Turn up the bass!

[cerberaperv]

I like listening to dance/trance and I`ve been reading up on which is best and then what I am prepared to pay. Can anyone advise me if I`m on the right track looking to buy either Sennheiser CX300 or the CX500`s? I do intend to use them in the gym so would prefer a set that wouldn`t fall to bits.
I`d probably add a FiiO E3 amp if they`re only £8 off ebay.
Any suggestions?

Thanks

[ShaunG]

Hi cerberaperv... welcome to the forum!

The Sennheiser CX300 and CX500 are both decent earphones and are built to last. The cables are rubberized, the cable entry points are well strain relieved, and the earphones seem to hold up to a fair amount of rough treatment.

The one downside of nearly all regular ear canal earphones where the cable drops below your ear is that you are likely to suffer from 'transmission noise' up the cable. In plain english this means that when the cable rubs against your clothing or knocks against your body you hear a thud sound in your ear.

There are two solutions to transmission noise:

1) Use a clip to attach the cable to your clothing as near to your ears as possible.

2) Consider an earphone that runs the cable over the top of your ear or alternatively consider is a neckband design headphone.

Examples of over ear cable earphones include the Klipsch Custom earphone range and some of the models in the Ultimate Ears Super.fi range.

Examples of neckband designs include the Sennheiser PMX80 and Grado iGrado

[JJD]

I am new to the forum and new to what i may naively call "hi spec" headphones. I mostly listen to Rock music.
I recently purchased a pair of Ultimate Ear Super Fi 3`s = i hated the sound quality. Tinny and absent in bass to the point that i found them painful. After some more research i purchased a pair of Sennheiser IE6`s. I find these to be a lot better and i can definitely pick out more from tracks that i was ever previously aware of. I do, however, still find them very lacking in bass - some tracks are still very tinny and painful unless the volume is reduced. I am doing something wrong? Is it worth playing around with ear buds? I have seen in related threads "headphone amps" mentioned. I have never seen or heard of these (do they sit between the mp3 player and the 3.5 mm jack of the earphones?). I use an IPhone 3G with (Apple) uncompressed files.
Any advice very welcome (I have spent almost £160 and remain a little less than impressed).

[henders]

JJD: Welcome, glad to have you on board

Both of the models you mention (the Super.fi 3 and IE6) are actually bottom of the range in the IEM series from Ultimate Ears and Sennheiser respectively, utilising a single driver. You will find as you go higher up these series, e.g. Super.fi 5 Pro/Triple.fi 10 and IE7/IE8, they add additional drivers and the bass response improves significantly. Some people even find the bass response of triple driver earphones overpowering.

The Shure earphone line-up is similar, e.g. the SE210 in particular is really lacking in bass response, whereas the SE530 has particularly powerful low end kick.

[JJD]

Hi - many thanks for that reply. I am somewhat amazed that i have to spend £200 on earphones in order to get the right balance of quality and bass. Thats an amazing amount of money considerig the typical cost of a bells and whistles mp3 player.
JJD