Headphones/Earphones

I do most listening through speakers but have Sony 7506 for over ear phones.

I have these in ears.
theheadphonelist.com/headphone_review/monster-turbine-pro-copper/
I got lucky and won them at an industry function. They are expensive but do sound nice. Doubt I would outlay that much myself. They come with different size rubber inserts so you can find what fits your ear best. They get plenty of volume with a nice balance of highs, mids and lows.
I do use them mowing the lawn, flights, biking and other activities. Have a boom box for workout music.

The Klipsch sound like good bang for your buck. Looked them up.

You will have to let us know how the Jaybirds sound. They get nice reviews also.

The Headphone List is an awesome site

Cool stuff.
Doesn't the external amp defeat the purpose of an ipod? Being Portable
Does the external amp make a big difference compared to the Ipod amp or a good receiver?

The Ibasso t4 is very small as you can see and went about a week on one charge (listening about 40mins a day (to and from work when I took the subway to work) so it was still very much portable.

You can absolutely play louder with an amp, specially with the european strangled volume ipods, but its not just that....more power gives celaner sound at higher decibel. This offcource depends alot on what you are listening to. Pop usually doesnt have the highest dynamics or complicated overlaping sounds so if you listen to this kind of music mostly it wont matter as much, but music such as jazz, or some fast heavy stuff and basically alot going on will be clearer. How easy the phones are to drive is the biggest question about how much you gain, but almost all (even inear) phones over $100 i would think would benefit in some way.

There is also the thing of not going through the ipods phonejack, but rather (as you can see on the pic) using the direct Line-Out and bypass what you dont need and get even more direct sound.


The cmoy uses a normal battery and will not go for aslong, and its bigger so not very portable. But it only costs about $60-80 so its a fair tradeoff. For my K601`s that are kinda hard to drive (not as bad as the 701 but still not easy) there is just a ton to gain by even this cheap amp and not using the internal laptop amp. I only use the cmoy with my portabel (well, movable is a better word) gamaing laptop.

For stationary purposes I have a dedicated headamp that is not portable, and yes this will usually improve the headphones sound comparable to the sound from headphone-out on a normal reciever. There are exeptions with recievers that have beautiful headamps built in, but they are rare. (what you payed for your super-duper home theater reciever has nothing to do woth this as some cheap 2-chanels can do a better job, its hit and miss).


Offcourse you can say: - well drive the car without so big a load, and you would be right. You can get easy to drive ok sounding in-ears (and on ears aswell) for a super-portable setup but whats the fun in that?

I have a pair of etys, but its the small clear ones. If sound-"flavour" is the same then there is something very apealing about it and I like them alot.

On the pic is an ipod classic 120gig, I actually dont know alot about the different gens since I have just bought one when I needed. I had the Ipod photo and ipod mini-blue from china and they were louder atlest. I also have a touch 16gig.

There are better players then this, but there is always some compromise (like space) and I like to have almost my full collection ready to go.


I havent heard the Fiio but people like it, and I suspect anything is better then built-in and like many other hi-fi things that is the first breakingpoint and then you have to pay alot more and you will never gain as much.

I basically just wanted to use the LOD-port because the built-in amp is the biggest gain to not use, the DAC coming in second place. I think the ones you mension uses the same DAC as the Cowon wich is rumoured to be the best sounding device, but personally I have never been able to single out a DAC in a blindtest. Not even ones in extremely pricy units against a cheap plastic one. I do remember my photo to be very good sounding tho, so maybe there is more to gain in the pods.

I also mainly use my setup on planes or train.

I've actually had bad experiences with the Sennheisers made for Adidas.  Poor sound quality and build, but that was a couple years ago.  Hopefully quality has improved since then.

You can have my Sennheiser HD580s when you pry them from my cold, dead ears.

I meant to comment on this . . . if you have the hf5s, IIRC, these actually use the same drivers as the er4s, the difference being that the drivers for the cheaper ones are mass produced, and the er4 drivers are assembled with more care, and from that pool they select the best ones then pair them up manually and hand assemble them. 

I like them because they provide clean, precise, unbiased sound--much like an NAD amp does.

Frankly, at this point in my life with all of the damage I have done to my ears as a youngster, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the lower end etys and the higher end ones, but I can certainly tell the difference between them and the other crap on the market in their price range.

Also, I have had the same pair of ear buds for nearly 15 years with extensive use, and they sound as amazing now as they did when they were new.  I think I paid close to $400 for them back in the day (they run about $300 now), and it's a purchase I would certainly make again without even considering other buds such as shures, ues, senns, etc.

Added bonus: because they seal out most nearly all of the ambient noise, they are fantastic for listening to music when I ride my motorcycle on the highway.

I got a pair of 271 and they a re a bitch to drive, extremely heavy. If you like the sound you would probably like the 701 (or 601 wich I have and is a little lighter to drive then 701) as they share some of the AKG-sound wich is natural and not bassheavy and excels at blues/guitarr/vocals and such.

The 701 is open so there will be a little different but to me there is so many positive things. They are open wich means huuuge soundstage compared to the tiny 271, and also OMG you orgasm when putting them on they feel soo good and not tight at all. I use mine for gaming alot and can go for hours.

I also have had some Jays and liked the sund alot, but basically its too little of everything to be a perfect monitor for me. (I gave mine away to a needing friend). I also think you might like the etys if you like the Jays. There is a small "learning curve" tho, but its all fun.


I am one of those that do not really like sennheiser sound. (Unless we are talking about the HD800) I dont know what it is but they seem to be a little good on everything and not really bad at something but also doesnt excell at anything. I might just not have had the one for me. I do have a coupple of HDR 180 that I use everyday for movies and I love them and they are great, but dont do much for me on music, but yeah its apples and oranges compared to a real music can.

I love my Jaybird Bluebuds Xs. Very good clean all around sound. Only a couple downsides once you get your fit down. When charging, it automatically turns off. So if you're out of battery, you're sol until you charge it. Also, when using it as a headset, it picks up everything so the person you're talking can hear everything going on, and can become really noisy for the other person. But in terms of using it as a bluetooth audio device for listening to music, it does a great job, and very convenient when you don't have to carry your phone around with you if you're lifting.