HI Everyone,
I take the train and use my Ipod and the bundled earphone to listen to music. To overcome the noise of the trains, I tend to push up the vol quite high. Overtime, i think there is some bad effects of loud earphones to the ear.
I thought of buying a set of headphones/earphones to block out the noise so that I dun have to push up the vol of the Ipod too loud. Any recommendations?
Hey brudder....abit of a grandfather story from me.
Alot of the high end ones mentioned here which seem the predictable "norm" everytime someone asked for a recommendation like it's 'those' or nothing and let cost be damn. blah blah blah.
"Bad effects of loud earphone to your ears" as you mentioned. If that is something already effecting you at this stage... think practical and stop wasting more money on a pair of high fidelity this or that brand and price.
You are using it in the MRT most of the time I would wager. Like you I too take the MRT. And I know what you mean by drowing out the damn white noise and boh liao chatter around you as there are more irritating noise you just don't want to heard or be distracted but unfortunately..you will heard it even with the best headset. You can only minimise it and you don't need a pair of $100 to 600 plus dollar headset to do it.
I use two types...one with cushion padding so that it covers my ears (but not entirely like those big muffs type) and the other is an in-earbuds which like some of them here have mentioned, this you plug into your ear channel which offers a good seal due to a spherical silicon or rubber bulb to snugly hold itself in place in your ear. It would feel weird at first as you get this feeling like you gone swimming under water and water got into your ears and it feels..."stuffy" and sound around you are muffled heh. You get that "peeeee" kinda perceive sound like you are in a very quite room. It is only when you switch on your audio player that you start to feel better.
Ipod earpiece are some of the worst junk they make...quality wise and it tend to fall out easy...at least for me. BUT it has it's place in the audio world as some people do not totally want to be totally excluded from the rest of the world around them. Headset like this ensure you still are able to hear other stuff around you so you do not forget to disembark from the train when you reach your stop!!! heheh.. Trust me..it happened to me (more then a few times) when I was not looking and enjoying my music too much and I could not hear the overhead speaker system of the train.
Do you need all those flashy expensive headsets? Well...how badly damaged are your ear for one thing. Another thing is what kind of music you listen to or do you listen to alot of podcast which is spoken audios?
For music...you made the mp3 yourself and are they of the highest quality in terms of compression rate? If most of your songs are compressed to 98 to 128 bits then why waste money on headsets costing as much as a mid-price ipod? If you listen to super high quality recording like 320bit or using lossy compression or use it at home on your expensive hif equipment ..etc ....well maybe you should pay that kind of money buy one but then again as you said ...have your ears been damaged that you can not decern the difference.
Some people are not comfortable with in-ear plugs. And also if you have a habit of blasting your music..this will damaged your ears alot quicker. In that case, you should try those cushion padded ones. You don't need to look dorky getting those Alien large pro-audio monitor ear muffs ( again if your ears are already damaged or well you can't decern between quality music sound and average) you can get like what I have from Sennheiser PMX200 or the likes of it which has a good dynamic range. It is abit pricey at $133 but they have something abit cheaper below $90 which is almost as good...not so much the sound but the padding and how it wraps around my head in my opinion was what sold me..oh yes...the bass was alittle better. What I am saying is....for about $60 to $90 you can get a pretty good pair of headset.
For in-earbuds , I got myself a Sony and it was only $44, took a risk getting it as no way they let me try first( which is not uncommon with most shops) and it was a bargain as it turn out to be pretty darn good! I can't recall the model at this time in the office but it has these silicon hooks as optional so you can hook the earpiece over your ear lobe from the top and drop downward where you plug it into your ears as some find it better this way or remove the soft hooks and just plug it in. They sound pretty darn good. Okay it looks something like this and maybe this is the new replacement to mine...not sure about it is about $38... check it out.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665376485 Use your iPod's built in Equaliser and you sould be pretty happy with it. Just don't drive it too loud. You don't need to get what I did but you get the picture of what I am talking about.
These days youngters and young adults add amps to boost signal and get other third party hardware to clean up the sound, up the bass..etc. Wait till they reach our age like you and me...then see how much hearing ability and sensivity they loose with indescriminate blasting into their ear channels. Sometime it is not just how loud but how long they keep listening for long hours on end without a break.
We loose hearing as we age. And for some of us we lose it quicker due to working the ear's internal sound receptors or sensory too hard with loud music and kinds of music. Those fine hair-like sensors inside your ear that reacts to sound vibration will start to loose their coating and same as nerves..once you lose the coating, it does not repair itself or grow back. This coating and other component wears down permanently. When you are young you don't notice this but as you get to about 30s it already starts. That's where you start to play your music louder but you might not notice it as there is nothing to measure it but if you do have a means to measure it you will find you are playing it louder then say you are in your 20s or teens.
Okay too long winded here...what I am saying is...don't get sway or too excited that you end up buying something that if your ears are already slightly "worn-out" you will not really be hearing everything to fully appreciate the big amount you will be spending on a new headset. Buy camera\lens better heheh.
If you listen to audible books or podcast like me...$30 to $50 already buys you a good pair of in-earbuds like what I use or padded small headset over the ears wuld do too. As I said....if you don't really want to totally filter out the whole world then something like the ipod ones are fine. I use something like that when I cycle occasionaly if I just want to add some music to my ride..that way I can still hear the traffic around me, not get distracted and still motivate me to ride heh
After establishing the better brands in the market, I like to shop by price ranges these days for one good reason...most shops...they have NO SAMPLE FOR YOU TRY most of the time. It is almost a gamble. Sure the very expensive ones has ( in limited places) but for others..well even if there is...it is limited. Also for reasons of cleaniness...would you plug one on that has been used and you can see ear waxs on it? yuck!. So buy branded ( like some of those mentioned here but give the sllightly lower price range some consideration) and well $50-70 buys you a pretty good one in my opinion as a 40 yr old who use it outdoor in public train who just want to filter out most of the exterior sound in a train about 10 feet radius. If I want to play my audiophile equipment and CDs...I would be at home not roaming the street. How to enjoy the best sound while on the move?
Reviews can also be subjective as one man's meat is another's poison. I know I am not give you any clear winner as to what to buy but maybe something to keep in mind.
