[catspaw]

Hello everyone,
 
Before anything, please do try to avoid statements on what to buy with no more information . Also note this will be a very long one to make sure you have as much information as you can to help me choose what i need.
 
I own a cowon i9 8gb, mostly using 320kbps mp3 encoding or WAV encoding. I have owned some diffrent earphones (both in ear and cans), and im looking to get some improvement for my in-ear needs.
 
I will give my personal opinion on the earphones and even a few mp3 players i managed to try, so you know how much or little i favour bass, mids on highs.
 
Mp3 players:
 
-Samsung YP-Q3: Didnt like it at all, simply sounded worse than my laptops integrated soundcard. Also it had almost no personalization options.
 
-Creative Zen Style: Sonded "quite" good, but it had totally unacceptable distortion at high volume.
 
-Cowon i9: Good enought that i dont feel like its bad to pay an extra 30 Euros from its nominal price (had to get it in spain, had to actually order it from france,lol).
 
Now, i mostly use sennheisers hd 380 Pro to listen to music at home. For me, the sound quality is so much better from other in ear earphones that i have, that i carry them around even when its 40 ºC in here.
The other earphoes i had (or had) are:
 
-Sennheiser CX-100: They sound quite good, i like the bass but i do feel its a bit 2 strong, making the rest of the sounds dissapate a bit.
 
-Cowon CE1: came with my cowon. They sound ok, however: The bass is strong yet not defined at all, not warm. The mids sound solid, highs sound good, but a bit distored. What is the worst for me is the voice sounding unrealistic. Most of the diffrent sounds seem to meld making it hard to notice the diffrent instruments.
 
-Pionner SE-MJ5: Those sound like total crap with high volume. distor a lot, and sound is so mainstream and overpowered at some Hz that i get tired of listening to them in under 20 minutes.
 
-Sennheiser hd 380: Since i have not had a better set, i cannot negativly judge them except the reverb of the bass sometimes (but i knew it would happen with clsoed cans).
 
-Some random bose 200 Euro earcover headphones: Sounded good, but for 200 E i expeteced something better than "good".
 
I listen to all type of music, but mostly rock/metal (paramore, likin park, papa roach, metallica, 30 sec to mars, nickleback).
 
I do like sennheisers in general, however i have heard that denon is also a respected brand by the audiophile community.
 
My options are CX 400 II presision or denon AH-452.
 
According to manufacturers specs, denon should be better on frecuency responce, while sennhesier better in distortion control.
 
I have suffered the hard way (by buying useless crap), that the manufacturers specs cannot be trusted when it comes sound quality. First, if anyone ons or owned both of those, id like a specific input on how good they sound and in what range or type of music.
Also if anyone ahs any idea, if you can trust denon on the fact that they have that frecuency responce (*).
 
In spain right now: 
Sennheiser cx400 would cost me 48 Euro, the denon 52 Euro.
Due to this, its hard to belive that senns frecuency responce is 17Hz to 22kHz, and the denon are 5Hz to 24kHz.
 
I was also looking at some shure but only the 115 model is available under 240Euro, and i dont want to take a 200+ risk while buying online.
 
Also, sound isolation would be a plus, but i dont know if the senns or the denon are better at that ( as i said i dont feel like trusting the manufacturers on that).
 
I hope i have not bored you to death yet, and that you can give me some advice on my purchase.
 
Thank you in advance,
 
Cats_Paw.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[yello131]

just import your IEMs from abroad and ask the seller to mark it as Gift, this way you will not have to spend so much on VAT in Spain.
there are so many great IEMs out there for 200 euros or less you will not believe your ears.

 

[ZARIM]

If you like bass to be controled and hear more details in mids and highs then RE272, RE0, HF5, ER4P/S, CK10, DBA-02 are highely recommended. The good allrounder IEMs like EX600(H R), GR07(H R), IE7, Westone 2, SM2 are very detailed yet offer deep punchy bass.

 

[catspaw]

Unfortunatelly those options dont help me: 
First, i dont know how to do what yello131 recoemends,
Second Zarim, i dont have access to those options even if i knew anything about them (and you didnt give me much to work with anyway).
 
 

 

[scuttle]

 
In spain right now: 

Sennheiser cx400 would cost me 48 Euro, the denon 52 Euro.

Due to this, its hard to belive that senns frecuency responce is 17Hz to 22kHz, and the denon are 5Hz to 24kHz.

 

Why is this hard to believe? The prices are almost the same and so are the ranges - both of which might as well be replaced with "You know - the usual thing." 

 

Also:

 

- You talk about the bass being too strong with some phones etc - aren't you using the Cowon EQ? It's half the point of buying a Cowon because with it you compensate for very a large gap between how your phones behave and how you want them to. You should also try out the BBE settings to restore detail to MP3 files.

 

- And you're using WAVs - wouldn't FLACS give the same quality and be about half the size?

 

Anyway, you should find FXC51s easy to buy (eg Amazon) and they work superbly with Cowons with the right EQ:

 

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/553590/fx67-review-a-hidden-gem/105

 

Isolation is a solid B grade. They cost less than the IEMs you're looking at, so even if you can't get them in Spain (which would be odd - they're JVCs) but have to order from the UK they should still be in your budget.