Opinions: upgrade earphones or use headphone amp?

Grolschevik

Hi lads, just looking for people's opinions.

I have a Sony Walkman NWZE455, and I'm actually quite happy with the stock headphones (MDR-E804YLP). After adjusting the EQ to boost bass and low mids, they're about as satisfactory as I'd want for casual listening.

However, you know the way earbuds always sound better/louder when you hold them in tighter? I'm looking for something that'll do that for me, or replicate that experience without it looking like I'm the "hear no evil" monkey.

The max volume on the player is almost high enough for those "sitting beside an idling diesel train" moments, but not quite.

Apart from some sort of clamp yoke rigged up out of old-school phones, I'm thinking either:

a) Go for better/moulded in-ear phones, or
b) Get an inline headphone amp, such as this: http://www.lambayrules.ie/viewitem.php?productid=0

Watcha reckon?

cnocbui

Maybe get some in-ear type phones, they will isolate outside noise while giving that pressed to the ear type of sound because the silicone tips seal to the ear canal - when using the right sized tips - giving better bass and volume. Alternatively, get some over-ear headphones with a high efficiency. Your current ones are 108db mw so anything more efficient will sound louder for the same amount of power.

I recently got some Radius fine colour earphones and their efficiency is 115db mw. That's a 6db difference which would mean they would sound twice as loud at the same volume level as the ones you have - and that's before you talk about them seeming louder anyway because they seal out outside noise and give you a better signal to noise ratio.

yimrsg

It really depends on how much you want to spend. An amp with poor headphones is still only as good as it's weakest link in the chain; the poor headphones. If you have low bit-rate music then spending money on upgrading your headphones/player/amp for instance will be less worthwhile than upgrading your music's quality.
All that amp does is increase the sound volume so you'll still get sound leaking in to and out from your ears, it's far better in the long run to get a pair which seals your ears. If you want better isolated sound then look at IEMs (In Ear Monitors) which go deep into your ear canal and block external sound unlike an earbud. You don't mention a price range but generally what's recommended from people here owning and their own research is like this:

Up to €50
Soundmagic pl50s
€50-100
Re-Zero, Re0,
€100+
Fischer Audio DBA-02

A lot of what makes a good isolation earphone/IEM depends on the individual. What works for me and others might not work for you. Look at sets that have multiple tips to allow you to change them so you can get the fit right for you. Also some tips will fit other brands earpiece, e.g. plastic shure tips fits my fischer audio. So there are all sorts of fit permutations.

What's considered the best rated:
http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/headphones
If you want to look at portable headphones:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/433318/shootout-71-portable-headphones-reviewed-sony-mdr-zx700-mdr-v6-added-03-07
Or look at IEMs
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/478568/multi-iem-review-152-iems-compared-woodees-blues-xears-td-iii-added-03-14

Remember what others might consider perfect/good/decent could be worlds apart from what you consider to be perfect/good/decent.

Grolschevik

Thanks, lads. I reckon I'll do both.

Upgrading the headphones is the first step for out and about listening, I reckon.

The headphone amp is cheap enough for me to give it a lash. I suspect it'll be of more use when balancing the MP3 input volume with my playing volume on my guitar headphone amp processor, which I use with over ear phones.

Brian

Two things - an AMP's purpose is to power your earphones more effectively, NOT to make them louder. Making your earphones louder simply exacerbates any distortion issues they have.
Secondly, if you are trying to drown out the noise of a train with non-isolating earphones you are definitely going to cause yourself some lasting hearing issues.

rabbitinlights

I use the Fiio E5 to drive my Sennheiser HD25-1 IIs with my iPod, it's makes a massive difference, especially as the ipod struggled to drive them on it's own with their high impedance.

S.