Introduction I need music to work. It gets the creative juices flowing and it blocks most of the background noise of the open plan offices where I spend most of my time. I have a Beyerdynamic DT770-pro 250 ohm which I love dearly but let's face it, it's not very discrete and sometimes you get strange looks.. So I bought the Philips SHE-3590 to see if I could adjust to in-ears. I could and the Philips was good value for money but it's coarese and it's sound very v-shaped to appeal to the mass market audience. So time to start looking elsewhere. I...

Spend some time googling for decent budget earbuds and sooner or later you'll stumle upon Philips. There's some raving reviews out there for their SHE3580 which went out of production in 2012. According to Philips product support this is the same device with just the colours changed a bit.   Where to buy? Over here in north-west Europe they're easy to find with most big name stores as well as the bigger online retailers stocking them. Expect to pay between 8 and 10 euros for the white or black. Price and availability of the fancier colours varies...

After returning the X3 I sat down at the dealer to compare this device to the E17. I was looking for something to improve the atrocious sound that comes out of the Realtek chip in my Dell laptop. I use a Beyerdynamic DT770 250 ohm and my frame of reference is my rockboxed clip+. When comparing it to the E17 I had the impression that it had a problem somewhere.   Packaging and first impression The E10k comes in a rather flat cardboard package that slides open easily. Inside you find the E10k lodged in a piece of foam and a small box that contains...

After several years with a rockboxed Clip+ I was yearning for a bit more detail and a somewhat bigger soundstage especially for my classical music. I also wanted just a tad more power for my DT770-250ohm. I am not an audiophile and my hearing is not what it once was so this is more an impression from an average user and not a dedicated hobbyist.   This Christmas I found an X3 under the tree.   First impression is very positive. The packaging is nice, feels like a real present for you. It's a nice touch that the unit comes with cables as well as a...