Sony E888LP earbuds

[Tony De Luca]

Can someone tell me the real scoop on the Sony E888LP earbuds? I don't see hardly any feedback on them and I just ordered a pair without hearing them. Did I make a big mistake or what?

 

[pawwh98]

BIG mistake! But don't worry, if you send them right to me, we'll just pretend that this embarassing incident never happened, ok?

 

[Pierre Lambion]

Welcome Tony!

I'm not much knowledgeable about headphones but from hearsay the 888 are quite good. Some love them, some dislike them, but I guess it is quite the case with most headphones.

There is a comprehensive review here : http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...&threadid=2141 .

Just search on Sony 888 and you should find a lot of small reviews in this forum!

Cheers,

Pierre

 

[DanG]

Welcome to the forum!

The Sony E888LP was my first decent headphone and in fact the first headphone I had ever purchased (I generally used stock headphones and once got the Sony G72 as a gift). I used it as my only headphone from the time I got it (over one year ago) until I purchased my Grado RS-2 in March, and from that point I used it as my only portable headphone until less than a month ago when I got my Etymotic ER-4S in the mail from Headroom.

Soon after break-in (which took a very long time with this headphone -- give it about 100 hours) I was able to appreciate its sound even before I had ever used any "audiophile" headphones, headphone amps, or sources. The reason is that these headphones have a rather forgiving character -- slightly rolled-off treble and warm, enjoyable mid-range. It may sound like I'm trying to say that these headphones aren't true to the source information, and in a way, I am. But I found that these headphones allowed me to just enjoy the music whether the recording is good or bad and no matter the source. I think you'll love these headphones once they get past break-in.

Once you've used these headphones for a while, you may want to audition some higher-end models to see if the difference is appreciable and worthwhile to you. Good luck!

Dan

 

[Vertigo-1]

Got your email Tony, I'll reply here...

You certainly didn't make any mistake. As DanG says they're very enjoyable to listen to. I assume you had the money to spend and just decided to go straight for the best...otherwise the other consideration was that for $20 you could have gotten the MX500s which offer a similar sound to the 888s.

My personal earphone of choice nowdays is the MX500s I must admit, regardless of price...because they're cheap and built tough. If they break on the road, I'm much less likely to start crying about it then if I had broken a pair of 888s. The 888s are rather fragile with that little stem design...not quite something you want to just wrap around your player and toss into a backpack with pencils and books. The MX500s are just a one piece hard plastic design, very cheap looking in fact, but they sound as good if not better than the 888s. The other huge factor is that the MX500's cord is much more tangle free and stays straight even after 100 windups, while Sony, in trying to make the 888s tangle free, actually made them more easy to tangle up.

In about 10 winds, the 888's cord will get all bent out of shape and stay curved all over the place forever. Just another reason for me to use MX500s on the move, as I don't want to have to untangle the earphones everytime I take them out.

But if you take good care of your 888s and don't mind a little tangling, they will dish out very enjoyable sound for a very long time. They were the very 'phones that got me on the long road to audiophiledom, so me and the 888s go waaaaay back.

 

[Peddler]

I've 'spoken' to Tony via e-mail and assurred him that they are a good buy. (I hope you found it all useful Tony).

I love my 888's. I use them more than my Ety's (not because they sound better though) and rate them very VERY highly.

I agree with the others regarding break-in but I did find them quite listenable right from the word go. They are warm, not dry sounding like the 4S, and tend to actually work better through portable players than full-blown rigs. They are very musical, comfortable and, unlike most buds, don't need to be 'crammed' into your ears as hard as possible to get good bass out of them.

As for fragility>? Well, I must admit I don't treat mine with kit gloves but I also avoid sitting or standing on them as well.

 

[Ctn]

I dont have much earbuds but the 888s are nothing that spectacular, dont want to spend that much on ety's either.

So I guess its a good buy

 

[Tony De Luca]

Dan,
I just tried my 888's and I must admit they sound very bright almost tinny. I know they need some break in which I have done now for about 10 hours. They still sound screechy! Does the high end ever tone down? The bass is very shy, but clean and tight. I really don't here very much in the way of low bass. I have been breaking these in with the Sheffield track record, some excellent drum solo's at a moderate sound level. You say break in last 100 hours, is this for real? I will admit the midrange is very warm almost pristine, but the highs are very rough edged and the lows very weak. I sure hope this improves with time. Is this typical for a new set or are these phones defective?

 

[Neruda]

from what I've heard, the e888's need a considerable amount of burn-in time. also, they shouldn't be used very loudly.

 

[tracylynn]

i have the senn. mx500.... how does it compared to the sony mdr-e888?

 

[sapphiremodena]

Quote:

Originally posted by tracylynn i have the senn. mx500.... how does it compared to the sony mdr-e888?

Most people here say that the 888 is a bit better than the mx500, but not worth paying 3 or 4 times as much money. Some people even like the mx500 better, and say that it has more bass.
Mx500 is really durable too, and the 888 is very fragile.
888 looks better, but who cares (i do!)

 

[Vertigo-1]

Tony, play them at normal levels for about 2 weeks. And yes, be careful not to blast them...the diaphragms are rather delicate and don't enjoy loud bursts of sound. On another note, you are using the foams with them right? Just about all earbud reviews are based on having the foams on, because the foams increase the bass and warm up the midrange, so that the earphones don't sound so thin and tiny.

The MX-500s and 888s are very similar in sound. The 888s are still a bit better and give a bit more detail, so essentially if one has the money and wants to shoot for the best, the 888s are the way to go. I think they fit much better than the MX500s as well because of how thin their pipe duct is...the MX500s have that thick, plastic piece, while the 888s have an entirely bendable rubber piece. Of course the thiness of the 888's duct is part of its downfall too, since that means it's connected to the driver housing by only a smideon of rubber, and all it takes is a good chuck around a bag to seperate the pipe duct from the driver housing. Which is why, as I said, I use MX500s nowdays, regardless of price or sound.

 

[andrzejpw]

Well, I hope you'll enjoy or new buds! The mx500s started me on my way to bigger(hd580s) and better(hd580s

) headphones.

 

[DanG]

Tony,

Basically what everyone else said is true. And yes, I was highly disappointed with the 888 at first -- but one day, about a month after purchasing them, I realized that they sounded much better (no joke!). This was before my acquaintance with high-end audio equipment and its reviews, so I was mainly looking for bass.

I really don't think you'll be disappointed if you let them run in for a while.

Dan

 

[Vertigo-1]

Quote:

This was before my acquaintance with high-end audio equipment and its reviews, so I was mainly looking for bass.

My 888s were sitting in a dust pile and having its cords eaten by roaches for about two years after I bought them for this exact reason.

Then I ran across that Hoffman site talking about burning in earphones, and I figured why not, so I threw my 888s into my CDROM jack and burned them in. The rest is history.