[pablor]

Hi

Like many of you out there, I suspect, my quest for portable audio nirvana has led me to consider options I would have considered at best financially irresponsible only a short time ago.

I'm currently considering either Sensaphonics ProPhonic 2X or UE-10 Pro (leaning towards the Sensaphonics right now). I'd be using these with a 4G iPod.

My big worry is how much of my existing music collection will sound. I have a lot of MP3s encoded at 160 kbps and up - mostly between 190 and 320. (And not available to re-rip.)

Has anyone tested either of these phones with files at varying degrees of lossiness? Will only lossless do as some reviews suggest? If so, I'm not completely certain it's worth the jump. With my Ety ER-4Ps, lower bitrate files generally sound fine to me.

If anyone has any views on this question, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks,

//Pablor

 

[CaptainChet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pablor Hi Like many of you out there, I suspect, my quest for portable audio nirvana has led me to consider options I would have considered at best financially irresponsible only a short time ago. I'm currently considering either Sensaphonics ProPhonic 2X or UE-10 Pro (leaning towards the Sensaphonics right now). I'd be using these with a 4G iPod. My big worry is how much of my existing music collection will sound. I have a lot of MP3s encoded at 160 kbps and up - mostly between 190 and 320. (And not available to re-rip.) Has anyone tested either of these phones with files at varying degrees of lossiness? Will only lossless do as some reviews suggest? If so, I'm not completely certain it's worth the jump. With my Ety ER-4Ps, lower bitrate files generally sound fine to me. If anyone has any views on this question, I'd love to hear them. Thanks, //Pablor

Very good question.

I'm in exactly the same situtation. I like my ety-4p but find the bass resonse a bit lacking and I travel extensively (in airplanes) listening to the same lower bitrate MP-3 music. Lot of it is oldies and generally not that great to start with in the first place.

I'm looking for the best noise reduction and performance possible. The US-10 certainly appear to fit this bill, but at a very high cost.

I'm looking forward to the replies as well.

 

[chrisfromalbany]

My opinion...

I think it comes down the quality of the mp3s. I have downloaded from P4P and some of the mp3s sound good and some sound worst with better headphones or IEMs. But for the price you are spending on the headphones you could always download some new new material from one of the Russian sites. I downloaded from them at 320 aac and sounds really good.

I guess in short if you upgrade the headphones you MAY have to upgrade your mp3s. Really depends on your ears and what quality you want to hear.

 

[gorman]

I use Vorbis Q6 on my Karma and with UE-10 they sound good.

 

[PeeeMeS]

anything less than ~96b is unbearable on my UE-10 Pro's

If you do get UE-10, I suggest hard acrylic, unless you dont mind sending your phones back every 1-2 years for repairs on the full soft material

 

[c-money]

I have the 2x and love them, but either should make should make everything sound better. the encoding just determines how much better. I'd never go lower than 128kbs though, 320-lossless if you can.

 

[wolfen68]

I use UE5c's with 200 kbps vbr mp3 files and all is OK. Lossless does sound better, but the UE's still sound better than my lesser headphones with the same mp3's.

 

[gorman]

Vorbis Q6 is about 192kbs VBR. It tends to be slightly less than Lame APS, with supposedly comparable sound quality. I never cared enough to ABX the two formats. They are both good enough for portable use, and I needed the extra space on my Karma.

 

[toaster]

if you're looking for audio nirvana, the sensaphonics and the ipod (especially the 4th gen) will absolutely give it to you.

it is interesting, it's not just the bitrate...although a really low bitrate like 96kbps will sound horrible always...it's also the quality of the actual recording itself. in other words, the studio settings and type of equipment that was used.

the sensaphonics are so revealing, that you can really start to notice things that aren't even applicable with most other phones. you can tell what studios have better recordings than others, and which record labels just don't record that well. it's very intersting.

 

[iamdone]

I'd say the sensas might be better for lower bit rates. They are not quite as revealing as the ue10. I only listen to lossless, so even though I have both, I may not be the best one to answer. You might also check out the new universal iems first like the shure E4 or the ue superfi 5 pro before taking the jump to custom.

My amp is away getting the gain adjusted so I'm listening to both the sensas and ue10 straight out of the ipod. I now think it depends on what music is playing for which one will sound better without an amp. The sensas seem to do drums and bass better in this setup. The ue10 are thinner sounding and not as warm but have better clarity and a more open sound. When I tried them on my home amp, the sensa still do drums better but sounded too think and a little bloated in the upper bass. I think I prefer the ue10 for most music amped.