MP3 players and such, your opinions.

^ Best Buy has the regular iPod headphones for $60 bucks, fucking ridiculous... I bought them for $30 at Target but as soon as I plugged it into the iPod the right ear plug started fucking up so I got a refund and bought these SkullCandy headphones which seem pretty good so far but too loud.
 
My favourite earbud headphones have been the sony set that came with my walkman, but they crapped out eventually. My ipod ones are doing ok, don't mind them. Only thing that's happened is the rubber around the edges has worn off, but that hasn't made much of a difference comfort wise.
 
All the headphones I've ever owned always lasted two months at the most... my sister had these headphones that lasted almost two years :eek: until I broke them lol.
 
I had to get som closed ear headphones for a course at uni, so now I just use those with my MP3 player, and I must say, the sound is a million times better, its better for my ears and I don't need it as loud to hear it properly as it shields out other noise... They only cost about $30- $40 as well...
 
Well, I had an 15 GB ipod for about 3 years before it went out. Then I stupidly bought a new 80 GB video one, which i wasn't at all happy with. It wasn't very durable, and scratched waaay too easily (I'm a scratch whore). Then i found the most amazing Mp4 player of all time!

Archos 704

It has everything I want. Super durable, wifi, ability to play movies, music, photos, and .pdf files. Long battery life, and it looks cool as hell.
 
FWIW, I have been surfing audiophile forums for quite a while and the ipod is generally well regarded in terms of sonic quality. This may have changed with (new?) versions that require use of the proprietary codec, but I've never owned one myself save listening to them a few times. I own an iRiver IHP myself and I am incredibly happy with it. Gobs of features, longer battery life, drag and drop, and superior output quality. They cost a little bit more, but dangit they are worth every penny! Mine has survived numerous drops, scratches etc. and has never had a problem. As for stability, I didn't know there were players that had stability problems...

iRiver :kickass:
 
Kenneth R. said:
Honestly you guys shouldn't be using the stock headphones. Get better ones, for real
Click to expand...

+1.

Yup - I just wasn't going there. . . yet.

There are much better options available - even without going for the $500 custom mold route. Ultimate Ears - around $60 on eBay rock. As do Shures - I think they're closer to $100. Many many more examples. . .
 
_Wes said:
+1.

There are much better options available - even without going for the $500 custom mold route. Ultimate Ears - around $60 on eBay rock. As do Shures - I think they're closer to $100. Many many more examples. . .
Click to expand...

I have a pair of the Shure e3c's. At $200 they were not cheap, but holy shit do they sound frigggan awesome, though! They were a godsend on that long ass flight out to San Francisco and back. There are also the Shure e2c's, which are one model down, that go for around $100. One of my former coworkers had a pair and let me try them out. They really do sound excellent and are definitely a step up from the cheap stock earphones that typically come with the players. However, I'll have to admit that the stock earphones that came with my Creative MuVo Slim player are actually pretty decent (and, in my opinion, much better than the stock iPod ones). I keep them as a "back-up" pair.
 
Yup - shure's rock.

I have the E2's. Very nice. All the good stuff comes through - but of course after using them, I realize that 128k mp3's sound like crap, and have to start ripping everything at 320k, so my iPod fills up that much faster. . . .

:D
 
_Wes said:
Yup - shure's rock.

I have the E2's. Very nice. All the good stuff comes through - but of course after using them, I realize that 128k mp3's sound like crap, and have to start ripping everything at 320k, so my iPod fills up that much faster. . . .

:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, tell me about it! That is one of the main reasons why I should've opted for the 60 (now 80) gig iPod instead of the 30 gig one I have now. I don't rip anything less than 192, preferably 256 or even 320.

BTW, at the risk of going off tangent, here, I remember meeting you at ProgPower this past September!
 
Yup! Dang it! lol...

btw - ifixit.com - you can get replacement hard drives (or bigger ones). If you go bigger - remember you have to get the larger silver back plate as well. :) I've opened my ipod up quite a few times; new battery, re-seat the hard drive cables due to a 'hard drive failure' - man, that was, what, about 100 play hour ago? :D

Very cool! We will be there again this year! And maybe recording a new song (the band - not me!) for the PP disc. . . maybe. .. :)
 
_Wes said:
Yup! Dang it! lol...

btw - ifixit.com - you can get replacement hard drives (or bigger ones). If you go bigger - remember you have to get the larger silver back plate as well. :) I've opened my ipod up quite a few times; new battery, re-seat the hard drive cables due to a 'hard drive failure' - man, that was, what, about 100 play hour ago? :D

Very cool! We will be there again this year! And maybe recording a new song (the band - not me!) for the PP disc. . . maybe. .. :)
Click to expand...

I'll have to go check that out (ifixit.com). Plus, it seems the harddrive is starting to act up in my iPod (it was making "clicking" sounds and such). However, my iPod is still under warrenty, so I'll wait until that expires before I go and start to monkey around with it. Cool that there is the option of getting a bigger harddrive, though (was wondering if that was possible, after all, I did managed to upgrade the harddrive in my TiVo box).

Oh yeah, I'll be at PP as well again this year (and pretty sweet that I'll get to see Sonata Arctica and Firewind that Wednesday right before I leave as well!).
 
I have to say that I have been very satisfied with my Sony/Ericsson W850-phone which has a 1gb memory stick and a great mp3-player. I know that for most of you 1gb doesn't seem too much, but you can easily fit 7-8 records on it and it's very easy to replace the records on the stick with new ones if you get bored with the records you have on it.

The phone has completely overthrown my 60gb iPod because of it's tiny size and the simple fact that it is a phone as well. If you are not in a need of a new cell, I can understand that this option might not be for you, but I have to recommend the w850 for everyone who needs an mp3-player and/or a phone.:kickass:
 
Some other good headphones:

Sennheiser HD497
Grado SR-60, SR-125, SR-225, all fantastic metal headphones
Beyerdynamic 250-80
Sennheiser HD515 - Never heard these myself TBH
The entire Shure line is good, if you do the in ear monitor thing

Another thing to consider is a headphone amp. Most portable players, the iPod inclusive, suffer from a lack of output drive, and improve substantially with outside headphone amplification. There are a bevy of headphone amps built in the size and shape of Altoid tins (some actually in altoid tins!) that are not too expensive that will yield dramatic improvements in sounds. Check on ebay for amplifiers like the CMoy or MINT (designed by Tangent) for good entry point amps that will get you a substantial improvement in sound for not too much money (relatively speaking :heh: )
 
I highly recommend some quality headphones. I've got Sennheiser HD 555, and it fucking rules...the sound is tremendous...very clear and powerful, not to mention extremely comfortable...was able to find it online for $100, one of the best buys I've ever made. Thankfully I didn't need a headphone amp either...my Archos powers it just fine.

sennheiserhd555.JPG
 
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