Was hoping someone could recommend a decent set of headphones for the touch, preferably no more than about $25- i have a bad habit of losing them and as nice as the $79 apple ones look, it could get pricey.
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Any recommendations for 3rd party headphones?
- Thread starter new2macworld
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Ok I use Bose In Ear headphones cause I listen to crazy techno and listen to it very loud.... so all cheap earphones (including the iPod headphones that come with the iPod) always break within about 2 weeks, therefore I only buy good headphones.... And I daresay I've been through a lot and know a bit about good ones. The Bose ones I have now are a $150 dollar pair, and I'm willing to spend that because NO other speakers will ever come close to the same sound quality as these. But other good headphones are any skullcandy headphones, which will run you $15 to about 30 for the in ear ones, which are the best headphones I've ever had other than my current Bose ones, and also happen to be the cheapest ones around. Best of both worlds.
I use Grado SR60's with my iPod, gaming, and anything involving sound. You will not get close to as good of sound for $70 as with the Grado SR60's. Just look around and read the reviews. And their warranty is unbeatable. I accidentally broke my headphone jack (tripped over the cord while plugged in my computer). I told them everything and they still fixed it for free (minus my costs of shipping it to them).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006DPMU4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
I wasn't originally planning on spending more than $20 on a pair of headphones, just like you. But I looked around the internet, and Grado came out as top sound for the least money in every single review. I spent hours searching for either better sound or cheaper prices, but Grado was the best.
EDIT: And no, I don't work for them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006DPMU4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
I wasn't originally planning on spending more than $20 on a pair of headphones, just like you. But I looked around the internet, and Grado came out as top sound for the least money in every single review. I spent hours searching for either better sound or cheaper prices, but Grado was the best.
EDIT: And no, I don't work for them.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
This guy knows nothing about headphones. Skullcandy and Bose are not a good bang for your buck. Read answer 5 for detail:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080812204959AACNGjS
thanks for the info everyone. i will check them out, except bose, it is definitely out of my price range.
JVC Marshmallows, JVC HA-FX66, Skullcandy Ink'd, CrossRoad MylarOne X3, Ultimate Ears Metro.fi 150, Panasonic HJE300 are all fairly cheap are pretty good for sub $100 headphones.
Headphones, earbuds, or IEMs (in-ear monitors)? Gotta be more specific to give a proper answer.
If you want headphones, and you're thinking $25 or less, there's only one answer:
The Koss KSC-75 earclips
There is nothing else on the PLANET that can compare to the sound quality you'll get from those, for under $25. From the moment you put 'em on and press Play you'll be like, "Man, here, take my money..." because they really are that good.
A lot of times you can find 'em on Buy.com for under $15, with free shipping if you catch 'em on sale at the right time. Check out HeadFi.org sometime and do a search for ksc75 and you'll see hundreds of threads about them, including some simple mods you can do to improve the sound quality.
They are without any doubt the best headphones/earclips you can find for the cost, and many times that cost, seriously. Radio Shack sells 'em also on the shelf so you can grab 'em locally, so does Circuit City.
As for earbuds, well, there's a bunch of those nowadays, it's tough to narrow it down. That $25 price point is going to limit your choices considerably. The JVC marshmallows as people call them get decent/good reviews for a low cost.
IEMs are where you get the in-ear benefits and seal off a lot of external noise - that's the difference between earbuds which sit in the outer ear, hanging there, and IEMs which are designed to be inserted into the ear canal -the outer portion of it and create a 'seal' where it works more like an earplug. The original Apple "earbuds" are just that - earbuds, because they hang on the outer ear.
Everyone is waiting for the new IEMs from Apple for a variety of reasons, primarily to see if they can actually make a decent IEM for the cost and include the volume/playback/mic functionality too.
The ones mentioned above for IEMs (Ultimate Ears, something on the low end by Etymotic, the Altec Lansing clones of the Etymotics, something from Shure - just not the lame E2c set, even Sony has some very decent sounding stuff).
