Apple's In-Ear Headphones and Sony's MDR-EX71SL - Searching for Decent In-Ear Headphones

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• JonB - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  While I rarely listen with headphones, I do notice one thing. There have been a few articles recently that use a U.S. Quarter as the size comparison. I know that there are a lot of non-US members, so I checked to see how big a Euro coin was compared to a Quarter.
  
  And - a US Quarter is just smaller than a 2 Euro coin and just larger than a 1 Euro coin.
  
  Close enough that you could use either coin.

• TheAudit - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  Good article.

• GokieKS - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  "How can there be a review that is attempting to find "the best pair of in-ear headphones" without at least mentioning the two most well-known audiophile-quality in-ear headphone manufacturers, Etymotic and Shure?!? I know the article explains why they chose those headphones (they are easy to find)...but this is kind of like reviewing two $50 video cards and not even mentioning the type of performance you might get if you were to spend the money for something like an ATI X800."
  
  Well, the article is actually titled searching for "decent" headphones, which these do qualify (though a bit questionable in the case of the Apple pair). And whereas the difference in performance between a GF4 MX and a Radeon X800 can easily be quantified by benchmark numbers, it's MUCH MUCH harder to give a good reason on how one pair of headphones is other than another - audiophiles have the specific terms in which they like to describe certain aspects of sound quality, but for the majority of people, they mean absolutely nothing.
  
  Not to mention 99% of the population would be unwilling to spend $100 or more on earplugs.
  
  ~KS

• Scrith - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  This is very strange (especially for Anandtech). How can there be a review that is attempting to find "the best pair of in-ear headphones" without at least mentioning the two most well-known audiophile-quality in-ear headphone manufacturers, Etymotic and Shure?!? I know the article explains why they chose those headphones (they are easy to find)...but this is kind of like reviewing two $50 video cards and not even mentioning the type of performance you might get if you were to spend the money for something like an ATI X800.
  
  I suggest that those interested in the best in-ear headphones (or standard headphones, for that matter) check out a store such as www.headphone.com or do some research at the headphone forum at www.head-fi.org.
  
  Still, it's good to see a review with an emphasis on audio here at Anandtech.

• wassup4u2 - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  How does the sound quality of these compare with larger, "headband" headphones with 30mm drivers? I have a pair of Sony MDR-G54LP and was wondering how their sound quality would compare.

• GokieKS - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  "Does anyone have an idea how these headphones compare to Sony's MDR-E888's?"
  
  In terms of comfort, they're leagues ahead. In terms of sound quality...well, depends on the kind of music, really. They're better rock 'n roll headphones, but if you're into say, classical or jazz, I'd say the E888s are probably the better choice.
  
  ~KS

• quorm - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  Does anyone have an idea how these headphones compare to Sony's MDR-E888's?

• GokieKS - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link

  As a semi-audiophile, let me start off by saying that, IMO, the Apple earbuds are completely not worth the money. They look nice, yeah, and allows the wearer to retain the "I've got an iPod and I want everyone to know about it" aspect of the stock (even crappier) earbuds while getting somewhat better sound, but that's about as far as their pros go. Sound quality is average at best, but it's a horrible value, but hey, it's an Apple product. =P (I'd like to mention that I'm actually a very big fan of most of Apple's hardware, but I'm under no illusion that they're the best bang for the buck.)
  
  The EX71s, on the other hand, are altogether more intersting. I've had two pairs of it - the first of which I imported from Japan about a year and a half ago, when they were sold here. I wanted a short-cord set of earbuds (my PCDP has a LCD corded remote), which meant I basically had to import. The EX71s were just introduced and coming off the usually-positive reviews of its predecessor, the EX70s, I figured it'd be a good choice. The Japanese models come in two colors, and I picked white, as at that point in time, I was fully expecting to get an iPod in the future, and I did want the color to match if possible (I've ended up getting an iRiver iHP-120, but that's a story for another time). With shipping, it costed nearly $60, but I felt they were worth the money - they sounded better than any earbuds I've ever used up until that point does, and the next step up would've been the Shure E2Cs, which cost quite a bit more.
  
  After that, as the EX71s were introduced in the US, I read more and more discussions about them on various forums, and the common issues many people (OK, audiophiles/headphone junkies) have with them is the bloated bass and muddy treble, and many saying the Sennheiser MX400/MX500s were better. I was a bit surprised, as though the bass response is indeed a lot stronger than one would expect, I felt they were much better than the Sennheisers (though quite a bit more expensive as well).
  
  Anyway, about a month ago, my pair failed on me - no sound from the right channel at all. I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised (in my rather expansive experience, Sony products have been paragons of excellence in design, but not reliability). I needed a pair of easily put-in/taken-out earbuds, which ruled out high-end offerings like those by Etymotic (though the sound quality on those are, by all indication, amazing and absolutely worth the cost). So what did I do? Order another pair of the EX71s, this time black and off Amazon ($30 at the time). Other than the color and the fact it comes with a plastic box to hold the extension cord/whatever else instead of the small (MD sized) pouch like the Japanese version, it looks identical.
  
  How they sounded, on the other hand, was a wholely different story. The bass/treble complaint that others had became clear as day. I tried breaking them in, to no avail - the bass, especially, is still overwhelming, to the point where it actually hurts my ears at times (my music repertoire doesn't include much in the way of heavy bass).
  
  I have no good explanation for this, but I will say that whereas I once recommended the EX71s without reservation, I can no longer do the same - only to those who like/can stand the bass.
  
  ~KS