makes an amp with a circuit I like. I believe what it does it leak a little right channel into the left, and vice versa. The effect is somewhat subtle, but it makes it sound more like you're listening to music in real space. When you listen to speakers, you obviously hear some the of the left channel through your right ear and vice versa. This seems to make listening less fatiguing, and moves that "middle of your head image" to a more natural one.

Ah, youre talking about crossfeed. Crossfeed is definitely not a proprietary HeadRoom only product. I know many of the Maier audio products use crossfeed and the like. People who are primarily speaker listeners swear by it and say it makes everything sound more natural. My friend who got me into headphones has the HeadRoom Coda limited edition and it has crossfeed and I have A/B'd it with my hornet a few times, and the hornet just kills it. I can tell a slight difference between unites with and without crossfeed and to me the crossfeed actually makes things sound slightly worse imo.

I wrote a paper about headroom for my Economics of emerging technology class when i was a senior and gave a presentation and the whole class loved it even though they had no idea what I was talking about at first. Since then, I must say with some regret, I think HeadRooms products have kinda stagnated while everyone else is improving so much. Headroom is concentrating too much on making their amps balanced and putting DAC's in them that they havent concentrated on the just pure amplification as much as I would like, and this is the exact point where my Hornet just smokes most HeadRoom products. While we;re on topic, I have never really been that impressed with balanced amps as opposed to non balanced amps. It is just one of those things in the audio market where you have such ridiculously diminishing returns that at a certain point youre paying like a grand extra for a feature that is a very slight improvement.

I don't doubt what you're saying. I have an older HeadRoom model. I recently looked at their web site and can't even figure out what I'm looking at anymore.

I've heard the term crosstalk more than crossfeed, but anyway - I like it (except, obviously, for mono or binaural recordings.) Recordings were simply meant to be listened to through speakers. The circuit doesn't just leak signal by the way - it has to time delay it ever so slightly. But, to each his own.

I'm not a fan of crossfeed.

Hard to explain but it just doesn't sound right.
I turn off the crossfeed and it becomes much clearer.

So when I upgraded I got an amp without crossfeed. Grace 901.
Drives my Sennheiser HD650s and my Grado SR 325s (modded) perfectly.

Anyone want a Headroom Supreme w/crossfeed cheap?

Circuit City is giving 20-40% off Shure headphones.

E2C - $79 ($20 off retail) Plus 2% fat Cash Back!
E3C - $129 ($50 of retail) Plus 2% fat Cash Back!
E4C - $179 ($120 of retail) Plus 2% fat Cash Back!
E5C - $379 ($120 of retail) - Currently out of stock

Link to deal

Hey fellas...

I searched all over in 2p2 and couldn't find anything on the headphones I'm looking to pick up. The Audio Technica ATH A700's... Audio Technica ATHA700


I'm tired of earbuds that don't fit, I don't like canal phones and I really want cans the don't sit on my ears.

I can get them for @ $120 and am willing to shell out for them if they are as good as I think they are. I'm open to suggestions, if not these, or thoughts/reviews on them.

Thanks fellas!

I got these JVC HA-NC80 phones from the FTP store I am just going to use them for live poker anyone ever try them.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets//jvc-hanc...des-217277.php

Fellas? Anyone?

ive heard them.

i think sennheiser, AKG and beyer all blow that can out of the water in the same price range. Especially in looks, man are audiotechnicas ugly. since youre looking at a sealed, i offer you an awesome alternative:

Beyerdynamic DT-770

PITTM: best sennheiser cans that dont need to be amped? probably prefer open but closed is fine.

sennheiser hd595. not close.

PITT,

I prefer the HD590 to the 595s based on feel and sound, but my opinion on the sound might be bad