This website can help a lot if you need to make a choice from small phones models for music production, video editing...
They have detailed analisys about design, confort, bass/mid/treble, sound levels within frequency responce range.
You should never use such headphones for long time. It is not good thing for ears.
Well, good large headphones live much longer and have much better sound.
I suggest Philips Fidelio (X2 or X1)
They have superb sound and build to last.
You can use Shipito or other intermediate and ask them to open package and write your own customs declaration.
Fidelio is very expensive for me.
Considering the In-Ear phones, I would get the KZ ATE and KZ ED9, both cheap and good quality, each one has it's advantages, see reviews on audiobudget site.
Considering a large studio phone, this is the one that I can afford, only 35 usd shipped, with good customers reviews:
http://www.arcanomusic.com.br/produtos/arc-shp20/193
Translation: Professional phone for studio of high quality and super low price. Ideal for studio, computer use, general monitoring. It has very high sound quality and is super comfortable. Characteristics: Unique design with appearance, sturdy and durable. Closed design, sound quality. Cushions big and soft/smooth. Huge speakers with 53mm, low frequency sound with quality and reality. Frequencies High with accuracy, clear and comfortable sound quality. Shielded cable, fast audio transmission without noise. Perfect use for computer recording, studios and music lovers. Specification: Style: Headphone. Frequency range: 10hz ~ 30hz. Impedance: 60 ohms. Connector: 3.5mm stereo + p10 adapter. Sensitivity: 94db & 3db. Cable Length: 3m.
Actually I referenced most affordable I could.
Usually Philips can be got cheaper compared to other good ones.
Other good are
But I personally recommend Fidelio and Stax.
Chinese you referenced want to copy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0001ARCFA/ref=psdc_5524096011_t5_B00DCXWXEI
On cheap chinese you can check
It is also takstar phones
May be get - http://www.arcanomusic.com.br/produtos/arc-shp80/195 ?
Is it actual site, btw? As it has 2011 at the bottom.
shp80 is more expensive and hard to find, and I do not like the velvet around the ears, can be confortable but will get dirty soon...
I think I will decide between Arcano SHP20 and Superlux HD668b. Time to read and see some reviews and take a little time to decide.
Thanks a lot for all the tips.
shp80 is more expensive and hard to find, and I do not like the velvet around the ears, can be confortable but will get dirty soon...
Normal pads are very easy to clean. You should not use artificial leather and especially cheap pads.
About your choice, it is also Arcano is also Superlux
https://www.amazon.com/Superlux-681-Dynamic-Semi-Open-Headphones/dp/B002GHIPYI
If you ask my opinion do not buy any of them.
The most intriguing, surreal and fun part of reading earphones reviews is trying to understand a sound by reading words. I needed to do some google research and read about the words often used to describe an audio: warm, dark, bright, harsh, piercing, and so on... (type things like this on google: what is a warm audio?)
There are mixed reviews, some says astonishing, other says so so, other says bad for the same phones. Interesting thing is: sometimes a review say bad things and deliver a good grade/record number classification. Sometimes a review say good things and deliver a bad grade/record number classification.
Sonarworks has an interesting DAW plugin. They did analysis in many earphones and developed a "turn into flat"/"turn into calibrated" equalization plugin. In their website, listening the same sound with/without the calibration for a given earphone can show how much the given earphone differs from "ideal" earphones. They say there are not perfect earphones, even the most expensive will not be perfect calibrated due to the materials limits.
About the large over-the-ear phones, I was considering the Superlux, but people says it has a small amount of harsh in trebles. Sonar calibration shows a very downgrade in trebles to calibrate the Superlux earphones, so I concluded that this is true. Taking this into account I decided to give a try in the Arcano SHP20 phones because it is cheaper and has good customers reviews, and the more expensive Superlux are not perfect to deserve the extra money. I decided to get a large earphone to avoid hurting the ears with in-ear phones when using long time.
About the in-ear phones, here in my country the KZ are very popular and easy to find for reasonable prices, and the reviews are ok, so I decided to go for it. I need a small portable earphones for in the field audio monitoring, and an unobtrusive/discreet solution. So after reading a lot I perceived the KZ ATE to be the best choice. They do not fall from the ear, have good ambient sound isolation, and people says it sounds good.
I am very curious about the KZ ED9, because it has a more flat/balanced frequence response curve, two options for bass changing the nozzle, and reviews says it sounds astonishing. (some says the trebles are a little harsh but perfect at same time with great classification numbers). But two things are not adequate for audio recording monitoring: they can get loose from the ear if you move yourself, and they have open backs which can spread a small amount of sound to the ambient. If someday I can have the extra money to buy, I will give it a try mainly for enjoy music and maybe for using with a DAW software interleaving with the Arcano.
I found a very interesting website which provides tone audios for testing earphones. One of the most useful audios starts at 20HZ, start changing and goes up to 20KHZ, so you can perceive if your earphones can respond adequate to all frequencies.
Some links:
Audio tones for earphone test:
http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_perceptualsinesweep.php
http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_sinesweep20-20k.php
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php
Sonar earphones calibration plugin:
https://www.sonarworks.com/headphones
KZ ATE reviews:
https://www.audiophileon.com/news/kz-ate-review-the-best-budget-earbuds
http://www.thephonograph.net/kz-ate-review/
https://audiobudget.com/product/KZ/ATE
https://www.head-fi.org/f/showcase/kz-ate-in-ear-monitors.21174/reviews
KZ ED9 reviews:
http://www.thephonograph.net/kz-ed9-review/
https://audiobudget.com/product/KZ/ED9
https://www.head-fi.org/f/showcase/kz-ed9-tunning-nozzles-in-ear-headphones.20807/reviews
ARCANO SHP20 customers reviews and website:
"Excellent studio phone. High, good response in bass, mid and treble. Its constructive material, although it does not look good, is of excellent quality. Excellent cable with p2 and p10, comfortable foams, handle and does not stifle both ears. I'm going to do a review on youtube. Good buy, friends! It's worth everything!"
