[PBJ]

Hi y'all, this is my first post on head-fi

. I have used stock earbuds for most of my life, but I upgraded to a pair of JVC HA-FX66 4 months ago and now I wonder how I ever survived stock earbuds. However, they broke, so now I'm on the prowl for new earphones. The two main ones I'm considering are Shure SE210 and Klipsch Custom-2, but I'm also considering Bose In-Ear, Westone UM1, UE Superfi 3 and Harman Kardon EP720/EP730. I searched everywhere but there doesn't seem to be many reviews for the Klipsch Custom-2, so I'm hoping that someone on this forum will have some input. They look comfortable and I like their partial isolation feature.
I listen to many different genre of music, like rock, pop, hip hop, rap, R&B, country and sometimes electronica. Half of my music is 128kbp while the other half are mostly from 192-256kbp. I've read that high quality earphones will reveal the artifacts in low bit rate music, so I don't want any earphones that is too good.
Thanks in advance!

 

[moonboy403]

The RE2 might fit your bill. It's a forgiving iem with above average bass, great mids, no sibilance, and rolled off highs. I heard the UM1 and I'd say the RE2 is a bit better than it.

BTW, toss out the bose selection, they're not well regarded around here.

 

[PBJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moonboy403 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The RE2 might fit your bill. It's a forgiving iem with above average bass, great mids, no sibilance, and rolled off highs. I heard the UM1 and I'd say the RE2 is a bit better than it. BTW, toss out the bose selection, they're not well regarded around here.

Thanks for the suggestion! However, I would like to avoid shopping all the internet if I can help it.
Any other suggestions?

 

[VeipaCray]

You might want to add the Sennheiser CX 300 / CX 500 to your consideration list. They won't compete with triple fi's or UE11's, but they are great bang for the buck IEMs.

The Sennheiser CX300s or CX 500s are available at many local stores. I picked mine up at a local music store in Chicago called Guitar Center.

 

[PBJ]

I'm in Canada, so the only place I can find the CX300 is Future Shop, where they go for $103 + tax. I just didn't think it was a very good deal.
Sorry forgot to mention, my budget is up to $200 CAD.

 

[moonboy403]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PBJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the suggestion! However, I would like to avoid shopping all the internet if I can help it. Any other suggestions?

What's wrong with shopping on the internet?

You can usually find stuff at a lower price online and you can return the RE2 if you don't like it. After spending a few weeks with the RE2, I returned it and got the RE1.

 

[vorlon1]

UE Super-Fi 3s are quite good and might be affordable, and will also be somewhat forgiving of imperfectly recorded music.

 

[funniecow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moonboy403 /img/forum/go_quote.gif What's wrong with shopping on the internet? You can usually find stuff at a lower price online and you can return the RE2 if you don't like it. After spending a few weeks with the RE2, I returned it and got the RE1.

The idea of shipping costs, and the fear of getting things list in the mail, and fakes. That puts a lot of people off.

 

[monolith]

I'd have to say go with UM1s.

 

[Scott549]

Quote:

Originally Posted by funniecow /img/forum/go_quote.gif The idea of shipping costs, and the fear of getting things list in the mail, and fakes. That puts a lot of people off.

My experience with SoundEarphones and Head-Direct has been very good. Go with the retailers who are sponsors here and you will be OK.

 

[metllicamilitia]

I bought my Sennheise CX300's off Amazon, albeit through a third party, brand new for $40 including shipping. I checked them over and listened to them and they are the real deal. As far as I can tell, you can't hear imperfections with them. All my music on my mp3 player was .wma too. If you like bass, they have quite a bit, too much for me actually, but they still are good IEMs.

 

[PBJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moonboy403 /img/forum/go_quote.gif What's wrong with shopping on the internet? You can usually find stuff at a lower price online and you can return the RE2 if you don't like it. After spending a few weeks with the RE2, I returned it and got the RE1.

Thing is, I live in Canada, so any products from an American website will have to go through the customs, and I'm not too clear on the extra taxes that you have to pay or what process it's going to take. All I know is that last time I had a poster shipped from the US and it took at least 3 times the estimated time to get here.
Many websites also don't ship to Canada, or their shipping cost cancels out any savings I might have had. Most Canadian websites' products costs around the same as buying local after shipping. The only thing I save is like 5% tax because they seem to only charge GST and not PST.
I have heard a lot of good things about the UM1, but I just thought that the Klipsch has dual driver, so it's probably better than the single driver earphones. Am I incorrect in that assumption?

 

[moonboy403]

Worldwide free shipping on head-direct.com =P

And dual driver doesn't mean that it's better. SA6 and RE1 are dual driver, but they outperform dual driver iem such as the super.fi 5 pro for example.