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- Thread starter daneoni
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Save yourself even more and don't get either. I think the Solos sound great, but they're not worth $200.
Did yet.. another upgrade to my headphone set up.
Bowers & Wilkins P5
What do you think of them? I've been toying with getting a pair to upgrade from my HD555s.
Thanks for the heads up.
I also bought for the look more than from an audiophile viewpoint. Sounds like they'll be good enough for the price. 
Did yet.. another upgrade to my headphone set up.
Bowers & Wilkins P5
and for travel Monster Turbines.
I got my p5s a couple weeks ago and love them. Great isolating headphones on the go. Lightweight, comfortable and the people next to me can't hear my hilary duff playing. lol jk
But really, the headphones are great. I don't see myself getting rid of them for a while.
The HD555 is better IMO.
I've listened to both. The P5 looks really good and doesn't sound that bad either but its not worth its current price.
ThatS really interesting that you guys feel that way about the hd555's, as that's the headphones I am upgrading from. I have never heard the hd555s amped, but the p5s blow them away IMO. The hd.555 sounds hollow to me, because of the open design. I still use them for recording music however. Both great phones, but I love the p5s, music sounds magical again. Let me paste you my amazon review-
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Vintage analog beutiful
For the past 3 years my headphone of choice was wildly popular Sennheiser 555. I decided that I wanted to try something new, not because I disliked the the 555's, not at all because they were fairly solid cans. I just wanted to hear my music with a fresh sound, and sometimes changing headphones can provide that. Let me preface this by saying I listen to many different types of music. From extreme metal, jazz, acoustic, hip hop, electronica, progressive rock, so i needed a pair that was pretty versatile. I had a few areas i wanted to focus on when getting new headphones.
No external amp needed- Didn't want to be bothered with amping my phones
Smaller than the 555's the Senns were huge, so that shouldn't be so hard!
Closed headphones- I wanted to listen to music with out bothering others
Comfort- the 555's were very comfortable
Sound - I wanted more low end, and my Sennheisers didn't have much bass un amped (never tried with an amp)
Because I didn't want to make a mistake and buy a pair of headphones online relying only through reading reviews, I decided to check out the Apple Store and do some demoing of headphones there. I ended up buying the Bose On Ear's. While I am aware of the Bose hate, I was impressed by the power that came out of such a small headphone. So i bought it . Needless to say, Bose lived up to their "live sound" signature, because no matter what i played was excessive with bass. It worked well on harder songs, or hip hop, but when i played a mellow song, the bass would drowned out everything. Sounded muddy. I returned it to buy the Bose Around Ear. While these definitely had more clarity, and very comfortable, but they had very little low end, very bright and hollow sounding. My 555's sounded better. Back to the drawing board..
Enter the Bowers and Wilkins P5'S
I came across these gorgeous headphones. The P5's are made out of aluminum, metal, and authentic sheep leather. These scream class. They can scream anything but do they scream good sound? Lets just say, when I listen to music with the P5's they transport me into a wooden cottage in the woods listening to music plugged into a turn table. They sound very warm, almost the warmth you would get from beautiful vintage analog.Sounds very full, not hollow. Its hard to put into words. I am definitely not an audiophile, the bass these provide are not the over exaggerated bass you would get from Dr Dre's Beats or the On Ear Bose but provide a very audible punchy bass. Authentic natural sound all around. These are the only headphones I have listened to that sounds like the headphones are adapting to the music, rather than the music adapting to the headphones. Meaning that the headphones generally stay out of the way, and you get to hear the music as is. Not with extra bass, or power boost or what ever else headphones usually EQ into its signature sound. Its hard to believe that when I play Nick Drake, these are the same headphones that just blasted me out of the room playing Meshuggah. They adapt that well. No amp needed on these, just plug and play! The sound isolation on the P5's are quite good, you don't hear much of the outside world. The built in iPod volume works as advertised. Because they are on the ear designed, they did take a bit of adjusting for me because my Senn's were around the ears. Because they are on ears they employ a closed design.
Now lets look at my areas. No amp- check. Smaller than the 555's- Check. Closed headphones- Check. Comfort-not as much as my prior pair. Sound- Check.
Rating these headphones I give them a solid 4 out of 5.
