posted
Here is something that effects everybody, and yet we hear a surpising lack of complaint about it. Headphones have been a disaster since day one, and the stages of my life can be marked out in connection with what type of headphones I was wearing, and why they sucked so badly.
1. Early years
- The only common headphones at this time (85-mid 90s) were the flimsy black ones that went over the top of your head. These ones always started out alright, but within a month one of the ears was jerking in or out, or the jack was beginning to buzz every time you touched it. Eventually an ear would go out. The other issue with these ill-fated phones was that the sliding mechanism over each ear would trap hair, snap, twist, and generally not work properly.
2. The age of Experimentation. -beginning around age 13 (1998) I began discovering that your could buy things to replace things that had broken, and a new age was thus born in my life. I first bought a set of those jam -in-your-ear buds that made my ears ache because they were way too big. I then experimented with the largish black over the head style that was a slight upgrade from the ones that came with a cassete player. I dabbled in the type of studio headphones that look like they belong on the head of a radio operator on the titanic.
3. Highschool.
- This was the renaissance of headphones. Cd players where on the way out, mp3s and minidisks were on the way in. I tried some of those over-the-head, plus jam-in-ear things for running, but the sound quality was sub-par. I was introduced to the first generation of those headphones which lie across the back of the neck, but found that my head was too big, and they pinched and put pressure on my ears. I first tried a set of sound cancelling phones, but they were very heavy and I couldn't hear anything but the music or books, which was nice for me, but socially limiting. Still there were the ubiquitous problems, the ears or the jack get fuzzy, then they peter out, eventually you get angry and put them in a garbage disposal, and then you're grounded. Life is so unfair!
4. The College Years
Tempered and Wissened by the highschool years, I set out into the age of the ipod with grim determination. I would not sacrifice sound quality for ease of use, I would be comfortable AND stylish. The ipod earbud was new, and a friend suggested I give it a try. I did, but was hardly impressed, the little buds were okay sounding, but uncomfortable. Stylish by subpar overall, (plus the covers lasted about 8 hours and they were all lost!) I eventually stepped on them accidentally and they were smooshed. Another pair ended up getting caught in my bike chain and being disemboweled. Oh well.
I moved on to serious studio headphones, and found that for a stiff price, you could get comfort, support and sound quality all in one device. I currently favor sennheisers, although my back of the neck pair wore out , and KOSS studio phones, which are comfy and snazzy, with good quality.
I got my first wireless set of advent headphones, which were great, until the unit that hooks to the stereo did the same thing all phones eventually do.
There is still the issue of jogging phones. The sony ear-buds have promise, but they are so good at sound-cancelling, I find I am listing to my own heartbeat and the sound of my own wooshing breath as I run. They also carry every jostle of the chord directly into my ear canal. Not good. Sonny seems to have adopted a design whereby the chord hangs from one ear around the back of the neck to the next ear. This doesn't work, since it puts all the weight of the chord on one ear, and jogging like this is not comfy. I adapt by pinning them to my shirt-front.
Yes I've learned a thing or to as a veteran of the headphones wars, but I'm sure great things lie ahead. I hear tell of blue-tooth wireless headphones. I'll believe that when I see it. Yes if there's one thing I've learned, its to never trust a pair of headphones any longer than a few months at a time.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
My giant pair of Aiwa headphones have worked with great quality since I got them 8 years ago. They have been perfect for everything from DJ work at a radio station to mixing work at a recording studio to casual listening at home to drowning out the sound of my roommate having sex 5 feet from my head while I try to sleep and ignore him and not look over there no matter what I hear.
If you don't mind walking around looking like the drummer from Crash Test Dummies, these are perfect.
posted
I remember a dance where there was this big speaker that was taller than me, and I could feel the air whoosh by me and it lifted me off the ground a fraction of an inch as it vibrated. My ears rang and hurt for at least the next 24 hours.
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
And then there are Luddites like me who have never really felt the need to use headphones for anything! I like the sounds of outdoors and my own thoughts when I'm outdoors, so I've never been one to run with music. I don't study with music. I do listen to music when I work sometimes, but I've never had a need for headphones for that.
Lately I've been thinking about getting a headset/ear bud for my cell phone, though.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
It seems like every time I get a new pair of small earphones, one of the speakers fails (or one of the wires loses its connection to that speaker).
Finally, I got these big BOSE noise cancelling earphones. You that hinge at the top? Where the two halves are held together? Yeah. It snapped, and is now being held together with tape.
quote:Originally posted by James Tiberius Kirk: Finally, I got these big BOSE noise cancelling earphones. You that hinge at the top? Where the two halves are held together? Yeah. It snapped, and is now being held together with tape.
I hope you're learning that Bose is pretty much over-priced tripe. They charge boutique prices for entry-to-mid-level audio equipment.
posted
I have massive headphones that cover my ears completely. They're not sleek, but they insulate from the people across and down the hall. And they've been going strong for 2 or 3 years now.
They were expensive though.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I, too, am bound up in the wheel of the search for decent headphones. I just ordered an MP3 player and I got like 4 different types of headphones with it, to try them all out and see which one I like. Headphones seem to be such ephemeral things for me, and most of them are uncomfortable. I should totally have asked on hatrack first!
I got the noise canceling phones, the low-price earbuds, the regular lightweight phones, and the fancy adjustable earbuds. Hopefully at least one of the above will give good sound, stay on my head, and not be too excruciatingly uncomfortable.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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, and KOSS studio phones, which are comfy and snazzy, with good quality.![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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