Apple Earphones quality

Hello there!!!!!!

I have bought an iPod shuffle 4th gen and was wondering about its earphones' quality. From your personal experience, can anyone tell me whether the earphones that come with the iPod itself are of good quality like Bose or not? Or are the earpods better? I dont need the mic and controls. Just the sound quality. Is it acceptable?

Thanks in advance.

 

Thinking that the current era of Bose products are good quality makes me laugh. I recently posted here that Bose has completely changed their focus since they opened the Bose stores at the outlet malls about 10 years ago. The purchasing team and technical teams are working under constraints that sacrifice quality over profit margins. All 'development' efforts are focusing on test markets and focus groups to redesign the Bose Stores and their infomercials instead of any real product development or new audio technology. So, to answer your question, if you think Bose are good quality, then yes, the Apple headphones are excellent quality.

 

So you claim you need the "sound quality" but yet you can't put them in your ear and decide if its sufficient or not? I don't get it..
You don't need high quality if you can't tell it by yourself.

 

Thanks for answering.

Actually I dont own Bose earphones. But I heard that it provides some of the best earphones in the world. And it does not necessarily have to be Bose. My main question is whether the earphones that come with iPods are of good quality or not. It does not have to be the best, but is it good, acceptable?

 

The Apple earphones are certainly "acceptable". Of course that's a subjective term and beauty is in the ear of the beholder. I primarily run with my iPod, and they are completely unacceptable to me for that use, since they just fall out. I have to use in-ear phones. The Apple phones sound nice, though.

You need to read reviews for alternative phones and narrow your focus to the phones that get good reviews for the things you want. It's not a simple process and I hate it, but I don't see any other way. This site might interest you.

 

I own a pair of ATH-M50s from Audio Technica. They go for around $100-150, and are intended to reproduce sound as the studio intended, so they have a very flat frequency response curve.

Compared to them, the newest apple ear buds are not too bad at all. They're the best ear buds I've tried, though I haven't tested many pricier pairs. I was very impressed, and they stick very well (at least in my ear).

Like all earbuds, you're going to lose a bit of the lower frequencies due to their small size, but they do an honorable job regardless. You can always try to compensate in software via an equalizer as well. You'll never get the full punch you can get from a headset, but it'll suffice for most music, and it still sounds smooth.

In the end, I can go from my nice expensive M50s to the apple ear buds and not feel irritated, and the fact that they're so small and portable makes them even better than the M50s for anything outside of the home.


By the way, I'm referring to this type: http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/10/09/apple_earbuds01.jpg

The older type, although "alright", certainly won't compete with it's younger brother.

 

they sound just fine to me, but my taste in sound quality is like my taste in wine and most all of the "finer" things in life; that is to say, not refined.

 

Thanks everybody

I have that earPods. Anyways thanks for your response. I got my answer and have another question.

The heads of the earPods (the ones that you put in your ear) of my one rotates a full 360 degrees. Is that because of damage or is it its style??

 

I use the Skullcandy earbuds, and I just love them. I got them for $30 and I don't regret it.
http://ca.skullcandy.com/shop/headphones/earphones-and-earbuds

I used the Apple earphones, and they always fall off, and I had the volume to the max and it was not loud enough for me. With the Skullcandy earphones I have the volume at 50%, and it's louder than the Apple's earphones. I don't think I ever put the volume to 100% with the Skullcandy earphones, it's just way too loud!

 

When you alternate between both sets of earphones while playing your favorite music, which sounds best to you?

Oh, you haven't done that.

There is really no way to answer the question, because hearing is subjective. Everyone hears differently, and what sounds good to one may not sound as well to another.

Much "noise" is made of the flatness of response, or dynamic range, or whatever, but our ears do not have flat response, and their dynamic range changes (dramatically -- both with respect to perceived volume and frequency) over time. Headphones (or speakers) that peak at higher frequencies may actually sound better to an older person than one with flat response (which may sound too "bass-y"). Further, we all process sound differently.

Of course, there are low quality headphones/earphones/speakers that'll sound bad to everyone. But amongst quality manufacturers, only you can choose what sounds right.

Buy or borrow some. And experiment. And then tell us your results.

 

Thanks everybody!!!!

Today, I borrowed a pair of skullcandy in-ear headphones but I did not truely like it you know. The in-ear ones hurt my ears and I dont think it provides better audio quality than apple. The worst part is that it has pretty low volume and is pretty uncomfortable. The Apple ones fit in my ears snugly and it gives better audio quality than the skullcandy. I like the primary ones.

I strongly support joeyd999's idea.

 

Today I feel that skullcandy is better than apple.

 

I find my Sennheiser in-ear headphones (actually made for iPhone and include a click button and mic) are in a different league to the ones Apple provided.

When they aren't popping out of your ears anyway. And if you can get the seal right. So they aren't perfect, though when you get them sitting right they are as close to perfect as I've heard in a headphone.

They do drive me mad when they fall out though.