Why not a 5 out of 5? Well lets just say I will be using these for many years as my headphones of choice, they are seriously a work of modern art. I love the industrial design, I love the size, I love the warm sound, I love that they sound this good without any amplification. I am going to be a real and say there is more than likely better headphones out there, ones that sound better or do something specifically better than the P5's. Personally I do wish they were more comfortable, but I think I feel that way because I am not used to on the ear type of headphone. However when you look at the sound, size, design, and price the P5's are unmatched.. For that reason is why I rate them a very solid 4 out of 5.
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Hope that's not against thread rules. Take care guys!
----
Vintage analog beutiful
For the past 3 years my headphone of choice was wildly popular Sennheiser 555. I decided that I wanted to try something new, not because I disliked the the 555's, not at all because they were fairly solid cans. I just wanted to hear my music with a fresh sound, and sometimes changing headphones can provide that. Let me preface this by saying I listen to many different types of music. From extreme metal, jazz, acoustic, hip hop, electronica, progressive rock, so i needed a pair that was pretty versatile. I had a few areas i wanted to focus on when getting new headphones.
No external amp needed- Didn't want to be bothered with amping my phones
Smaller than the 555's the Senns were huge, so that shouldn't be so hard!
Closed headphones- I wanted to listen to music with out bothering others
Comfort- the 555's were very comfortable
Sound - I wanted more low end, and my Sennheisers didn't have much bass un amped (never tried with an amp)
Because I didn't want to make a mistake and buy a pair of headphones online relying only through reading reviews, I decided to check out the Apple Store and do some demoing of headphones there. I ended up buying the Bose On Ear's. While I am aware of the Bose hate, I was impressed by the power that came out of such a small headphone. So i bought it . Needless to say, Bose lived up to their "live sound" signature, because no matter what i played was excessive with bass. It worked well on harder songs, or hip hop, but when i played a mellow song, the bass would drowned out everything. Sounded muddy. I returned it to buy the Bose Around Ear. While these definitely had more clarity, and very comfortable, but they had very little low end, very bright and hollow sounding. My 555's sounded better. Back to the drawing board..
Enter the Bowers and Wilkins P5'S
I came across these gorgeous headphones. The P5's are made out of aluminum, metal, and authentic sheep leather. These scream class. They can scream anything but do they scream good sound? Lets just say, when I listen to music with the P5's they transport me into a wooden cottage in the woods listening to music plugged into a turn table. They sound very warm, almost the warmth you would get from beautiful vintage analog.Sounds very full, not hollow. Its hard to put into words. I am definitely not an audiophile, the bass these provide are not the over exaggerated bass you would get from Dr Dre's Beats or the On Ear Bose but provide a very audible punchy bass. Authentic natural sound all around. These are the only headphones I have listened to that sounds like the headphones are adapting to the music, rather than the music adapting to the headphones. Meaning that the headphones generally stay out of the way, and you get to hear the music as is. Not with extra bass, or power boost or what ever else headphones usually EQ into its signature sound. Its hard to believe that when I play Nick Drake, these are the same headphones that just blasted me out of the room playing Meshuggah. They adapt that well. No amp needed on these, just plug and play! The sound isolation on the P5's are quite good, you don't hear much of the outside world. The built in iPod volume works as advertised. Because they are on the ear designed, they did take a bit of adjusting for me because my Senn's were around the ears. Because they are on ears they employ a closed design.
Now lets look at my areas. No amp- check. Smaller than the 555's- Check. Closed headphones- Check. Comfort-not as much as my prior pair. Sound- Check.
Rating these headphones I give them a solid 4 out of 5.
Why not a 5 out of 5? Well lets just say I will be using these for many years as my headphones of choice, they are seriously a work of modern art. I love the industrial design, I love the size, I love the warm sound, I love that they sound this good without any amplification. I am going to be a real and say there is more than likely better headphones out there, ones that sound better or do something specifically better than the P5's. Personally I do wish they were more comfortable, but I think I feel that way because I am not used to on the ear type of headphone. However when you look at the sound, size, design, and price the P5's are unmatched.. For that reason is why I rate them a very solid 4 out of 5.
----
Hope that's not against thread rules. Take care guys!
