sjonke's Profile

The real problem here is that the Parental controls in OS X are actually pretty bogus. If they really worked as they should, they would prevent the user from running other applications at a system level. What if the parent allows the kid to run Terminal? Then the kid can launch any application they want too. So is Terminal at fault, or is it the OS? It's the OS, folks. If Apple had done it right, it wouldn't matter if some alternate to the Finder application were installed or used, you still wouldn't be able to run applications not on the list of allowed apps. So I think your article is rather misguided. Apple is to blame for this, folks.

-- [quote]Shure has long been known to be hi-priced, but mediocre quality. You can find decent quality and nice comfort for $$ in a pair of good Sony in-ear phones.[/quote] -- Well, the Sony in-ear-canal phones are comfortable. That part is true. The part about "decent quality", though, is pretty wrong from my vantage point. Aside from the fact that they pretty much only exhibit bass and nothing else, the cable on the Sony in-ear-canal phones starts to disintegrate within weeks. If you budget for the necessary monthly replacements, you'll end up with something else higher priced initially, but ultimately much cheaper before long (and much better sounding.) Which is not to say that I have found a satisfying in-ear-canal phone. The two I"ve tried (Etymotic ER6i, and the Sennheiser CX 300) have proven quite disappointing. Oh, and the Sony's, but they barely even count. How much more money do I risk?

This is just an initial opinion as I only got my Sennheiser CX 300's yesterday. Also, I didn't take the train today, so wasn't able to test them in that environment. However I did test them out a bit at home. In short, these ear-canal phones do sound better than the Etymotic ER6i's, but they are also far from perfect. Perhaps it is unfair to compare to on-the-ear, open-ear headphones such as the Sennheiser PX-100's, but then the PX-100's are relatively low end. The PX-100's sound *much* better than the CX-300's, which have a bit of a disjointed sound to them. The treble is there (albeit sounding a bit harsh - the ER6i's have somewhat harsh treble too), the bass is there and the mids, but somehow they all seem slightly detached from each other. I'm not really sure how to describe it. Still, compared to the ER6i's they are much more enjoyable to listen to. The bass is much stronger than the ER6i's, but that isn't difficult. Indeed, and unfortunately, it is too strong. Like the Sony's, I get the impression they are boosting the bass within the headset, perhaps because people tend to complain about bass with this type of headset. Unfortunately the bass is overwhelming as a result and that's definitely disappointing. They sound better if you set your iPod or equivalent to reduce bass mode (on the iPod, set the EQ to "reduce bass" but then also turn the volume up a bit as this setting also reduces volume slightly, and you might initially then think it sounds worse - give it a touch more volume and I think you'll be pretty happy.) I wish they'd just made the bass normal. I don't wish to harp too much on the sound quality, though, as definitely they are more satisfying than the ER6i's, and they are cheaper, a bit more comfortable and less of a fuss too. I haven't yet done a direct comparison to the Sony ear-canal phones, but from what I recall, the CX 300's sound a lot better. The Sony's are pretty much all bass and nothing else. The CX 300's have over-boosted bass too, as noted, but the midrange and treble is there too. They are similar in design to the Sony ear-canal phones in that they use a thin, rounded, silicon insert that is comfortable, but does block less outside noise than the Etymotics. It still blocks a fair amount, but no where near as much as the Etymotics. On the other hand they seem a lot more tolerant with regard to fit -just jam them in and go. Also no fuss to take them out. I'll see how they fair on the train tomorrow. It comes with three sizes of inserts. I found the large to be best for my ears. They are in no way near as large as the large foam inserts available (separately) for the ER6i's, so if you need those, you may find even the largest CX 300 inserts too small. I'm wondering if there are a set of foam inserts that might fit the CX 300's - it would be interesting to see how that affected their sound. I don't think the inserts for the ER6i will work as I believe the hole is smaller on those. Then again, I also wonder if part of the problem with the Etymotic's is precisely that they block so much ambient noise - of on and over-the-ear type headphones, ones that are open-ear generally sound much better and from what I've read there is reason for that. Could something similar be at play here? I don't know. In any case, while I was initially disappointed in these earphones due to them not sounding nearly as good as my PX 100's, I think that for use on the train and in other noisy environments, these are going to be a lot more satisfying than the Etymotic ER6i's. I wish I'd caught them at the $40 initial price, but even at $60 I think these were a good purchase for me. I'm also, though, more curious than ever to know if a headphone amp would have helped the ER6i's. In retrospect, I guess all I need to do is buy a mini-jack to full size headphone jack adapter and plug the ER6i's into my home stereo. That should be similar to a headphone amp, yes? I plan to try this out soon - just need to find time to get to Radio Shack. One last note: the CX 300's don't come with any kind of case or pouch. As it happens, of course, I have the pouch for my ER6i's and I'll use that, and store the ER6i's in a plastic bag. If you don't have any kind of pouch or case you're going to want to get one, so factor that into their cost.

