[shrimants]

I let my gf listen to my Monster Turbines (standard model, not gold or copper). She was blown away by the sound and now wants to invest in the same ones, if not similar ones. Her budget is 75 bucks tops (she has no income, only student loans). What would a good choice be for her to get all the quality, if not more, of the monster turbines? She was mostly blown away by the clarity and the sound stage, and the attention to detail. She listened to a copy of Holy Night by christina aguilera at 192kbps. She does own this CD.

I didnt want her to buy the turbines because of the ridiculous driver flex issue. I cannot get over how often mine do the driver flex thing and I have to take them out, wipe everythign down, and reseat them properly, only to have them flex again when I hiccup.

Any suggestions?

 

[Boullion]

You have taken a look at this thread already, right? It's Joker's full IEM review - with price ranges, too.
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/478568/multi-iem-review-158-iems-compared-westone-4-radius-twf21-added-03-27
Take a look at it carefully, it's very very useful :9
If you're looking for personal recommendations...wait for them, since I don't have experience.
 
And I also had a pair of Monster Turbines, but they fell apart. The metal housing's glue came apart, separating the black chrome and silver metal...and then my cat further mutilated it by chewing up the already-thin wires. Yikes. At least I got them on sale.

 
 

 

 

[shrimants]

I have seen that thread, and I ended up going with the monster turbines because of all of the hype and the ability to buy them off of people on these forums very readily. I was not at all prepared to pay 180 bucks for them, so I got them used for 58 instead, figuring that if they lasted me about a year I'll have gotten my money's worth. I looked through that whole list but I wanted personal recommendations because theres a bunch of highly rated headphones on there that I dont think i'd be too fond of. The PFE's seem like they are tailored to bass heads while the RE0 and RE-zero lean towards treble. I was looking for personal experience with this since the turbines are my first high end well thought out audio purchase. before this I had only the Bose On-Ears, and those things are a joke compared to the monster turbines.

 

[rroseperry]

If she enjoys clarity, how about looking for a pair of used (or not) RE0s? I'm sure I've seen them on the FS forum rairly recently. I don't know anything about the Monster line, but I have the RE0s and the only flaw I think they had is a slightly weak bass. But clear as a  bell without the stridency I'd sometimes get in the ER 4Ps.

 

 

[shrimants]

She wants the bass, definately. The RE0's were taken off my initial consideration list for lack of bass. Thanks for the reply though.

 

[Infoseeker]

I wouldn't cross RE0 off the list. It doesn't have weak bass. It is that way so it shows more clarity for all other notes in the music. The bass is quite nice really, but any stronger is not worth losing the realness of how the drums sound and all.
 

 

[immtbiker]

Advice. She should get a new boyfriend.
 
Just kidding. I was using the RE-0 for 3 months with Olive tips and wasn't happy with the bass. As soon as I tried the large bi-flanges, the bass grew exponentially.
 
You can get her a Shure E210/310, or a lower end Ety.
 
However my advice to you, is take your budget and double it. A year from now, you'll forget about the money and still have a killer headphone, no matter what you decide, My ex-wife didn't wan't me buying a new pair of rollerblades (she had a tight sphincter), so I bought a pair of $99 Lightnings (1992). I was doing 20 miles a week and wore out my abec 3 72a 78 mm wheels in 2 months and had to buy a pair of abec 5 $100 replacement wheels, The moral is, if I bought the TRS Lightnings for $199 which lasted forever ot would have cost me less in the long run. She was pissed at me for getting the $100 dollar Lightnings anyway. As soon as I left her, I got the the ones that I wanted and was in hog heaven.
 
It pays to get the better headphones and enjoy them, because it will pay of in the long run. Unless you are destitute, you will forget about the extra money quickly and really enjoy your sessions. Life is short and you shouldn't settle. In the end, it will pay off.
 
Trust me. Don't sell yourself short for short term gratification. It's your and her love. Eat macaroni and cheese for a week.

 

[Infoseeker]

the headphones we are recommending will not sound much better if he doubles his budget.

RE0s can be good forever phones.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Does she have to have IEMs?

An iGrado might make her quite happy. The price is right and the band runs behind the neck - it won't mess up hair. Plus they have SR-60 drivers, so they sound great.

 

[shrimants]

she isnt in the position to double her budget. she literally lives off of nothing but student loans and student housing. her mom is unemployed and her dad only makes enough for 2 people to scrape by, yet they have 3 children and a homeless family member to take care of. She had to declare herself financially independant of them, so she has 0 income. Thats why her budget is so low. Me, on the other hand, I bought the turbines used just to poke my toe into the high end audio department. I had shure e3c's and they were the biggest waste of money in the world. absolutely no bass and everything sounded distorted as crap despite using 320kbps mp3's on an ipod video.

Every time I read a review about the RE0 people say there isnt enough bass, and neither me nor her are in the position to "just give it a whirl" and see what they sound like, nor can we just send them back at a whim.

UPDATE: she's changed her mind about IEM's. She doesnt care what style they are as long as she's getting the best performance possible for no more than 75 bucks including shipping. She's willing to buy used from one of the traders here but obviously there wont be any sort of try it/return it deal then. It would be preferable if I could either find a good entry level set of any type headphones for her that are new for no more than 70 bucks MSRP or find a set of phones that dont need amping on these forums that are 100% guarenteed to be amazing for her. Once again, she's looking for audio quality similar to the turbines, if not better. Definately wants the bass in there. The only RE0's I see on amazon have a fishy quality about them.

One last thing, I need whatever she buys to be REALLY durable. she isnt exactly careful with her electronics, and I'd hate to see her drop 70 bucks on headphones and then have them break on her. When I say durable, they dont need to be bulletproof or anything, but they cant be so sensitive that she needs to keep them in a case at all times. She didnt even bother getting a case for her nexus S (that i convinced her to buy with christmas money) until she dropped it twice, and she still hasnt "gotten around to it".

 

[rroseperry]

Forget the RE0 then, bass issues aside, people have reported build issues.
 
I just thought. How about the Fischer Silver Bullets? They've got good bass and are pretty tough. They aren't real nice looking to be completely honest and stick out a bit. But I've seen them in the FS forum for $60.

 

[shrimants]

That sounds like a good rec. I'll see if I can find it. In the mean time, please keep the rec's coming. Like I said, buying new from amazon is prefered since (if she doesnt like it) she can at least return them at the cost of a couple bucks.

 

[Ishcabible]

Wait for Meelectronics to have a sale on the CC51. I'd be surprised if she didn't like them at least as much as the Turbines (heck I like them almost as much as my Coppers). There night be a pair in the Classifieds. Same with the Brainwavz M3. They're both plenty durable too.

 

[Yggdrassilious]

How tight?
 
Quote:

My ex-wife didn't wan't me buying a new pair of rollerblades (she had a tight sphincter), 

 

 

[Redmetal1897]

The silver bullets are great but you might have driver flex issues. I didn't really have it much when I had them but others have complained about it. Another consideration might be the sunrise x-capes, should be around that price, though you probably should read up about the build quality. The thinksound rain is another one which might fall within her price range!