First foray into quality headphones.

[christofurr]

Hey guys. I'm obviously new around these parts, and fairly new into being serious about what I shove into my ears. Until now I've always used the headphones that have come with a music player I've bought. And since being an ipod buyer, I've gone back to some in-ear Sony's that I got with a walkman I bought in the late 90's (even someone new to this whole thing knows how crap ipod headphones are!).

I'm currently in the process of looking for some new headphones, and a first decent pair to boot. Being a poor student I'm going to limit myself to a budget of $100USD, which seems like a pretty good segment of the market with a lot of products in it.

I've done a fair bit of reading these forums in the past couple of days and I've more-or-less decided on some IEM's. I listen to most of my music while doing something active, or riding on the bus. So far I've got a bit of a shopping list and was wondering if you guys could help me narrow things down a bit, or suggest some alternatives.

Klipsch Custom-1
Ultimate Ears super.fi 3
Etymotic ER-6i
Shure SE110

A bit of a background on my gear/music tastes. I'll be running these through a 3rd gen ipod Nano for the most part, as I mostly listen to music through headphones while I'm away from home. My music tastes are broad and cover just about any genre. I'm not after massive bass, a nice clean sound across the whole spectrum would suit me just fine (for now...I can see this is addictive). I'm not running an amp at the moment, and may look into one after getting some good headphones.

Cheers for reading this long post (if you made it this far!). I'm looking forward to hearing any of your suggestions.

 

[fraseyboy]

Hey! Welcome to head-fi and sorry about your wallet

Good to see another New Zealander on here! Just out of interest, what part of NZ are you from?

As for your question, ER-6i's would do best IMO. The bass is there, but not overpowering and they're VERY VERY VERY detailed and crystal clear. I love mine!

I recommend buying the Shure Black 'Olive' foames for them as, IMO, the ER6i's don't sound that good with the stock tips. Buy the olives and well... WOW!

The olives are also alot more comfortable and last longer. I got mine from discountheadphones.com which is pretty much the only place I found that shipped them here

Look for 'E1/E3/E5 Medium Black Foam Sleeves. Bag of 10. (5 pair)'.

Good luck!

 

[KUNFUCHOPSTICKS]

You can chop off the UE and the Shure from your list when ER-6i is there. And as for Klipsch, i don't know how they compare to ER-6i; Klipsch is a very reputable brand in my opinion. I have ER-6i and they have been very good, a real eye opener, or ear opener i should say.

 

[Bon]

Welcome, is good to see another

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/ne...we-all-307963/

check this thread out if you want a bit of info or a chat to other nz'drs

 

[Bon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KUNFUCHOPSTICKS /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can chop off the UE and the Shure from your list when ER-6i is there.

+1

 

[Joelc87]

Go with the ER-6i, the UE and SE110's are nice but the bass is a little poppy and not really punchy. As for the Klipsch, I have no experience there.

 

[christofurr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fraseyboy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Good to see another New Zealander on here! Just out of interest, what part of NZ are you from? As for your question, ER-6i's would do best IMO. The bass is there, but not overpowering and they're VERY VERY VERY detailed and crystal clear. I love mine! I got mine from discountheadphones.com which is pretty much the only place I found that shipped them here Look for 'E1/E3/E5 Medium Black Foam Sleeves. Bag of 10. (5 pair)'. Good luck!

Hey, I'm from up in Wellington.

I know what you mean about findind places to ship here. I was looking at some Shure E2C's a few months back but gave up because I couldn't find anywhere that'd ship here, and all the places in NZ were selling them for a huge markup. Glad to see there is somewhere willing to ship here! Another downer about living here is it's really hard to try out quality headphones.



Sounds like the ER-6i's are a pretty polular choice among a lot of people here. Their nose is out in front at the moment but I won't pull the trigger for a couple of days yet just to see what happens.

I was also considering buying a portable amp at the same time but might save for a while first.

 

[christofurr]

As one last side note before I head off to do some more dreaded study (thank gawd for easter break) how do Westone UM1's compare to ER-6i? They're a pretty comparible price.

 

[Silvain]

I did not like the SE110's compared to my older E2c's which were $40 dollars cheaper than the SE110's. The bass was muddy and the trebles rolled off.

 

[fraseyboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by christofurr /img/forum/go_quote.gif As one last side note before I head off to do some more dreaded study (thank gawd for easter break) how do Westone UM1's compare to ER-6i? They're a pretty comparible price.

I had the UM1's but sold them. I can't remember why... I think it's because they were kinda boring sounding. Very comfortable, but not so good sound. I wouldn't really recommend them.