[WilliamR]

I'm planning to buy the Sony MDR-EX70LP's. I've looked at local stores, but can't find them.

Does anyone know of a good place to buy them online? The lowest price online that at which I have found them is $40.95 ($35.95 + $5 shipping) here, http://www.1cache.com/sonmdrexfolo.html. What are good places to do price searches for headphones? I was just hunting for prices by searching for "EX70LP" in Yahoo and Google. I tried StreetPrices.com, but it only gave me one hit which was a lot higher than some I found just by searching Yahoo and Google.

I know that the Etymotics are the best canalphones, but I don't want to spend that much money right now. The only other canalphone that I know of is the KOSS plug. Are there any other canalphones for under $100 out there? I don't believe I've ever heard of any.

Reviews I've read on the EX70LP range from saying that they're terrible to they're the best headphones in the world. I don't know how trustworthy they are, though, because most of them haven't been written by audiophiles. One guy gave an extensive review of the headphones, but then ruined is credibility by saying that $60 was the price of the most expensive headphones you could buy anywhere...I would appreciate any reviews of the EX70LP's from head-fi'ers.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by WilliamR One guy gave an extensive review of the headphones, but then ruined is credibility by saying that $60 was the price of the most expensive headphones you could buy anywhere...

$60 is way above the price of the most expensive headphones sold at some retailers, but I've seen actual retail stores sell headphones for well over $200!

 

[sapphiremodena]

You can find the ex70's at www.electronicsemall.com for about $33 US, but that is the 2-tipped version. What you want is probably the 3-tipped version, as I have heard many reviews saying that the 3-tipped version is better. What I mean by 3-tipped is that there are 3 different types of ends on the headphone, which are small, medium, and large to fit inside your ear canal better, for a better fit and therefore, better sound, isolation, and bass. The version with 3 tips is usually more expensive, in result, but is a good investment because a few people who tried the 2-tipped versions complained about a bad fit inside their ear, and so they sounded bad.
The EX70LP has a long cord , and the EX70SL has a short cord. All SL's come with 3 tips, but only a few of the LP's come with 3 tips.

Any more questions?/....I'll see if I can find some more cheap sites for the 3-tipped EX70's.

.....ok, the sites that I can find, with the short-corded, 3-tipped versions, are:
MinidiscMall $51.50
Minidisco $57
Bluetin $42 for white, $47 for black ; a very low price, but they are situated in Singapore so shipping might be high

Another pair of under $100 canal phones that I know of are the Koss Plugs. I haven't heard a good thing about them yet, except for the fact that they are cheap. I've heard tons of complaints regarding bad fit, poor bass, ugly design, and overall poor sound.
The Koss Plug is basically a crappy version of the EX70's or Etymotic canalphones (which retail for $330, but are at Headroom for $269. Etymotics are an earbud lover's dream....a very expensive dream at that, but all owners say that they are worth the money....

Well, I'm rambling, sorry bout that. I'm out, see ya

 

[Neruda]

electronics e-mall has them for $33.98. That's the best price I've seen anywhere. As far as my opinion goes, they can be either good or bad. I've modified mine a bit, and I can tell you about the modifications if you'd like (they're both very simple). Basically, the ex70's that I got have tons of treble and tons of bass. I modified them to decrease both. Now they have a much more balanced sound and I use them a lot. They have very little soundstage but they block a lot of sound and that makes them great for portable use. The Koss plug is terrible, so don't bother. And no, there aren't any other options at this price point or any price point. So go with these!

 

[Deuce_Bigalow]

I got the EX70LP's for $79.99 Cnd. at the Sony store and I did the mods that Neruda told me about and they sound great to me. Like he said, not much soundstage but they're good at what they do. The bass is really good after doing the mods. I think I got the 3 tipped version but either I lost one of the small earplugs or it was missing one when I got it, cause I have the medium sized pair, large pair, and only 1 little earplug but it's too small anyways. Even if mine was a better version that sounded better than Neruda's the mods still helped them a bit.

 

[Gluegun]

Try here. I believe this version is the right version...

http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?...=sonymdrex70lp

 

[sapphiremodena]

those are the ex70lp's with 2 tip sizes
so it seems like those are fine, if you do the modifications on them...right?

 

[chych]

Actually the one from etronics IS the 3 tipped version... I orderd from them and what do you know, I got 3 tips... even though they were supposed to be 2.

Anyways, yeah the ex70s are a pretty decent pair of earphones, only problems with them can be traced to the low freqs, more of it being needed... so the tape mod (cover the 3 holes with tape) is needed to increase accuracy of the earphone by reducing the bass.

