Audiophile

I recently getting quite active in the Low Yat forum after deserting the forum for years. I've missed out a lot of fun there, as it's the mainstream tech forum in Malaysia, arguably the most active forum here. I've so much things to learn from the forum itself!

Since I've rejoined the forum, I immediately got myself attached to the audiophiles forum already. I've spend most times there until I've left out other topics of my interest such as blogging & football.

Those people in the Audiophile forums are the pro, audio-enthusiasts who're willing to spend hundreds & thousands to get the perfect audio devices, ranging from earphones & headphones, to the much grand scale, home theatre system featuring 5.1 or 7.1 speaker config, sound amplifiers etc. Those are something I didn't know exists until I join the forum. As a self-proclaimed audio geek, I'm ashamed of myself before know this lol.

Before this I only know the top sound devices brands are Altec Lansing & Sennheiser, but now I realised the elites are Shure & Audio Technica. Although I have yet to came across a headphone/earphone from those brands, but from the feedbacks of the netizens, I'm pretty sure that those are good stuffs as the 100% positive reviews from over hundreds of professionals. 

Someone recommend me a Creative earphone when I posted questions on the forum. As a Creative earphone fan, I check it out and I ordered one pair without hesitating. From the reviews I've gathered from the forum and on other websites, I can conclude that this is a safe investment and it's worth to spend a little money on it.

I ordered the Creative EP-630 from this thread, it cost me RM 58 including the postage fee. It's OEM (original equipment manufacture) earphone so the price stick closer to the factory cost. The same thing cost ~RM 100 if you buy it off the shelf though.

This case would cost you extra RM40!


I got mine delivered on Wednesday via the postman, a much anticipated earphone I would say.

It doesn't looks appealing at the first sight, but when you pop in those into your ears, you'll immediately understand why people would praise this earphone so well.

I've been comparing it to my previous earphones, and I would say it's good, but the best has yet to come for this earphone.

The 3 earphones that satisfied my thirst of music of all time~
Sonic Gear Ear Pump, Creative EP-50, Creative EP-630.


A few pics to compare between the Sonic Gear Ear Pump (L) & Creative EP-630 (R). Both are of similar styles and with noise-cancelling ability.

 
 
Last time I'm a little regret when I just bought the SG Ear Pump, but after my Creative EP-50 went dead I can only rely on is because the other Philips SHE 2500 & Altec Lansing CHP121 are disappointing. 

I'm glad the noise-cancelling effect as it shuts me out from the outside noise while I enjoy listening to my music. This is especially useful when you're boarding LRT, or at somewhere crowded. But it's not advisable as you may not be aware of the surrounding, thus making you a little disadtanvages when something struck.

Sound quality-wise, I still cannot tell whether EP-630 is indeed that great though. The most drastic difference is that EP-630 plays louder than Ear Pump. To be fair, the Ear Pump doesn't sound that good when I first got it, that's why I say I'm a little regret getting it at the first place, but not now.

From the audiophile forum I've learn a technique to get the best out of your earphone/headphone. It's called "burn in", not that to fire it up with flames, but to stabilise the component in the driver unit until it reaches an optimum state to deliver the perfect sound.

Burning in is simple, you don't need any extra equipments or expenses, you just need to plug in the earphone into an audio source (laptop or mp3 player), let the music run through it at an audible level for at least 100 hours. Yep, 100 hours is all you need to bring the best out of your sound device, so says the forumers.

The reason why Ear Pump sounds better these days is because the more you use, the better it'll be. I burned-in the Ear Pump without noticing I'm doing it as I don't know all these stuffs back then. 

Considering the cost, I got these 2 around the same price range (~RM 55). Both of the earphones comes with a case with a few earbud replacements, which can be handy at times.

L-R: Altec Lansing case (cool case to compensate the abysmal earphone), Sonic Gear case (compact and handy), Creative case (simply a pouch).

Now that I'm satisfied with my earphone collections, I may divert my attention to headphones now. Noticed my Philips SHP2000 starst to worn off now, so I'm looking for a potential replacement.

Saw this Audio Technica ATH-M30, looks cool and it's highly rated as well. 

It's much more costlier than the Philips though, I saw one offering for RM 180, pretty scary budget for a headphone for normal people, but for audiophiles this consider entry-level headphone only.... 

Anyhow, this final pic shows an experimental setup I tried to connect my laptop to the radio.

I use the radio's speakers to play the music from laptop just to try out how great it is compare to the laptop's speakers. Can't really decide the winner though, due to some restrictions here and there....