What headphones to get

Want to talk about music hardware or software that doesn't include Reason?
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normen
Posts: 3431
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

03 Jun 2018

RobC wrote:
03 Jun 2018
Thank you for all the help!

The rest is a matter of money, hehe.

Btw, do you know anything about those IE 4 by Sennheiser? Apparently they were part of $ 1000 systems. "Then it must be good!" xD
At the moment it fits the 100 EUR price range but if they are bad, I rather save more money to get something acceptable.
Mostly for making synth sounds / wave tables ~ that kind of category.

Link again: https://en-us.sennheiser.com/earbuds-he ... ction-ie-4
They're good, come with most Sennheiser In Ear systems by default. Great value for money in the pro range are the ATH E50/70 in-ears, the E40 ones are also quite good. Audio Technica is a bit late to the in-ear game and tries to make up for it so you basically get better technology at the price of the previous generation. But really, I rather think in categories and generations than specific devices. Meaning proper high tech compared to Walmart grab-bag and designed in 2010 compared to designed in the 1980s.

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

04 Jun 2018

normen wrote:
03 Jun 2018
RobC wrote:
03 Jun 2018
Thank you for all the help!

The rest is a matter of money, hehe.

Btw, do you know anything about those IE 4 by Sennheiser? Apparently they were part of $ 1000 systems. "Then it must be good!" xD
At the moment it fits the 100 EUR price range but if they are bad, I rather save more money to get something acceptable.
Mostly for making synth sounds / wave tables ~ that kind of category.

Link again: https://en-us.sennheiser.com/earbuds-he ... ction-ie-4
They're good, come with most Sennheiser In Ear systems by default. Great value for money in the pro range are the ATH E50/70 in-ears, the E40 ones are also quite good. Audio Technica is a bit late to the in-ear game and tries to make up for it so you basically get better technology at the price of the previous generation. But really, I rather think in categories and generations than specific devices. Meaning proper high tech compared to Walmart grab-bag and designed in 2010 compared to designed in the 1980s.
Perfect, thank you again for all the information! On an interesting note, I was a lot of times lucky to find various new, modern, bang-for-the-buck devices (they seemed to be about marketing strategy ~ but these really were various devices from phones to coffee machines, etc.), so what you suggested is exactly what I'm looking for.
I will probably go for the (in this [pricing] case middle range) ATH E50, since it's probably worth the wait and to squeeze a bit more money out for it.

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

19 Jun 2018

normen wrote:
03 Jun 2018
RobC wrote:
03 Jun 2018
Thank you for all the help!

The rest is a matter of money, hehe.

Btw, do you know anything about those IE 4 by Sennheiser? Apparently they were part of $ 1000 systems. "Then it must be good!" xD
At the moment it fits the 100 EUR price range but if they are bad, I rather save more money to get something acceptable.
Mostly for making synth sounds / wave tables ~ that kind of category.

Link again: https://en-us.sennheiser.com/earbuds-he ... ction-ie-4
They're good, come with most Sennheiser In Ear systems by default. Great value for money in the pro range are the ATH E50/70 in-ears, the E40 ones are also quite good. Audio Technica is a bit late to the in-ear game and tries to make up for it so you basically get better technology at the price of the previous generation. But really, I rather think in categories and generations than specific devices. Meaning proper high tech compared to Walmart grab-bag and designed in 2010 compared to designed in the 1980s.
There's one more thing I wonder about: When it comes to designing a single sound, do you think using in-ear phones is suitable, or are speakers unavoidable when it comes to setting dynamics. Say, creating a simple sine-wave kick. So I'm really talking about single sounds. (So far it seems that even that task favors speakers. Unless I'm mistaken and that rather applies to mixes with multiple, varied sounds.)

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Marco Raaphorst
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Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands
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19 Jun 2018

What I have noticed over so many years: the midrange of most headphones are the real issue.

In all the test, they talk about high and lows, but almost never about the midrange. This is strange because the midrange is the most important range for our ears. And the differences between speakers and headphones types are HUGE.

My Sennheiser HD600 have the best midrange. Maybe there are even better headphones than the HD600 but I must say I have never listened to better headphones than the HD600. In short: I never ever heard a better midrange than the DH600 can produce.

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

19 Jun 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote:
19 Jun 2018
What I have noticed over so many years: the midrange of most headphones are the real issue.

