hi everybody, I just wanted to let you know that I'm new here, I've lurked trough the forums for some time but I just registered today. Thanks to you and some other articles I got to know all this stuff about audio quality, and from day to another, most of my music sounded awful hehe, so I decided to start ripping at good bittrate and lossless for some other music, I'm not an "audophile" but I want my music to sound good (hell, I have a specific lounge song that sounds awful at 320kbps CBR on a pair of good old 220watt speakers, you know, when they actually cared about making them sound nice instead of making them sound BUUUUOOOOOMMMMM, I wish I had ripped that at lossless because I losed the CD and it's quite hard to find in my area, i'll have to get it from amazon).

So I decided to "fix" all my music and ripping them again at 320kbps and riped some other at lossless because they "seemed" to need lossless (hint: they were not rock or rap). Then I researched more and got kinda dissapointed about the good-sounding stuff costing so much, but I'll have to fork over some money to get one of those some day, I must).

I guess you guy don't care anyway...

So I want to start by buying a pair of good earbuds to go along with my iphone (i don't have an ipod so the iphone is my primary music player) and I have a couple of questions:


I want to know witch earbuds are the best currently, because I want to listen to my music at full quality without wearing a 5 pounds monster in my head, I want to know witch are the absolutely best and then know witch ones are very good but affordable price (those 500$ shures look good but a guy said that they don't have cohesion). I also want to know if they will work with my iphone without needing mini-amps


I also want to know if the iphone is good for music listening or I need some kind of "holy grail" of portable player for best music quality.


Then in the future, I'll get a nice speakers setup for my living room

your speakers are more likely limiting sound quality than your mp3 files.
assuming they aren't botched 128kbs with lousy encoder. for most setups 192~224kbps cbr or vbr is pretty damn good and most people would fail blind hearing tests

you use eac+lame to encode your cds right?

iphones fine. the default headphones are not fine.

I encode them to AAC 320kbps CBR, because I don't listen to them only on the iphone. Some rap music at 224 (only 1 or 2 songs) and Rock music also at 224, I also have some lossless music (the ones that are good mastered, at least to my simple ears).

I don't think anyone can say which is the best, because there are some pro headphones that cost in the thousands.

I personally am using the Sennheiser CX-500's and can highly recommend them for use with an iPod. Linkage

They are the upgraded version of the Sennheiser CX-300's. i.e. They are built a little better and have a better overall sound than the 300's. The one thing the 500's have that I don't like is the volume slider on the chord. The 300s don't come with that.

I also own a pair of the Shure e4c's and can highly recommend them. They have a great overall sound and can block out just about all outside noise. They aren't very good for wearing out in public though. That's why I switched over the Senn's. They are easier to wear when you are out and about and need to take one of the ear pieces out to hear things. With the Shure's it's a little too much work to remove the earpieces and reinsert them.
JXL

Earbuds can be fragile and are also easy to lose. Consider the replacement cost.

Sennheisers are darn good quality but the absoloute best headphones you can get are these...

http://www.headphonenews.com/2006/10/08/ul...s-in-the-world/

I highly doubt his iPhone will be able to properly support those headphones. He would need an amp at the least...
JXL

I have a pair of Etymotic ER-4P's, that are an upgrade/replacement for my old ER-6i's that had broken a few times. Can't decide if I like them better than the 6i, as the cable seems to be more microphonic but they fit in the ear much easier. The sound isolation is fantastic, though, but keep your head up if you're on the move as I didn't even hear a motorcycle heading straight for me! I would recommend them; with the 4P, the bass is a bit punchier as they're designed to be more suitable for use with an MP3 player on the move. For quiet listening at home, I'd go with the ER-4S as the sound output is quieter and slightly more accurate.

These earphones have been out for a few years now, and so the price has dropped. They were $300 upon release I think but now are like $170 on Amazon.

Another thing about Etymotic: their customer service is fantastic! They gladly replaced my old earphones even though the warranty had long ago expired! Seems they're intent on keeping their customers! Worked with me

If you're interested, here's a link: http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er4.aspx