Headphones vs. Earphones--Which Ones?

[Carmantom]

Can good (great) earphones be as good as headphones?

I have had and continue to have big issues w/ comfort w/ headphones. I have a tall and wide head. Headaches. banding feeling on top of head, and clamping on ears, leading to tenderness, makes me forget about the music. I have read threads about some having difficulty with wearing earphones also, but I thought I might get away with that, since I have a wife who snores terribly, and have used earplugs nightly for at least 11 years. Granted I have tried only the HD-600s and the AKG K701s, but I don't want to try every headphone in North America either. I have read many threads re: comfort and when I finally see one that might work, for instance Denon 5000, I then go on to read how uncomfortable the are for someone else.

So I thought maybe earphones could approach or exceed SQ and comfort. I'm not looking for portability. I have reasonable budget if this could work say $600 + for earphones. I might even be able to use some of the rig I currently have. CDP-DAC1-Raptor (probably way overkill).

I know very little about earphones and would appreciate any input I can get.

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

If you have $600 to play with you could get some nice custom in-ears maybe from Ultimate Ears or perhaps LiveWires. Couple a pair of those with a Tomahawk should yield nice results. A pair of LiveWires with impressions done by a audiologist will set you back like $320 and then the Tomahawk which retails for about $300.

If you get good impressions a custom earphone will be very comfortable.

 

[P.F. Jo]

Generaly speaking, SQ Will probably be better in headphones compared to earphones in almost any budget[meaning: 600$ Will buy you better headphones than earphones at same price SQ-Wise, etc.....] But I think that there ARE earphones in your budget that can be very close to a high end headphone SQ-wise.....

About comfortability, If you use earplugs [which I doubt that they're custom made for you], You could EASILY buy a great pair of custom earphones.

-J.

 

[Carmantom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by P.F. Jo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Generaly speaking, SQ Will probably be better in headphones compared to earphones in almost any budget[meaning: 600$ Will buy you better headphones than earphones at same price SQ-Wise, etc.....] But I think that there ARE earphones in your budget that can be very close to a high end headphone SQ-wise..... About comfortability, If you use earplugs [which I doubt that they're custom made for you], You could EASILY buy a great pair of custom earphones. -J.

At this point close would be good, since currently I am more focused on discomfort than the music. I would spend $1500 to $200 if I could rival a good Headphone rig(end to end).