In all the test, they talk about high and lows, but almost never about the midrange. This is strange because the midrange is the most important range for our ears. And the differences between speakers and headphones types are HUGE.

My Sennheiser HD600 have the best midrange. Maybe there are even better headphones than the HD600 but I must say I have never listened to better headphones than the HD600. In short: I never ever heard a better midrange than the DH600 can produce.
Added it to the original post, along with Normen's suggested in-ears ~

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Marco Raaphorst
Posts: 2504
Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands
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19 Jun 2018

RobC wrote:
19 Jun 2018
Marco Raaphorst wrote:
19 Jun 2018
What I have noticed over so many years: the midrange of most headphones are the real issue.

In all the test, they talk about high and lows, but almost never about the midrange. This is strange because the midrange is the most important range for our ears. And the differences between speakers and headphones types are HUGE.

My Sennheiser HD600 have the best midrange. Maybe there are even better headphones than the HD600 but I must say I have never listened to better headphones than the HD600. In short: I never ever heard a better midrange than the DH600 can produce.
Added it to the original post, along with Normen's suggested in-ears ~
was Norman referring to these in-ears:
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/earbuds-he ... ction-ie-4 ?

don't know them but might wanna check them out :)

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

19 Jun 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote:
19 Jun 2018
RobC wrote:
19 Jun 2018


Added it to the original post, along with Normen's suggested in-ears ~
was Norman referring to these in-ears:
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/earbuds-he ... ction-ie-4 ?

don't know them but might wanna check them out :)
I asked about those ~ see a few comments back. In short, they are good, but there are value for the money, more professional ones by Audio Technica, even if a bit more pricey.

That said, IE 4 is (if I'm not mistaken) out of production, so might become rare.

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Marco Raaphorst
Posts: 2504
Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands
Contact:

19 Jun 2018

RobC wrote:
19 Jun 2018
Marco Raaphorst wrote:
19 Jun 2018


was Norman referring to these in-ears:
https://en-us.sennheiser.com/earbuds-he ... ction-ie-4 ?

don't know them but might wanna check them out :)
I asked about those ~ see a few comments back. In short, they are good, but there are value for the money, more professional ones by Audio Technica, even if a bit more pricey.

That said, IE 4 is (if I'm not mistaken) out of production, so might become rare.
Now I am interested in trying the Audio Technica ATH E70

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

19 Jun 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote:
19 Jun 2018
RobC wrote:
19 Jun 2018


I asked about those ~ see a few comments back. In short, they are good, but there are value for the money, more professional ones by Audio Technica, even if a bit more pricey.

That said, IE 4 is (if I'm not mistaken) out of production, so might become rare.
Now I am interested in trying the Audio Technica ATH E70
I'll probably either save up for the 50 or 70 ~ depends on my patience.

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normen
Posts: 3431
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

19 Jun 2018

I have the ATH E70 after getting the E50 for the Bands In-Ear. I thought "wow, theres some even better than THIS? I gotta have those!" They're not exactly twice as good as the E50s (but twice as expensive) but really they're a dream.

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

19 Jun 2018

(If anybody can tell me whether in-ear phones are enough for setting dynamics for a single sound, please let me know.)

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Marco Raaphorst
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Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands
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19 Jun 2018

I think in-ear are better than closed headphones. the leakage of closed is much higher.

the HD600 are super open sounding, and leaking like crazy. if the ATH E70 can achieve the same openness in a closed concept it will be a mind blow.

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

05 Nov 2018

Looks like I'll go for the ATH-E40 for now. They say it has a bit more bass; so if I'd get either the 50 or 70 later, the 40 will still be good for entertainment, too.

It's affordable for me, and definitely will be better than my dying headphones, or PA speakers.

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

21 Nov 2018

Ordered an E40! Might review when here.

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

27 Nov 2018

normen wrote:
19 Jun 2018
I have the ATH E70 after getting the E50 for the Bands In-Ear. I thought "wow, theres some even better than THIS? I gotta have those!" They're not exactly twice as good as the E50s (but twice as expensive) but really they're a dream.
Hey, thank you for the suggestions!

In the end, I got the E40 (gave my first impression here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7509876) ~ cause that's what I could afford for now, but I also wanted something I can keep for on the go, later.

Next step will be the E70 one day, cause these really seem like an impressive series!

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