Saturday’s Blasting In My Ear
Posted on | February 2, 2008 at 12:46 pm | 1 Comment
As long time readers of this blog know, I have weird ears. I long to be able to use some compact earbud type headphones, but my ears 1) have no little “shelf” to hold them in, and 2) my ear canals are way too small. I’ve tried a number of different “in the ear” type headphones over the years, with and without hooks, but even the ones with interchangeable rubber inserts don’t have inserts that are small enough for my ear canals. That’s especially true of my left ear; my right ear canal is a little larger and can sometimes accommodate small buds without immediately popping out.
When I’m running, I use a pair of Sony MDR-G72 over-the-ear “street style” (i.e. the connecting arm goes to the back of the head) headphones with my iPod. They sound decent, and they have the added advantage of keeping my ears warm in the winter because the drivers cover the whole outer ear. However, even with the hooks, they don’t press that close to the ear, so the sound quality isn’t the greatest and they don’t block much outside noise. Plus, I can’t really put a cap over them for those really frigid mornings. They stick out too far from the side of my head.
When I’m at work, I use the cheapo over-the-top-of-the-head headphones that came with an Aiwa discman portable CD player I bought many years ago. Again, not too great on the sound quality, but easy to take on and off, which I have to do frequently for interruptions.
But I really wanted some inexpensive compact phones that I could keep with me to use in other situations, like when waiting somewhere, or on the bus. Or for when I’m at work and really don’t want to be interrupted. But I just couldn’t find any that would stay in my ear and provide decent sound quality. Until now.
After reading the Amazon reviews, I decided to take a chance on the Philips SHS8000 Premium Sound Earhook Headphones, which usually run around $30. Miracle of miracles, these earphones outfitted with the smallest insert actually fit within my both ear canals and create a good enough seal for me to get decent sound quality. And the earhooks provide an extra level of security, holding the phones in so that they don’t pop out when running or moving around.
I got them last night and ran with them this morning (with my cap on over my ears!). The sound quality is pretty good. The dynamic range is supposedly 6 – 23,500 Hz, but I’m not sure that matters when you’re connected to an iPod, which probably doesn’t have that much of a range. It did seem to amplify the MP3 compression artifacts a bit more than I’d like, but that’s one reason I’m now ripping everything at 256 kps, which does diminish those artifacts. The other problem with using them while running is that … I don’t know quite how to explain this… they seem to amplify my body noises. Probably has something to do with the seal that’s created in the ear. That wouldn’t be a problem if I wasn’t moving around so much.
So I don’t know if I’ll keep using them for running, but at least now I have a compact pair to carry around with the iPod. I’ll probably use them at work sometimes too. I just can’t believe I’ve finally found something that works. My junk electronics drawer at home is littered with headphones I’ve never used. Of course, I’ve only had them for a day, and I need to do some more experimenting with them. There’s one potential problem that I don’t want to talk about until I’m sure it’s related to the phones. And who knows if they’re comfortable to wear for extended periods. I’ll get back to you on that.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ °F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “This Is Montreal” (Matt Pond PA)
- “We Love You, Carol And Alison” (Game Theory)
- “Melody/Not Malaise” (The Aislers Set)
- “White Collar Boy” (Belle & Sebastian)
- “Another Scheme Down The Drain” (Pidgin)
- “Get On The Floor” (The Promise Ring)
- “Confessions of a Teenage Pervert” (Baby Chaos)
- “Bright Side” (Koufax)
Latre.
Comments
One Response to “Saturday’s Blasting In My Ear”
February 3rd, 2008 @ 5:42 am
I have never had problems with the stock iPod earbuds and since they come with the player, I use them. My son has some nice Bose over-the-ear ones like your picture (not the bigger sound engineer style ones).
My wife had the skinny in-the-ear things, but I can’t get the left one to stay in on me. Yes, we share headphones, ewww!