{"id":154,"date":"2012-12-14T15:29:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T23:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/?p=154"},"modified":"2012-12-14T15:59:26","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T23:59:26","slug":"not-all-headphones-are-created-equal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/?p=154","title":{"rendered":"Not All Headphones Are Created Equal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good quality sound is VERY important to me, whether I’m listening to music or watching a movie – it can make or break an experience for me, which perhaps could be seen as a rather ridiculous thing to the average ear.<\/p>\n

Am I saying that I have an above average ear? Perhaps. All I know is that my ears are particularly sensitive to various levels of sound, and I can quickly tell you if there is a particular frequency missing.<\/p>\n

For example… Mid-range sound. That’s a frequency of 300-5000 Hz – where most significant audible sounds reside. For instance, if you have stereo sound, you’ll have two mid-range speakers that transmit those sound waves. Most of the time this is all you need to have a good sound experience, but if your ears are as picky as mine are, it’s not going to be good enough.<\/p>\n

When I am looking to purchase new earbuds or headphones, I look for something that has a good balance of high, low and mid-range. That’s harder than it seems, because there are SO MANY choices out there! If you like to shop online like I do, then it’s even harder because you can’t try out the device before it’s shipped to your house.<\/p>\n

Last April, I purchased a pair of ear buds, iLuv<\/a> brand. They were $10.95 at the time on Amazon<\/a>, and now they’re being offered for $5.95 – free shipping if you’re a member of Prime. <\/em>(if you use Amazon quite a bit, then Prime is totally the way to go)<\/p>\n

I read a ton of reviews about all sorts of brands… I was looking for something that not only had a good balance of sound frequencies, but also that would fit into my ears without falling out<\/em>. Yes, I have small ear canal openings, and that makes it very difficult to find something that stays in my ears. I’ve even resorted to taping<\/em> my iPhone ear buds in place before when my old nice pair that actually stayed in wore out.<\/p>\n

\"Well-loved<\/a>

Well-loved iLuv Earbuds<\/p><\/div>\n

I took a gamble, based solely on the reviews that I read from various Google searches – I didn’t actually try them out in person to see if I liked them. That gamble really paid off! They had enough treble to balance out that mid-range and there is an “ultra-bass boost” included so you get awesome bass as well. The rubber tips expand in your ear canal opening and do cancel out quite a bit of noise too, so that helps the audio quality quite a bit!<\/p>\n

I got lucky – because they were so cheap, I circumvented my rule about trying out audio equipment before I actually purchase it. This time it worked!<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to last night – a package arrived, an “early Christmas present” for me and my husband, from my husband. I didn’t know what it was… I was excited as he opened up the package…. inside were\u00a0Sennheisers!<\/a><\/p>\n

They weren’t at the top of their line – an affordable $75.00, so I knew that they would not have blow-my-socks-off sound, but I still expected a level of quality that is synonymous with the name.<\/p>\n

\"Sennheiser<\/a>

Sennheiser HD428<\/p><\/div>\n

On the headphones go – good quality – heck, better than most! I love the fact that it has a closed back, and around the ear cushioned pads that help block out the sounds around you and let you enjoy the sounds coming out of the speakers.<\/p>\n

I was disappointed that mid-range sound seems to be the star. Where is the BASS?! A little of the higher frequencies are there, but even then it’s not enough. Are they a good pair of headphones? Yes. Are they worth $75.00? I think not. You could spend half that amount on a pair of similar looking headphones from a no-name brand and probably get the same quality.<\/p>\n

As for me, I’ll stick with my iLuv<\/a> earbuds. However, I’m wise enough to know that there are<\/em> <\/em>nicer earbuds and headphones with even better sounds with these; if there is anything I have learned is that not all products made by any specific company are going to be a good fit for me.<\/p>\n

In this case, they are out-performing this level of Sennheiser’s earphones. I’ve more than gotten my $10.95 out of them, and they are still going strong!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good quality sound is VERY important to me, whether I’m listening to music or watching a movie – it can make or break an experience for me, which perhaps could be seen as a rather ridiculous thing to the average ear. Am I saying that I have an above average ear? Perhaps. All I know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.curiousboo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}