Another new guy looking for advice.

[Carefree]

Hello everyone,

I've done some looking around and I've read the wonderful buyer's guide. Everyone seems to be very knowledgable and hopefully you can help me out.

I have a pair of Sure E4C headphones and I love the sound (the bass could be better, but overall I'm pretty happy with the quality).

However, I find the "over-the-ear" fitting to be uncomfortable, especially if the cord gets pulled, I have to adjust a lot. Also, the other day I got the rubber tip stuck in my ear and it freaked me out so I don't want to go IEM anymore.

I would like a full sized headphone.

I want to spend about £100 ($170 - $200).

I mostly listen to music while I commute to work (or travel).

The models that have interested me from looking around your community are:

Sennheiser HD201 or HD280
Beyerdynamic DT770 (but I'm worried that you need an amp)
Sony MDR-V6
Equation RP 21/22
Audio Technica - ES7

Do you have any advice/recomendations?

Also, how important is it to be closed? Or I suppose, how open is open? Will the entire subway car hear what I'm playing?

I listen to all kinds of music BTW. Wu-Tang - deftones - Belle & Sebastian - Andrew Bird - NOFX - Miles Davis. I need an all-rounder.

Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[tintin47]

To answer one question: open is very open. People will hear what you are listening to. More importantly, though, you will hear other people and the subway noises. Very clearly. This is not a good thing for your ears or your music. It is bad for your ears because you have to crank the volume to unsafe levels to drown out 100dB of subway noise. Bad for your music because of intruding sounds.

For those reasons alone, I would recommend that you stay with IEMs. If you are that nervous about having the tip stuck in your ears, you could save a bit for customs, which don't have removable tips.

Other than that, The ES7 is a pretty good can for the money. The bass can be a bit overpowering and flabby, and it doesn't isolate very well at all, especially considering where you will be using the phones. I would add the Denon D1001 to the list. It is pretty cheap and a good all round can. It is circumaural so it isolates reasonably well (still nothing compared to IEMs).

Also, Andrew Bird is great. I have been really into Noble beast for the last month or so. Seems like he just keeps getting better.

 

[Carefree]

Cool.

Thanks.

Actually I saw Andrew Bird perform here in London a few weeks ago. If he's in your area I highly recomend checking out his live show.

 

[tintin47]

No problem. I have seen him a few times over the last two years. Great live show.

 

[fjrabon]

I'd definitely look into the Audio Technica M50.

The ES7 and the D1001, despite being closed, don't add a whole lot of isolation, definitely not something I'd want for a busy subway ride. I use the D1001 as my portable and on a busy street in the open air it could definitely use more isolation. The ES7 is pretty similar in isolation, from what I remember.

The DT-770 (or at least the versions people like) need an amp.

The HD201 gets an unfairly bad rap around here, I think. However, the chord is really long (too long, imho for portable use) and its very microphonic (meaning that even slight bumps to the chord or headphone itself cause very loud sounds in the earcups). Also, it tends to sound somewhat veiled out of portable digital audio players. It needs some power to "open up" as do most sennheisers, even the easy to drive ones.

The HD280 has weird "peaks" and can have a death grip vice clamp on your head, but other than that its a fine headphone and isolates great from what I remember the couple of times I've used it. However, I'd definitely recommend the AT M-50 over it.

So, in summation, for what you've said I'd rank them:

1) Audio Technica M-50
2) Denon D1001
3) Audio Technica ES7
4) Sennheiser HD280
5) Sennheiser HD201
6) Beyerdynamic DT770


I'm not familiar enough with the rest to fairly comment on them.

 

[nullstring]

because of the isolation requirement, I'd lean toward the ATH-M50

EDIT:
although, you should realize that IEM's are going to provide more passive isolation than anything else.
You may want to think twice about sticking with them.

 

[Carefree]

Thanks so much.

This has been very helpful.

I like the sound of IEMs, but I had to pry out the tip with a paperclip last week in the bathroom at work.

It sounds like the M50s are the way to go. I'll go to the shop and give them a listen for good measure.

I'm currently using an old pair of Ixos DJ1003 headphones. These are the ones I had before moving to Sure and the difference is very noticable. The bass is wonderful, but the rest of it sounds so muddy. For anything other than electronic music it's all a bit wishy-washy.

 

[mbd2884]

I think the DT770 would not be a good choice for Deftones or Belle and Sebastian. I have almost all of Belle and Sebastian albums and a few of the Deftons.