Least crappy things you've stuck in your ears?
3I have two ears. And every so often, I like to stick things in them. Usually these things take the form of cheap, crappy-sounding earbuds that I bought for $8.99 and that fall apart before I even have a chance to lose them behind the cluttered trash heap I call my desk.
Here’s the thing – I write for a living, often camping out in libraries or cafes when I can’t bear the thought of staring at the walls of my office for a moment longer. The problem is, other people tend to congregate at these venues and flap their gums with abandon. Which brings me back to the earbuds I use to shut out the inevitable conversations about low-carb diets and sale-priced yoga pants and urinary tract infections and whatever other distressingly prosaic matters with which these people feel they’re justified in assaulting my eardrums.
My question to you is this: have you purchased any earbuds or headphones from Meh (or, heaven forfend, elsewhere) that a) don’t make John Coltrane’s saxophone sound like a dying goose b) don’t look like a Rastafarian vomited on my head and c) don’t cost more than a black-market human kidney in Bangkok?
Thanks for your two cents!
- 15 comments, 37 replies
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Not the best headphones ever made, but good for your purpose, and probably the best noise-canceling isolation headphones ever made for the consumer market - heaven for airline passengers:
Bose Quiet Comfort headphones
You see these only sale periodically, esp around Black Friday. If I were in the market, I would consider refurbs - other people disagree on that.
If you wish to go more for “audiophile” and dont want active-noise cancelling, any closed back headphone from the name brands such as Sennheiser.
If you want bluetooth, look at the Sony’s.
For bargains, great for the price, anything from Monoprice.
You want over the ear design (comfort and isolation), closed back (for isolation in a public place). Forget on-ear. Forget isolation earbuds, similar sound repro quality to full size over the ear phones will cost you 10x as much, and you may have to adjust them constantly to get good orchestral depth.
All this assumes music or good audio quality source that you wish to enjoy fully if possible. If you are just doing spoken word, you can do fine with LG Tones, assuming other peoples’ noise and conversation doesn’t bother you. The fidelity demands are much lower.
@f00l Thanks for the suggestions. (I also would have accepted “puppy tongues,” by the way.
/giphy puppy tongues
@f00l have you found an over the ear headphone that doesn’t sit on your ear? Every single pair I’ve tried always ends up hurting my ears.
@RiotDemon
Sennheiser are noted for enormous earcups. Mine live up to the rep.
This is also a place where Amazon reviews can be really helpful. People will mention whether the earcups hurt or the headphones are too tight or whatever. On Amazon, headphone manufacturers and retailers don’t do compensated reviews, so the reviews mean something. (You may see Amazon Vine reviews).
Most of the good, name ones have large earcups. Take a look at the Philips. AKG. Sony. Read comments on head-fi (buncha obsessives, still good info), Amazon, Massdrop, Slickdeals. You might get some good pricing on stuff at Massdrop, though much of what they offer will be open-back, so kinda good for home/private listening only.
Best prices will be on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or that weekend…Amazon will almost certainly put the Sennheiser 600s and/or 650s on sale then (both open-back, so no good for use in a public place.)
@RiotDemon Seconding what @f00l said. I hate headphones that touch my ear, and I have not had that be an issue with my Senns. Both the lower-end 5xx series and higher-end 6xx series have done my ears good.
PS…when I first saw your question, without the context, I was gonna answer “puppy tongues”.
@f00l I thought this was going to be a Q-Tips-gone-wrong discussion.
Probably the best earphones I ever stuck in my ears are the Apple branded In-Ear Headphones. Sadly, someone tried to mug me for my phone while I was wearing them, and all they managed to do was break the headphones.
I mostly use over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones now.
Best thing I ever stuck in my ears, are the Dubs Acoustic Filters I bought off woot.com. Great earplugs, and I use them at every concert I go to. I go to a lot of concerts.
@sanspoint Muggers suck
I’ve never loved my Apple earbuds. They didn’t sound bad, but I didn’t love the fit.
@rv617 The In-Ear Headphones are different than the stock headphones. They’ve got those various sizes of silicon tips to fit inside the ear and stay there. I use EarPods occasionally, when I need to talk on the phone and keep my hands free, though. The mic on my Bluetooth headphones is terrible.
I think one day, if I ever get stupid money to blow on audio, I want custom earbuds designed to fit my ears. That would be super nice.
@sanspoint the default apple earbuds are designed to sell more earbuds.
