“For the gadget aficionado, Apple’s iPod portable music player is a must have. Simply go to your local Apple store and pick out the color of nano or iPod you like. Done. Enjoy the iPod for what it is — a marketing triumph disguised as a gadget. But headphones for iPods? That’s another story,” Jonathan Blum writes for TheStreet.com. “As much as Steve Jobs has redrawn the digital landscape with his iPod and other Apple products, he has turned a deaf ear to his headphones. iPod headphones, like all things Apple, certainly look cool; those little white earbuds are as ubiquitous as they are iconic. But as headphones, they are a disgrace.”
“The good news is there are excellent aftermarket choices for high-quality headphones for portable music players. These headphones sound better. They fit better,” Blum reports. “[Personal monitors] are not earbuds. They are actually high-quality small speakers that fit inside the outer part of your ear canal and sit flush to your eardrums, providing better sound at lower volumes… The three brands to know for [personal monitors] are Etymotic Research, Shure Electronics and Ultimate Ears. I tested three of the better units from these companies: the Etymotic ER-4 ($330), the Shure E4c ($299) and the UE super.fi 5Pro ($249)… The audio quality in all of these units was solid. Really solid. But even good things are not created equal. For me, audio equipment is like red wine — you can go and on about the stuff, but you know right away what’s best. And the standout in this group was the Ultimate Ears.”
Full article here.
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Related article:
Review: Etymotic Research ER-6i Isolator black earphones – February 04, 2006
I paid a surgeon $15,000 to meld cables to my auditory nerves that connect to a 3.5mm stereo jack that is indiscreetly placed superficially subcutaneously on my left arm.
I bought a pair of Panasonic in ear headphones for $AU50.00 an they rock. The ipod headphones sit on my coffee table and will be included in the sale of ipod (to be replaced with a 60 gig model).
Regarding the quality of music, if people insist on purchasing AAC 128 kbps quality (sic) music then what can you expect. I’m sorry my wife and I are both ex-music industry people who treat our music collection seriously and I wouldn’t touch the iTunes Music store material with a barge pole.
I purchase my music from allofmp3.com for a fraction of the price at AAC cd quality level. Royalties are paid (although the RIAA won’t accept the payments because they want a higher cut). Sure there are gaps in their collection but the quality is great and I don’t have to worry about DRM.
Grado gonna release iPod headphones soon; that must be both white and good sound quality
I use a pair of Radio-Shack-branded Koss in-ear-phones. They came with black foam bits, but I replaced them with a pair of foam earplugs in which I melted a hole with a hot nail. They are now *extremely* comfortable, do a great job of sealing out external noise, and the sound quality is pretty darn good. Best of all, they only cost about $20. Since they live in my pocket, wrapped around my iPod, I figure buying an expensive set of earbuds is probably a bad idea.