BF2S Forums What headphones should I buy?

My M2s just arrived. Listened to a few songs now. Bass is excellent, mids good, highs could be crisper and a little more forward. Build quality is excellent. I can see myself upgrading though.

Roger Lesboules wrote:

Any earphone that wont break at the plug? Like it seem all the pair i had so far all had the same problem where i had to move the connector alot to have sound in both ears, like if the wire were damaged and made bad connection most of the time.

Having a hard time explaining it, but im sure some of you will understand.

Thanks!

I'll go into detail about strain relief tonight with images from different earphones I have lying about so you get an idea of what you're dealing with as options.

Jaekus - Nice to know big man, the mids have always been an amazing thing from the M1/2/3's, definitely the kings with that. As it's a dynamic, let it burn in for at least 50 hours (usually 150 hours) before you fully judge the sound quality. Dynamic drivers, unlike transduces (balanced armatures is what they are called), require burn in time to sound better as they need to flex a little bit to get the full frequency. Usually a good dynamic driver can be quite harsh on the treble and either have too much of a bass response or not a clear enough one. That usually fades away after 100+ hours of burn in. The VSONIC GR07's, for example, sound horrible for the first 200 hours because they are too harsh on mids and highs, but after those 200 hours, they are easily the best dynamic driver IEMs on the market, maybe only being eclipsed by the £500 Sony EX-1000's.

yep, on most mid to high end hardware.

loud.

Cant wait to try them out

Yup, sound is insane. Really good.
I still have to adjust to the feel of em (never had IEMs before) but theyre a lot more comfortable than the IEMs ive tried. I do use the smallest plugs now, but they feel great and the sound quality is excellent. Thanks!

Will do.
How long is one of those reviews supposed to be?

Last edited by Kampframmer (2011-08-12 05:27:21)

I'll get right to it then

Roger Lesboules wrote:

Any earphone that wont break at the plug? Like it seem all the pair i had so far all had the same problem where i had to move the connector alot to have sound in both ears, like if the wire were damaged and made bad connection most of the time.

Having a hard time explaining it, but im sure some of you will understand.

Thanks!

Right, I forgot about this. I can't go into a lot of detail just now, but I'll give a few paragraphs of explanation.

These problems are mostly due to poor cabling and poor strain relief at points of bending. A good cable should, most likely, prevent those problems from happening, even if the strain relief isn't so great. Now, if the strain relief is good but the cable is cheap, you will probably still break it.

Strain relief is managed in three ways at the jack - Here are the 3 different jacks. Naturally there are several different versions of each jack, but these are the ones you're going to find.

Straight 3.5mm jack

This is the jack of the Sunrise Audio Xcape IE. Now, from first reactions you'd probably think that has the worst strain relief out of the 3 options, but what Sunrise Audio have done is left a small air gap between the first layer of rubber and the second layer, allowing for there to be some tension leeway when you bend it side by side. The cable itself is actually quite sturdy and it's made of matte rubber (it's a bit sticky, not glossy) which makes it a decent cable. Now, a straight 3.5mm jack will usually benefit from a tight fitting pocket and when your MP3 player is positioned in such a way that the jack is pointing upwards, so there is no stress. Any other way will cause stress on a straight jack and that can be a problem. However, as I said, if the cable is good enough, you shouldn't see tension problems from the cable being bent slightly in whatever position it is.

Right angled 90 degree jack

This jack comes with the VSONIC GR07, which is a good bit above the price of the Xcape IE (actually double, £110) and as you can see, the cable is one mighty thing. I'd say it is about 1/8th thicker than the Xcape IE cable and has a very different feel to it. Whilst the Xcape IE cable is quite bendy, this cable is a lot harder to move around. Anyway, as you can see the jack is one hell of a sturdy thing. Here the strain relief is significantly reduced in a few positions, even with the jack facing down the way and the cable bending up. Basically, if you keep the jack in line with your MP3, so that if you felt across the top and bottom of your MP3, the jack wouldn't be sticking out, then you're not going to have a huge problem. The problem arises when the jack swivels out of that position and pressure is applied on the bend, which will cause some unnecessary tension in the cable. Not all right angled jacks have such a sturdy cable though... so it is most definitely not an upgrade over the straight. Some right angled ones have a flimsy cable attached, which will most likely break faster than the straight jack as the jack swiveling is quite a common occurrence on the move.

