[mrcheese321]

I'm spending next semester in China for a study abroad program and will be traveling a lot before I go there (mostly mainland China). I wanted to get some type of closed headphones for the trip. I was thinking some In-the-ears, but maybe some regular ones. Ambient noise canceling is one of the main things that I'm looking for.

The plan is to be listening to a Palm LifeDrive, but I might get a DAP if I can find one for a good price. I want to build a cmoy as an amplifier but was also considering the Headphone.com deal, where you get the Ety's, an AirHead, and a case for 299.

Price point is $300.

I was thinking of the Ety 4s, or the Shure e4s as in the ears.
No clue on what would be good as over the ear headphones.

Any suggestions?

To hep answer some of the questions:
I'm going to be listening mostly on the move - plane, train, bus and subway.
I listen mostly to rock/pop and some rap, but not that much.
The 300 budget is combined for the phones and the amp. If I build a cmoy, then I can spend more on the phones, if I buy a pre-made amp, then I have to spend less on the phones. I can go as high as 350, but that is pretty much it.
Size really isn't an issue. I carry a normal sized backpack with me everywhere, and most of the time that I will be traveling, I will have at least a small backpack (Oakley Icon-small) with me.

 

[Oink1]

A few helpfull things to edit into your post

1, Where will you use the closed 'phones? On the move? at your room?
2, What do you listen to music wise?
3, Is that $300 budget combined or not?
4, Are you looking for a smaller paor with portable possibilities or is size not an issue?

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrcheese321 I was thinking of the Ety 4s, or the Shure e4s as in the ears. No clue on what would be good as over the ear headphones. Any suggestions?

IMHO, Don't think you can go wrong with the Ety's. I have the ER6 and really enjoy them when flying, High noise environments or don't want to disturb others around me. Search the forums,there are many reviews and thoughts on the ER4s/p.

For an open can that’s portable - consider a cheap pair of Koss KSC-35's. Don't let the price, ~$19.00, fool you. Doesn't meet your over the ear requirement but they do a nice job especially amped and are very comfortable.

 

[nanahachi]

I have the same question: is the $300 budget just for phones (+ amp if you go through Headroom), or is it the TOTAL budget for phones and a DAP?

If it were me, I think I would try to find a USED ipod and USED Ety ER-4P (you can get the P to S converter later when you need it). That combined total would hover around $400, but you would be getting a new source in the process. I don't know anything about that Palm, and don't mean to knock it.

OR you could get USED Etys and a portable PIMETA. I dont know how the PIMETA would stack up to the Airhead, but that's for the Amp forum anyway.

Good luck.

 

[Teerawit]

IMHO a cmoy doesn't do the etys enough justice. ie. i think you're better off with just driving etys straight out of a DAP.

what type of music do you like? ER4 and shure e4 have their advantages toward different types of music.

 

[b-sides]

if you're traveling a lot and looking for isolation, canalphones are probably pretty safe. quite a few people seem to like the new E4Cs.

btw, how's the lifedrive? thats the 4gb palm with media playback capability right? it looked pretty sweet.

 

[mrcheese321]

I just got the lifedrive today. It has some lag between songs which is really irritating. My old T3 never had any space between songs, but because of the hard drive, it has like a 1-3 second lag depending on what was in the buffer. Also, if you click on the home screen and start another program with the music in the background, it sometimes (not all of the time, but enough to be annoying) has a break in the music while it open the program.

I can't decide if it is going back or not. I might have to adjust the budget and get a deticated DAP for music playback and then keep this thing just as a palm/digital camera hard drive backup.

c