Hi all,

I'd like to try IEM's but I know almost nothing about them.

I would use them mainly (or only ?) while travelling by train or plane, so one very strong instance is isolation from outside noise; together with sound quality of course.

So, first of all: do you think I could get a good isolation on train/plane or is it a battle lost from the start ?

My ear 'conducts' are narrow, I guess, as the earbuds of the Sennheiser CX500 that I own are quite fastidious to me: does this mean that I should not consider IEM's at all, or are there some 'comfortable' models ?

Budget: undefined. I mean: I would like to spend less than, say, 150€ (I think it's about 200$ or so), but it's definitively not something I must buy tomorrow, I'm not in a hurry, so if you tell me that such sum is not at all sufficient to buy something decent, I can delay purchase and... save money in the meantime (but I will never ever spend, for example, 500$...)

I saw a used pair of Shure SE210, coming toghether with an Ibasso T4, at an affordable price: apart from the iBasso, what do you think of the SE210 ? do they isolate good ? and what about sound ?

thanks a lot, ciao

daniele

thanks for your advice, I'll start getting some informations about Etymotics.

(Marcus, the image of sleeping at Picadilly Circus in the rush hour was very convincing ! :-D)

ciao

daniele

one more question: I've visited the Etymotic web site and I saw the ER-4's have a retail price of 299$, but I've found them at lower prices in several other sites (e.g. Amazon), so that they are just a little above my budget; similarly, the HF-5 are way below my budget.

so, I could have the choice between spending much less than I expected (...I'd better say fear) or spending a little more but... but what ?

I mean: are the ER-4 considerably better than the HF5 ? do they win hands down or is it just "nuances" that I may not appreciate when listening on a plane by an iPod -though I use only uncompressed files ?

should I go for quality regardless to the rest, or should I go for a bang-for-the-bucks purchase (considering that these would be my first 'real' IEM's) ?

thanks a lot, ciao

daniele 

I thank you all.

You convinced me to an Etymotic model; it'll probably be HF5, but I'll think it over for a while before the definitive decision: as I told, I'm not in a hurry.

I've also read a recent thread of comparison between HF2 and ER4 and the opinions there seem to go in the same direction (ER4 better, but not so much better; better q/p ratio for the HF); moreover, due to the expected use of these IEM's (travelling), the "no-need-for-an-amp" could be a "plus" for the HF5.

I'm curious about the custom tips, I've read about it on the Ety web site and it intrigues me, as I'm afraid my ear channels are quite narrow... but I guess that would be quite expensive.

Anyway, let's go step by step...

thanks again,

ciao

daniele