New Year, New Sounds. Love your music with new earphones!
Etymotic Custom fit hf2's
Macs sound great. It's a fact. Why? Their onboard audio excels compared to PC rivals. As a sound engineer I'm often surprised at just how good songs in iTunes can sound when I have a decent pair of headphones plugged into my MacBook.
It's rare that this can be said about the average onboard sound of PC's: most of the Dell and Toshiba laptops I've used have been an unpleasant listen. Yes loud, but they suffer terribly from 'CPU cycle' noise. This is when you can hear noise from the PC almost leaking through your headphones. Each mouse move would lead to a small but annoying interruption to your recently downloaded Beatles back catalogue.
No such woes on the Mac though. Take my Black MacBook, not only does it have a clean sound output without this interference, it's also a great performing amp in its own right. To borrow a bit of hifi magazine talk: it's got great dynamics, drives well and brings even compressed AAC & MP3's alive.
This does require one thing though: great sounding headphones.
Rant time: the standard white earbuds that Apple give with the iPhone and iPod are awful. We hate them. They leak sound meaning others hear more than you, they are tinny, lack bass and poorly sell how good even MP3's can sound.
So here is our round up of what you should replace them with:
Ear buds up to £40: Sennheiser CX 300-II
CX 300: An amazing leap for the price
Biggest jump in quality for the money from the standard Apple white ear buds. They have good bass (often lacking in more expensive in ear buds). They come with a set of interchangable ear buds to ensure they have a snug fit in your ear. This is important as it helps cut down background noise, meaning your not fighting the noises around you with volume.
Best of all, Amazon has them for less than £20
Headphones up to £40: Sennheiser PX200
PX200: Comfy, portable and sound great
If you prefer more traditional headphones or don't feel comfortable with pushing ear buds into your ears, you can still get some great portable headphones. Fashionable portable headphone choice has never been better lately with offerings from Dr Dre with his Beats range and Skullcandy offering lots of different retro styles and colours. Not wishing to sound like killjoys though, the most important thing to us is how good they sound. Also important is portability. This is why we really rate the PX200's. They sound as good as big hifi headphones that are twice the price, they isolate well from outside noise without requiring electronic noise cancellation (if you want to though you can have this by paying extra for the PX250). Most importantly, they are extremely portable and easily fold up into a spectacles sized case.
Ear buds up to £100: Etymotic HF2
Custom fit hf2's: Look weird, feel great
The Etymotic hf2's are multi award winning in earphones for iOS devices. Perfect for the iPhone, they feature a microphone just like the standard issue iPhone 'phones, but without sounding rubbish. So you can avoid losing functionality and enjoy music better than ever.
I use these daily. I'll start with my only criticism: Bass. It could have a little bit more. I am spoilt though the rest of the time with my HD-25's (see below). So what's good? Well they aren't totally lacking in bottom end and make u with it with brilliant natural vocals and a clear mid range. Most importantly they offer great isolation from the outside world, meaning you can start bringing down the volume limiter on your iPod rather than trying to crank it to the max.
If you want to go a step further for great isolation, or want more comfort, then the Etymotic comes with a a little bit of paper. The paper alone wont give you a perfect fit, but whats written on it will. It's a number to contact a local approved Audiologist. What will they do? Well for a small fee (around £20) they will take a mould of your ear canal in order to create custom ear plugs. It's an odd sounding procedure but its how most modern musical performers now hear themselves onstage. Just take a look at the next concert performance on TV to notice the performers wearing ear phones. For another £70 or so Etymotic will create ear plugs that are the ultimate fit your your ears. These simply replace the generic plugs that come with hf2's.
Are they worth it? When I initially got mine it was to maximise isolation as I was concerned about trying to battle noise on London's Underground. I didn't think about the comfort factor or improvements in Bass. At first I think I expected complete silence when wearing them somewhere as noisy as the Victoria Line, so was dissapointed when I didn't get that. However when I tried the same journey without the custom moulded ear plugs, I struggled to hear music at the same lower volume. I also barely realise I'm wearing them compared to the standard fittings.
This is clearly a high end commitment, but if you wear them a lot, or are also in the market for proper ear plugs to prevent deafness, once you've had a mould done once, it can be used by Etymotic for repeat orders.
Pro Headphones over £100: Sennheiser HD-25's
HD-25's: Friend of Pro DJ's. And the Deaf.
If you want to spend more money and want a pair of great sounding headphones that are built to last then we have only one recommendation for you: It's Another entry for Sennheiser with the now legendary HD-25's. These headphones are de rigeur in the world of TV sound recordists and DJ's. Why do they love them? Firstly they are brilliantly built and rugged. They are also modular, meaning that if you damage the cable for example it can easily be replaced.
Best of all is how they sound. These headphones perform brilliantly with mids and highs that you'd normally find on top end hifi headphones costing twice the price. They have brilliant isolation and amazingly true and clear reproduction. Keep your music high quality (256 AAC or 320k MP3) on your iPod, iPhone or iPad and you'll be amazed at how good it can sound. CD's and Apple Lossless files on your MacBook will sing.
(Want to stand out in a crowd of DJ's? Or a Wag? Then check out the gorgeous Sennheiser HD 25 Adidas Special Edition)
So treat yourself for Christmas and bin those white earbuds for something better!
