Decent Earphones?

[HandsomeDead]

I'm having no luck with finding decent earphones and I'm just wondering if anyone knows which ones are actually good. The pair which I thought were pretty good have just died on me and I'm left with a cheap pair of Sony ones which sound awful. I know cans are better but they're not very discreet so I am looking for earphones.

Can ayone help me stop buying duffers?

[retroed]

Sennheiser CX300's.

They are the in-ear variety, noise cancelling and sound extremely good for the price. They can be got for under £18 on Play.com. They're probably on Amazon too, but don't use the Marketplace as you could well end up with a fake set. I use them every day at work with my Nano listening to a mixture of podcasts and music, and they are super impressive.

[hinn888]

I'd say skullcandy

[Pikman]

I have the Sennheiser CX400's, they are amazing

They aren't noise cancelling, neither are the 300's but they do fit really well to my ear (you get different sized buds) and it really does cut out a lot of background noise and I can have my music pretty quiey and hear tons of detail. The only difference between the two I think is that the 300's have a plastic casing and the 400's are aluminium and meant to be slightly more insulating, I'm not convinced of that myself but the price diff was so small I got the 400's anyway.

I have used them on trains and planes and it's like shutting out the surrounding world, love it.

The noise cancelling variety are well expensive, I think they all need a seperate battery too still. Personally that was an expense I didn't need.

Give them a crack, you'll not be disappointed.

CX 400's at Test Freaks

[DANGERMAN]

I cant comment on how good mine are, they seem it, but all i know of them is that they're by Phillips and cost me about £15

I will join the recommending of paying the money for noise cancelling ones, mine have rubber grip that are slightly funnel shaped to block your ear, but they have a metal back too. As I understand it (Ed might well know better) they fire the music backwards onto the metal, which bounces back blocking out noise and gives you a wider sound.

The downside is that you're more liable to walk out into traffic and be attacked by ninja. Pays your money you takes your choice

[Pikman]

Just to re-iterate, none of us so far have noise cancelling headphones....

We all have noise reduction (the rubber just tries to cut out as much sound as possible and does an admirable job, also called sound isolating...) but noise cancelling ones cost upwards of about £60 at the very least and I think you'd have to spend a lot more to get good ones. A lot of comanies sell their headphones as noise cancelling but as far as I know unless they have an active feedback system (which is costly) they are just doing their best to isolate what you hear from the outside world. Not that any of that really matters, just think its worth knowing I think mine are fab, I can hardly hear any ambient sound even at the lowest sound levels and they were £40 at the time I think.

Have a read here: Times online , check out paragraph 6.

EDIT: I have also not been attacked by a ninja yet, maybe thats just a Phillips thing? lol

[retroed]

Yeah, they are not noise cancelling in the official sense. But they block out pretty much every external noise when I use them, if someone speaks I have to take one out as well as just turning the volume down! I didn't meant to use a technical term.

[Pikman]

Just pointing it out

I have to do the same, the sennheisers are amazing IMO.

[retroed]

Would you say the CX400 warrant double the price tag of the CX300's, wildejon? I'm on my second set of CX300's!

And wiivo, the standard iPod/iPhone earphones are shocking. I'm surprised you've lasted this long without replacing them.

[Pikman]

Would you say the twarrant double the price tag of the CX300's, wildejon? I'm on my second set of CX300's!

And wiivo, the standard iPod/iPhone earphones are shocking. I'm surprised you've lasted this long without replacing them.

Not sure to be honest mate, I got mine duty free so the diff didn't seem too bad to me

Looking at the reviews there is a difference but whether us mortals can really hear it is up for discussion...

I compared them to my missus's ipod ones... didn't expect to notice such a difference!

If I were buying again I'd seriously think about the 300's, thats for you PTG

[HandsomeDead]

Cheers guys but looking at Ed's first link I notice that they are the ones that just broke on me. They did sound good but they only lasted about six months.

[stoobie]

I had these which were excellent (fake) noise reduction ones - I felt like I was underwater when I put them in. Blocked all sound out and no-one could hear my music.

They did break after about a year and I replaced them with some cheaper sony ones which arent quite as good but do their job enough. A friend told me he had some which also broke, but he cleared his earwax out of the tiny hole in the headphone and they worked fine again.

[HandsomeDead]

A friend told me he had some which also broke, but he cleared his earwax out of the tiny hole in the headphone and they worked fine again.

Ewww.

[illdog]

Its threads like this that remind me were all nerds.

I want those rad CX400's now.

[Pikman]

Its threads like this that remind me were all nerds.

I want those rad CX400's now.

LOL, CX400 FTW!

What you say? Nerds?!

[Pikman]

For the CX400's?

Get them!

[HandsomeDead]

Found some for £15 with free delivery. Good price?

Care to share?

[HandsomeDead]

Cheers Wiivo. I decided to order them. Hopefully they won't fuck up after a few months.

[retroed]

Make sure they're genuine. eBay and amazon Marketplace is full of teh fakes!

[retroed]

I know someone who got fake CX300's from a UK eBay shop and an Amazon Marketplace seller, that's all. It seems to happen quite a lot, and is very hard to tell the difference visually. Sound wise of course, it's obvious.

Ah, I see you went for the iPod white ones instead of black, too.