A suggestion perhaps?

[mrt]

Hey everyone,

I've been a long time reader of this forum and I've definitely tried to sift through the piles of reviews on small size headphones (ear cannal or not). But here's my delimma:

I do have a set Ety ER-4P. I absolutely love the sound that comes out of these things. I've been playing instruments for over a dozen years so my ears are picky enough to be able to tell the difference between a good set of cans and a great set of cans and my ears go nuts over the sound that my ER-4P provides!! The problem is, and I've read a whole slew of other readers complaining about this, is the cable distortion problem. I can't stand the headache causing crashes that results from my shirt rubbing against the cable (I have the older smoother cable, perhaps the new ribbed cable solved this problem?). Because I can't stand the loud banging, I can't take those headphones running with me.

So I'm in the market for a set of small earphones that I can take running with me that WON'T cause cable distortions to that extent!!

But I also have another problem. My ears are much too large for earbuds. Take for instance the generic size earbuds, like the white ipod ones...They simply fall right out of my ear. They don't fit!! That was one of the reasons why I went with the Ety ER-4P headones in the beginning (almost four years now), but now I'm back at square one trying to decide how to procede.

Money isn't too big of a problem but I feel like dropping half a grand for the e5c may be excessive...

any suggestions for my problem?

[joelongwood]

Welcome to Head-fi, mrt!
I'm not a runner (at least not since high school), so I don't really know what works, but I've seen a lot of runners in my neighborhood and always notice what type of headphones they wear. While most wear buds of some kind, I've seen what looked like Porta-Pros, and some wear clip-ons. One woman actually runs with MDR-V6!
If those are viable while running, I would suggest some Koss clip-ons, like the KSC-50 or 75. I have the KSC-35, and they are, by far the best clip-ons I've tried.
The Koss Porta Pros (and probably the sporta-pros as well) are extremely lightweight and might satisfy your needs.
As I said, I've never tried these while running, so take my recommendations with that in mind.
Hope this helps.

[go_vtec]

Will you be running outside or inside (treadmill)? If you were to run outside, I found canal phones to be not a good choice--first it's dangerous, you hear too much of your heart beat, breathing and footsteps. Indeed it's very distracting for me.

Have you consider cheaper alternatives such as Sony sport-series with headband/neckband? You do pick up bit of wind noise but sound quality is acceptable for workout. I'm using older model MDR-A30 for workout since it only costed me $20 (I would careless if I were to break it during workout) and its moisture resistant. I've tried clip-ons, full size cans (even V6), but they were little too uncomfortable for running.

[VicAjax]

IMHO, no canalphone is any good for running, regardless of how un-microphonic they are... occlusion will always be a problem (footsteps, heartbeats, grunting, breathing, et al).

i third the recommendation for clip-ons (koss)... they're perfect for running.

[ProleArtThreat]

Koss KSC-75 or any of the KSC clip on phones with the Portapro driver. My pick would be the 75's since they have a bendable clip that allows you to mold them and securely fasten them to your ears. They are also open, so you are able to still make out ambient sounds clearly which would be preferable to isolating canalphones from a safety standpoint. They sound extremely good, especially considering their $20 retail price tag.

[morphie]

Grado SR80s

[mrt]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

I think Koss wins it so I'll give it a shot and tell you what I think!!

Thanks again!!

T