Hello, this is my first post and venture into portable Hifi.
I travel rather extensively and have been generally pleased with my Panasonic noise reducing headphones. I compared them to the Sony equivalent before purchasing, and found the active noise reduction equal, except the Panos were more comfortable on my noggon. However... The Panos have terrible sound when the NR is turned off. (Perhaps most NR cans do ??? ) They sound muffled, distant, underwater basically. With a flip of a switch the sound great... well great to me, as I have yet to hear anything better. I find this a downside, as there are times when I want to use my cans in a quiet controlled environment.
Today I went to Best Buy and bought a pair of Shure SE110's as the sound isolation feature was intriguing.
I have been comparing my Pano's with the Shure's to see which method seems superior.
Noise Reduction :: about the same / need more real world tests though... I'm leaning slightly to the Shures.
Sound Quality :: Pretty similar, although I am leaning to the Pano's when the NR is turned on... as long as music is playing you really can't hear the white noise.
Comfort :: The Pano's win here. Even though the Shures were not uncomfortable or painfull to wear, anything jammed in my ear other than wax feels foreign.
Portability :: Shure's - their earphones !!
MAJOR CONS
I thought the Shures would be another alternative to sound isolation, however after going for a normal walk with them my mind quickly changed. IN EAR PHONES of any calibar are only suited to NON MOVEMENT activity.... I could hear my footsteps in my ears, any breathing, and if I were to be chewing gum than yes, that too would be amplified... It seems to me that IEM's are great as long as you don't do anything....This kind of defeats the whole purpose of taking my music with me....
I am considering taking them back and putting the 100 bucks towards another ipod etc. Or a better sounding pair of normal closed headphones.... OR perhaps another pair of better sounding active NR's.
Any suggestions ? Cheers
I travel rather extensively and have been generally pleased with my Panasonic noise reducing headphones. I compared them to the Sony equivalent before purchasing, and found the active noise reduction equal, except the Panos were more comfortable on my noggon. However... The Panos have terrible sound when the NR is turned off. (Perhaps most NR cans do ??? ) They sound muffled, distant, underwater basically. With a flip of a switch the sound great... well great to me, as I have yet to hear anything better. I find this a downside, as there are times when I want to use my cans in a quiet controlled environment.
Today I went to Best Buy and bought a pair of Shure SE110's as the sound isolation feature was intriguing.
I have been comparing my Pano's with the Shure's to see which method seems superior.
Noise Reduction :: about the same / need more real world tests though... I'm leaning slightly to the Shures.
Sound Quality :: Pretty similar, although I am leaning to the Pano's when the NR is turned on... as long as music is playing you really can't hear the white noise.
Comfort :: The Pano's win here. Even though the Shures were not uncomfortable or painfull to wear, anything jammed in my ear other than wax feels foreign.
Portability :: Shure's - their earphones !!
MAJOR CONS
I thought the Shures would be another alternative to sound isolation, however after going for a normal walk with them my mind quickly changed. IN EAR PHONES of any calibar are only suited to NON MOVEMENT activity.... I could hear my footsteps in my ears, any breathing, and if I were to be chewing gum than yes, that too would be amplified... It seems to me that IEM's are great as long as you don't do anything....This kind of defeats the whole purpose of taking my music with me....
I am considering taking them back and putting the 100 bucks towards another ipod etc. Or a better sounding pair of normal closed headphones.... OR perhaps another pair of better sounding active NR's.
Any suggestions ? Cheers