I did send in my ER6i's and they sent me a new pair, but noted that they did not see any audio quality issue with the original ones, except for an intermittent plug. I hadn't even seen the intermittent plug issue, so maybe that happened during shipping. In any case I tested out the new pair and... the audio quality is identical, which is pretty depressingly poor, at least to my ears. They sound very dead, especially in comparison to my Sennheiser PX-100 on-ear phones, which sound tremendously better in treble, bass and mids and have similar clarity if not better. But, because they are open-ear, they don't block any ambient noise. I was considering the idea of getting one of those $60 headphone amps and trying that with the Etymotic phones, but now I'm considering Sennheiser's new ear-canal phones, the CX 300's. That will also cost me around $60 and I'm so happy with the sound of my Sennheiser PX-100's that I'm more inclined to give their canal-phones a try than to buy the amp, perhaps only to find that the sound is louder, but not better, plus having to carry around the amp. The Sennheiser CX 300's seem be getting good reviews too. Plus I like that they use the Sony-style silicon inserts. My old Sony canal-phones were pretty awful sounding, in a different way from the Etymotic's (almost entirely bass and not much else), but they were very comfortable to wear, much more so than the ER-6i's. I'm a little worried that they won't block nearly as much ambient noise, but I'm still inclined to try them out. Let me note again that I tried all types and sizes of Etymotic inserts. None of them made a positive difference in sound, though some made it worse. I also extensively experimented with fit. I have them fit properly, or at least as properly as they can be in my ears, and the seal is excellent, blocking out a tremendous amount of ambient noise. I've also experimented with even lossless audio files ripped from CD. That format made no difference in sound quality with the ER-6i's. I'm looking around for the best price on the CX 300's. Unfortunately it looks like I missed out on an introductory price that was $40. Now they are around $60 to $70.

It may seem that I just want to slam the Ety's, but I'm just trying to relate my (counter) experience with them. Admittedly my frustration with them has made me rather bitter about them, and that is probably coming out. Anyway, this is not a "there is no slamming bass" issue. This is a "there is no bass" issue. There is decent/good midrange, but harsh highs and almost no bass at all. I definitely do not want "slamming bass", although if I had to choose, I suppose I'd take that over no bass at all, which is what I'm getting with the ER6i's. Drums, for example, sound a bit like they are being played underneath a blanket. Also, again, there is the issue of the harshness of the highs. So both the highs and the lows do not sound very good (the lows are worse than the highs), and that doesn't result in a satisfying set of headphones, to say the least! As I noted, I've experimented quite a bit with the fit, including getting all the different sizes of foam and flange inserts, and inserting them at one point to the point of minor ear injury. With the medium foam inserts I do get a very good seal, but the sound quality isn't good. The flange inserts seemed to seal almost as well, but while at first they seemed more comfortable, I found that they have a discomforting pressure effect when I use them on the train (which is where I wish to use them) rather like the pressure you feel when landing in an airplane. Breaking the seal intentionally (by pulling on them slightly) temporarily alleviated the pressure, but within a minute the pressure returned. Needless to say, I went back to the foam inserts. I guess it's possible I have a bad set of ER6i's. Hopefully that is the case. I will contact Etymotic and see if they are willing to exchange them, though it has been a number of months since the purchase. If so I'll give that a shot. The amplifier idea has occurred to me, and interestingly enough I'm using a 60 GB vPod as well, so perhaps it is an issue of the vPod not really being able to drive these headphones, but the amplifiers I've seen were either very expensive as well as large, or cheap but didn't even claim to improve sound quality (only make it louder and/or allow sharing with multiple headphones). I wish I could try one out before buying it. $60 is definitely more reasonable, though, and if replacement ER6i's don't work out or don't improve things, I may take a chance on that amplifier.

D. Parmet - I can assure you that I have had them "deep" into my ear canal. Indeed, once, in my quest for better sound, so deep that I actually seemed to injure my right ear. My ear hurt for several days like an earache. Fortunately it cleared up. It may be that there is something about my ear canals that just doesn't mesh with this type of earphone, but I tend to doubt that because the isolation achieved is very high. The seal is very effective. Aside from the utter lack of bass, there is also the issue of the highs. The highs are harsh, even crackly at times. For me, at least, the ER-6i's do not sound good. They seal great, but they sound lousy.