60 degree 3.5mm jack

This is from the DUNU DN-13 Crius, which is a relatively new earphone. We'll be stocking it in a week or so, so I only have a sample here. This jack I've not actually seen on many other designs, but my god is it good. As you can see, a lot of care and effort has been put in to the design of this jack, and build wise it's better than both of the above. A bit of both the problems listed above happen to this jack regarding strain, but the problems are greatly reduced by adding the best of both worlds. The cable coming out of it is in the same league as the Sunrise Audio, but ever so slightly heavier. If you were to put them side by side you couldn't tell the difference. As you can see, there are some chunks of plastic swivelling out of the jack itself, which allow the cable to be bent much more forcefully at that point without any damage happening to it. So if it gets bent in your pocket or whatever, it can take that sort of force. VSONIC have done something similar with theirs in the small slits, but not to the same extent.

As you can see, I've not actually pointed out which is best, because there really is no best. That is why all the earphone manufacturers mix and match, because they don't have a definitive answer as to which lasts longer.

At the end of the day, it's down the cable quality and how you wear the earphones  and treat them. The fact of the matter is, the more money you spend on a good pair of IEMs (all 3 above are top class) the less likely you are going to have strain relief problems at the jack. My last pair of IEMs, which cost me £200, the Westone 2s are still going strong after 1.5 years of total abuse from me. I don't treat my earphones with a lot of respect because I'm usually on the move and taking them in and out, but the braided 90 degree jack from Westone 2 has lived through all of that and is still here to tell the tale. You get what you pay for when it comes to build quality - I say that with a pinch of salt, because in the "under $100" bracket, the build quality fluctuates a lot, as well as the sound quality. You have to look at your options and decide what is best for you... Sacrifice a bit of sound quality for great build quality, sacrifice build quality for better isolation, sacrifice isolation for better sound quality... It's always going to be a big hunt for the best bang-for-buck pair.

I won't compare the VSONIC in this because they are a good bit more expensive, but when comparing the DUNU and Sunrise Audio, it's actually more about the sound signature rather than quality itself. They are both astoundingly capable IEMs for under $100 but they sound very different from each other. the Xcape is warmer and has a huge sound stage whereas the DUNU has a snappier bass and better mids. Build quality comes down to how you wear it and what you do with it. I'd say DUNU has the edge over ANY other earphone under $100. A quote from a reviewer:

The buds themselves are liable blobs of metal and while I obviously am not going to test them to destruction, you’d have to be pretty **** rough to break these. By rough I mean stand on them or something.

Now, you don't usually get that sort of confidence from a sub $100 IEM, but DUNU I guess know how destructive youngsters can be and have gone for the best of the best. The Sunrise Audio don't wow you at any point, but they're not exactly far off, they are just different.

TL;DR
The more money you spend on a good pair of earphones, the less likely they are going to break at the 3.5mm jack. I've not had one break there since my Ultimate Ears 700, which had fucking terrible build quality.

Also, look after your earphones. A good pair is an investment for a long time.

a friend of mine wants to replace his sennheiser (headphones) with something better, not sure what model he currently has but his budget is 300euros, which is almost double of what his sennies cost so it shouldn't be too hard to find something that will blow his old ones away.
Suggestions?

Hahahahahaha, don't listen to any of their shit. Dr Dre, Bose, B&W are all fucking terrible.

Are they portable headphones or full size cans? That will decide the next bit of advice. To give you an idea, portable headphones are the Sennheiser HD-25 II and full szie cans are the Sennheiser HD800s.

Lucien wrote:

Zimmer wrote:

Hahahahahaha, don't listen to any of their shit. Dr Dre, Bose, B&W are all fucking terrible.

And I would recommend he actually tries some before buying any, if that's possible for him. go to a hi-fi store or whatnot

Oh absolutely, unfortunately most hi-fi stores don't have a great selection of headphones to try. The only places in the entire of the UK that I've seen stock a large range of high end headphones/earphones are Dixons and Curry's Digital in airports. Not sure what you have in NL.

If it's portable he's looking for, I'd get the Beyerdynamic DT1350. Crazy amazing stuff. Only matched closely by the Sennheiser HD-25-1 II.

I am by no means an audio expert (or even very knowledgeable on the subject), but in this FB chat i am a connoisseur extraordinaire