Listening

February 18, 2007 - By ginny

Bought some new headphones today for use with my iPod Mini; this is now the third set of ‘phones I’ve used, and I hope it’s the last pair I have to buy in a long time.

The pair that came with the Mini are the standard iPod “speakerbud” type. I was never crazy about the sound quality, didn’t like how they kind of balanced uneasily in my ears and more often than not fell out, and they broke after only a couple of months’ use. One day, I noticed that one of the wires had kinked, and then it frayed.

The second pair (aside from some old ones that were just kicking around the house) were the iPod “earbud” ones. They come in a little white case with extra rubber earbulbs and of course they have the clean, white iPod design cachet. And they’re crap, because the sound quality isn’t that good unless you jam them in your ears. I ran across a web discussion explaining to new owners how to hack their own ear canals so they could get these sound buboes to “fit” and give a reasonably good, sound-cancelling listening
experience. It did sound great, for a few seconds, but the shape of my left ear canal just would not allow for any kind of stable fit; the left earbulb would audibly work its way out no matter how I jammed and screwed it in, whether I reached around the back of my head and pulled on my ear to “straighten” the ear canal out or what (this was the aforementioned “hack”).

Also: it’s a little distracting if you have them jammed in tight, because you can hear your every breath. They sound best if you don’t breathe at all, but this is not optimal for continued use after about a minute or so. Unconsciousness and death are not an option just so you can hear every nuanced syllable Enya sings, don’t you know.

That second pair still works, but I tried to wear them while working out a couple of weeks ago, and they drove me absolutely nuts because of these issues.

So today, David and I were running around spending a little money on travel books (more on that later), rice bowls, and geek tech, and I decided to check out new headphones.

After looking my choices over, I went with the Koss “sidefiring” type that loop over each ear. The loops are rubber coated metal that bend and mold to the ear, and I have to say that they’re both very comfortable (I can barely feel them) and have great sound. As it turns out, they’re called the “Sportclips,” and are specifically designed for use during physical activity. Well, heck yeah, I somehow stumbled onto the right product without knowing a damn thing. I just thought there was less chance of my hair getting
caught or messed up by an over-the-head or behind-the-head design.

I own an iPod Mini (silver – none of that foo-foo candy-colored shit for me) and have been really happy with it, but the comfort and sound issue with the earbuds prevented me from being one of those people who carry their music with them constantly (although I also have a rig in the car so I can listen to it via the FM stereo). Now with the improved earphones, maybe I’ll be one of those obnoxious head-bobbing Podder people.