"The handset caters perfectly. Very good. / Very good great perfect quality. / 20 days using the headset, excellent! / Very good! High quality audio! Everything appears with a good definition. I recommend it! / The phone has a very good structure, an excellent quality for headphones of this price range, perfectly meets my needs."
http://www.arcanomusic.com.br/produtos/arc-shp20/193
If you are curious about the SuperLux:
Superlux HD681 and HD668b reviews:
Text review with measurements: https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/superlux-hd-668b-and-hd-681-headphones
You can safely drop all stuff with calibration for now.
And drop idea to buy KZ or like headphones for editing. Your ears cost much more than any headphones.
I provided almost all good headphones in posts above. So get to work, find clients and just get money for normal thing.
I got a KZ ED9 to use with a Xduoo X3 DAP. It's very clear with adequate bass.
I just compared the KZ ED9 with the SONY-MDR-NW750N hi-res earbuds on a SONY DAP. The KZ ED9 actually sounds way better than the Sony Hi-res earbuds which cost 10 times more.. better bass presence than the Sony.
( right, earbuds are OK for portable music or radio only! Earbuds always fall out, but a little gaffers tape will hold them in :) .. )
@Vitaliy_Kiselev Instead of buying two earphones, the Arcano SHP20 and the KZ ATE, I can avoid the KZ ATE and save money to get the more expensive Arcano SHP300. What do you think comparing the SHP20 and SHP300 ?
Unless you want to work in music studio requiring total silence closed headphones have inferior sound, it is just due to physics of too small space and too much reflections.
Btw instead of hours spent on selection of cheap headphones you can find any payable work and try to save on best ones.
Closed are better for me, I need to avoid sound out.
Arcano SHP300 is much better solid construction, aluminium house, mini xlr replaceable cable, lower impedance better for low power devices, reviews says it has more flat frequency responce, most customers are giving 5/5 rate. It is the Arcano best selling headphone.
Build quality is better than shp20 and better than superlux. It is impossible to listen the phones so the construction is a way to do a better choice. It looks like ISK HP980, ISK HD9999 and AKG K271.
Better thing to do is to avoid the KZ ATE now and go for the SHP300. The price is low and ok for how it looks (shp20 + kz ate is more price than Shp300!!!).
As I decided to avoid the KZ ATE and KZ ED9 now for saving money to the SHP300, maybe in the future I can save money to get the best in-ear in the world, just to enjoy music, the KZ ZS5.
PS.: Don't worry about me so much!
Final decisions:
Large Phone: for long time working in audio mixing and video editing: Arcano SHP300. Main reasons: 1-price: 56 usd. 2-good build construction 3-excellent customers reviews, most 5/5 and some 4/5. 4-replaceable cable 5-one review said that phones around 20/30 usd more expensive are not better in sound and construction to deserve the extra money. 6-some says it has a good flat response ideal for monitoring/mixing and shows all audio details 7-closed to avoid sound out. 8-large and confortable foams surround all the ear. 9-Best selling phone here in my country, seems to be the best buy. 10-similar to ISK HP980, ISK HD9999 and AKG K271.
http://www.arcanomusic.com.br/produtos/arc-shp300/196
In-Ear Phone: for enjoy music and for small time quality comparison in audio mixing/video editing: KZ ZS5. Main reasons: 1-price: 32 usd. 2-good build construction 3-excellent reviews, awarded and 5/5 rated in bass/mid/treble. 4-interesting design using 4 drivers in each side. 5-do not fall from ear. 6-replaceable cable. 7-customers reviews says WOW for the sound. 8-need a small phones for portable and discreet situations 9-if I cannot get the best large phone, why not get the best cheap small phone?!!!
The SHP300 headphones arrived.
I heard some different musics on it.
The sound is ok, clear, without confusion in frequencies, without harsh or sibilance in mids and trebles. I can identify all instruments and good voice.
The sound is good quality, very easy to equalize, with just minor adjustments in frequencies it gets ok. It is almost flat from factory with some more bass and some more mid-high.
There is just one thing that I don't know if can be bad at all... The bass frequencies are velvet, and if I lower them to try to remove the velvet feeling the bass intensity gets lower, but the velvet sensation does not fade away. So I need to get accustomed to this characteristic.
Best average equalizer settings (sound card software):
60=-9, 170=-7, 310=-5, 600=-3, 1k=-1, 3k=0, 6k=-3, 12k=-3, 14k=0, 16k=0
I did more music listening and I perceived that there are musics with lots of bass, and other musics with a better mixing where bass sounds pretty calibrated, so I think the shp300 headphones can be used for audio mixing and no problem at all.
The different artists and studios uses diferent equalization in their musics, so the shp300 is ok for perceiving the best equalization.
I am starting to believe there is nothing wrong with the headphones, I am starting to believe that some music equalizations are wrong.
The velvet bass problem is not a problem of the shp300 headphones at all, in different phones that I tested the behavior is the same, it proves that some music equalization is just not perfect.
I confirmed that some songs have very strong bass frequencies and in different headphones the velvet feeling is the same, in other songs the velvet feeling does not exist, see:
good bass calibration in the music:
good bass calibration in the music:
very strong bass, sounds velvet in different headphones:
very strong bass drums, sounds velvet in different headphones:
in this song the bass frequencies are pronounced but not velvet:
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