Just bought a pair of Nixon Wire (mic) 8mm's today, extremely happy with them...
First off, the build quality is superb. With brushed steel accents (especially on the body of the jack) they really suit the style of all my mobile devices, and it makes them stand out as a really good quality item. Really, iPhones & iPods ought to be shipped with something similar to this as standard instead of the awful White things. They have a built in mic for use with the iPhone and come with a li'l pouch as you'd expect.
The sound produced is crisp and clear, with nice clear treble, mid tones so deep you could fall into them, and strong but unobtrusive bass - which is obviously a great thing. Up at high volumes they perform really well too, staying crisp and clear with very little distortion when you turn it all the way to 11.
A great set of earphones priced at £49.99, for earphones of such high quality in terms of materials and sound I think these are really competitively priced. To top it all off, they really look the business too.
I bought mine today at my local Apple store, but I'm not sure if Apple stock these online yet.
First off, the build quality is superb. With brushed steel accents (especially on the body of the jack) they really suit the style of all my mobile devices, and it makes them stand out as a really good quality item. Really, iPhones & iPods ought to be shipped with something similar to this as standard instead of the awful White things. They have a built in mic for use with the iPhone and come with a li'l pouch as you'd expect.
The sound produced is crisp and clear, with nice clear treble, mid tones so deep you could fall into them, and strong but unobtrusive bass - which is obviously a great thing. Up at high volumes they perform really well too, staying crisp and clear with very little distortion when you turn it all the way to 11.
A great set of earphones priced at £49.99, for earphones of such high quality in terms of materials and sound I think these are really competitively priced. To top it all off, they really look the business too.
I bought mine today at my local Apple store, but I'm not sure if Apple stock these online yet.
Recently picked up a pair of Denon AH-D2000s (love them!) and a NuForce uDAC-2. Thinking about returning the NuForce DAC and picking up a Little Dot MKIII.
Note: not my pictures.
Note: not my pictures.
New headphones. Pretty Good sound quality for $50.
Skullcandy 50/50's. They work very well and sound great too.
(Not my picture)
Skullcandy 50/50's. They work very well and sound great too.
(Not my picture)
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Somewhat irrelevant to the thread, but I went to a local hi-fi audio showroom the other day and listened to these beautiful stacks:
I urge you to find a local showroom and spend a few hours auditioning and listening to $100K+ rigs. Mmm, how sweet it was.
I urge you to find a local showroom and spend a few hours auditioning and listening to $100K+ rigs. Mmm, how sweet it was.
After getting the Dr. Dre Beats Studio, and being disappointed with it, I went back to Best Buy, returned it, and got the Bose OE Audio Headphones, and not only did I save 150 bucks, I'm much happier with these headphones.
And the best In-Ear headphones I've ever owned. The Klipsch IMAGE S4 In-Ear headphones.
And the best In-Ear headphones I've ever owned. The Klipsch IMAGE S4 In-Ear headphones.
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The Denon AH-D2000s also happen to be one of the best looking headphones too. The AH-D5000 look even better with the wooden cups.
Just bought a pair of Nixon Wire (mic) 8mm's today, extremely happy with them...
First off, the build quality is superb. With brushed steel accents (especially on the body of the jack) they really suit the style of all my mobile devices, and it makes them stand out as a really good quality item. Really, iPhones & iPods ought to be shipped with something similar to this as standard instead of the awful White things. They have a built in mic for use with the iPhone and come with a li'l pouch as you'd expect.
The sound produced is crisp and clear, with nice clear treble, mid tones so deep you could fall into them, and strong but unobtrusive bass - which is obviously a great thing. Up at high volumes they perform really well too, staying crisp and clear with very little distortion when you turn it all the way to 11.
A great set of earphones priced at £49.99, for earphones of such high quality in terms of materials and sound I think these are really competitively priced. To top it all off, they really look the business too.
I bought mine today at my local Apple store, but I'm not sure if Apple stock these online yet.
wow, I tough no one uses this! I love them as well!
The only thing they miss is the inline volume control, but is not so difficult to reach your pocket every now and then to adjust the volume level!
plus, one thing that I really love about them is the small metal clip long the cable: it's useful to attach the "Y" part of the cable to your T-shirt, avoiding the classical bumps that you usually hear if you walk with a pair of in-ear earphones! A nice touch that complete the product!