@sanspoint you might want to check out http://www.yurbuds.com/en/
I haven’t bought any of their headphone products since they partnered or were bought or whatever by JBL (because I don’t wear buds often and when I do I have…) but my earbud caps I ordered back in the day for my iPhone 4 provided earbuds are great. You can read a fairly in-depth explanation of what they are here: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2010/03/16/yurtopia-yurbuds-review/
I can only presume that they are still as good as when I bought my caps now that they’re being offered as a single solution. Earbuds that fit lousy and always fell out were converted into snug but comfortable fitting earbuds that never fall out, I can only presume they are even better able to optimize by altering the design as needed for the specific headphones they make now.
@jbartus
V v v v good for working out. Designed for that, I think.
@f00l I don’t quite follow, what’s with the V’s?
@jbartus
V very
V v very very
And iterate.
Thought it was a universal, but perhaps not.
@jbartus Do they come in bluetooth?
@sanspoint
I don’t know re yurbuds bt version. There are some bt phones for sports that supposedly do stay in ears.
Be sure to check reviews. Here are some.
iKross Sport A2DP Bluetooth 3.0 Wireless Stereo headphones with Microphone - Black
AUKEY Bluetooth Headphones, Wireless In-Ear Sport Sweatproof Earbuds with 8-Hour Playtime, Noise Cancellation, Built-in Mic for Running & Gym - Blue
If these show as unavailable on Amazon, try cutting the search to
Ikross sport bluetooth
And
Aukey bluetooth sport
If you do serious workouts, check the famous www.dcrainmaker.com blog. Most of what he covers is sports/fitness/Ironman tech, but he may cover headphones somewhere on the site.
klipsch R6i for me…
You prob don’t want buds for this, unless you wanna get really spendy. Also, the repro still won’t compare, unless you go insane on $ and then add custom fits to the package.
And the over ears not only deliver far better sound for the $, they deliver a far better sense of not being with other people where, on the physical sense, people are present.
@f00l Good point. Maybe it’s time to make the jump to over-ears for when I want to make people disappear. A bonus is they’d probably be harder to lose.
@rv617 around-ear (I try to avoid ‘over-the-ear’ because people mix that up with ‘on-ear’ in my experience) headphones will be a night and day difference from what you’re experiencing now, you won’t regret making the jump!
@jbartus
@rv617
"Around-ear would be more descriptive to everyone, but the industry and fanatics use “over-ear” as preferred terminology.
Whatever the words, you want the ones that surround your ears and sit on the surrounding skin/skull. On-ear phones just sit on your ears. On-ear phones have minimal isolation, and are less comfortable for long listening. Also, usually, the sound isn’t as good.
@f00l @jbartus I like to call them ear-fences.
@f00l yeah I just opt for clarity over industry compliance, my parenthetical was by way of explaining myself not a desire to change the practice.
@brhfl not ear-walls?
@jbartus For whatever reason, ear-walls suggest on-ear to me. Just a big nasty wall plastered to your ear. Vs. like some Robert Frost good fences, good neighbors shit.
(I know the poem is ‘Mending Wall,’ and despite the quote, I know it is a very wall-heavy poem. Just let me have this one).
@brhfl we should stop this wall talk before we accidentally summon Trump.
@jbartus
@brhfl
Normally, I don’t summon Trump. But perhaps he can get the Mexicans to pay for my intended set of $50K Sennheiser Orpheus Headphone EarWalls/EarFences. In that case…
@brhfl
"Good fences make good neighbors"
Or
“Old-stone savage armed”
Or from another,
“It is indeed a Great Wall.” (Which made people wonder what he’d been smoking)
;
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.”
When I was young, people in Big Bend National Park crossed freely by boat to incredibly isolated Mexican towns on the other side to eat, drink, and be friendly. The Park Rangers - and for that matter, the INS and the Texas Rangers - all knew about it and did not interfere.
/giphy Another Brick in the Wall
Have you tried Sennheiser HD201s? A nice closed back headphone at a decent price (less than hundred easily). Otherwise, I’d seriously try Monoprice- they have really nice stuff for surprisingly cheap.
@dashcloud Hmmm… That’s at least two people who have suggested Monoprice. I may have to give them a try.
@rv617 Make it three; I’ve suggested the Monoprice headphones before too.
https://meh.com/forum/topics/headphone-question#57a29a1d4bb63cfc0ae43fec
Never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow.
@MrsPavlov
Excepting puppy tongues which were volunteered by happy puppies.
/giphy puppy tongues
@MrsPavlov I have very small elbows.
from meh?
avoid all earbuds they sell, they will try to trick you but they always suck
My favorite earbuds have been the ones that have come with my last two HTC phones. I used my last pair for over two years before I finally busted them at the gym because I kept getting them caught. HTC doesn’t sell them… And Amazon was full of “OEM” versions. According to the reviews, you were lucky if you got the actual same ones. I got a knock off set that still sounded pretty good, but the silicone tips were a little different than my originals. I ended up switching to a blue tooth set so I couldn’t catch them on anything. They were cheap, and the sound was decent, but their blue tooth connectivity was pretty shit. Depending on which pocket I’d put my phone in, I might lose the signal, lol.
