All the earphones/headphones/megaphones yada yada
Current ones - Sennheiser HD439, Marshall Monitor II, Sony WI-C100
Past Ones from latest to oldest: Realme buds, Philips Wired Earbuds,
Klipsch Image S3, Panasonic Headset, Generic Blues headset, Sony Wired
earbuds, Generic earbuds.
In last 20 years I have been through a bunch of earphones and
headphones/headsets. I started with FM Radios and generic earbuds in
my college days. This is around 2007-08, seems like an eternity away.
We did not have mobiles back then. And the FM radios would take pencil
cells. And would need new cells every fortnight. Anyway the music was
good to ears. The first major upgrade was when I got my first Sony
Mobile and it had inbuilt FM. I bought a decent pair of Sony earbuds
at 600 bucks back then. That was $10 in 2008 I think. Those sound
astronomically better than my earlier generic earphones. They did not
last all that long I remember. Then thanks too recommendation from one
of my gamer friends, I bought a Blues headset which was locally made
but sounded very good at 1/3rd cost of Sony. It lasted 3-4 years too.
Then as usual when one speaker failed, I did not know what to replace
it with. Then one day while roaming around in a mall, a Panasonic
Headset with HD sound label caught my eye. It cost same as the Sony
and this is probably 8-10 years later. Bought it and used it a lot. It
did not have a lot of bass but very good sound-stage and overall clear
sound.
It lasted long and I bought my next pair of earbuds only when I
switched to a new job and it involved a lot of commute. So I looked
around in audiophile circles and bought a Klipsch Image S3. It was a
decent upgrade. But did not last very long. About a year and half
later one side died. Then not wanting to spend a lot, I bought some
cheap Philips earphones. Their construction was just cheap but the
sound was very decent. Only problem - about a year and half later,
they literally fell apart. Finally I decided to spend big bucks and
bought Sennheiser HD 439's. This was a great decision and they have
lasted long even with my rough use. So much so that when I wanted to
buy a pair of Bluetooth Noise Cancelling headphones, I spent big and
bought Marshall Monitor II's last year. Cost ~12000 INR, that's about
~$140. The noise cancelling is quite good but they don't seem to like
a lot of interference.
Somewhere in between I bought a pair of Realme Buds - but they fell
apart in about a ear with their flimsy construction. Later I bought
Sony WI-C200's - wireless neckband type earphones. And my primary use
case for these is Teams calls. I don't use them for music since they
are just too bass heavy. Later I played around a bit with Sony Music
Connect app and tuned them a bit to sound better for music. But still
they are best for calls only. And I have all the others for music and
movies.
P.S. I bought a 2.1 Sony System for desktop-audio and it's going
strong for last 13 years. It's just a 2.1 but is so much loud that the
windows shake if we turn up the volume to max. So Cheers for Sony!!
Past Ones from latest to oldest: Realme buds, Philips Wired Earbuds,
Klipsch Image S3, Panasonic Headset, Generic Blues headset, Sony Wired
earbuds, Generic earbuds.
In last 20 years I have been through a bunch of earphones and
headphones/headsets. I started with FM Radios and generic earbuds in
my college days. This is around 2007-08, seems like an eternity away.
We did not have mobiles back then. And the FM radios would take pencil
cells. And would need new cells every fortnight. Anyway the music was
good to ears. The first major upgrade was when I got my first Sony
Mobile and it had inbuilt FM. I bought a decent pair of Sony earbuds
at 600 bucks back then. That was $10 in 2008 I think. Those sound
astronomically better than my earlier generic earphones. They did not
last all that long I remember. Then thanks too recommendation from one
of my gamer friends, I bought a Blues headset which was locally made
but sounded very good at 1/3rd cost of Sony. It lasted 3-4 years too.
Then as usual when one speaker failed, I did not know what to replace
it with. Then one day while roaming around in a mall, a Panasonic
Headset with HD sound label caught my eye. It cost same as the Sony
and this is probably 8-10 years later. Bought it and used it a lot. It
did not have a lot of bass but very good sound-stage and overall clear
sound.
It lasted long and I bought my next pair of earbuds only when I
switched to a new job and it involved a lot of commute. So I looked
around in audiophile circles and bought a Klipsch Image S3. It was a
decent upgrade. But did not last very long. About a year and half
later one side died. Then not wanting to spend a lot, I bought some
cheap Philips earphones. Their construction was just cheap but the
sound was very decent. Only problem - about a year and half later,
they literally fell apart. Finally I decided to spend big bucks and
bought Sennheiser HD 439's. This was a great decision and they have
lasted long even with my rough use. So much so that when I wanted to
buy a pair of Bluetooth Noise Cancelling headphones, I spent big and
bought Marshall Monitor II's last year. Cost ~12000 INR, that's about
~$140. The noise cancelling is quite good but they don't seem to like
a lot of interference.
Somewhere in between I bought a pair of Realme Buds - but they fell
apart in about a ear with their flimsy construction. Later I bought
Sony WI-C200's - wireless neckband type earphones. And my primary use
case for these is Teams calls. I don't use them for music since they
are just too bass heavy. Later I played around a bit with Sony Music
Connect app and tuned them a bit to sound better for music. But still
they are best for calls only. And I have all the others for music and
movies.
P.S. I bought a 2.1 Sony System for desktop-audio and it's going
strong for last 13 years. It's just a 2.1 but is so much loud that the
windows shake if we turn up the volume to max. So Cheers for Sony!!
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