[Macworld]

Post your comments for Roundup: 9 in-ear-canal headphones here

[cal_gecko]

My problem with these is that when exercising, the natural oils/wax in my ear acts as a 'lubricant', and the earphones always fall out.

[superdifficult]

People always forget the Audio Technica ATH-CK7. Cheap, excellent sound and nothing but fantastic reviews.
http://www.gosammy.c...ath-ck7-review/
http://iaudiophile.n...php/t-7666.html
http://www.podfly.co...ear-headphones/
http://www.head-fi.o...ath-ck7-245611/

[Dan Frakes]

superdifficult said:

People always forget the Audio Technica ATH-CK7. Cheap, excellent sound and nothing but fantastic reviews.

The ATH-CK7 are "canalbuds" rather than in-ear-canal headphones. We've got a roundup of canalbuds in the works, although, given that the CK7 was introduced ~5 years ago, it won't be in that roundup; we're trying to cover products that have been introduced relatively recently.

That said, I've heard good things about the CK7; if you can find them, they appear to be a good value.

[Dan Frakes]

cal_gecko said:

My problem with these is that when exercising, the natural oils/wax in my ear acts as a 'lubricant', and the earphones always fall out.

Are you talking about canalphones or canalbuds? The latter do indeed fall out more easily. Canalphones like those covered in the article, on the other hand, tend to fit fairly securely if you insert them correctly, because they sit deeper in your ear canals.

[dogbreath]

How is a person with red-green color blindness supposed to distinguish left and right earbuds? The UM2 apparently uses red and green dots to indicate L and R. Subtract 1/2 point!

[dogbreath]

Where's the review of Apple's in-ear headphones?

[jamus]

I have an old pair of Skullcandy plugs that while sounding ok, tend to move ever so slightly if I am doing anything other than sitting still. Definitely not something you can wear at the gym or while working around your yard.
That movement then causes noises in my ear which makes the tunes sound really bad. Not to mention the inner ear noise from the "popping" and sliding around on the surface of your ear. I want to try some more fancy ones to see if they perform the same way but have been scared too because of the price!

[cv]

Many headphones are also labeled 'L' and 'R'. There might be a few that do not, but in any case if the right earpiece is red, the left one will be blue. A red-green colorblind person can recognize blue.

[dogbreath]

For the UM2: "The cable ends in an L-shaped miniplug, and small green and red dots identify the left and right earpieces, respectively."

[cal_gecko]

I had never heard of 'canal buds' before, but after looking at the link posted referring to the Audio Technika's, and that you referred to them as 'canal buds'.. that is the style I was using.. maybe I'll take a look at the ones you guys reviewed... although, spending more than about $30 on a pair of headphones seems crazy to me.

[cal_gecko]

Looking at the review, and clicking the link to look at the Memorex headphones.. they look just like canal buds to me (and Memorex even calls them earbuds)...

[spinoza2]

I have a pair of Etymotics, but I find the extra long, extra thick cord a big pain to deal with ergonomically. Instead, I've really come to appreciate the short-cord design of the Shures: no long cords to tie together or wrap around your neck. If I need a longer cord, then the Shure extension does the trick. It's a great feature, and the sound-blocking ear inserts are very effective.
To be honest, if I were to go with true "audiophile" sound, I wouldn't get earphones at all, but rather higher end headphones instead. I know some people have their gripes about Bose, but I really like their sound-canceling headphones. For $300 I think you can get much better quality with headphones than with earphones.

[cv]

@dogbreath:

That's odd since the photo shows a blue dot. Oh well, you can get someone without colorblindness to identify which is which, then you could mark one in a different way (permanent marker on one side's earbud, etc.).

In any case, it's still the exception, not the rule.