arielelf
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2013
- Posts
- 25
- Likes
- 13
Hi Everyone,
I would very much appreciate some help with my next gear purchase. I will give you my headphone background so as to help you understand where I am coming from. I live in Brooklyn and commute into Manhattan to work and the total commute is about 2.5 hours a day during which time I am using in ear headphones with my iPhone 6s. The music comes from my Rhapsody subscription account and is from downloaded files and is not streaming since most of the commute is underground. I choose the highest download setting which is 320 kbps. Maybe my source is not the best and I need to upgrade services? any suggestions? I do not want to get into having to use an external amplifier.
I have a very high sensitivity to high treble and have had to return tons of headphones that were rated as fantastic by most reviewers, because they literally hurt me to listen to them. Even ones that were listed as not harsh.
Some of the headphones that I have had and enjoyed and did not hurt my ears are these:
Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10's. These were great, provided a lot of detail while not hurting my ear drums. However they were very hard to keep sealed correctly and I was constantly having to adjust them. I also found the over the ear cords to be somewhat annoying. I had them for about 3 years but the damn cords kept breaking so I was spending $50 every few months for new cords which I couldn't stand any more so I ended up selling them. Had them for 3 years though!!
I then moved on to the Yamaha EPH-100 which seemed almost as detailed but I think they had a bit more bass which I discovered that I really enjoy. They were comfortable and stayed sealed nicely BUT they did not last a very long time. I have very waxy ears and had to clean them fairly frequently, much more so than any other headphone I've used, and eventually one side stopped working. I bought another pair and the same thing happened 5-6 months later.
After reading some reviews on this forum I read that many people thought that the Zero Audio Carbo Basso was very similar to the EPH-100 and with it being so cheap I tried it out and to my surprise it is indeed a very great headphone especially for the money. I have been using them for the past year or so and have been surprisingly contented until my beater work headphones died. I decided that since I would be buying new headphones maybe I could just use the carbo bassos ay work and upgrade to something new. I saw that Zero Audio had a new Douza dual driver model which was getting very good reviews so I bought them a few weeks ago.
I can definitely see that if you do not have intolerance for high trebel then these are an upgrade to the Carbos since they do seem to have more overall detail, however I feel that there is a bit of muddiness in the lower mid range that I don't notice in the bassos. I am now liking the extra overall detail and everything sounds fairly great at lower volume levels but when I turn the volume up, the high trebels seem to really start to become harsh. I want to be able to have an enveloping level of volume but without the harsh highs.
I ordered the JVC medium spiral dot ear tips to see if it would change things and was extremely surprised at how much difference in the sound they make. It sounds a little more raw in an interesting way but the highs are still way too bright for me. A lot of songs sound good but certain songs are harsh, especially my Rolling Stones songs which I NEED to sound good!!
I have read a lot on the JVC FX850 and it sounds very interesting. I think I like the idea of a woody sound, I'm not sure if I'm right but I imagine that it might be similar to the sound of older full size floor speakers from the 70's and 80's which to me are my favorite listening experience. I kind of hate how hifi systems have become so harsh sounding with ten thousand tiny tweeters, but I think I must be in the minority.
I have read that some people find the fx850 a tiny bit harsh on the highs and others have described them as not harsh at all and very smooth in that respect.
I want an headphone that has great rich deep thumping bass and a rich enveloping sound without harsh high notes but still detailed. Also I can't afford anything over $300.00 which I know has become the new lower midrange
I listen to mostly Classic Rock, Blues, Bluegrass, and some Indie/Contemporary music. Nothing much heavier than the White Stripes.
Also I read that the FX850 is vented and does not isolate that well, but have also read of people who commute with them that don't have a problem.
I am not a collector of headphones so I really just want something that will be my perfect all round everyday headphones.
I know that this is a ridiculously long post but I wanted to give as much info as possible up front.
Any help or suggestions would be wonderful!
I would very much appreciate some help with my next gear purchase. I will give you my headphone background so as to help you understand where I am coming from. I live in Brooklyn and commute into Manhattan to work and the total commute is about 2.5 hours a day during which time I am using in ear headphones with my iPhone 6s. The music comes from my Rhapsody subscription account and is from downloaded files and is not streaming since most of the commute is underground. I choose the highest download setting which is 320 kbps. Maybe my source is not the best and I need to upgrade services? any suggestions? I do not want to get into having to use an external amplifier.
I have a very high sensitivity to high treble and have had to return tons of headphones that were rated as fantastic by most reviewers, because they literally hurt me to listen to them. Even ones that were listed as not harsh.
Some of the headphones that I have had and enjoyed and did not hurt my ears are these:
Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10's. These were great, provided a lot of detail while not hurting my ear drums. However they were very hard to keep sealed correctly and I was constantly having to adjust them. I also found the over the ear cords to be somewhat annoying. I had them for about 3 years but the damn cords kept breaking so I was spending $50 every few months for new cords which I couldn't stand any more so I ended up selling them. Had them for 3 years though!!
I then moved on to the Yamaha EPH-100 which seemed almost as detailed but I think they had a bit more bass which I discovered that I really enjoy. They were comfortable and stayed sealed nicely BUT they did not last a very long time. I have very waxy ears and had to clean them fairly frequently, much more so than any other headphone I've used, and eventually one side stopped working. I bought another pair and the same thing happened 5-6 months later.
After reading some reviews on this forum I read that many people thought that the Zero Audio Carbo Basso was very similar to the EPH-100 and with it being so cheap I tried it out and to my surprise it is indeed a very great headphone especially for the money. I have been using them for the past year or so and have been surprisingly contented until my beater work headphones died. I decided that since I would be buying new headphones maybe I could just use the carbo bassos ay work and upgrade to something new. I saw that Zero Audio had a new Douza dual driver model which was getting very good reviews so I bought them a few weeks ago.
I can definitely see that if you do not have intolerance for high trebel then these are an upgrade to the Carbos since they do seem to have more overall detail, however I feel that there is a bit of muddiness in the lower mid range that I don't notice in the bassos. I am now liking the extra overall detail and everything sounds fairly great at lower volume levels but when I turn the volume up, the high trebels seem to really start to become harsh. I want to be able to have an enveloping level of volume but without the harsh highs.
I ordered the JVC medium spiral dot ear tips to see if it would change things and was extremely surprised at how much difference in the sound they make. It sounds a little more raw in an interesting way but the highs are still way too bright for me. A lot of songs sound good but certain songs are harsh, especially my Rolling Stones songs which I NEED to sound good!!
I have read a lot on the JVC FX850 and it sounds very interesting. I think I like the idea of a woody sound, I'm not sure if I'm right but I imagine that it might be similar to the sound of older full size floor speakers from the 70's and 80's which to me are my favorite listening experience. I kind of hate how hifi systems have become so harsh sounding with ten thousand tiny tweeters, but I think I must be in the minority.
I have read that some people find the fx850 a tiny bit harsh on the highs and others have described them as not harsh at all and very smooth in that respect.
I want an headphone that has great rich deep thumping bass and a rich enveloping sound without harsh high notes but still detailed. Also I can't afford anything over $300.00 which I know has become the new lower midrange
I listen to mostly Classic Rock, Blues, Bluegrass, and some Indie/Contemporary music. Nothing much heavier than the White Stripes.
Also I read that the FX850 is vented and does not isolate that well, but have also read of people who commute with them that don't have a problem.
I am not a collector of headphones so I really just want something that will be my perfect all round everyday headphones.
I know that this is a ridiculously long post but I wanted to give as much info as possible up front.
Any help or suggestions would be wonderful!