 

[WilliamR]

Thanks for all the great responses!! sapphiremodena, thanks for all the info on the different versions of the EX70. Thanks to everyone for all the price and location information.

I was thinking I would order the SL's, but now I think I will order the LP's from Etronics like chych did since they are apparently now shipping the 3-tip variety. I want the longer cord.

How do EX70's sound compared to the HD600 or SR325 or other high end headphones? How much detail do you get compared to high end headphones? I don't have any expensive headphones, but I'd still be interested in how they match up. Do very many people use these at home, or are these mostly something you would use when you need isolation/portability - like when you're commuting? In other words, is the sound quality good enough that you actually prefer to use them over high end headphones when isolation/portability isn't an issue?

 

[RogerEsq]

I am not saying it is "wrong" to compare the EX70s with the Senn 600 or the Grado 325s. But let us just say we won't want to compare them. I have the Grado 225s and I use them at work. I also have the Sony EX70SL (3-tipped) phones. Both phones dwell in totally different fields -- the 225s in the Elysian fields while the EX70s, well, maybe in a soccer field. Stupid, quite asinine way of putting it, but I hope you get what I mean.

The 225s are excellent headphones. All-rounders. I think one can make a pair of great denims with all the billions of good threads written about them. The EX70SLs, frankly, do not really size up with the 225s. But for its price and one's decent isolation needs, it does perform. The soundstage, yes, is a bit small not like my MX-400s, but the bass is okay. What I usually do is put some DSP while I play my MP3s (from MusicMatch) to widen the soundstage a bit. And it sounds pretty A-OK.

Correct me brothers, I know you disdain DSP or ambiance-enhancing drivers, but MY ears say that for earphones, especially for my EX70SLs, a little DSP will help. That's why I am contemplating on getting a NomadJukeBox mp3 player, which has EAX, a sound enhancer. "No, no, no" cries I hear over there. But bear with me folks, the 225s won't need them, the Etys won't need them but my EX70SLs could just take a small dip.

"If it sounds good to your ears, it must be good for your ears."

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

I'm very fond of my EX70's, but right now I'm a bit annoyed. I somehow managed to lose one of the medium sized rubbers but after some testing I found that I actually got a somewhat better seal with the small tip on that ear, so I didn't mind.

Until I lost the other medium sized tip a few days later through carelessness. Neither the large nor the small tip work properly in my right ear.

I did find the rubbers as parts (for $5 from Sony US) but they probably will balk at sending them abroad - or charge me insane amounts of money.

Just don't lose the proper size rubbers and you should be happy with them.

Mine sounded very bass heavy and rather bright at first, but after breaking them in for a few months they got much better. I probably adapted a bit to the sound as well. I really miss using them though, really cuts down on the mental fatigue of the day to be able to block out tons of needless conversations etc by listening to music, shielded by the insulation of these things.

I'm strongly considering Ety's though since I could really use even more isolation - even though these do very well.

 

[Deuce_Bigalow]

I have the EX70LP and I find the cord on it is too small. It's smaller than the cord that was on my Sony streetstyles and Koss Sportapros. It can be a pain if you want to put the cd player in a cargo pants pocket or something like that. It would be nice to have the extension thingy.

 

[ex70 boy]

Whats are the mods I can do to my ex-70's to make them sound better? I read above about them but didn't see a link or anything

 

[Neruda]

there are two basic mods: the tape mod and the foam mod. The first mod (and the simplest) decreases the bass response. All you have to do is take a small piece of tape and place it over the three holes on the back of the earbud. You can also do this with glue, it's obviously more permanent that way but it does look better. Try it with the tape first to see how you like it. The second mod decreases the treble. Not many people do this mod because they don't have a problem with the ex70's treble response, but I found my ex70's treble to be screetchy. On the end of that little tube that goes into your ear, there's a small piece of paper that sort of caps it. If you pull that little piece of paper off you'll find that the tube is hollow. Then you take a little piece of foam (I used foam from an old headphone pad) and stuff it into the tube. You can use as much or as little foam as you want, to either reduce or increase the treble as much as you want. I tend to do this a lot, I call it foam equalization

. After reducing the treble and the bass, I think the ex70's sound much more balanced, and the midrange comes out a bit more. They become much more musical, and I use them all the time now whereas before I almost hated using them. Hope this helps...

 

[ex70 boy]

do you guys ever get ear wax in the hole of the little peice of paper on the vents on the side of the earphone that points into your ear? If so how do you clean these? When i get it in the hole i usually take a small needle and poke very shallow at it becuase i don't know what is underneath. On the vents though (the ones that poing into your ear) i am not sure how to clean them. Has anyone taken one of these apart and put it back together successfully?

Thanks