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Originally Posted by pevsfreedom /img/forum/go_quote.gif
i have these $25 dollar jvc marshmellows which are actually pretty damn impressive but they're getting a little old, not to mention there's a little hiss in them nowadays.
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I'm on the other side of the spectrum. I've owned most of the top-tier universals, except for the Sennheisers, and last niht I picked up a pair of Marshmallows. I just wanted to scavenge the shells so I could plug in my own drivers but was quite taken with what $20 got me. I have a phrase I love to repeat - "hanging-hook plastic crap from Walmart" - and now I feel like the restaurant critic in Ratatouille. What I liked most about these cheapos was the throbbing bass which still didn't kill the clarity. They felt a bit warm and muted on comedy recordings, but I just adjusted the EQ on my iPod and life was good again. They're clearly designed to give you an EQ smile, with emphasized bass and some high-end sizzle, but with recessed mids. On the other hand, there wasn't a problem I couldn't EQ out, and that was with the crappy EQ on my iPod. What's more, I could still hear Kurt Cobain's off-mic cough on All Apologies.
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how are the canal phones compared to earbud style ones?
on 2nd thought, are the marshmellows canal or earbud? |
Earbuds dangle outside the ear canal; in-ear monitors get jamed in there good and tight. It has taken a while for people to warm up to IEMs because it's not as comfortable or casual a feel to jam anything into your ears. Earbuds caught on a lot earlier, because of the comfort issue. But in-ear phones have come a long way and most makes are about as comfortable as the buds. Customs are so comfortable, people sleep in them.
What matters is getting a decent seal. Without it, you get a tinny sound and crappy bass. Earbuds have always been challenged, on this front, because most form a tenuous seal. Some are open. This gives them less sound isolation and less pressure from which to develop decent bass. But on the high end, there's the Sennheiser 7 and the Sennheiser 8 - dynamics that hang outside the ear but which have rave reviews for the bass, clarity and soundstage. (I've never heard either, so I'm just parroting what many, many people are saying.)
In-ear monitors use balanced armatures (BAs) which are the rectangular boxes used in hearing aids. They probably don't provide the thumping bass or crystalline highs of the best dynamics (miniature versions of conventional speakers) but they're very good at providing lots of clarity, as you'd expect in a driver designed for use in hearing aids.
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i heard that when you move around with them you can hear it through the cable which I can't stand - is that true with all canal phones? are they comfortable?
i want comfort and sound quality above everything else. isolation isn't really important, but a little is nice.
so i'm asking what are some cheap
i listen to blues jam stuff, cream, hendrix, pink floyd, led zeppelin, grateful dead.
a) canal phones
b) ear bud phones with the squishy things, not the plastic kind |
The noise from moving the cable around (microphonics) is an actual issue. Some people blame it on heavier cables, which I found to be true only in the sense that a heavier cable can have more tug on the ears when dropped. I got the most microphonics from Etymotics, not because of the cable but because of the earpiece design. Where earbuds have tended to clip onto the ear (while the new ones form a seal on the canal opening), the trend is now toward earphone shells that fit like a hearing aid. Even without going to customs, you'll see "universals" (the ones where you can swap out different tips) that fit into outer ear like an earpiece. Doing so uses the shell to anchor the pieces in, not just the seal. This means that if you tug on the cable, the shell and outer ear bear most of the brunt of this. But if you've got an earpiece where the only thing holding the earpiece in is the tip - if that bad boy is hanging from the tip - then a tug on the line will be felt, not at some outer-ear shell, but right there at the tip.
And it'll suck.
Etymotics are especially prone to this because they look like olives on toothpicks. The only thing holding them in is the seal at the very tip. Any good tug, or other rumbling on the cable, gets transferred to the ears. That's not a lot of fun, which is why Etymotics outfits its otherwise stellar phones with a clip, which allows a person to minimize any tugs, or at least stop them at the clip.
One of the major differences between dynamics and BA's, in terms of ergonomics, is the size. Dynamics can only get so small (usually 9mm), so they have to sit outside the ear canal, whereas BA's can go right in. The top dynamics achieve their seal by using wider tips meant for the very mouth of the ear canal, but with nothing to brace them in, getting them in requires a little more effort and care.
