The earbuds that came with my iPod nano didn’t work for me. Despite being the newer variant (more silicone, less hard plastic), they were only comfortable for the first few days. They were only comfortable for that long because I hadn’t used earbuds in years and I simply did not want to spend any money on accessories. After several weeks of the earbuds constantly falling out of my ears, pumping out tinny sound and generally being unable to drown out the background noise in my apartment’s gym without me throwing the volume up all the way to Oh-My-God-Are-You-Deaf-Yet volumes, I'd had enough. I went and did some research on headphones and ended up purchasing the Ultimate Ears Super Fi 3.The Super Fi 3 are essentially earplugs with speakers. Because they are earplugs first: you get better ambient noise canceling than larger headphones designed for the task, the noise canceling is passive, they are much smaller than the larger variety of over-the-ear noise canceling headphones so when you wear them you don't look like you're going as a cross-gender Princess Leia to an office work party. Once upon a time though, these types of aural pleasures were reserved strictly for performing musicians, but the price of these types of headphones has come down in recent years. To attest to their inside start, the Ultimte Ears company was actually the brainchild of a monitor engineer for Van Halen.
The Ultimate Ears Super Fi 3 retail for $99, but I got them for about $78 shipped from EarPhoneSolutions.com.
I picked them up for the following reasons:
- Headphone.com includes them in their Mobile Entry-fi package ($289), and I highly respect their opinion. I would have bought directly from them, but the extra five dollars in total cost… I got really cheap when it came time to submit my CC and I mitigated the damage to my conscience by purchasing from another small, specialized dealer (earphonesolutions.com).
- Headphone.com gave them a decent value rating.
- Cnet gave them a 7.7 rating (very good).
- Cnet hammered away on the comfort and quality seal of these canalphones, and comfort was very important to me.
- They came with five different types of in-ear adapters, so I was assured a quality fit somewhere in that spectrum.
After using them now, for probably about five hours a week (at least) for the past six months, I can say that I really do like them. They fit my budget and my requirements perfectly. I use them while doing housework, traveling on an airplane, or working out in the gym. An excellent "bang for the buck" purchase.
1 comment:
I picked up some UE super.fi 3s. Going from apple ear bud to these is a huge differance. With the iems in my ear I can hardly hear the outside world, that's before i cut on the music. Once I press play on my nano I can't hear a thing, that's at 20 percent volume. So I'd recommend these right away for the noise isolation. That's not why I love them though.
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