[Poohblah]

so here's my situation...
i'm looking for closed cirumaural headphones with a flat response across the frequency spectrum and good noise isolation for listening to a variety of music on a CD player and iPod. i want nothing "warm," "bassy," etc.

my friend referred me to sennheiser HD280Pro's, but online reviews say that the bass response and bass noise isolation of these cans leaves something to be desired.

my question is... can i get better performance from closed circumaural cans without breaking the bank, or should i be looking at IEM's from etymotics instead?

 

[Golden Monkey]

If you want awesome isolation and flat/neutral response for "reference" sound, look no further than the Ety ER-4. The ER-4P is easy to drive, and "optimized" for portable use, and doesn't really have any coloration to the sound, but adds some curve to the frequency response, and the ER4-S is as flat as you can get, but sounds better amped. For the best of both worlds, get the P and and the P-to-S converter cable.

 

[pedxing]

I don't know about any newer models from AT or Dennon, but there are not many other choices when it comes to closed headphones with a relative balanced feel to them. The HD280 usually run darker. The only other thing I can recommend but will break the bank is the AKG 27x, mostly because they require proper amping and they are quite a bit more expensive upfront.

My other horrible suggestion is look for some old and used Beyer DT-831. Those require signicant amping too.

Ety's have a tendency to concentrate towards the analytical feel, somtimes giving the impression of being too bright. If you need isolation, i suggest going for IEMs.

 

[Poohblah]

the er-4p looks very nice, though i was hoping to spend about $50 less. we'll see how much i have when the next paycheck comes through. would the offerings from shure and UE provide similar noise isolation & audio quality?

ha this thread needs to be moved to the IEM forum now...

 

[Golden Monkey]

Then hold off for the next paycheck, and order them...do yourself the favor, lol. You can find Ety's now for around $170, and to get similar sound quality with other IEMs, you'd have to spend a lot more. They offer the best isolation you can find (I think). The Shure SE210's are in that same price range, but are nowhere near as killer as the Ety. UE's are really nice, but I haven't had a chance to try them personally. I am intrigued by some of them though...*sigh*...so many phones, so few ears...

 

[Poohblah]

okay.
if i throw an amp in there things get really expensive really fast. the ER-4 is $190 at headroom, where could i find them for $170?

but yeah i'll have to wait a week to see how much money i have.

so besides that i just would like to know what the SF3, 4, 5's are like.

 

[Golden Monkey]

They come up every now and then in the for sale forum, or over on Audiogon if you have no issues with buying used IEMs (you can always get new tips for them anyway). New, you have a lot of options, but be careful...some of these prices are too good to be true. Read feedback carefully:
Etymotic MicroPro ER-4P (Power) - Headphones ( ear-bud )