Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Anyone using decent lightweight headphones/ear-speakers?

I'm using either Senn HD595 (which I love but find too hot for the summer months) or more often a pair of old PX100 which are so much more comfortable though they're slightly bass-heavy and lack the airy top-end of the 595s. To replace the PX100 I'm looking for something physically similar so:-

v.lightweight in-ear or on-ear - positively no cups or noise-cancelling
value for money - no audiophile stuff but not dirt-cheap.
As sonically honest as possible (I hate exaggerated bass)

Would appreciate recommendations.

HiFiMan RE-400 are decent.

Shure SE215 in-ear "earbuds". Around $100, and worth it.

They have (supposedly) a slight bass boost, but I haven't noticed it. They're not "boomy" at all.

Very comfortable in hot weather. But you have to accept stuff inside your ears -- some people just can't adjust to that.

AKG K451(on-ear) is portable (folds up into its case) and has a detachable cable, and it sounds good. And it costs less than £40 these days.

However, the Klipsch Image X10 earphones has even better sound quality, but costs a lot more (even though now at £100, which is less than half its original price....). Mine is the X10i which I use with my iPods. Its sound is very natural sounding - stunning, in fact.

Comfort-wise, I prefer in-ear headphones over around/on ear headphones, but I've not been able to find something that matches the sound quality, or -wider- sound stage of the bigger headphones.

The Shure SE846 ($1,000) supposedly use 4 drivers (two for lower end; 1 for mids; 1 for highs). I wonder how good these are.

I think I may have ground myself to a halt on all of this but that might be for the best at the moment and so I thank everyone for their suggestions which helped a lot.

Following your leads I went to amazon to research reading through the one-star reviews for those products which get an overall score minimum 4 stars. What bothered me most about a lot of the good value - good sound at a sensible price - in-ear offerings (I've now learnt these are called IEM by the cognoscenti) is that the cables are prone to damage. Surprisingly few of the 5-star reviewers kick up a fuss about this so I guess a) it's to be expected and b) they've got enough dosh to replace them periodically. In contrast, I'm tight-fisted enough to hang on to a nearly-functioning pair of 40-year old sennheisers.

Thanks, Charles, for pulling me up short to the realisation that IEMs are probably not for me anyway. I use earbuds most of the time with my laptop but never with the spongy caps preferring to drop them loosely into my ears' cartilage where they seem to hang reliably. Generally I'd rather have a draught in and around my head and almost certainly up-market buds will only deliver their full potential if they're sealed in to the ear canal.

So, that leaves me with on-ear (OEMs?). I liked the look of the AKGs and was really wowed by the massive price reduction but then was put off by 'trusted' reviews which, while acknowledging the comfort round the ears, noticed a firm headband grip - probably for joggers but I’m usually static and prefer a gentle squeeze. Also they rate them strong on bass. That's my chief no-no.

But those discounts are amazing. It's obviously better to wait until these things have been superseded and then buy the older model. For the moment though, I think I'm going to put up with my px-100s and wind up the top-end a couple of notches. Thanks again to all.

That's right. You need a good seal, to get good bass.