Good, comfortable earbuds?

[Guy Verbist]

So re-reading the excellent headphone review brought something to mind.

I listen to a lot (and I mean a lot) of music on an iRiver. Normally I use a pair of Sennheiser MX500s. These cost about £20 and they'reNot Really Very Good.

A pair of standard headphones are out of the question.

I recently bought a pair of Sony MDR-EX71 (£30), which are of the plug in your earhole persuasion:





I used these for about 10 minutes before deciding they were Absolutely Horrid. Can't stand plugging something that deep into my ears [anyone want 'em? They've been sitting in a cupboard ever since]

So my question for the panel is: can anyone suggest a pair of personal listening thngies that give better sound repro than the Sennheisers, but aren't the plug-in earhole style (I guess that anything whose name starts with Etymotic is out), and aren't the full-on Mickey Mouse style headphones.

Budget is probably up to about £100.

Cheers

Guy

[MartinC]

Guy Verbist wrote:

...I used these for about 10 minutes before deciding they were Absolutely Horrid. Can't stand plugging something that deep into my ear

You did try the different sizes of pad I assume? I use these at work and find them perfectly comfortable. I'll admit when I just started using them the putting in your ear bit felt slightly odd, but I got used to it and now I don't give it any thought. Might be worth you trying them for just a bit longer? This sort of design sounds soooo much better than the earbud type IMHO, and are much better for sound insulation (both ways).

[Guy Verbist]

MartinC wrote:

You did try the different sizes of pad I assume?

I did, yes. They were initially painful with the first lot, and then simply very uncomfortable with the smaller ones. I have to admit I gave up on them pretty quickly. Maybe give them another go ...

Cheers

Guy

[MartinC]

They do seem to not be for some people, but if your ears were still sore from the wrong size you might find they aren't as bad as you first found...

[Jezzer]

Hmm. If you found those Sony's uncomfortable then I reckon you'd find Etymotics to be torture.

I used to have a pair of Bang and Olufsen A8's. Smooth sounding and comfortable as they don't go right into the ear. Still Tones over on the HFC forum has a nice review of these B&O's. Less of that bass bloom and fizzy treble that you get with those Sony EX71's.

Audio Technica make some very well received earbuds.

[Papa Lazarou]

Shure E2c are brilliant imo. Comfortable fit and sound much better than the Sonys.

Bought mine off e-bay for £40.

[Hawk]

Ive got some of those Sonys and some Etys and i have to say the sonys are more comfortable...

The Etys are much better than the sonys soundwise, but IMO almost too good for the iPod i use them with. I could really do with finding something in between soundwise..

Any ideas? Im thinking shure, but not sure which one..

Hawk

E2C will be fine Hawk, around £40 delivered

[Hawk]

Sounds like ill be trying the Shures next then ;)

Thanks

Hawk

[drmattx]

I also have the Shures, and would also recommend them. The only thing I would say about them is that your ears might ache if you where them for extended periods of time i.e. 8 hours straight on the plane to Florida.

[Jezzer]

Then there's the Etymotic ER6i which can now be had for around £40-£50 (I paid £100 for mine a year ago).

Nearly as good as the ER4P. Not quite as detailed but with attenuated bass (makes up for the iPod's slight lack of bass).

I think the ER6i'sare excellent, btw.