Worst headphones you've ever heard? / Low-fi experiences? - Page 3

@kjk1281,
That's fine , just wanted to react because I would certainly not throw away my XD100; and I don't think they are that terrible (for less than 20$).

I can honestly say none of the phones I've ended up buying (of course not including iBuds or OEM Sandisk buds, etc) were terrible, even the ones I didn't love. I even liked the PL30s (once I got sa decent fit), but sold them for $12 (paid $19). I've just had fun trying the various phones, and you can see by my collection, I've tried and sold alot. Most disappointing IEMs? The UM1s, believe it or not. Guess I didn't take to that rolled off high, warm sound. At the time, I also didn't like over the ear phones, but now I do.

I did have The Plugs but can't remember them at all. In fact, I just remembered I owned them (have to add them to my Gone list). Gave them to a neighbor. He's still talking to me.

The worst step if ever taken was going wireless with cans. Omg I can't believe I ever did that.
In my case it was the RS 130. At latest when you are receiving the audiotrack of the tv show your neighbour is watching you know that something went wrong and unluckely I'm not kidding on that fact. Ok, of course you can switch frequency but you won't get away the annoying signal noise.

I've had a couple disappointing listening experiences for sure:

First, the V-moda Vibes were really bad. Boomy, bloated bass, no treble detail, no soundstage. They were all bling and no sing. I'm talking about the original ones, not second generation. I sincerely hope they made improvements to the sound signature for $80 or whatever they go for.

A very close second is the Phonak PFE. To my ears they were about the complete opposite end of the spectrum, all high and mid detail. I was using them unamped, and they just didn't have any bass to speak of this way. It was like there was no foundation to the music presentation.

I was at my friend's the other day, and he had a few pairs of old headphones lying around - a few I actually remember him using back in 8th grade (we just graduated high school) and that was when I was a good ol' ibud lover.

They were a pair of Koss full sized headphones, I can't remember which model - I'll find out in a little while. I popped them on for a listen out of my Ipod just for kicks, and wow. My turbines give bigger sound than those and they're about 1/10 of the size. Even my KCS75s which broke a long time ago from excessive pocket stuffing blew them out of the water. The soundstage was awful, the left driver played louder than the right, there was no detail, no bass, just nothing. Not like I had a direct comparison but I don't even know if they were better than ibuds.

Forget about sound - They were made out of crappy plastic, were light and flimsy, and didn't even fold up to be portable. Talk about impractical.

Now he's rocking the Bose in-ears, which I've tried to talk him out of without luck.

EDIT:
Another sad story - one of my friends was in the market for a $20-$30 IEM. He's a rap guy so I desperately tried to push the NE-7Ms his way for the extra $20 - I just don't know of any other bang/buck IEM that delivers nice bass.

I asked him yesterday If he ever got them and his reply was that he found a great pair of skullcandys. I just wish it was easier to convince people to rop a few bucks on something nice.

Couldn't agree more. I can't understand the need to skimp on sound quality if you take your music seriously. And like you say, there is great sound to be had for not a huge investment.

Especially at the low end of the spectrum there is such a huge improvement for a few more dollars. Whenever people argue with me saying their ibuds are fine my response is always "if everything was fine, we'd still be in the stone age."

Wireless Sony headphones, they were working normally on distance not more than 2 meters, sound was spoiled by hiss... And the signal was always interrupting.

Yeah, have you ever shoved the whole earbud into your ear canal and turned it so the wire jutted sideways, perpendicular to your head? If you turn things just right, you end up with much better bass. It's boomy mud, but at least it's bass.

Speaking of which, my least favorite IEMs are a toss-up between Bose and the bottom-rung Shures they sold me at Best Buy. In both cases, I returned the IEMs within the hour I bought them (one on the ride home). It's not that these are the worst IEMs ever, just that they were my biggest disappointments. I had expected the plastic-hook monkeys at Walmart to redefine the meaning of crap. I just didn't expect to have to pay $100 to have the same experience.

koss. i think they were called "the plug" from koss. i tried everything in radio shack one day opening packages and instantly returning EVERYTHING after an immediate listen in the parking lot. every single set. the very worst for comfort and sound both was "the plug". frankensteiners.

this was a couple years ago. obviously the best iem i found in radio shack was my sony ex51 fontopia set... sorry i thought this site had auto double post merging. or at least i'm used to one that does.

Koss 'The Plug' seems to be a true contender for this thread, heh heh. I'm curious to hear how bad they must be.

Very true. One of those great values I've just found, and quite the opposite to this thread, is the Victor FX500. For around $130 at Bluetin it has to be one of those gems of the audio industry. I'm listening to them much more than my IE8's lately.....

My local library has a cd section with a pair of crap phones, totally trashed, been there for years. Makes my ibud sound like HD800’s.

JVC or RCA earbuds from Wal Mart at something like $5 or $6. I needed them just to listen to the radio while I ran on the treadmill in the winter.

I ended up giving them to my cat to play with