I love canalphones for commuting, more isolation = less useless an tiring distraction, and you don't have to pump up the volume to shout down the background noise, better for the ears.
This is what I just wrote here:
http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showt...81#post1018981
The bottomline is something like: if you use a higherres-player, the e2's are ok, use another player and the sony's might do okay, keeping in mind the $100 limit.
Quote:
I listened to the EX70&71 for 2 years avg 3 hrs a day and loved them, especially the more fun 70, on a humble 501 MD-player. Rolled of high, flattened dynamics at LP (Atrac3 132 kbs) yet strangely listenable, like my Tivoli model one kitchentable radio.
However, moving up to higher res players like f.i. my current NW-HD1 which is filled with 256kbs Atrac3+ the errors of the phones become annoying.
The 70 has a bass distortion that reaches up to far in the mid, like a clown with an oversized pants up to his neck, the 71 has a resonably balanced bass but an unpleasantly hard mid&treble.
Pity, because they a reasonably cheap, reliable and very very comfortable (on journeys I sometimes listened 14 hrs non-stop without fatigue, especially the 70 has a non-offensive yet strangely musical sound on the MD player).
Now I got the E2. I love the sound, for outdoors use on a portable with compressed music it's more then good enough, no complaints on any part of the SQ at all (except the soundstage, but I doubt you can get it big anyway with canalphones). But I find them rather uncomfortable compared with the 70/71; hard to get a good seal, the rubbing of the foams vs the hurt of the hard silicone, the far cable (no microphonics though) the idiocy of having to wrap the cord around your ears , where it doesn't stay put or interfers with my sun/readingglasses.(I don't do that anymore, instead I put the T-piece in my shirt, doesn't stay put either)
I wish someone could shoehorn the SQ of the E2 into the MDR-EX70. There is hope however; I did the "brohken"mod, consisting of thickening the e2-stems so that the EX-silicones fit and stay put, much more comfortable, doesn't hurt the SQ either (doesn't seem to improve it very much either, but I need more time to be definetive about that).
.Thank you in advance.
