Hi I'm a new "potential' audiophile! :)
Jun 28, 2002 at 3:55 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13

Rumpole

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5 days ago my JVC street-style headphone broke.
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So I started to do research to get a new one. And thank god for internet - I'm finally here!

Been doing a lot of surfing in the forums to get an understanding of the names of the 'goodies'. Seems like you guys/gals are very much in favour of Etymotic products, which of course is a good thing. I called up many hi-fi stores (I'm from Sydney, Australia) to enquire about Etymotic and the response have been pretty much unanimous: "Et-what?!"
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Anyway, the concept of forking out so much moolah for a set of headphone is foreign to me. I believe that I can go as far as the Ety-ER6. Either that or [groan] Sony-EX70. My main source is a MD player: Sony-MZR900. Don't have an amp by the way (what the heck is Porta Corda?)

Ok I have to pose a main question (to avoid having my thread moved to the OT section): Is the EX70 THAT bad?
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Jun 28, 2002 at 4:11 AM Post #2 of 13
Welcome! You'll soon be happy that those JVC phones broke.
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On to your question... The EX-70 can be modded to the point where it can be tolerable to listen to (without these mods they can be very screechy and boomy), but overall you can do much better with that kind of money. What sort of music do you listen to? You only mentioned in-the-ear type phones... are you looking for a headphone that gives you isolation? Give us more details to make it a little easier for us to make suggestions.
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Jun 28, 2002 at 4:37 AM Post #3 of 13
The Etys are great headphones, but you can actually do pretty damn well for about a tenth of the price. The new Aiwa HP-VX100 (click here to purchase) canalphones are regarded as better-sounding Sony EX70's, and have a much, much more balanced sound. And they're cheaper to boot. The only drawbacks to the Aiwas are that they only come with one-size silicon earpieces, and they don't provide as much isolation as the EX70's. Other great-sounding, cheap, portable headphones: Koss KSC-35, Sennheiser MX400/500, Koss PortaPro, Sennheiser HD-497, Sennheiser HD-212.

The Sony EX70's aren't that bad is if you don't mind boomy bass. They sound pretty good and provide very good isolation, but the Aiwa HP-VX100's are probably a much better alternative.
 
Jun 28, 2002 at 4:39 AM Post #4 of 13
Isolation? Yes! Sydney trains can be really noisy (heck I've missed so many mobile calls because of it).
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I pretty much listen to everything besides country and hard-rock.

I use headphone when I play games sometimes too.
 
Jun 28, 2002 at 4:52 AM Post #6 of 13
Quote:

Originally posted by Rumpole
Do I need an amp? And what's a good value amp?


Some headphones (the ones designed for portable use) don't need amps to sound their full potential. And there is no such thing as a good value headphone amp
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. You'll be able to get a quasi good-value amp from a forum member, JMT. Privately message him and he can custom-build you one. Otherwise, you'd probably be best off getting a high-efficiency portable headphone that doesn't need an amp.
 
Jun 28, 2002 at 6:07 AM Post #7 of 13
Save yourself now...you have already been contaminated. Just put down 275$ for some ER-4P's and never look back again!!!
 
Jun 28, 2002 at 11:32 AM Post #9 of 13
I've found the equaliser plug-in for winamp, and have configured it. But I couldn't load it.
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How do I activate the file? I tried Preset->load but it didn't work. Help?


[EDIT] - never mind I got it to worked on MP3s.
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Doesn't work on CD on MIDI though.
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Jun 28, 2002 at 5:22 PM Post #10 of 13
Quote:

Originally posted by TimSchirmer
Save yourself now...you have already been contaminated. Just put down 275$ for some ER-4P's and never look back again!!!


lol, without doubt great advice...

about 15 months ago Vertigo_1 told me on Headwize to get Etymotics... I was like ETY who? (lol) - many hundreds of £/$s later, and i've finally got a pair, and I couldn't be happier... these things are so cool
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Saying that though, I'm kinda glad that I didn't just jump in and get them... i've enjoyed myself on the way to sonic bliss
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Jun 29, 2002 at 5:05 AM Post #11 of 13
Quote:

Originally posted by Duncan


lol, without doubt great advice...

about 15 months ago Vertigo_1 told me on Headwize to get Etymotics... I was like ETY who? (lol) - many hundreds of £/$s later, and i've finally got a pair, and I couldn't be happier... these things are so cool
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif


Saying that though, I'm kinda glad that I didn't just jump in and get them... i've enjoyed myself on the way to sonic bliss
wink.gif


I just can't help re-ilterate what so many other have said. Get yourself a pair of ETY 4Ps/Ss. You will then in portable audio heaven. I used to live in Sydney before, am I understand how much you will enjoy the isolation given by these ear buds. Trust me. Well, if you don't. Then at least trust so many other head-fiers for the recommendation.
 
Jul 1, 2002 at 9:26 AM Post #12 of 13
Hi Rumpole,

You need the 'CD player' plugin to use the mod for CDs. Get it here: http://www.url.ru/~copah/CDReader.htm

Also if you don't want to be strapped to your computer while listening to the EQ'ed EX70, you can use the Disk Writer plugin that comes with Winamp to output EQ'ed wav files. Just compile a playlist of the songs you want EQed, configure the Disk Writer to write to a specific directory (so you know where to look for the files later!) and click play. For mp3s or wavs (or anything that winamp can play) stored in hard disk, winamp would 'play' at much faster than realtime and quickly generate an EQ'ed file.

However, if you want to convert CDs in this fashion, I recommend that you first rip the CD to hard disk using a good ripper like Exact Audio Copy This is not a must, but if you 'play' it directly from CD it would be at near realtime speed, and I don't know which is faster, this or rip->EQ. Using a secure ripper would also give fewer errors than when playing on the fly.

Oh, and once you have a wav file, you can burn it to CDs or encode it for mp3 or NetMD players. That's why I said you won't be tied to your computer
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