@RiotDemon
Sounds like Pokémon GO. Sigh…
bose earbuds sound awesome despite the cost. i’ve had them for about 8 years (got them replaced once) and i am too spoiled to use anything else now. bass is heavy & you can hear every layer of a song if you stop and listen, even on a crowded subway. the silicone inserts come with 3 different sizes in the box. they “click” into your ear and never fall out.
like i said, not that cheap (roughly $70) but it if you like music you won’t regret it.
/giphy earbuds
Okay. It’s done. My wife asked me to place an Amazon order for something last night, so I took the liberty of adding a pair of Monoprice over-ear/around-ear/circumaural/whatever-you-want-to-call-it headphones. I figure no matter what, they’ll be better than cheap earbuds. And even if I despise them, I’m only out twenty bucks. My biggest concern is that this will be the beginning of a slippery slope that leads to black-market-kidney-priced headphones in my future.
Thanks for the advice everyone! I’ll report back when I’ve tried them out.
@rv617
If you wanna spend stupid $ on headphones, massdrop and ebay are your friends (or your pushers/enablers).
Over-The-Ear and On-Ear are 2 diff designs. Hope you got Over-The-Ear.
@f00l I did, indeed, get over-the-ear. They should be arriving today (yay, for Sunday deliveries), so a report will be forthcoming.
Years ago, I bought a pair of sony earbuds on Ebay. I got them and they were clearly not actual Sony brand, but they did say Sony on them. Generic or not, they sounded great and were extremely comfy, even after being worn for 6-8 hours at a time (I worked in an office where chit-chat was frowned upon).
However, one day, when I got up from my chair, I removed the buds from my ears and one got wrapped around the wheel on my chair. That was the end of it. I went back to the Ebay seller and he had no more in stock. Sad day. Back to crappy ear buds, whilst searching for a half way decent set.
My mommy said not to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
My mommy said not to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears
Now why would I want to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
Now why would I want to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears
You can’t hear the teacher with beans in your ears,
Beans in your ears, beans in your ears
You can’t hear the teacher with beans in your ears,
Beans in your ears
What’s that you say, let’s put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
What’s that you say, let’s put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears
You’ll have to speak up I got beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
You’ll have to speak up I got beans in my ears
Beans in her ears
Say mommy we’ve gone and put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
Say mommy we’ve gone and put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears
That’s nice boys just don’t put those beans in your ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
That’s nice boys just don’t put those beans in your ears
Beans in our ears
I think that all grown ups have beans in their ears
Beans in their ears, beans in their ears
I think that all grown ups have beans in their ears
Beans in their ears
This was a #1 song in southern new england in 1968
@cranky1950
Love the song, but need an antidote
/giphy puppy tongues
@f00l ok-
@cranky1950 or maybe
@cranky1950 or
@cranky1950
Here’s something not crappy for one’s ears
Truckin’
UPDATE: So the Monoprice 8323 headphones arrived yesterday. And, as expected, they’re definitely miles better than any earbuds I’ve ever owned. Music sounds sounds great and, even at low volume, the noise isolation is terrific. I’m amazed at how good they sound for $20 headphones! Thanks for the recommendations, everyone.
The one thing I don’t love about them is the ear pads. They get uncomfortable (i.e., sweaty/sticky) pretty fast. I’ve ready that people have vastly improved the comfort by substituting a pair of Beyerdynamic velour ears pads. I’m seriously considering this, but the ear pads alone cost $5 more than the Monoprice earphones did! Still, if they improve long-wearing comfort, I’ll have gotten a great set of phones for $45. Not too bad!
/giphy sweaty ears
@rv617
Yeah, if you spend more up-front, the ear pads get way better.
But even if someone shipped perfect headphones with ear pads made of angel wings from heaven, the head-fi people would still bitch, and make vids of all their mods. All part of the fun.
@f00l Oh, my God! I NEED angel wing ear pads! I NEED them!!!
If you have an unneeded $200 lying around, and an itch to get rid of it, you could do worse than these.
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-x-akg-k7xx-red-edition?mode=guest_open
Massdrop x AKG K7XX Red Edition
You’ve got eight days to order, which makes I guess Tuesday Aug 23 when they close the order window.
Fucking A.
PS open back design, so may leak too much sound (both ways) for use in a public place, depending on sound volume.