Slashdot Mirror

If you *really* want to hear what music on an iPod should sound like, go here:

http://www.etymotic.com/

I have a set of the ER-6i in-ear headphones and all I can say is... Wow. They're not cheap, but the sound quality difference is amazing.

Try this:
http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.asp

You mean like these? http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er4.asp

You will see many people trying to sell you on in-ear phones such as the Shure E3 or the Etymotic ER6

Trust me - these are mostly overkill. I have a set of Shure E3s that I bought to cope with our extremely loud drummer - however, unless your coworkers are using jackhammers, a good quality set of closed-back headphones (AKG 270, Sennheiser HD580, Sony MDR-7506) will sound better and be more comfortable.

it works because everyone respects not being an ass to others... whether or not this would work on airplanes is another matter

Whether it would work anywhere but Japan is another matter. It works in Japan because people there actually care about what random strangers think of them. Shame is not nearly as strong a motivating factor in most other cultures. (Which in this case is too bad.)

I would almost go the opposite direction: instead of telling the noisy people to go to a particular part of the plane, instead wall off a quiet section reserved for people who sign an agreement to stay non-noisy for the entire trip. Cell phones must remain off in the quiet section, if you listen to music or play video games you must do so with headphones that are inaudible to anyone but you (like these), babies are not allowed there, striking up conversations with your neighbors is strongly discouraged, and only the safety-critical annoucements from the cabin crew are piped over the PA system. Violate the rules and you get charged double for the flight. A solid wall with a door to separate the quiet section from the rest of the cabin, and I know I'd pay extra to be there for flights of more than an hour or two.

And for intercontinental flights, I'd pay even more if the seats were arranged as bunk beds so I could lie down the whole time. Trains have had sleeper cars for ages, but so far I've never seen beds on a plane.

Branson, are you reading Slashdot?

I have musicians earplugs http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme.asp and they do the job nicely. They have to be fitted to your ear (an audiologist will make the molds and do the fitting). They knock down all frequencies evenly, so things sound the same, just significantly softer. I bought them for the many concerts I go to, but they have been lifesavers on airplanes, subways, and even while sleeping in noisy environments. They are expensive though -- look to drop $150-$200 on them -- but worth it.

They don't work as well as sound isolating headphones such as those that Shure and Etymotic make. Noise cancelling headphones also don't sound as nice as the noise isolating ones, are larger, heavier, take more (battery) power to drive, and have external power requirements.

But you do pay for good portable audio that is usuable in any loud environment. Prices start at 100 and go up to 500+.

I bought a pair of Etymotic ER-4P a few years ago and can not imagine using anything else. The sound quality is nothing short of amazing and I can use them as ear plugs on airplanes (to drown out the screaming kids around me)...and no batteries to worry about either!!

The only bad part is the price ($330) -- they've actually gotten MORE expensive (up $30) since I purchased my pair. Considering how long I've had them (2+ yrs) and how often I use them (everyday) they have been a great purchase.

Besides, the white ear buds not only suck -- they aren't "cool" either (according to Wired)

Disclaimer: I know the daughter of the owner of this company. She fixed my hearing aids a few times.

Etymotic Research is one of the more pioneering companies out there in the hearing field, and one of their big things is making custom-fit musician's earplugs. They cost $150-$200, which is slightly cheaper than most similar products.

I have no experience with the iRiver 180T, but I have a very hard time believing the earphones are the best in the market.

The etymotic earphones that I use, which as far as I know are the best sounding earbud headphones in the world, cost (for the headphones alone) almost three times as much as the iRiver mp3 player. If iRiver can sell better headphones than the etymotics for 1/3 the price, and throw in an mp3 player along for free, then I'd be very interested in buying one.

I received a pair of these the other day. They are incredibly effective at blocking computer noise and also provide an effective method of silencing your boss/wife/gf without encasing them in a wooden box.

I have an Elacin pair which use the Etymotic drivers, but are made of latex and moulded to my ear canals; they act like earplugs, cutting off all external noise to an amazing degree, and are extremely comfortable. (I sometimes use them as plain earplugs, and have slept in them.) They sound amazing, and the silence they create outside that is extremely relaxing. For the use I've had out of them, I consider them well worth the 200 I spent. (Which you'd find even more surprising if you saw the cheapness of all my other sound gear!)

If that's too much, Slicsound make some latex mouldings that slip over your existing earbuds and try to give the same sort of isolation. I doubt they're anywhere near as comfortable or as quiet, but they're dirt cheap and I'd recommend trying them.

In short: what's the point of spending all that money on an iPod if you can't really hear it? If you have a nice quiet listening environment, then fine, but if like me you listen in noisy places like public transport, with ordinary phones you might just as well rip everything at 32 kbps and get a cheaper player. For me, I value my hearing and my music, and I'm as pleased with my expensive phones as I am with my iPod.

They sound good, but I'm upper lower middle class, so, yes, I do need to monitor the buck flow just a little. For a much better return on the money, I recommend the next level down from the ER-4P: the ER-6. About $130.00 on the 'net. You'll find great reviews on them.

Etymotic ER-6

etymotic ear buds are another option

Alot cheaper than the Etymotics ($150-700 price range depending on model?). Probably not as good as the Etymotics, but they sound pretty darned good to me. Slightly less bass but much better midrange and treble response and much cleaner than the Sony Fontopia MDR-EX71SL Headphones.

