What's your current/Best Earphones /wrap/headphones?

[Zapp]

for live play, what earphones have you found that you like, and use, and you consider to be killin' ??

I use a lightweight close fitting headset that works pretty well as long as the stage volume is not very high... at higher db levels I do not turn my personal mix up... bad juju...

And I think i have deformed ears: I've never yet found in-ear/anything that will actually stay where I put it and work well.
Therefore I'm especially keen to hear if any of you have found the behind-the-neck type of format that really works well for bass?

[jmeyers44]

Originally Posted by Zapp

for live play, what earphones have you found that you like, and use, and you consider to be killin' ??

I use a lightweight close fitting headset that works pretty well as long as the stage volume is not very high... at higher db levels I do not turn my personal mix up... bad juju...

And I think i have deformed ears: I've never yet found in-ear/anything that will actually stay where I put it and work well.
Therefore I'm especially keen to hear if any of you have found the behind-the-neck type of format that really works well for bass?

I use Shure SE 535. Triple driver earphones which work great with bass and the mix in general. I still use the generic foam buds that isolate very well. They are pricy but worth it.

[Zapp]

good reply... i knew nothing of the SE 535.

[JumboJack]

Senheiser HD 280 pro...They sound great.

[TimmyP]

No isolation, best fidelity: Grado (any model, but preferably the 125 or better).

Good isolation, very good fidelity: M-Audio IE10 buds (now discontinued ;-(.

Best isolation, good fidelity: ExtremeHeadphones EX29 (the latest version only). (Some headphone amps are a bit puny for these if you like to listen too loudly.)

Good isolation, decent fidelity: Sennheiser 280.

Lousy isolation, mediocre fidelity: Sony 7506.


All of these are around $100 save for Grado, which run from around $60 to very expensive.

[Zapp]

here is what I currently use. http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-PX-...253457&sr=1-20

At relatively low stage sound levels, these work better than they should for the price. And let me explain the setup: I run a very small behringer mixer for myself with direct input from the Guitarist's pre-amp [same signal as sent to PA], a multimix from the headphone mixer with second guitar, vocals, keys, drums [which I bias... more drum, less everything else], and my bass, which at the moment is feeding directly out of the Boss EQ, no amp. What I find is that I have a delicate balance where the overall gain must be kept low ~20%, the headphone gain up, like 50%, and the bass level modest. If I creep up either the bass gain or main gain, I'll get clipped. similarly I can't run the bass wide open, nor the EQ's gain... I keep the EQ gain at about 90% and get a good tone both that I can deal with and the PA - good in the mix.

I was using a GK 700RB II, no other device, no pedals etc, and no matter how I tried to run the feed to my mixer, it didn't work nice. clip-city. I fought it every which way but some characteristic of the signal was evil to that little mixer. The PA had similar issues - that amp never was friendly to work with to the PA - it just did not sound good no matter what we did. very odd problem - looking back on it I wonder if I should have run it to the PA from the Effects loop instead of the assigned XLR.
Sold the amp.... that's another post

All that said, I wish I could find a neckband-type format that has flat response [like studio-flatness], and can stand a range of input signal. The ones I am using have the right flatness and frequency response, and are very comfortable to wear - i can keep them on for about 1.5 hrs before I start getting fatigue. at that point I'm done, gotta take 'em off.

[giggrafix]

I don't use an amp live. I run my pedalboard into a M-80 Bass DI out to the PA and IEM system.I use the Carvin EM900 IEM with their standard earbuds (not the KOSS type).So basically I used the earbuds as earplugs and as my personal monitor.Works great except I do lose some low end with the earbuds. Our rhythm guitar player swears by his triple driver alien ears which is what I plan on getting soon.

[Jimbob Jones]

Sennheiser IE4s, cos I got them for free; I'm pretty happy with them.

[chuck norriss]

koss portapro

[johnnybass01]

I have had all kinds of earbuds,including westone ,ultimate ears and so on and not the cheap models either, and recently lost my high dollar ones.and am currently using the skullcandy asyms and for 30 bucks ,these things rock more bass than anything I have used previously . I picked up a second pair just because they have been discontinued

[Zapp]

my guess is your skullcandy will melt if you mix it in a live setting.

the last pair of earbuds I tried [and subsequently threw in the towel] had about four different size/config pads included - i tried every one of them with no success. bad fit when they were "in", and would not stay. I'm pretty sure I have deformed ears! and I periodically have to get an ENT to clear out my ear canals 'cause of an apparent genetic issue - my ears don't naturally get rid of the 'wax' so the jam-in-ear types are counterproductive. That's why I was hoping for a "neckband" or behind-head banded 'caliper-type' format.

[johnnybass01]

there is so much hype about more expensive earbuds being better , no matter what earbuds you use in a live situation , you will get outside noise bleeding through. and all I do is live settings and simply put i need to hear the bass . any earbud will reproduce higher frequencies without a problem, but most have a problem with low frequencies even triple drivers , I use the asym's because they are cheap (yes) but they also have a 13.5 mm driver and they are bass heavy (so I can hear myself )and no they haven't melted! I have a set of UE 700 and 350 I bought and don't hardly ever use unless I am in a quieter setting.