IEMs can get ridiculously expensive but yes, you can find something that is way better than the Apple earbuds and even their first attempt at something IEM-like with that other set they've had for some time now. I really hope the new IEMs will sound decent.
Now they just need to offer them in black as well as white.
Good luck...
If you want headphones, and you're thinking $25 or less, there's only one answer:
The Koss KSC-75 earclips
There is nothing else on the PLANET that can compare to the sound quality you'll get from those, for under $25. From the moment you put 'em on and press Play you'll be like, "Man, here, take my money..." because they really are that good.
A lot of times you can find 'em on Buy.com for under $15, with free shipping if you catch 'em on sale at the right time. Check out HeadFi.org sometime and do a search for ksc75 and you'll see hundreds of threads about them, including some simple mods you can do to improve the sound quality.
They are without any doubt the best headphones/earclips you can find for the cost, and many times that cost, seriously. Radio Shack sells 'em also on the shelf so you can grab 'em locally, so does Circuit City.
As for earbuds, well, there's a bunch of those nowadays, it's tough to narrow it down. That $25 price point is going to limit your choices considerably. The JVC marshmallows as people call them get decent/good reviews for a low cost.
IEMs are where you get the in-ear benefits and seal off a lot of external noise - that's the difference between earbuds which sit in the outer ear, hanging there, and IEMs which are designed to be inserted into the ear canal -the outer portion of it and create a 'seal' where it works more like an earplug. The original Apple "earbuds" are just that - earbuds, because they hang on the outer ear.
Everyone is waiting for the new IEMs from Apple for a variety of reasons, primarily to see if they can actually make a decent IEM for the cost and include the volume/playback/mic functionality too.
The ones mentioned above for IEMs (Ultimate Ears, something on the low end by Etymotic, the Altec Lansing clones of the Etymotics, something from Shure - just not the lame E2c set, even Sony has some very decent sounding stuff).
IEMs can get ridiculously expensive but yes, you can find something that is way better than the Apple earbuds and even their first attempt at something IEM-like with that other set they've had for some time now. I really hope the new IEMs will sound decent.
Now they just need to offer them in black as well as white.
Good luck...
There's a good thread HERE, and I've reviewed several that I own on my Blog. Sennheiser, Philips, and even Sony make good sets in the $150 range. My favorite at the moment are JBL Reference Series 610s, Bluetooth enabled but will work with a cable, and come with an iPod adapter for bluetooth.
I am going to make my first post on MacRumors and basically second the Koss recommendation. I have only had the stock ipod buds, Sony in-ear buds that were about $35, and now bought the collapsible Koss Porta-Pros. I must say WOW. They sound great...smooth and warm sounding. The bass is great. On some tracks they may sound a touch flat, lacking enough treble, but on most of my music they are amazing for the $33 I spent on Amazon for them. They are a 20+ year design and do not block ambient sound but I love them. Check out one of their many reviews on Cnet.
Etymotic Er6i's are my favourite by far. Just make sure if you get these that you are not interested in hearing ANYTHING else while they're in your ear. I use them for long motorcycle trips and airplanes, and when the music is off, they double as earplugs for me.
Philips-SHE5910 are my favorite cheap earbuds. You can get them in numerous retail stores for $20. They have good bass and overall sound for the price. Includes a carrying case and multiple fit ear pieces, too. Good value for some cheap earbuds, I've literally purchased over 8 pairs of these over the past few years and have them all over the place. No other earbud fits as well,
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHE59...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221485424&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHE59...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221485424&sr=8-2
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
recently Gizmodo had a detailed outline comparing headphones:
http://gizmodo.com/5033455/ultimate-cut+the+crap-in+ear-headphone-battlemodo
http://gizmodo.com/5033455/ultimate-cut+the+crap-in+ear-headphone-battlemodo