hbortman
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2003
- Posts
- 1
- Likes
- 0
I have several interrelated questions.
I use headphones most frequently when traveling on planes. I have a Sony CD Walkman D-E220, an AirHead amp and ER-6 phones. I usually listen to jazz. Let's say John Coltrane's classic quartet is my standard, and I really want to be able to hear what each of the four musicians is doing (because it's how they're interacting that is what makes them so amazing, and if I can't hear one of them, I'm missing a piece of the soundscape).
I'm more or less satisfied with my setup, but I find that (a) the bass is rarely loud enough unless I use the bass boost feature on the CD player, but that tends to muddy the low-mid-range; (b) the midrange, e.g., the piano chording, often gets lost in a general muddy mid-range, even without the bass boost, but more so with it; (c) anything subtle happening with cymbals tends to get lost; and (d) in order to really get rid of all of the ambient jet noise, i have to jam the ear buds so far into my ears that they begin to hurt after a couple of hours of wear (although this tends to help with a, b and c).
Can anyone suggest where to start if I want to improve my experience. What's most important: player, amp or phones? If the player is the critical component, what would be a good replacement? Alternately, is moving up to a Total AirHead or to ER-4 phones really going to make a noticeable difference? And will I have to spend hundreds of dollars to get only a marginal improvement?
I use headphones most frequently when traveling on planes. I have a Sony CD Walkman D-E220, an AirHead amp and ER-6 phones. I usually listen to jazz. Let's say John Coltrane's classic quartet is my standard, and I really want to be able to hear what each of the four musicians is doing (because it's how they're interacting that is what makes them so amazing, and if I can't hear one of them, I'm missing a piece of the soundscape).
I'm more or less satisfied with my setup, but I find that (a) the bass is rarely loud enough unless I use the bass boost feature on the CD player, but that tends to muddy the low-mid-range; (b) the midrange, e.g., the piano chording, often gets lost in a general muddy mid-range, even without the bass boost, but more so with it; (c) anything subtle happening with cymbals tends to get lost; and (d) in order to really get rid of all of the ambient jet noise, i have to jam the ear buds so far into my ears that they begin to hurt after a couple of hours of wear (although this tends to help with a, b and c).
Can anyone suggest where to start if I want to improve my experience. What's most important: player, amp or phones? If the player is the critical component, what would be a good replacement? Alternately, is moving up to a Total AirHead or to ER-4 phones really going to make a noticeable difference? And will I have to spend hundreds of dollars to get only a marginal improvement?
