[blazer78]

As the topic states, best canalphones, that means no in-ear-monitors (no shure, ety,westone etc)

From my past experience, i've tried the EP630's and i hated them. Comfy to some extent, although the sound was horrible, it sounded like a Steep u-shaped EQ'd canalphone. No midrange at all.

So ruling out the EP630 and relatives (CX300, MD33)

I see one alternative, the Audio Technica CK7

Is there anything else i should be considering (overlooked?) at this stage?

And how does the CK7 bass & midrange compare to the Koss KSC75?

 

[socrates63]

A little off topic, but if you use rounded rubber/silicone tips, IEMs fit exactly the same as canalphones like the CX300. Why are you ruling them out? I'm asking because you seem very concerned with sound quality.

 

[jdimitri]

Yeah, i found this odd too.. Usually when people don't want iems it's because they don't like the idea of sticking things in their ears
I think you should reconsider and get a UM1 if you're around that budget ($100ish) or get amazon's deal on the im616 (~$50 i think)

 

[blazer78]

I find that IEM's provide too much isolation for day to day travel on the bus and for casual walking. I perfer some kind of awareness in these situations, so with canalphones, i can usually hear things that occur within close proximity to me, whereas with IEMs i can't hear anything but myself breathing and the music of course....

Unless i've overlooked something here, i've used the silicone tips for the Shure E4c and they really isolated all ambient noises lol, unless you guys are talking about something else.

Edit: Oh and as far as portable audio quality goes, i can't stand anything less than the ATH-CM7Ti =P