ear canals beware
Oct.07.05 Filed in: misc. review
so i have recently bought a pair of 'in ear' earbud
style headphones just so see what all this talk is
about and see if they really are any better than a
traditional earbud headphone that sits in your ear. i
have avoided this for a good while simply because i
have a fear of cramming things into my ears. its been
around since i was a wee little version of myself
playing around with some drum sticks and my ear and i
poked one in there to deep and ouch! freaked me out
and ever since, anything involving the inner ear has
been avoided weather that be q-tips or earplugs,
nothing gets to deep in there without a bit of a
squirm and some goose bumps.
the reason i picked some up was simply because i got a great deal on a pair of some of the nicer ones available on the market, a pair of shure E3's. the first thing that made me wonder if i had made a wise decision in this purchase was when i came across this odd little plastic stick with a hook on one end that i soon found out was a device to clean the earwax out of the headphones... yeah, it's pretty weird and so far, luckily, i have not had to whip this little tool out. the headphones also came with a little collection of various plastic covers / earplug attachments for the headphones. there are three different styles of these. little grey ones that are the most flexible and my personal favorites, little clear plastic ones that are not nearly as soft, and some foamish ones that are like earplugs that you roll between your fingers to squish so it will fit into your ear then expand to form a seal. i would use the foam ones if they were softer but the material is rough and uncomfortable. all but the foam ones come in various sizes for different ears but i could not imagine anyone with ears big enough to stick the bigger ones into.
the idea behind these in ear headphones is that the headphones (i don't like t he word earbuds so ill call them headphones) form a nice seal around your inner ear which blocks out outside noise and allows for you to listen at a lower level but still hear the sound ok. well i have discovered that to do this you really need to cram these things down in your ear by holding back your ear lobe and opening up your ear canal so you can cram these things down there nice and deep. this way when you let them settle the plastic covers that i mentioned will form a nice tight seal around your ear and keep sound from getting in. this is what i just can not get used to. it feels like my ears cant breath at all which is weird to me. the seal is nice and tight when you get them in your ear right. i find that my poor ears are kind of sore after the whole process.
so all that unpleasantness out of the way i can admit that they do sound pretty damn good once you get them in there nice and tight. these headphones really do knock out a good bit of the outside noise. the best way to look at them is like you are sticking earplugs in your ears only there is a little tunnel in the middle of the earplugs that lets sound from the headphones sneak through. these things have a great clear sound that, when compared directly, cover more of a range than other traditional style earbud style headphones. the only thing that you might say is lacking is the low end. this is true and it isnt true. if you get the headphones in your ear right then there is plenty of low end to go around. its not going to shake your brain like a pair of bose tri-ports but it does come through and the nice part about the low end on these headphones is that it does not suck up all of the output in the speakers like some headphones do. it allows for the bass to carry out along side the clarity of the tiny tiny little speakers in the headphones.
so all in all i couldnt really recommend you get these headphones. they are good for certain things and moments in life when you want to block out the sound from the outside world without having to wear big earmuff style headphones. i know there are tons of these inner ear headphones out there on the market that can cost anywhere from 40 bucks to 500 or more and im sure there are better ones out there than these but its just the whole inner ear experience that i cant quite get used to. maybe over time my ears will stretch out and allow for these things to feel better in my ear but for now id have to wave a caution flag in the direction of anyone looking to dive into these deep ear diving style of headphones.
the reason i picked some up was simply because i got a great deal on a pair of some of the nicer ones available on the market, a pair of shure E3's. the first thing that made me wonder if i had made a wise decision in this purchase was when i came across this odd little plastic stick with a hook on one end that i soon found out was a device to clean the earwax out of the headphones... yeah, it's pretty weird and so far, luckily, i have not had to whip this little tool out. the headphones also came with a little collection of various plastic covers / earplug attachments for the headphones. there are three different styles of these. little grey ones that are the most flexible and my personal favorites, little clear plastic ones that are not nearly as soft, and some foamish ones that are like earplugs that you roll between your fingers to squish so it will fit into your ear then expand to form a seal. i would use the foam ones if they were softer but the material is rough and uncomfortable. all but the foam ones come in various sizes for different ears but i could not imagine anyone with ears big enough to stick the bigger ones into.
the idea behind these in ear headphones is that the headphones (i don't like t he word earbuds so ill call them headphones) form a nice seal around your inner ear which blocks out outside noise and allows for you to listen at a lower level but still hear the sound ok. well i have discovered that to do this you really need to cram these things down in your ear by holding back your ear lobe and opening up your ear canal so you can cram these things down there nice and deep. this way when you let them settle the plastic covers that i mentioned will form a nice tight seal around your ear and keep sound from getting in. this is what i just can not get used to. it feels like my ears cant breath at all which is weird to me. the seal is nice and tight when you get them in your ear right. i find that my poor ears are kind of sore after the whole process.
so all that unpleasantness out of the way i can admit that they do sound pretty damn good once you get them in there nice and tight. these headphones really do knock out a good bit of the outside noise. the best way to look at them is like you are sticking earplugs in your ears only there is a little tunnel in the middle of the earplugs that lets sound from the headphones sneak through. these things have a great clear sound that, when compared directly, cover more of a range than other traditional style earbud style headphones. the only thing that you might say is lacking is the low end. this is true and it isnt true. if you get the headphones in your ear right then there is plenty of low end to go around. its not going to shake your brain like a pair of bose tri-ports but it does come through and the nice part about the low end on these headphones is that it does not suck up all of the output in the speakers like some headphones do. it allows for the bass to carry out along side the clarity of the tiny tiny little speakers in the headphones.
so all in all i couldnt really recommend you get these headphones. they are good for certain things and moments in life when you want to block out the sound from the outside world without having to wear big earmuff style headphones. i know there are tons of these inner ear headphones out there on the market that can cost anywhere from 40 bucks to 500 or more and im sure there are better ones out there than these but its just the whole inner ear experience that i cant quite get used to. maybe over time my ears will stretch out and allow for these things to feel better in my ear but for now id have to wave a caution flag in the direction of anyone looking to dive into these deep ear diving style of headphones.
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