IEM headphones for travel

Hello! Sorry, this is kind of copypasta from my head-fi thread but...

I'm currently looking for a new pair of noise isolating IEMs for around 200USD. Maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less, depending on if they're the perfect model for me.

I'm going to be working in the northern Canada (the FAR north) and I've got about an 8 hour flight twice a month to get there and back. The plane is extremely noisy, so isolation is important.

I need IEMs because of the form factor. I'll be using them with an unamped iPhone and a NuForce uDac on my laptop.

I listen mainly to rock, alternative rock and lately some drum and bass and house. Good bass would be nice to have but is not crucial. I would like to have a good sound stage, but again, it's optional.

Can someone help me pick a good pair?

Thank you!

 

I think you're in a compromise zone there really. IEM's with high isolation - balanced armatures - are poor bang for the buck, and at the $200 range you're looking at single-driver phones with very limited dynamic range.

The Etymotic ER-4 for example will have the highest isolation from a non-custom set, but *only* if you use the very uncomfortable (IMO over the long term) long foam tips. They also have a very compromised bass response, as well as a distortion-laden treble.

Where you start getting less compromise in the overall sound is somewhere like the Shure SE425's which use two drivers - which go for around $300. Personally, for something I'd not feel I should have got a better one later, I'd go for triple/quad-drivers, and not the Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 because they're really badly designed (i.e. there's a really good reason they go on blowouts) and provide relatively poor isolation.

But of course, triple/quad-drivers cost in the region of double your budget, and they're beginning to provide about the same sound quality as a decent $200 headphone. But $200 headphones with real isolation are clampy and sweaty for multi-hour use, and only highly isolating (and very uncomfortable) supraaurals like the Sennheiser HD25 - or electronic cancellation, which can also be costly in a decent phone - provide isolation from the droning sound of planes.

If you want to stick to $200, I'd say get the ER-4's or given the compromised nature of the set, even go for the $150 HF5 and save some cash. They're the best of the worst of compromised single-drivers. If you want actually decent sound out of IEM's, you're looking at basically double that.

My personal choices are Shure SE530's and Westone 4's fitted with lower-isolation (but more comfortable - you'll get a similar isolation / comfort mix out of the Etymotic slider tips) silicone tips as my subway beaters, and the JH Audio JH13 as my air / extended travel phones. Years ago I did use an ER-4 quite regularly for air travel but they ended up basically sandpapering my ear canals. Thanks to the Etys, now I can only use customs for extended in-ear listening.

 

Vogelbung is right, 200$ is a "difficult" pricepoint for IEMs... I personally use a pair of Klipsch Custom-3, which I paid around 230$ a few years back. The sound and isolation are good, but the build quality is abyssimal. I believe those are no longer manufactured, however.

At 200$, you might want to consider the older Westone UM2, which was highly recommended in its prime time, I believe those can be had for a little more than 200$.