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drewprops
2008-07-09, 13:21
The standard hard plastic "conical drum" iPod headphones don't fit properly in my ears so I want to get some 3rd party in-ear headphones for under $35. These are only for workouts and will be much abused, so don't waste your wonderful suggestions on $$$ phones for this thread (seriously, I love the enthusiasm but would hate to have you waste your time trying to upsell me ;) ).

Note that I'll probably walk into a Target or a Wal-Mart to buy these things~

evan
2008-07-09, 13:24
i just use wrap-around over-hear headphones for working out. they stand up to sweat pretty well and have much less of a harmful effect than earbuds on my hearing. the ones I got were like $15 and I'll get another pair when they burn out.

Fahrenheit
2008-07-09, 13:33
some of the cheaper £15 Sennheissers seem to be slightly smaller than the iPod buds. Try them? You can get those of Amazon or one of your other All American home stores.

Bryson
2008-07-09, 13:46
I have Griffin TuneBuds (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/tunebuds) and they're fine. They also come with a choice of "rubber bits" to fit different ear sizes. They're perfectly good for my uses. $30


These (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/earjams) look interesting too...then you get to keep the nice "answering" thingy on the proper iPgone headphones.

Dorian Gray
2008-07-09, 13:52
i just use wrap-around over-hear headphones for working out. they stand up to sweat pretty well and have much less of a harmful effect than earbuds on my hearing. the ones I got were like $15 and I'll get another pair when they burn out.
Why would earbuds be more harmful to your hearing than full-size headphones? I'd imagine the very best thing for your hearing would be insulating earbuds.

bassplayinMacFiend
2008-07-09, 14:55
Why would earbuds be more harmful to your hearing than full-size headphones? I'd imagine the very best thing for your hearing would be insulating earbuds.

Because they block your ear canal so there is no place for sound/air to escape. This will cause more forceful movement of your eardrum.

Dorian Gray
2008-07-09, 15:10
Because they block your ear canal so there is no place for sound/air to escape. This will cause more forceful movement of your eardrum.
It will only cause more forceful movement of your eardrum if it's at a louder volume. At the same perceived volume the movement of your eardrum and the damage (or not) is the same.

With insulating earbuds that lower the ambient noise, you can lower the volume and cause less (or no) damage to your hearing.

zippy
2008-07-09, 15:11
What about the after market Apple in-ear plugs? There's also a couple of Sony isolating in-ear canal phones that are around that price - like the MDR-EX55 or MDR-EX75. Granted, I've not used any of these, but the Sony's I mentioned seem to be newer models of some discontinued sets that people used to love. I'm sure you can find some quick reviews of these newer ones.

drewprops
2008-07-09, 15:14
I *refuse* to use pneumatic headphones :mad:

evan
2008-07-09, 15:29
It will only cause more forceful movement of your eardrum if it's at a louder volume. At the same perceived volume the movement of your eardrum and the damage (or not) is the same.

With insulating earbuds that lower the ambient noise, you can lower the volume and cause less (or no) damage to your hearing.

I've always heard that they're more harmful... plus for me at least if I wear them for most that like 30 min my ears start hurting (probably because I haven't found ones that really fit). anyway the wrap-arounds work fine for my needs.

artesc
2008-07-09, 23:52
well, as I learned in my bio class. The in-ear buds create much more powerful pressure waves to achieve the same volume. thus, more damage.

Dorian Gray
2008-07-10, 12:30
But you can't seriously believe that, artesc! Do you know the basics of how the ear works, or for that matter, headphones? What you suggest is impossible.

Much of what you learn at school is wrong. I learned that an aeroplane wing creates lift because of Bernoulli's principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli's_principle#Misunderstandings_about_the_ generation_of_lift). Luckily, I knew otherwise from about age five. But lots of people from my physics class will go through life burdened with that misunderstanding.

Kickaha
2008-07-10, 12:36
well, as I learned in my bio class. The in-ear buds create much more powerful pressure waves to achieve the same volume. thus, more damage.

That's exactly opposite. In-ear (by which I mean ear-canal-filling, see below) means that the volume can be turned extremely low, with the same relative volume achieved. Our perceptions are, in general, logarithmic, in that a 10x increase in power is needed to perceive a doubling of intensity. If you block out the ambient noise, you need *much* less power (amplitude of sound waves, ie, pressure) to create the same *perceived* volume.

If you keep your volume knob at the same position after putting in in-ear phones, then yeah, you're going to blow your eardrums out... but it will also be REALLY FUCKING LOUD which is kind of a hint, y'know?

My std iPod buds, I had to have my iPod near top volume in a noisy office. With my Shure in-ear, I keep it at 25%, at *most* (usually below 20%, often around 10%), and it is just as loud, and much more clear.

Now, if you meant 'in-ear' as the ones that come standard with the iPod, then there may be a point. They are broadcasting their sound waves externally, and have to compete with a lot of ambient noise since they neither fill the canal or cover the ear, both of which will reduce the total power required.

But the canalphones? Nope. Much less wave amplitude. For instance, right now I'm listening to iTunes in my office, and the guy in the next office over is on his speakerphone. And he has NO VOLUME CONTROL ON HIS VOICE. He's *always* yelling, and it's worse when he's on the speakerphone. I had to put the music on just so I can concentrate. Wanna know what the headphones volume on my MacBook Pro is set to? 1. 1 sound click above mute. The music is a good volume, and he's totally out of my perception. 2 is loud, 3 is too loud, 4 is getting in the realm of staring to be painful. 5 is right out. (...so that may snuff it in mine sight, amen)

There's no way you can tell me that this is causing more damage to my ears than having the volume have to compete with, and be *louder* than, ambient noise.

World Leader Pretend
2008-07-10, 18:03
I've got some nice Shure in-ear phones (sounds like the same as Kick's) and I can back up that their sound isolation lets you listen perfectly fine at 25% or less. I usually listen to music on the second little volume dot on a computer, and can block out all noise on a loud bus with it at half-volume on my iPod.

Canal-phones don't blow your ears out, loud volumes period blow your ears out.

lightning_bug
2008-07-10, 18:51
http://www.turntablelab.com/dj_equipment/71/36/45353.html

Sony's MDR-EX32's sound like what you're looking for, and I found a pair at my local Target for $25. Pretty happy with them, they deliver similar performance to the MDR-EX51LP's that I'd been using before the right headphone shorted out, and they don't have the "neck chain" cord that the 51LP has (which may have been the source of that short-out problem)

All in all, a good set of earbuds if you have a case to take care of them (I use a mini zipper pouch that I got from my bank - you could just wrap them around your iPod or whatever and it should be fine).

almost2mac
2008-07-10, 18:53
The standard hard plastic "conical drum" iPod headphones don't fit properly in my ears so I want to get some 3rd party in-ear headphones for under $35. These are only for workouts and will be much abused, so don't waste your wonderful suggestions on $$$ phones for this thread (seriously, I love the enthusiasm but would hate to have you waste your time trying to upsell me ;) ).

Note that I'll probably walk into a Target or a Wal-Mart to buy these things~

You're wanting to buy at a store, but I can recommend the UltimateBuds website. They do modifications and have a really good $30 pair of in-ear buds that put the flimsy Apple white ones to shame. They're also black and silver.