Sounds of Summer

By Matt Hale

If you're headed to the beach this summer, treat your ears right | Photo/Flickr

Whether you’re going to one of SoCal’s beaches, a community park or just jogging through your neighborhood, the weather is sunny and it’s a fine time to consider replacing the stock earphones that came with your phone or MP3 player. Even for casual listeners, picking a new set of cans to rock your tunes will not only improve your listening experience, it may even save your hearing.



As a result of Apple’s early advertising for the original series of iPod devices, the telltale white earbud cords that now hang from everyone’s ears are the epitome of geek chic. Apple broke the mold again, replacing tired old black insulation with white insulation! The problem is that the drivers at the end of the cable are weak, tinny and prone to sounding so terrible at low volumes that you risk deafness to enjoy your favorite songs and albums.

For the risk to your hearing alone, I highly recommend spending a little extra cash after you buy your music player to replace your earphones with a set that have better harmonic balance, better seal with your ear and more reliable reproduction of tone and nuance at lower volumes.

A classic: Sennheiser HD 414s

The good news is that you only have to make this purchase once. I seriously mean that for the rest of your days, if you’re happy with those headphones or earbuds, they will never have to be replaced unless lost, destroyed or stolen. The pair of Sennheiser HD 414s at my parents’ house still sound great with modern music, with rich deep bass and bright mid- and high-range. These cans first went on sale in 1968 and remain the best-selling headphones of all time.

As a starving college student discovering new music through roommates, classmates and new friends, I didn’t have the budget to spend on audiophile-grade equipment, but I knew enough to replace my stock earbuds on both my MP3 CD player (a Diamond RioVolt SP250) and my first solid-state flash MP3 Player (a Sandisk Digital Audio Player).

The first set of replacements were Sennheiser CX300 earbuds. Unlike most stock earphones, these featured much smaller drivers combined with small, medium and large silicone sheaths fit on the drivers and fit snugly in the ear canal, to seal out outside noise. Before you even start your music, CX300 earbuds work to keep unwanted sounds out of your zen space. The CX300 carries a retail price of $59.95, but can easily be found online for $35 or less.

Sennheiser CX300

If you’re on a tight budget, these are a great pair of earbuds with decent, balanced sound. They’re not going to make any audiophiles happy, but they’ll be a major improvement over your iPod headphones. The original CX300 model does not include an in-line microphone for phone calls and Siri, but for casual music listening or a beach day, they’re excellent.

Graduating to full time employment and my brief flirtation with the iPod and Zune, I also decided to upgrade my portable music tech to something a bit more... refined. After a painstaking search with a modest, but respectable $100 budget, I selected the Shure SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones. Having used them for at least 4 years now, the earbuds remain an excellent device that provides consistently nuanced reproductions of my recordings at high and low volumes.

The earbuds come with 6 sets of sheaths to cover the drivers. 3 sizes of silicone sheaths and 3 sizes of foam sheaths made of the same material that earplugs are made from. The silicone for the SE110s is more rigid than the CX300 silicone, making the seal slightly less comfortable (and no, they’re not interchangeable), but only slightly. Where these earbuds shine is in the use of the foam sheaths which provide a perfect seal in the ear canal.

A good bet: Shure SE 110

There are a couple of side effects of this perfect seal. First, the good: The effect of the perfect seal is just as good as noise canceling headphones I’ve used. You simply can’t hear anything but your music when you’re listening on the SE110s.

The bad: the slightest movement of the cable results in rubbing noises translating up the cable into your ear. I don’t recommend using them for running unless you switch to the silicon sheaths.

So, go out and replace those lousy headphones that came with your phone or MP3 player. Your ears will thank you. Just remember these rules for shopping:

1. Paying more for style is not a good idea when it comes to headphones. Chances are, readers of this guide will value sound quality over style, but when I see “cute” or “fun” looking earphones, I usually see junk as far as function is concerned. They’ll be marginally better than your original headphones, or maybe even worse.


2. Spend a little more to get quality. The best part of the Shure earbuds is the fact that they feel great. They feel very natural in your ear, the cable feels very high quality and they came with a pouch that holds all the accessories and different sized sheaths to configure them for your ears. It even has a carabiner so you can clip it to your belt. The whole experience just screams “quality” and you’ll feel like it’s money well-spent.


3. Go for the brands that have been around forever. I buy Sennheisers and Shures because the companies have been making quality audio equipment since 1945 (Sennheiser) and 1925 (Shure). Other good options include Bose and Klipsch. I’ve heard good things (pun-intended) about Ultimate Ears and Etymotic, but I don’t have first-hand knowledge to make any recommendation for their products.