To hear or not to hear, that is the question. No its not, its quality…

OK well I’ll admit it, I go through headphones like Homer goes through doughnuts, but this is by admission of choice and upgrades and not faults and breakage. I feel its appropriate to make you aware of the best sounding headphones, because lets face it, theres so many of them people don’t have the luxury of trying each of them and understanding the specs that manufacturers offer. Read on and I’ll explain some of my favorite earphones.

OK, so whats the difference between earphones and headphones. Simple think about its logic, headphones fit on your head, whereas earphones fit in your ear. In this article I’ll discuss normal in ear earphones, and in the future I’ll move onto headphones. Now, I’ve got a music background, we have a small recording studio in the family. You maybe thinking how does this help? Well it allows me to test the units on uncompressed music, and it also means that the equipment we use must always be the best. In order to make great sounding music, its is important to test it on various sound outlets.

With normal in ear earphones, the likely hood is you are going to be using them with a portable device, maybe an iPod or similar. It is important that your earphones work well to any genre and sound level. If you use something like EuPod then increasing sound levels are important to your quality, because you will find your unit can handle quite loud volumes but your factory spec earphones wont.

Most earphones work via the vibration of a tiny plastic bubble inside the units, mostly seen in the iPod Ear buds. However higher quality earphones work via magnets, apart from providing loud bass and less distortion, there is a better clarity between sound levels and bass/treble. Read on and I’ll go through the review process of 3 top earphones.
OK well I’ll admit it, I go through headphones like Homer goes through doughnuts, but this is by admission of choice and upgrades and not faults and breakage. I feel its appropriate to make you aware of the best sounding headphones, because lets face it, theres so many of them people don’t have the luxury of trying each of them and understanding the specs that manufacturers offer.

OK, so whats the difference between earphones and headphones. Simple think about its logic, headphones fit on your head, whereas earphones fit in your ear. In this article I’ll discuss normal in ear earphones, and in the future I’ll move onto headphones. Now, I’ve got a music background, we have a small recording studio in the family. You maybe thinking how does this help? Well it allows me to test the units on uncompressed music, and it also means that the equipment we use must always be the best. In order to make great sounding music, its is important to test it on various sound outlets.

With normal in ear earphones, the likely hood is you are going to be using them with a portable device, maybe an iPod or similar. It is important that your earphones work well to any genre and sound level. If you use something like EuPod then increasing sound levels are important to your quality, because you will find your unit can handle quite loud volumes but your factory spec earphones wont.

Most earphones work via the vibration of a tiny plastic bubble inside the units, mostly seen in the iPod Ear buds. However higher quality earphones work via magnets, apart from providing loud bass and less distortion, there is a better clarity between sound levels and bass/treble. Read on and I’ll go through the review process of 3 top earphones.

The Best Earphones

After the use of countless earphones, I believe that the Sony MDR-EX71SL offer the best all round package. If you’re new to the market then I would suggest you go for these as they offer the best customization for you. The package comes with 3 sets of interchangeable ear cushions, an extra gold wired cable, a cushion protector and a carry pouch. All this is priced at $49.99 direct from Sony, but this is an item that is not worth missing.

In testing any sound equipment it is important to ‘break’ them in, so therefore before I tested any of the units I connected them to 48 hours of continuous music, playing at a constant mid-volume with various genres. I tested three sets of earphones that were proclaimed as excellent: As stated the Sony MDR-EX71SL, Koss Sparkplugs, and a second Sony set, the VITE MDRJ10L.

Without boring you with the testing procedure and the specification I’ll show you why I chose the first Sony pair. Now the Vite’s performed well however on the bass tests they lacked on very low response levels, and they also felt a bit loose in the ear. They fitted well with the clip holding them in place on the ears even when pulled on, and they looked pretty good too, put like alot of earphones they felt a bit light and cheaply made.

The Koss Sparkplugs Felt very good and were a very good contender for topspot. They offer the same quality as the Sonys however they were let down by the broad levels of sound, they just seemed a bit less. Otherwise its your own personal preference on to which you preffer, they are both very good, and the Koss’ even offer a no-question lifetime guarantee.

Overall I would say the MDR-EX71SL is the ‘weapon of choice’ however you cant do some things like watch films and play games and feel the full force and quality that they offer.

In the following few days I’ll review headphones and ear-canal units. These all have their own attributes, but again an article will be written on the good points of each and which you should buy.

Hope this has helped those with no clue about sound, or those who just want the best or value for money.