[Grey Massacre]

Hello,

My source will be a Cowon F2 player and it is regarded as having a cold signature. I mostly listen to harsh EBM electronic music and metal. I would say I like warmer sound, as those types of music can be fatiguing with a brighter headphone. I am a bass head. As a reference, I love the sound signature of my Black Dragon recabled 325i, opened Darth's and Koss Portapro.

-Basically those will be used while biking and at university, so isolation is needed, they have to cut the wind.
-They have to be durable, I do around 3000 KM of bike during the biking season, so they will be dealing with sweat.
-They have to be around 100$ and I would greatly prefer to keep the price down as you never know what would happen doing bike.

Any opinion is highly appreciated!

Thanks,

Charles

 

[Matteman]

Unless the IEMs don't fit snugly in you ears, biking with IEMs is a pain because of the repeated circular motion. I thought I was going nuts with the UE universal IEMs that I used to bike with (see sig). I had to stop every five minutes when I started hearing the bass slowly disappear. I'm not doing that again, however I guess that with a more comfortable IEM (shure SE530?) it might work.

For biking i would say go for customs like Livewires, however I don't know about their bass quantity. Also, with a custom playing music you would be almost completely blocked out from the rest of the world, which is nice but still a bit dangerous if you're not careful

 

[shigzeo]

hey matteman, i think there is little if none at all durable customs for 100$ cdn or usa. you might try to go for the isolator by etymotic that seem to at least have well designed housings but for that price, i would say that you will be hard put to get a durable and anti-sweat phone. i used to own the um2 which went very well against bike sweat but at the time, i was in a large city and it freaked me out that i could not hear what i needed to hear: the killer cars.

be careful whatever you do - personally, i gave up on it and just listen to the wind, birds and hourly chimes

 

[Grey Massacre]

Thanks to both of you for the feedback...any other ideas?

 

[synaesthetic]

I can attest to the ER-6i's toughness. They look delicate but have survived four years of heavy abuse by me, and are still working fine (despite an issue with the left driver that I have since repaired, something had somehow gotten into the earphone housing and was blocking off the driver tube).

The cord's starting to give up the ghost though so I know I'll be replacing them with ER-4Ps soon.

I think, though, that any IEM might be problematic for biking. I can't use them when jogging, I have to switch to my Yuin PK3s, because they come loose.

 

[steviebee]

iGrado.....seriously.
The neckband is sweet under a helmet, no coming loose/losing seal, & you get to hear any important environmental clues like that big rig coming up behind you!

 

[Al4x]

never would i use iems on my bike!

 

[KUNFUCHOPSTICKS]

Biking with IEMs in is a bad idea. In PA and other states it's illegal to bike with headphones period, no to say IEM which seals out all noise.


Oh, and i recommend the ER-6i

 

[Grey Massacre]

The point of my post is not the legality of wearing headphones or not on a bike. I am sane enough to not wear any headphones while biking where cars are around. Since some of you care for my safety, plan using those on long singletrack and obviously cars is not a problem in the middle of the forest! Back to topic!

 

[Al4x]

ah, forgot people have off road bikes!

 

[phyrefly]

Have you tried biking on trails with IEMs before? Even walking with IEMs can be annoying with the thuds of your feed. I can't imagine hearing the thuds being transferred through the fork without going insane

(unless you bike on sand)

 

[Matteman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by phyrefly /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you tried biking on trails with IEMs before? Even walking with IEMs can be annoying with the thuds of your feed. I can't imagine hearing the thuds being transferred through the fork without going insane (unless you bike on sand)

Yeah that's true, even though you have excellent isolation there will still be sound waves travelling through your body reaching your ears anyway. Try biking with earplugs and you will know what I mean.

If you are still considering IEMs I would definitely say you need customs, since that kind of biking is a lot more intense than just cruising along roads. Maybe Super Freqs and hope getting your cables replaced when their music maker line is out?

 

[Grey Massacre]

Quote:

Originally Posted by phyrefly /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you tried biking on trails with IEMs before? Even walking with IEMs can be annoying with the thuds of your feed. I can't imagine hearing the thuds being transferred through the fork without going insane (unless you bike on sand)

I had Sony earbuds for years they died.. they did not isolate much...

 

[shigzeo]

if you do not go for a micro armature design (ety, shure, westone, ue) you will get wind noise from the open portion of the iem or canalphone. dynammics (while i tend to like their sound much more than armatures, need openness to get bass right) howl when a wind comes. on a trail or on the road, at anything over 10km (i am sure you will go faster than that unless you are in a treaturous place) are like a tornado.

as much as i dislike armatures, i ahve to only suggest them. go for er61 for price and if you keep them okay, they will last.

 

[mil]

I recently purchased Westone UM1s (around $100) and am extremely happy with them. I think they would meet your needs. There are no microphonics to speak of thanks to the great cable, I use them at the gym and they don't even start to come loose, they sound great and they are extremely comfortable.