The advantages of the in-ear designs: increased bass response, more precise sound reproduction, greater driver efficiency, and greater sound isolation from ambient noise (ie. great for airplane use) that results in your not needing to turn your music up nearly as much thus preserving your hearing. The downside is that you shouldn't really use them in situations where you would need to be able to hear some of what is going on around you (ie. jogging outdoors, cycling, driving, skiing, etc). The rattling of the very stout cables does transmit some noise to your ears if you're doing something very active (like running/jogging) so I like these less for when I'm doing cardio, but they are just fine for other less impact/jarring activities at the gym.

Review at Extreme Tech.

DaveC

The best plugs i've found are made by these guys. I do a bit of audio engineering and find the ER-15 to be awesome. Its a little more expensive to go with the moulded versions (you honestly don't notice them after a few minutes) but really is worth the extra expense. You can also go for a bigger db cut (25db max I think) which makes a bit of difference. For AE work I find 25db is a bit much. Good for roadies, front of house and people who go to lots of loud concerts though. Even their non-moulded ones are reasonably comfortable. I wouldn't sleep in them though...

An ex-girlfriend of mine told me she was very popular on the first day in the dorms because she brought a hammer. Everybody wanted to put up pictures, shelves, etc. A small, basic, but complete tool box might well be a godsend. I'd go with a Leatherman, a nailing hammer, a rubber mallet, and one roll each of duct and electrical tape.

A lockpick set is overkill. Probably all she needs is a Slim Jim... the car-door-opening kind, not the imitation-beef-jerky kind.

And hey! if you really want to be subversive, get her a pair of fur-lined handcuffs!

larry

To go along with the UV ink, a UV flashlight. Also, some good earplugs. Those are $10 and good enough that you can really enjoy loud music without going deaf -- they are not like the crappy foam ones.

Would be to use Etymotic ER-6 or ER-4 (see etymotic's website).

Etymotic's canalphones use passive noise cancelling to cancel around 25dB and is way more effective than most of the active units you get. Most of the active units handle low frequency noise well but the high frequencies pass. Passive noise cancellation (Etymotics use the ol fashion earplugs) blocks the entire frequency range and is more effective than the Bose or Sony units as it does not add additional circuitry that could screw things up.

Whats even more is that the Etymotics have *amazing* sound quality (which both the Bose and Sony truly lack), they are some of the best headphones out there, although a little expensive for most (ER-6 is $130 and ER-4 is $270 at Headroom. And no I do not work for etymotic and I really didn't mean for this post to be an ad, if it came off as one :)

3jane:/shn 291891992 146780768 121759872 55% /store/shn
3jane:/mp3 116358328 64690856 42358808 60% /mp3

The first one is RAID 5, the second is crappy vinum-based RAID 0. The important stuff is all compressed losslessly with Shorten (SHN). The other stuff is MP3, encoded at 256+ Kbit/second. Everything gets played on another machine (Ultra 30) connected to my DJ system and a high-quality headphone amp (with either a pair of Senn 580s or a pair of ER-4Ss.

The only suggestion I have is to buy a real IDE RAID card and don't toss all your data on a single, non-mirrored disk. Also, make backups every once in a while.

- A.P.

I've owned all three headphones, and currently use the Bose. Here are my impressions:

Aiwa (I don't remember the mode), ~$50:
- OK sound quality
- OK noise reduction
- Not-so-good comfort

Sennheiser HDC-451, ~$150:
- Good sound quality
- Good noise reduction
- Not-so-good comfort

Bose QuietComfort, $300:
- Excellent sound quality
- Good noise reduction
- Excellent comfort

The problem I had with the Aiwas and the Senns is that the earpieces sit against your ear lobes like regular open-air headphones, and after a while it becomes uncomfortable. They have thin earpads that don't offer much padding - I assume to keep noise from leaking through. The Bose set has earcups that surround your ears and sit against your head, and have a soft padding material on them. I've worn these on 5-hour flights and they don't bother me at all. The Bose also have the best sound quality, though the noise reduction doesn't seem to be any better than the Senns.

You might also want to look into Etymotic ER-4 or ER-6 headphones. These are little earbuds that seal out ambient noise (Etymotic advertises 20-25 dB passive noise reduction on the ER-4s). The ER-4s are spendy ($250-300) but the ER-6s are cheaper ($125-150). I tried a similar thing from Koss called "The Plug" but they sucked. They used a foam earplug-type material surrounding the driver on each side. The foam wasn't dense enough to seal well and it didn't hold its shape. Complete waste of time & money IMHO.

The future of music is *NSYNC.

Buy some earplugs now, because it's only going to get worse, kids!

While this won't help with the phone part (without some patching), you should also consider the Etymotic ER-4S headphones, which provide 23db of sound isolation and really good quality music sound. These are passive noise reduction headphones, so they stick part way into your ear like an ear plug. Some people find the feeling unnerving, but they are very effective. You can buy them cheaper and find more information at http://www.headphone.com/ProductsHeadphones/Etymot icER4Sasp.asp">HeadRoom (also check out their headphone amps).

As for the active noise reduction models like the Sonys and Bose, I would recommend trying them out against a similar noise background. These systems (at least the consumer versions I've tried) are good at filtering out some frequecies/types of noise, but less effective on others. The Sonys were pretty good at upper frequency in the airplane, but not on the lower end in my experience (i.e. the "whoosh" of air running along the fuselage was somewhat taken out, but not the droning of the engines).

Regards, RJS