Is it my ears or my headphones?

[vidas7de7jesus7]

When I'm listening to my X5 on my crappy (yes, I know) Sony E828s, the music always sounds shrill, harsh... well, at least the highs do. That and whenever the singer says the letter "s". It sucks. So, anyway, I was wondering if the problem is lying in my ears, my encoding (most of my music is 128, you know, because I got it from friends. the other stuff is vbr 160-192), or my headphones. I'm currently leaning towards the headphones, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, if it IS my headphones, do you know of any fairly cheap (sub $40) headphones that could hold me over until I get some money? I'm looking towards the JVC- HA-FX55B, any other suggestions? Thanks

 

[digitalmind]

Most likely it's a combination of your encoding and headphones. 128kb/s MP3 is really, really poor, and tends to sound shrill and shreaky. Get a cd of the same song, and see if it's still as harsh.

 

[skudmunky]

Sub 40 dollar headphones? Can't go wrong with the Koss KSC 35 or 75 for under 20 bucks. Excellent sound, excellent price.

 

[jagorev]

Try the KSC-75, and re-rip your music if you can to 192 kbps with LAME.

 

[jl123]

I'd say its your encoding. It happens to me with my sr60s but haven't heard it in my 650s(probably due to thier more laid back presentation). Happens a lot with high pitched vocals.

 

[jagorev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jl123 I'd say its your encoding. It happens to me with my sr60s but haven't heard it in my 650s(probably due to thier more laid back presentation). Happens a lot with high pitched vocals.

Well, he is listening to these:

I once bought a pair...my first headphone once my speakers broke; within 10 minutes, it forced me to order a Sennheiser, and I joined head-fi soon after. They have a magical ability to transform any recording and source into utter crap sound. If the finest engineering minds in the world sat down to create a POS headphone, they couldn't do any better than these.

And these go for about $8. Seriously, for only about $5 more ($13 or so from Amazon), the KSC-75 provides an unbelievably good improvement. Going from crap buds to the KSC-75 gives the highest marginal return on dollars in all of audio.

I've heard LAME-encoded 128 kbps MP3s on good headphones. They usually sound quite listenable, although usually missing a lot of the high frequencies, and the compression artifacts are quite evident. 128 kbps shouldn't sound terribly shrill and harsh with halfway-decent headphones

 

[Cjattwood]

Haha, my dad has those earphones and loves them, luckily I've got my PX100's

 

[Mikenet]

LAME 128kbps isn't too bad. What tends to be bad are those MP3s you got from friends who encoded them with random encoders, or worse, got them from fileshareing networks where they were encoded or re-encoded by braindead people with old MP3 encoders. I have some rare recordings in MP3 format I didn't listen to for a few years. Man I forgot when MP3 used to sound like. ICK!

Encoders have improved a lot over the past few years. Anything early sounds HORRID.

 

[vidas7de7jesus7]

Yea, i bought the sonys and am now kicking myself. I bought them because: 1. i needed headphones, fast. I didn't want to wait for shipping, and 2. they used to sound good, when i started out. When i first got my rio cali almost a year ago (i'm on my third mp3 player after just a year, and never an upgrade!) they sounded decent. they gradually degraded to pure crap, so i tweaked the eq to make it bearable. I hope whoever stole them is writhing in agony. Sorry, anyhow, what I forgot to mention in that I would like them to be IEMs or something of the sort. I ride a school bus everyday and can't hear a thing. I respect the 75s for all thier god-like qualities, but I've heard they dont isolate. Any more ideas? Thanks

 

[jagorev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vidas7de7jesus7 Yea, i bought the sonys and am now kicking myself. I bought them because: 1. i needed headphones, fast. I didn't want to wait for shipping, and 2. they used to sound good, when i started out. When i first got my rio cali almost a year ago (i'm on my third mp3 player after just a year, and never an upgrade!) they sounded decent. they gradually degraded to pure crap, so i tweaked the eq to make it bearable. I hope whoever stole them is writhing in agony. Sorry, anyhow, what I forgot to mention in that I would like them to be IEMs or something of the sort. I ride a school bus everyday and can't hear a thing. I respect the 75s for all thier god-like qualities, but I've heard they dont isolate. Any more ideas? Thanks

Yeah, it's a good idea to get something isolating.

There are some decent IEM style headphones under $40. Look for the Sony ex71, ex81, Sharp MD33, Creative EP630, Sennheiser CX300, or Panasonic HJE50. Out of these, the CX300 is getting some good reviews lately. The Panny and Sharp and Creative all seem to be well regarded. The JVC FX55 also comes to mind in this range. A lot of these can be ordered from www.audiocubes.com

I have the Sony ex81 (similar to ex71, but with a clip-on hook), and am lukewarm about it. It isolates nicely. It sounds decent, but not great. I suspect, like me, you'll find it quite satisfying until you hear something better

But before upgraditis struck me, I'll admit that the ex81 did a good job of getting me through some long bus and train journeys. It has plenty of bass (which later starts to seem muddy) and aggressive treble. A fun listen, and certainly a big improvement over the e828. It worked well with lots of different kinds of music.

There are a lot of complaints about the ex71/ex81 wire, although I haven't personally experienced any problems with it.

 

[creyc]

Yea, all you need to do is listen to music that doesn't have 's' sounds in it.

Heh, but seriously thats called sibilance and yes it's annoying as anything and really ruins a good song. "Spring" the extra $5 and get the KSC-75's.

There's also Koss Porta Pros, Senhheiser PX100's and the Sony EX71's aren't bad for the price. (there's a few mods you can do to make them better too)