[flamerz]

I've always liked UM1's and UM2's because they're small, clear, and the wires are meant to go over the ear and behind the neck. Such inconspicuousness is perfect for school!

My extremely horrible, idiotic Spanish teacher wouldn't notice people throwing fifty pennies at him a day, but he would notice my KSC-75's and iM716's on my ears, even when I head my head down. Hopefully I don't have him next year

.

But anyway, I think I could even wear these in my classes with good teachers without them noticing they're in my ears, except the PE teacher I had. She was amazingly strict, especially for PE. I'm guessing about a quarter of my PE (weight lifting) class failed, and the average grade was probably a B. Luckily, I'm really skinny, and pretty strong for my weight, so I ended up with an A.

Back on subject. I never hear people recommending Westone IEM's for their ability to be concealed so well. It's such a major decision maker for me, that I don't even consider reading about the IEM's that are up to $100 more, just because they won't be as inconspicuous and concealable. Sure, SQ is nice, but I won't be able to hear any music after the teacher tells me to put them away (and possibly confiscates them).

So my question is: Are you intrigued by the inconspicuousness of Westone IEM's?

 

[J-Pak]

No I'm not.

 

[vYu223]

IEM's are the worst kind of headphone to listen to during class. You need to be able to hear what's going on around you. Besides... when I listen to music, I like to focus on the music and enjoy it, rather than try to do something else at the same time, without being caught.

Besides... anything in people's ears are very noticeable. When you look at people, you look at their face. Then you think, "is that a hearing aid?" Then they have to explain to you what an IEM is.

 

[flamerz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vYu223 IEM's are the worst kind of headphone to listen to during class. You need to be able to hear what's going on around you. Besides... when I listen to music, I like to focus on the music and enjoy it, rather than try to do something else at the same time, without being caught. Besides... anything in people's ears are very noticeable. When you look at people, you look at their face. Then you think, "is that a hearing aid?" Then they have to explain to you what an IEM is.

That's why our opinions differ. See, when I put in my IEM's, I don't want to hear what's going on around me. Then I usually either put my head down, or put my hood up and close my eyes.

Most teachers don't really look at their students' faces to make sure they're not listening to music, but I'm sure they glance over the class every once in a while. With Westone IEM's the're much less likely to notice, while with my iM716's, there's these big white plugs sticking out of my ears, and the only way to hide it is to do something that the teacher would make me stop doing (putting my head down, putting my hood on). Now I'll be able to just daze off into my music, while staring in the teacher's general direction, and I'll bet that he/she won't notice most of the time.

I can see why you'd want to pay attention, but it's times like that when I don't listen to music.

Edit: Whoa, I just realized why most Head-Fi members wouldn't really care. They don't go to high school. In college, if you don't pay attention, it'll really hurt you. At work, they (most likely) wouldn't need to hide it, and if they did, IEM's would be horrible for that. And if they're retired, I'm pretty sure the wife would get annoyed when you'd just not hear her.

 

[nabwong]

I wished i listened more when i was in high school. Could have saved me a lot of effort correcting what i did wrong later. You never know when something smart might come out of the teacher's mouth. Then again, you can't wear a hood in schools in Asia. We have uniforms and the teachers are much stricter. Had my time with corporal punishment too.

 

[flamerz]

Oh, trust me. Last year I only listened during free time in my history class, movies in my language arts class, and in my Spanish class.

I actually got lots of free time in history, as my teachers was cool, and didn't like to work.

The movies in my language arts class were at the end of the year, when my teacher finally ran out of curriculum. They were extremely boring.

My Spanish teacher was horrible. He just can't teach. Students knew that, and because of that, he got no respect, and no one paid attention. In the last quarter of the year, it got better, but he got worse, and was more irritable. So if one person started asking for help from him, he would tell them to stop interrupting and wait for him to finish his sentence. Raising your hand wouldn't work, cause even when he sees it, he justs ignores. When you call his name at the end of his sentence, he would say to wait until he's done with the end of his sentence. It would drive me CRAZY.

Anyway, if you said one thing to someone and he heard it, just anything, he would start up a speech. One time I loudly and clearly (so that he wouldn't have to lecture the class about being quiet) said, "THANKS FOR THE PAPER." Of course, he started lecturing about how he's not at fault for us not learning, and that he's waiting for us to stop talking. We were actually waiting for him more than he would wait for us. These lectures would take about five minutes, and at least four would happen a day. This is when I start listening to music, or just when I'd go to sleep.

