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

The pair I have sound pretty decent. The "expensive" ones from the xears site further up aren't bad with the discount code, the finish seems a bit better than stuff in that price bracket (~£30, they're not €150 phones as they pretend) and sound quite nice.

jvc marshmellows old style with the wax filter torn out. well good.

I just received some Audio Tecnica ATH-IM70 in-ear from Japan, ordered on the Bay and they beat all my previous in-ears hands down... I have the Bose IE2, which I hate now, and some Shure SE112, basically shure's lower end model, and for the same sort of price, the sound is far better with crisp treble, warm mediums and soft, clear basses.
Everything is well balanced and sounds awesome. Very much like my Phillips Fidelio L2 cans.
Isolation is very good with the silicon buds, and they're really comfortable thanks to the over-the-ear "hooks".
I tried various music styles too, and it seems to work for pretty much everything I've listened to. Well recommended!

soundmagic are rubbish in my opinion... Bought them and not only did it sound like the music was at the end of a long tunnel, the plastic was like an 80's refurb plastic bottle.

So bad i sent them back same day.

jvc xxplod things are good for under £30 i think...

What soundmagic headphones did you get?

e10s i think ...

Red ones...

actually it was the PL11

Ah. The E10s are good.

I just received some Audio Tecnica ATH-IM70 in-ear from Japan, ordered on the Bay and they beat all my previous in-ears hands down... I have the Bose IE2, which I hate now, and some Shure SE112, basically shure's lower end model, and for the same sort of price, the sound is far better with crisp treble, warm mediums and soft, clear basses.
Everything is well balanced and sounds awesome. Very much like my Phillips Fidelio L2 cans.
Isolation is very good with the silicon buds, and they're really comfortable thanks to the over-the-ear "hooks".
I tried various music styles too, and it seems to work for pretty much everything I've listened to. Well recommended!

Keep us up to date after a few weeks of usage please (if you can). I have been keen on trying these as I like most other Audio technica gear. Never got on with a pair of westone UM X3 that I bought so I have stuck with the Klipsch X10... would be nice to see/hear if these can better those old favourites.

I had first heard of them on Head-fi. I read the review again today after using them a couple of hours, and I found it quite accurate. So if you're looking for new headphones, I'd say it's quite a good source for reviews...

I'll do a 1 month later update!

Anyone ever used nocs? Specifically the ns400. See here
I've had some for just under a year and they have finally bitten the proverbial dust.

I always seem to destroy the right hand 'phone (not usually too worried as I tend to ride/snowboard/whatever with only the left in anyway). However, the wire at the jack connection has come right through the rubber; avoiding this was part of the reason I bought them, as they have an angled jack with a flat wire. They've been great up until now. I'm going to check what the warranty says once I'm back at my parent's. Fingers crossed.

Bone conduction. Anybody?

[quote=hippy;2966890][QUOTE=rhowe;2966824]Sony have discontinued their MDR-ED21LP headphones and mine just died :(

They were quite good for cycling - cheap, snug fit, sounded OK and let in plenty of ambient noise.
Nobody seems to make nice earbud headphones which don't have that silly rubber plug any more - they block too much sound for me to feel comfortable.

Sony do a cheaper version..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-MDR-E818LP-HEADPHONE-IN-EAR-TRADITIONAL-BLACKIN-MDRE818LP-CE7-/230765281850?pt=UK_AudioVisualElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Headphones&hash=item35baaec23a#ht_1022wt_1163[/quote]

Hm, they look better than the horrible fontopia ones which are all plastic and just don't stay in my ears.
I'll give them a try I think.

Verdict - they're good enough.
The foam pads are cheap and nasty, but functional.

and they almost lasted a year - not too bad for £6 I guess.[/QUOTE]

replaced by some MDR-E755s which have now lost their right channel 9 months in (although I'm not sure if these were new, or ones I found in a drawer somewhere).

The current Sony equivalent seems to be the MDR-E820LP or the MDR-E9LP both of which seem to be pretty awful from what I've read (odd how nobody seems to dedicate much review time to sub-£10 earbuds!).

Time to do some more research I guess.. the Soundmagic E10s sounded good aside from the noise isolation, which isn't something I want - I'm after the ability to hear music in the background of the London traffic noise.

Just bought some B&W P7's.

So lovely. They sound so open and the separation is magic.

If you're thinking of getting some, don't bother if you listen to mp3s... They really show up poor compression.

Currently using Audio tehnica's ATH-M50 on my desktop, and just got some bluebud jaybirds bluetooth earbuds as a gift from the missus.

Doubtful with the bluetooth connectivity at first but these was pretty good. Totally recommend it, having a wireless earphones on the go without the cables flapping about is really freaking liberating. Lacking the bass, but the treble is just spot on, I dont really listen to music with much bass anyway. The price might be too much as it's around £130-£150 and pretty sure we can get a cabled one for the same price and better quality. But I reckon this is the best for wireless one if you're looking for one. Got a lifetime warranty as well for sweat damages.

Only thing I hate about it is the only way to get the best output from the earphones is to wrap it behind your ear. Can use it standard way, but the shape of the buds will feel too awkward inside your ears...

I still recommend it though if you have the extra dough.

Where can I get a headphone jack replaced for £15 or less?

Could try a guitar shop that does repairs on Denmark Street. £5 or £10 would be reasonable. I'd do it for free if I was in London just now.

Rad, place on Totty Court Road's quoted £25, not worth it, they only cost me £35 new

Would this place also happen to do coax cable repair?

does anyone want a pair of Sennheiser HD25s? hardly used. box, receipt, etc. will throw in a hard case.

i have found something else i'd like to try.

/spam

could be interested if you can post? price?

Thought this would interest a a few here... Grado "factory" tour, so to speak. They're based in a Brooklyn townhouse.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/07/some-of-the-worlds-most-reknowned-headphones-built-in-a-brooklyn-townhouse/

The company does all the injection molding of the plastic parts for its headphones in the basement with two machines, one old and one modern. The machines also still churn out parts for turntable cartridges, of which Grado shipped half a million per year in vinyl's heyday. In the early '90s, those shipments dropped to around 12,000, but hipsters have surged cartridge sales back up to 60,000 units in recent years.

Little update on my soundmagic headphones. As well as buying the E10s, I thought I'd get the PL-50s, proper balanced armature headphones (well, as proper as you're gonna get for £35 off ebay).

They arrived really quickly, despite coming over from hong kong, much quicker than my E10s and according to the little scratch-off label on the side and the soundmagic website, they are genuine.

The selection of earbuds with the PL50s is good, except that they're all massive. I ended up only really being able to fit the small foam buds in but found that although the sound was really crisp and clarity was great they were really lacking in bass.

I recently splashed out on a set of Comply T100 foam tips and the difference is amazing. The Comply small foam tips are slightly larger than the Soundmagic small foams and give a much better seal (as well as generally being much better in terms of quality of construction). The sound is now absolutely amazing, way better than the E10s - clarity, bass response, volume, everything is spot on.

Also, I noticed during the world cup coverage the BBC guys on location were using the PL50s as IEMs.

Recently bought some Sony MDR-EX650. Rash purchase based on an urgent need, but pleasantly surprised. Very well rounded sound, nice solid bass that's not boomy and quite defined and spacious too. Even the supplied buds fit well. Good solid construction. Not as accurate as higher priced IEMs but a very friendly sound. Perfect for streamed content and they only get better with high quality stuff.
Cables are nice and don't induce much noise and so far no tangling. Sony dun gud.