[mandyw]

Hi, I'm looking for an upgrade from Sennheiser CX175. I like the sound of that pair, but the noise isolation isn't enough for me. I picked up that pair while looking for a good portable equivalent of my Audio-Technica ATH-M50's. My budget is around $200-250 USD max, and I'll be using them with my Iphone 4S for the most part. I would prefer if they can work well without a portable amp. I listen to a bit of everything except metal, country, and jazz. I'm looking for a pair that's close to the ATH-M50's when comes to sound as far as how the sound is balanced. The reason why I say no IEM is because I bought a pair of Etymotic ER4S from Amazon, and I found them way too uncomfortable. They go in too deep, and my ears start hurting after half an hour to an hour of listening. Plus I have sensitive ears, and I'm quite prone to ear infections. I liked the ER4S's sound (through the laptop because the sound is kind of bad through my phone), but they just aren't going to work for me. I ended up returning those. As such, I won't be getting the ER4P's. I wouldn't mind IEMs as much if they don't go in the ear canal too deeply, but I would prefer if they don't go deeper than CX175's or normal earbud standards. Earphones and headphones are both alright as long as they're portable (and hopefully durable). 
 
Thank you!
 
P.S.- I'm new here. My name is Mandy; nice to meet you.

 

[kimvictor]

Welcome to head-fi Mandy! So you are looking for M50/ER4-ish sound. Those two are quite different, but here are my recs.
DT1350: Think of it as ER4ish sound with more(and better) bass. My favorite portable of all time.
SRH840: Overall balanced and very solid in many ways. Not so portable though(as portable as M50)
Amperiors: These are the closest sounding to M50 out of the three I've mentioned. Overall solid clarity and detail, but DT1350 is better purely in terms of sound quality.
 
Anyways, "cough cough" Sorry for your wallet!

 

[mandyw]

Quote:

Welcome to head-fi Mandy! So you are looking for M50/ER4-ish sound. Those two are quite different, but here are my recs.
DT1350: Think of it as ER4ish sound with more(and better) bass. My favorite portable of all time.
SRH840: Overall balanced and very solid in many ways. Not so portable though(as portable as M50)
Amperiors: These are the closest sounding to M50 out of the three I've mentioned. Overall solid clarity and detail, but DT1350 is better purely in terms of sound quality.
 
Anyways, "cough cough" Sorry for your wallet!

Thanks! I'll check them out. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for sound wise. Everything I've owned (from my first pair of skullcandies ink'd to the M-50's to the ER4S) all sounded pretty good to me. Out of all of them, I liked the Etys the best because they sounded amazing on my laptop, but a little more bass would have been nice. 
 
I've heard of the Amperiors. I'm looking through reviews for the Sennheiser Momentum right now, and I keep seeing mixed responses, so I'm trying to see if I can find a store that has a demo pair. 
 
I'm trying to decide between the Hi-fi RE-400 and the Momentum. The RE-400 has good reviews, but I don't want deep insertion IEMs after the ER4S. Any ideas?
 
Haha, thanks. I guess I'll just be more motivated to graduate and get a job. 

 

[kimvictor]

Quote:

Thanks! I'll check them out. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for sound wise. Everything I've owned (from my first pair of skullcandies ink'd to the M-50's to the ER4S) all sounded pretty good to me. Out of all of them, I liked the Etys the best because they sounded amazing on my laptop, but a little more bass would have been nice. 
 
I've heard of the Amperiors. I'm looking through reviews for the Sennheiser Momentum right now, and I keep seeing mixed responses, so I'm trying to see if I can find a store that has a demo pair. 
 
I'm trying to decide between the Hi-fi RE-400 and the Momentum. The RE-400 has good reviews, but I don't want deep insertion IEMs after the ER4S. Any ideas?
 
Haha, thanks. I guess I'll just be more motivated to graduate and get a job. 

RE 400 has normal iem insertion, so that could be a problem. It's not exactly shallow like earbuds. If you liked ER4 sound, RE-400 seems like a great option, if it weren't for the insertion. Why not try the DT1350? They really are exceptional headphones. Check out my signature for review on them(Multi Headphone Review)

 

[mandyw]

Quote:

RE 400 has normal iem insertion, so that could be a problem. It's not exactly shallow like earbuds. If you liked ER4 sound, RE-400 seems like a great option, if it weren't for the insertion. Why not try the DT1350? They really are exceptional headphones. Check out my signature for review on them(Multi Headphone Review)

I think I've seen the DT1350 mentioned somewhere on the forums before. I don't remember which thread though. 
 
Yeah, that's a problem. Can you feel the RE400's when you clench your jaw? (weird question) It's possible that there's a RE demo in a store here (there's supposedly an audiophile mecca store with a ton of stuff and demos, but I've never been there before). 
 
I read over the review quickly. Does the DT1350's clamping hurt the ears too badly? At 80 Ohms impedance, will I need to use a portable amp for these if I'm using them with my iphone.
 
Thanks. 

 

[kimvictor]

Quote:

I think I've seen the DT1350 mentioned somewhere on the forums before. I don't remember which thread though. 
 
Yeah, that's a problem. Can you feel the RE400's when you clench your jaw? (weird question) It's possible that there's a RE demo in a store here (there's supposedly an audiophile mecca store with a ton of stuff and demos, but I've never been there before). 
 
I read over the review quickly. Does the DT1350's clamping hurt the ears too badly? At 80 Ohms impedance, will I need to use a portable amp for these if I'm using them with my iphone.
 
Thanks. 

I can feel the RE400 when I clench my teeth. DT1350's clamping improves with use and bending. Also, you don't need too much power. iPod could drive it fairly well, so iPhone probably can drive it without much issue. They do improve with amping though.

 

[mandyw]

Quote:

I can feel the RE400 when I clench my teeth. DT1350's clamping improves with use and bending. Also, you don't need too much power. iPod could drive it fairly well, so iPhone probably can drive it without much issue. They do improve with amping though.

That's probably too deep for me then. I really want to get them, but I don't want to risk hurting my ears. 
 
Okay. I can probably find a test pair somewhere. 

 

[kimvictor]

It's always best to demo anything before you buy them.

 

[mandyw]

Quote:

It's always best to demo anything before you buy them.

Yeah, I learned that the hard way (I bought the ER4S on Amazon and ended up returning them). The same store also sells the RE 400 (and just about everything else from what I see in the pics), so I might as well just demo them both. 
 
Edit: Thank you very much for your help.

 

[kimvictor]

No problem. Good luck finding what works! But RE400 has shallower insertion than ER4, if that makes you feel better.

 

[mandyw]

Quote:

No problem. Good luck finding what works! But RE400 has shallower insertion than ER4, if that makes you feel better.

Thanks again! It's kind of sad that I might not be able to use most/all IEMs because of my ears. 

 

[kimvictor]

Quote:

Thanks again! It's kind of sad that I might not be able to use most/all IEMs because of my ears. 

You might be able to get some custom silicon iems. You can request your ciem to be shallow, if that's going to help.

 

[mandyw]

Quote:

You might be able to get some custom silicon iems. You can request your ciem to be shallow, if that's going to help.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the tip!