He was right though. There was one boy in my class who was commited to learning. But the thing that seperated him from the rest of us, is that he doesn't have any friends, and doesn't know anything else at school besides learning. He's never socialized (I've known him for four years), he's never played anything (besides in PE, but I doubt he considered it fun), and he showers once every other week. He was much different from the rest of the class though, and my teacher just can't realize that a mean, strict style of teaching just won't work on most Americans. It's just not normal, unless you actually back it up with punishment, AND HE NEVER DID.

The worst he did (which happened frequently) was to call up the security guards, and have them take students away. Sometimes they took half the class, because the students wanted to leave. They weren't learning, they were getting irritated by my teacher, and doing nothing away from my teacher was better than doing nothing with my teacher around.

Sometimes he would be in a good mood, and not lecture. This is when I actually had a good time paying attention, and the only time when I'd learn (probably once a week in the last quarter.)

In China, I know school is much different than in the states. I'm sure I'd pay more attention if I went to school there. Heck, I do pay attention, just not with a horrible teacher.

 

[flamerz]

Whew, ranting about my old Spanish teacher never gets old. I've probably done it over a dozen times now.

 

[jonnywolfet]

the westone iem's were designed to be used in live onstage performances as budget monitoring systems, they are supposed to be inconspicuous.

 

[vYu223]

Thanks for explaining. I totally understand now. But one thing that bothers me so much is that highshool is so important that it kind of is the turning point in your life--every decision you make will impact your life later, especially college and college acceptance (and grades).

Whoa, now that you've explained it, I understand now. I haven't had a teacher like that since... oh crap--a month ago... My math teacher sucked. She didn't know how to control the class at all and didn't know how to teach. She would lash out at the class at random times because of how passive-aggressive she probably is. Half of the class (probably even more, like 50+%) failed and are going into "Applied Mathematics" next year, a.k.a. retard math. I failed too, but got an appeal from the head of the math apartment--he knows me well, and he's cool, so I got into trig.

I actually listened to my iPod during that class, but it was too uncomfortable to be leaning on my hand in the most un-ergonomic position... The reason why I said that IEM's are horrible for in-class listening is because sometimes the teacher will call on you, and you have to be able to hear that and respond+cover for yourself.

I hate bad teachers... they basically ruin your life (esp. in highschool and above) because they screw up your education.

I'm liking the inconspicuousness of the Westone's now, but the type of sound quality is my first priority, so whether I get westones later or not, the decision will not be based upon its inconspicousness.

 

[lostbobby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vYu223 people, you look at their face. Then you think, "is that a hearing aid?" Then they have to explain to you what an IEM is.

They look like secret service thingies, or those phones that Lance Armstrong wore.

 

[ShaftedTwice]

Meh, sure they're inconspicuous, but I don't really care all that much about it.

 

[Laptopia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Pak No I'm not.

Nope. I'm not, either.

 

[wanderman]

Iems are nice when you don't want to pay attention. During one of my classes a guest lecturer came in who wanted to sell us this new major at the school I just tuned him out and popped in my iems. In college it is even easier to not pay attention the second row of my chem class was having a starcraft lan, kids play wow during math lectures, and watch movies during the teachers movies/presentations. The worst I have done is watch split my screen with family guy:stewie griffin on one half and note taking on the other; the subtitles helped alot because I wanted to read all the director notes.

 

[creyc]

Me neither, until I actually got them. Now that aspect of them is kind of interesting, though not at all useful to me. In fact at work it can be a bit bothersome; someone will look in my direction and start saying something towards me. They don't notice the headphones, being so small and the wire hidden, and just assume I'm not paying attention or some such. It's happened a few times now, and I'm in a position where I rarely interact with other employees or especially customers on a face-to-face basis, so I can imagine how troublesome they could be for someone who has frequent contact.

I suppose in school they would be good. They don't leak in either direction, so even in the library you wouldn't be a distraction, and because of their small concealed size they wouldn't stick out. However you become basically deaf to the world with them on, so should a teacher wish to address you, you would have no idea and be pointed out very very quickly!

We did have classes, such as multimedia, where we're given a bit more freedom as long as we met our curriculum. This has a way of dividing the class into the people that care about the subject matter and those who don't and choose to abuse the time to do whatever. I was always quite interested, because it was video production, editing, 3D modeling and animation as well as live show production work, so often I'd wear big honkin' phones (frequently not even plugged into anything!) just to cut the noise down and refrain myself from getting into conversations with people while trying to get something done. Generally I would say listening to music while at school is a bad idea, but like some of the examples listed here, there are exceptions.

And for these exceptions, the Westone products sure perform well!