The All Purpose Advice Thread

Thanks @TwoEars and @Eugene du Toit . I'll look into those. I bought a similar pair of Shures for my wife a few years back and thought they sounded pretty good. She lost them within 2 months.

 

If you wanna buy something really cheap, Philips SHE3580 / SHE3590. Not much money, small and very comfortable.
You can probably buy about 6 pairs for the same price as the RHA or Shures.

 

The other thing, @crazychile, whatever you end up with, you might consider throwing in a couple of sizes of the appropriate Spinfits and a pack of Comply tips. That would give her crazy flexibility to find a fit that suits well for comfort and a bit more bass slam. Probably one of the best value upgrades for earbuds and IEMs..

 

My normal recommendation for gifting girls IEMs are the Yamaha EPH-100. They also use flange tips albeit much less obtrusively than Ety and the shells are tiny so they work well for female ears. They have a bit of a healthier low end but aren't bloated, I've gifted pairs to 4 people and they always come back telling me they love them. Not sure they're the final word on durability.

 

I also have the integrated amp that I'm using with my speakers. (Exposure 3010s2D)

Do you think it's too risky ?

• Power Output (Stereo) : 110 Watts per channel at 1KHz into 8 Ohms
• Input Impedance : 17K Ohms minimum (line input)
• Input Sensitivity : 250mV

 

If we've already went down to the SHE3580 price range in our recommendations, I'd like to propose Xiaomi Hybrids with Comply eartips. Amazing sound, blows the Philipses out of the water in terms of sound. And she sounds like she'd appreciate the powerful bass. And the treble cIarity is pretty damn good, I found SHE's to be a bit, uh, breaky at really high frequencies? It's kiiinda lacking in the midtones though, Piston 3s are way better for that.

It's really not a pair of IEMs that's a christmas material though lol. But, like, I think she'd appreciate it as a means until the holidays. It's still a month until that, and if her current pair already falls apart...
The mic f'ing sucks though. I couldn't stream properly with it until I literally taped it to my upper lip.

 

FWIW, I have the Jotunheim and I have a HE 6 with only the grill mod for now. Did not work; I jacked the volume pot up to 2 o'clock to get any solid sound out of the HE 6 and I even bought a balanced cable before I tried it with the Jotunheim. I now use my Odyssey Stratos Extreme power amp with the Sys as the preamp. Difference is pretty substantial. If you're worried about too much power, please use the usual caution like reducing the volume to zero and then turning the pot slowly. I have a selector box (this is similar to the Robinette box) which enables me to switch between the HE 6 and speakers. The last word on power amps and HE 6 is obviously from our resident expert @ohhgourami who runs it off a Krell.

Add: @YtseJammer, to answer your question using an integrated amp is not risky. And this is not the thread for it...so mods, please feel free to move it out. My apologies.

 

This is what I do for my 3 kids and wife that all don't take of their in ears at all:

I always join the Massdrop Brainwavz grab bag drops. Its a bit off a crap shoot, but for $20ish you get a very decent earphone for the price. Their Jive, M1, M5, S0, and S1 were all very good sounding at the price.

But like I said, these are things I jump on during the year and save.

 

Thanks everyone for all the recommendations. I think I'm leaning towards Shures and a bag of assorted tips. That hits a nice balance of not too cheap nor too expensive.

I tried to nudge her towards PortaPros. Never gonna happen. Not cool enough. At least she knows not to ask for a pair of Beats.

 

@MuppetFace

I think maybe you were just unlucky? I've abused the heck out of my 215's and they're still going strong. They're perfect for travel on airplanes and buses etc because of the noise isolation. I agree there are more hi-fi sounding headphones for the money if you don't care so much about the noise isolation. But if you want the best possible noise isolation the shure olives deliver.

 

I did find the SE215 a bit dark and muffled out of my phone, possibly due to OI issues- when I plug those same 215s into a Mojo, they sound fine, in a slightly laid-back and unchallenging way (weirdly, I mean that in a good way). It's also worth mentioning that they fit very much like IEMs rather than buds, you have to poke them in and seat them well. Some people who prefer buds and being able to take them in and out quickly may find them fiddly and awkward.

Sorry to throw spanners in the works, just when you thought you were getting somewhere. I like Shures, personally, but I know that they're very different from buds.

 

@MuppetFace

Aww.. don't be like that.

But I've heard stories about people breaking the plastic "necks" on their 215 though, I don't know how they manage... they're pretty sturdy. Are they sitting on them? Sometimes I wonder. Shure is pretty good with customer relationships though. I don't think anyone has had a problem getting them replaced.

 

Women's pants not having front pockets has been the cause of death of so many of my earphones.

 

Ummm, those gaudy gold and black "limited editions" are the definition of retro cool. They scream "I'm not part of your mainstream!" which I think is still cool with the fellow youths. (They also scream "Wisconsin!" kind of like at the end of the opening credits for That 70's Show, which I think is a huge bummer for everyone involved.) Plus, they have an inline remote and mic!

You could also consider the TFZ Series 1/3/5 IEMs that everyone couldn't shut up about not that long ago. Supposed to have great bang for buck. I directed a buddy who needed IEMs and does not need the psychological poison of expensive headphones towards one of the massdrops for the Series 5 and he was very appreciative.

 

This info may come in handy, thanks.

 

Hello everyone,

I am planning to buy the Sennheiser HD600 and use it with a DAC/amp combo in a portable context. The source is going to have to be a Microsoft smartphone, as I need the Groove Music online app in order to have monthly subscription music downloads. My issue is that I have no idea how to connect a DAC/amp combo to a cellphone, and I have no idea if that is even compatible. I'm also worried about the amp not being strong enough, resulting in my HD600s sounding "slow" or "veiled." Is this going to work at all?

 

The AudioQuest NightHawk is another option. Most underrated headphones ever and a better choice than the LCD-2 in my opinion.

They are only $328 @ Crutchfield until the end of November.

You don't have to spend $3000 to have an endgame setup!