[LebCa]

After learning about the existence of portable headphone amps last night on this forum and joining this morning, I thought I would ask your recommendation on portable headphones for city traveling, mostly through subway and walking.

I'm going to be spending the fall semester in Moscow and using the subway to get to school everyday (long ride) and would like some headphones to make the ride more enjoyable, so a little bit of noise canceling would probably be ideal.

Also, do you recommend any portable amps with the headphones you recommend? My source is going to be the iPod Mini.

Something in the price range of the Klipsch S4's (~$80) sounds about right for my budget unless you think that's bogus and I'm not going to get what I want in that price range, and then please tell me.

P.S. I thought about posting in "portable amps" but I decided on here instead because one can use the headphones and the ipod without the amp, but can't use the amp and ipod without the headphones, but you knew that already.

Thanks,
Caleb

 

[Jonrev]

What sort of music do you enjoy listening to? Do you like bass, mids, or high end more?

 

[calvinjai]

I use Super.fi 5 Pro's for when busing/subwaying and i find their isolation very adequate. It's good enough to put me in my own world, and i can still hear the bus/subway stop announcements with them on.

 

[mark2410]

depends on what kind of sound you want but klipsch custom 2 would be a better buy im sure, mymemory is doing them for £57 and claims world wide delivery with some exeptions

 

[nukular]

I'm a big fan of Shures, though I'm not as familiar with their cheapest model, which I think retail for ~$100 A friend of mine who did buy their cheapest was very very happy with them as soon as she got the right tips in her ears.

 

[LebCa]

I like almost every kind of music, including but not limited to, and not in any specific order:

Trance (Above & Beyond, Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Rank 1, Sunlounger)
Europop/Techno/Dance (Tune-Up!, Scarf, Peter Lutz)
Electronic (Moby, Boards of Canada)
Trip-Hop (Massive Attack)
Rock (Bodeans, Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Muse, Linkin Park, A Perfect Circle, Led Zeppelin, Dropkick Murphys, Oasis, The Cure, The Cranberries, Coldplay, Poison, Kenny Loggins, Boston, The Who, Supertramp, Styx, Talking Heads)
Reggae (Marley)
Classical (Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Debussy...I'm a pianist)
Jazz (Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Count Basie, Monk...I'm a drummer)
Pop (Michael Jackson)
Country (Garth Brooks, Phil Vassar, Brooks & Dunn, Johnny Cash, Toby Keith, Dixie Chicks, Leann Wolmack)
Latin (Arturo Sandoval)
Fantasy Metal (Between the Buried and Me)
Hip Hop/Rap (50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Jedi Mind Tricks, 2pac)
Vocal/Singer/Songwriter (Eddie Vetter, Cat Power, Michael Buble)
Soundtrack (John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore)

And much more.

My favorite track right now is Armin Van Buuren: Zocalo, on my Sennheiser HD280 pros.

I hope this helps.

I will check out the Shures, Custom 2's, and the super.fi 5 pros. I'm gonna try to find a place where I can try em in the bay area.

Thanks for your help, and any more recommendations welcome,
Caleb

 

[blawhh]

Etymotic ER6i, Phonak Audeo PFE (stretch a bit, but they sound good!) ER6i's can be found for around 70 dollars on amazon.

 

[Saintkeat]

a boombox =) you'll blend right in with all the city folk

 

[blawhh]

LOL BOOMBOX yea best idea

 

[ajjekko]

Try Yuin OK3

 

[RedSky0]

For subway use, definitely get an IEM (although that's really all you've been recommended so far anyway), since if they're of the type that isolate well they should be much better than either closed or noise cancelling headphones in isolating you from background noise.

Also at that price range beyond getting something cheap like a FiiO E5, don't bother with buying an amp, there are plenty of efficient earphones that don't need one at that price range.

Be sure to check out:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/r...2-08-a-335851/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/r...-v-2-a-394365/

 

[LebCa]

From cheapest to most expensive I am leaning towards these IEM's after checking out the comparisons done by ClieOS and your recommendations:

Head Direct RE2 $39 or with Fiio E5 $49

Etymotic ER6i $70
UE Metrofi 220 $72

Phonak Audeo PFE $139 (but only if I can get lower than this price, closer to $80)
Sleek Audio SA6 $199 (again, cheaper price otherwise I would for sure)

What do you guys think? I could always use tips from other phones if they made the IEM's sound better.

These will not only be my first pair of IEMs but first look into higher quality headphones unless you count my sennheiser hd280 pros. The IEM's I buy will be used everyday this fall in the subway and city as well as on airplanes about twice a month.

Edit: I do, really like bass.

Thanks for your continued help,
Caleb

 

[Zalithian]

RE2's supposedly don't isolate well because they have air holes or something. ER6i's isolate well but I don't think they'd work well for some of your genres. Maybe ER6i's + E5?

 

[blawhh]

I dont think the Phonak Audeo PFE or the SA6 can be found at around $80, but try looking for them in the ＦＳ forums. Although the ER6i's are a good deal, it tends to have a lacking bass so you might not want any of these. Maybe the UE's or the RE2's have more bass

 

[tstarn06]

This is has been said a thousand times...the RE2 bass is along the same lines as the Ety. To me, the best deal right now is the Altec-Lansing UHP 336 on Amazon for $35 shipped (these are really the rebranded Super.Fi 3 Studio), or the Apple in-ear dual drivers, for $35 on ebay from a specific seller, onedollar28 (they are not fakes). Both of those phones, in my view, are better choices than the Etys or the RE2. Or why not get the Klipsch S4?