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times have changed
times have changed and so has my portable music setup.
Old set. Both of these are great products. Etymotic Research ER6 earbuds have great noise isolation, detail in sound. Zune HD is also a great player. It was a pain to sync through Parallels though.
New set. I read reviews on the Beats earphones. My expectations weren't very high in terms of sound quality, especially since coming from a decent set of earbuds. But they were a pleasant surprise. Bass-heavy (meant to be), but the overall sound profile is pleasingly soft. Had 30 days to keep or return and decided to keep them. the iPod Touch lets me sync easily with the Mac..
I took a bit of a dive in terms of sound quality. But I think I'll be happy with these for now. Still have these for home use:
times have changed and so has my portable music setup.
Old set. Both of these are great products. Etymotic Research ER6 earbuds have great noise isolation, detail in sound. Zune HD is also a great player. It was a pain to sync through Parallels though.
New set. I read reviews on the Beats earphones. My expectations weren't very high in terms of sound quality, especially since coming from a decent set of earbuds. But they were a pleasant surprise. Bass-heavy (meant to be), but the overall sound profile is pleasingly soft. Had 30 days to keep or return and decided to keep them. the iPod Touch lets me sync easily with the Mac..
I took a bit of a dive in terms of sound quality. But I think I'll be happy with these for now. Still have these for home use:
Can anyone recommend me a nice pair of IEM for $150 or less?
I have $150 worth of gift cards from Amazon and am looking to upgrade from my Apple In-Ears. Style is important to me, but sound quality is obviously my main concern. I thought about ordering the Ultimate Ear TripleFi 10s but read many reviews about the poor quality of the cables (many have said that they break very easily even under light use). I have a pair of Dr. Dre Beats Solos (over-the-ear monitors) and am pretty content with the sound quality- the only gripe I have is they aren't the most comfortable pair of cans I've used (seem a bit tight and hurt my ears after only an hours use). I thought about going the Monster route and getting a pair of Turbines. I've read pretty good things about them. Also, the Beats Tours look pretty cool and I like the tangle free cable concept and the fact that the drivers are angled for a better fit/listening experience (similar to the TripleFis).
These would be my everyday 'on-the-go' headphones. I listen to a pretty wide range of music, but mainly alternate between alternative, indie, and hip hop/rap. The only thing I don't have on my iPod/iPhone is country and/or classical symphony. I would prefer that they be compatible with my iPhone 4 and include a mic and volume controls, but it's not a deal-breaker. I've been a member here for years and really trust the community's judgement, input, and advice, so I would appreciate any helpful comments you can share.
Thanks!
I have $150 worth of gift cards from Amazon and am looking to upgrade from my Apple In-Ears. Style is important to me, but sound quality is obviously my main concern. I thought about ordering the Ultimate Ear TripleFi 10s but read many reviews about the poor quality of the cables (many have said that they break very easily even under light use). I have a pair of Dr. Dre Beats Solos (over-the-ear monitors) and am pretty content with the sound quality- the only gripe I have is they aren't the most comfortable pair of cans I've used (seem a bit tight and hurt my ears after only an hours use). I thought about going the Monster route and getting a pair of Turbines. I've read pretty good things about them. Also, the Beats Tours look pretty cool and I like the tangle free cable concept and the fact that the drivers are angled for a better fit/listening experience (similar to the TripleFis).
These would be my everyday 'on-the-go' headphones. I listen to a pretty wide range of music, but mainly alternate between alternative, indie, and hip hop/rap. The only thing I don't have on my iPod/iPhone is country and/or classical symphony. I would prefer that they be compatible with my iPhone 4 and include a mic and volume controls, but it's not a deal-breaker. I've been a member here for years and really trust the community's judgement, input, and advice, so I would appreciate any helpful comments you can share.
Thanks!
AKG K701
K701 by danielmilhousechun, on Flickr
Grado SR60 with Total Bithead amp
SR60 by danielmilhousechun, on Flickr
K701 by danielmilhousechun, on Flickr
Grado SR60 with Total Bithead amp
SR60 by danielmilhousechun, on Flickr
