Earphones / Headphones: Where to try, what to buy?

The Nuraloops sound really cool, never heard of them (I should have read the thread). They look a bit big in the ear perhaps?

Do you find the personalisation of the sound more of a gimmick or the main selling point, or is it the general design, sound quality and ANC which it benefits from?

Detachability is only attractive to me if MMCX connectors are used, as in the T20, but it's a nice bonus to have anyway.

They're a little big in the ear compared to my Shure 425s, but to be honest I don't really notice the difference when wearing them. The personalisation makes things sound warmer and richer - if your preference is for neutrality then it may not appeal, but I quite like it. The combination of good sound, ANC (with pass-through), the long battery life and the solid Bluetooth implementation make them pretty good earbuds IMHO. I haven't had them long enough to know if the lack of detachability is an issue - it has been nice being able to replace the cables for my Shures when they've broken in the past. The Nuraloop cable feels like it has been designed not to kink up and fray in the way many cables do, but only time will tell, really.

Think I'll go for them. Do you have a spare referral code :)

FYI the Nuraphone is GBP 224 on Amazon at the moment, albeit old stock with only a 1 year warranty. They say the only meaningful differences are no cable included and an old style carry case.

Sadly I don't have any codes!

Interesting re the older models on Amazon - although I couldn't see any mention of which Bluetooth codec they have. The Nuraloops and the latest Nuraphones have bluetooth 5, which seems a lot more stable and useable than the codecs used on my ageing Sennheisers/Shures.

Have you seen the Nuraloop reddit page?

https://www.reddit.com/r/NuraLoop/

Lots of angry users with quite serious issues it seems

Wow. That makes for interesting reading. I've been very lucky with mine, then...

Re the mesh - I had to replace those for years on my Shures, so didn't really think much of it. It does make a lot more sense to integrate it into the ear tips, though, which Shure started doing a couple of years ago with the Comply ear tips.

Anyway - maybe stick with something a bit more tried and tested, in that case. If Shure's implementation of the Bluetooth codec hadn't struggled so much with voice calls I don't think I'd have bothered taking a punt on the Nuraloops in the first place, but I was getting a bit irritated with that in particular.

I gave up looking for bluetooth headphones I liked.

Instead I looked at chi-fi IEMs. There's a shitload of hype about a £35 set. The Blon-03

For £35 I got some, they arrived today. They fit like shit, but fucking hell they sound good. So much pleasant detail and separation and not fatiguingly so. Vocals have a lot of presence. The bass is balanced but tight and responsive. They really sound better than my HD650 + Bottlehead Crack, albeit an in ear sound obvs.

Bit sibilant out of the box, but can feel they've relaxed after a couple of hours. It says it's a carbon dynamic driver which is easily damaged by loud volume straight out of the box. The cable is very uncomfortable but it's detachable.

I was considering spending hundreds of pounds, but these are awesome.

Has anybody tried or got the Master & Dynamic MW65s? Reviews are good/mixed and obviously they factor in the price. They however look amazing.

Interesting - I was considering these or the Tin T2 (although admittedly I prefer the looks of the Tins). Mostly for use with iPod/phone when I'm away from the stereo/big headphones.

Has anyone tried both?

Not tried the Tin T2's, but I would say that the Blon's really are a terrible fit, for me at least, so I'm temped to get another set of cheap IEMs and was looking at the newly released T2 plus.

The T2 plus are $45 with code TINHIFT2PLUS here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001142417934.html

Cheers - I'd seen reviews had started to come out about the T2 Plus, which only complicated things further.

Part way through review trawling through both yesterday, the Blons went on sale on Amazon for £29, so I went for it figuring I could always replace the tips/cable to try and sort fit issues if I had them. Quite interested to see what they're like when they show up!

For fans of closure: The Blons arrived, sounded great, but the 'ear hook' bit of the cable would just pull them straight out of my ear/made them impossible to wear. Got a new (very OTT looking) cable for them and now they're great.

Just over £45 all in, so not mega cheap, but I'd definitely buy again.

I'm after a new set of earphones with a decent mic for calls. I generally prefer wired but open to anything really. Budget of around £60 max I suppose. Any suggestions?

Have edited my post above about the Nuraloops to include this update: despite the earphones feeling more comfortable after I'd changed the tip size, the material they've used for the earphone tips ended up irritating my ear and I got an ear infection, which is not a problem I'd ever had with my Shures. So my initial enthusiasm for the Nuraloops is now very much diminished.

Soundmagic have released E11s with mic, £50. I've just bought them to replace my RHA m650s and I really like them.

They look ideal actually, cheers! I had an older model a few years ago that I really liked (but not enough to not accidentally leave on a plane).

Anyone else have an issue with over-ear headphones and wearing glasses? Bought a noise cancelling pair (Soundcore for about £50 on Amazon) and they are great, but wearing glasses at the same time isn't comfortable for more than a few mins at a time... any solutions/recommendations? or maybe I should just get on with it and get used to it...

I have an update on the E11s, the mic is pretty awful. I've had to basically eat the mic in video calls for people to hear me. I may just have a bad pair. But yeah, not good feedback from people.

Not necessarily a recommendation because I only just got them but I broke my last earphones so just got these for £25 on ebay, they seem decent so far, definitely better sound quality than the Chinese copies I had before and they're really light.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Skullcandy-Blue­tooth-Sweat-Resistant-Microphone-Recharg­eable-Black-Mint/dp/B072Q2XX19/ref=asc_d­f_B072Q2XX19/

One month on...How are you getting on with them?

No complaints at all, I've not managed to kill them yet and the bluetooth signal seems a bunch stronger than the Chinese knock offs I had before.

Excellent! When I eventually start commuting again I'll grab a pair. Thanks for the reply.

Boyz and gurls, plz halp...

Studio reference cans needed, flat response as possible, comfortable, closed back/very little leakage, removable cable would be good, don't wanna spend a fortune but happy to go up to about £200/AU$450... I like AKG headphones, I've seen a few that might fit the bill but are they any cop?

Edit: Just bought some Audio Technica ATH-M60x, they were reduced and get pretty good reviews so will see how I go! Not as pretty as the AKG but much cheaper...

Was just about to say audio technica, they're excellent. Think I had the older 50x. Rock solid.

Slightly strange request but is there anything out there with minimal sound leakage but also minimal isolation?

I want to be able to hear what's going on without people hearing what I'm listening to. Preferably wireless but can be wired.

Bone conduction?