Recently my set of apple earphones that I've had for at least 4 years have died, and I'm looking for a new set, something of a reasonable standard and I'm willing to pay anything sub £80, any advice? My first two inital thoughts were the new fender dxa7's or the shure se215's, both around the same price point. Also, while we're at it, what head/in-earphones do you use?
Personally, as an audio enthusiast and headphone junkie, I can heartily recommend a pair of full-size over-ear or smaller on-ear headphones. In-ear headphones are sooo much harder to engineer well. Those choices you're looking at aren't bad but I would immediately cry foul on buying ANYTHING from Fender. Shure makes good in-ear monitors. HOWEVER...and this is a very big however, in-ear headphones are generally very inconsistent in profile, overall stereo imaging, and quality in general. (Mostly because the drivers are usually pathetically tiny and the sound is EXTREMELY dependent on the actual fit of the earbud itself). I would very strongly recommend looking at some more expensive over-ear or on-ear options. Ask me if you want some advice in this area. I'm of the (mostly accurate) opinion that you can't really get a decent pair of headphones for under $100 USD. Some big names you should look for (that are actually established and trustworthy vendors) are AKG, Sennheiser, Audio Technica, and Beyerdynamic. Personally, I love love love the Beyerdynamic DT1350's I carry them around everywhere and they're just so convenient in size and adaptable in sound signature.
I had the Shure's briefly, but they just sounded a bit flat however the noise isolation was very good. I just yesterday got the Sennheiser M2IE's and they are superb, they punch well above their weight, excellent noise isolation, are insanely comfortable to wear and the sound is absolutely spot on - the compare quite closely with my Yamaha Pro 500 over ear headphones which cost £280! That said that's only on my mac, I use my Yamahas with my AV receiver which is what you need to actually benefit from expensive headphones. There isn't much point spending over £100 for phone/laptop earphones unless you at least use a headphone amp. The Sennheiser M2's regularly best headphones at twice its price in reviews, there's 2 versions one for Apple and one for Android, Amazon have them right now for £74. There is one without the inline remote but oddly it costs more?
I dunno about that. I use my Steelseries V2 to listen to music and while it is a gaming headset, the sound quality is top notch. They're a bit clumsy, though.
Well if you're interested, fender were one of my first ideas since It's a company I know and, therefore, know that the stuff they make is pretty darn good if their guitars are anything to go by. So why, out of interest, do you scoff at fender? That's as maybe, but Headphones are too clumsy and too large for taking to school everyday, and I have a fairly tight budget compared to other people (being 14 and all). Now this is basically what I'm looking for. Right price, portable, good enough for use with a stereo, etc. And also, they look like they should actually fit, because from experience I must have weird ears or something...
