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invictius

Do the silver "grilles" on earphones do anything?

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Bought a pair of earphones on ebay for $80, they normally go for $130 (dr dre beats) - after trying a few different sizes of the rubber caps, I noticed that one of the silver grilles was missing, not sure whether or not it was on there in the first place, can't find it anywhere, even had a doctor clean out my ear just in case. Does it make any acoustical difference? The one on the other side seems pretty firmly secured, so it's really odd if it did fall out.

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Get it replaced immediately! They're your sole defence against the psychotronic waves that are embedded as a modulated subcarrier in mp3's and FM radio broadcasts.

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They're also there to block crud from building up against the thin membrane in the earbud. You don't really need it though.

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Krispy said:

You don't really need it though.


Yes he does, if he wants to keep using those earbuds that is.

But fuck, for a $80 (and formerly $130) item that pretty shitty quality control. I'm pretty sure I found the same earbuds for sale at a fraction of that price at a toy store.

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Maes said:

Yes he does, if he wants to keep using those earbuds that is.

But fuck, for a $80 (and formerly $130) item that pretty shitty quality control. I'm pretty sure I found the same earbuds for sale at a fraction of that price at a toy store.


RRP is $199... Ebay seller claims no returns in the listing (assuming that's just for change of mind though) and they only have one set left in stock...

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invictius said:

Not so bad after all, Maes - not only am I getting a replacement, I get to keep the original pair as well!


For that price, you could get about 40 replacements pairs :D I sure hope those are not US$...

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Maes said:

For that price, you could get about 40 replacements pairs :D I sure hope those are not US$...


AUD. About... 80% of USD? Though it's worse than that, e.g a $50 AAA game in the U.S (Not that I expect anyone around here to get excited about such a thing) is $100 here... consumer electronics are also needlessly more expensive...

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Even if those were East Carribean dollars it would still be too overpriced :-) At that price you can get a true decent Hi-Fi set of headphones.

When it comes to audio, in general, nothing beats thrifts and garage sales of vintage stuff. I just can't understand what can cause a pair of earphones to cost that much. Mind you, I know that there's a lot of snake oil peddling in the audio business -like the infamous Denon "audiophile" ETHERNET cable, and let's not even speak about all those 99.9999% oxygen-free copper cables, gold-plated mains plugs, etc.

OK, I can understand celebrity endorsement too and maybe long-term collectibility but still...dude.... ><

Edit: OK, now I understand everything. I rest my case.

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invictius said:

Bought a pair of earphones on ebay for $80, they normally go for $130 (dr dre beats)


Goodness! You're better off returning those and getting something far better for the price (Audio Technica M50 for starters).

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Monster and their various smaller competitors have built an empire out of selling reasonable electronics at exorbitant prices to credulous people. I was unsurprised to discover that Monster was (until last year at least) the manufacturer of the "Beats" headphones that all the cool kids seem to be wearing at the moment.

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some shill on that Monster article said:

And a lot of the music produced by Dr Dre is of a very high quality. Rap sounds so much better with high quality equipment like headphones as the individual instruments are separated clearly


I can't stop laughing, everytime I read this it's like sniffing pure chinese sweatshop glue.

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Clonehunter said:

I didn't know rap had instruments. Or, is that my opinion?

It does. Most of it is, of course, synthesized. Rap mainly used instrumental samples in it's glory days.

Then Lil Wayne came and fucked up guitar for us all.

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yeah, saw cut price beats by dre headphones down the Camden market last year. Looked legit to me. Bet the ones you bought on ebay are, like, twice as legit.

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fraggle said:

Monster and their various smaller competitors have built an empire out of selling reasonable electronics at exorbitant prices to credulous people. I was unsurprised to discover that Monster was (until last year at least) the manufacturer of the "Beats" headphones that all the cool kids seem to be wearing at the moment.

Bitch, Monster makes their shit with gold. Gold has superior bandwidth and fidelity. It's like the hardest substance on Earth next to diamonds. The Mayans knew that, that's why they made everything with it. So you know that digital sound's got extra digits in it.

All my shit is Monster. Stay mad.

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darknation said:

yeah, saw cut price beats by dre headphones down the Camden market last year. Looked legit to me. Bet the ones you bought on ebay are, like, twice as legit.

Not as legit as this Rolex I got from this guy on the street. Had a suitcase full of them. Sold me one for half off. Unfortunately the face feel off a minute after I bought it (great to known Rolex has such wonderful quality control). So I went back to the guy and showed him what happened, and not only did he give me another Rolex free of charge, but he told me I could keep the broken one!

Real swell guy. Would do business with again.

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Bucket said:

Bitch, Monster makes their shit with gold. Gold has superior bandwidth and fidelity.

But gold lacks the directional qualities of oxygen-free copper!! Not that I can afford that stuff, my budget will only stretch to using 12mm copper water pipe for speaker leads. :(

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How can you be that wrong and breathe at the same time? Put your hands over your ears, does the sound get quieter? That's because sound travels through AIR, genius. Gold's got oxygen in it, it's just super-compressed from being fossilized. THAT SHIT COMES OUT OF THE GROUND AND IT'S OLDER THAN THE UNIVERSE. People in Africa died so I could have superior bass. Unlike them, I live in the future.

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Bucket said:

Put your hands over your ears, does the sound get quieter?

Actually, it gets louder, sort of a dull rumble like an approaching subway train. Maybe I should get my blood pressure checked.

That's because sound travels through AIR, genius. Gold's got oxygen in it, it's just super-compressed from being fossilized.

Good point. There's plenty of air in my copper pipes, do you think it would help if I fitted reed valves to regulate the direction and rate of airflow in them?

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BlackFish said:

Goodness! You're better off returning those and getting something far better for the price (Audio Technica M50 for starters).


They're headphones, I already have a pair of sony headphones that are meant to be reasonably good quality.


fraggle said:

Monster and their various smaller competitors have built an empire out of selling reasonable electronics at exorbitant prices to credulous people. I was unsurprised to discover that Monster was (until last year at least) the manufacturer of the "Beats" headphones that all the cool kids seem to be wearing at the moment.


I wasn't aware that it was monster branded, at the time I was looking at replacing a lost pair of $30 logitechs, and went for a pair that had the highest RRP at the lowest sale price. No 57,000kj surge protectors and gold hdmi cables for me, though the $1 hdmi cables do seem to break very easily.

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If you guys want a laugh, try listening to customers talk about headphones.

I've recommended Sony VR-6s to a lot of people, but a lot of them get so focused on Beats. It's a status thing, just like smartphones.

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When mine got clogged up I didn't realize at first and thought the earphone broke on one side like they always eventually do.

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Maes said:

Mind you, I know that there's a lot of snake oil peddling in the audio business

My favourite.

On topic: As others have suggested, I suspect you could get better 'phones for the same or less money, and - echoing BlackFish - Audio Technica is a good place to start, given your budget.

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durian said:

My favourite.

On topic: As others have suggested, I suspect you could get better 'phones for the same or less money, and - echoing BlackFish - Audio Technica is a good place to start, given your budget.


Might as well keep the replacements, if I want better sound on the go I can use these that I have: http://www.sony.com.au/product/mdr-xb500

If I want even better sound I can simply stay home and use my logitech z680 sound system. One of the beauties of not sampling high-end gear is that you're blissfully ignorant of what you're missing out on.

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Bucket said:

How can you be that wrong and breathe at the same time? Put your hands over your ears, does the sound get quieter? That's because sound travels through AIR, genius. Gold's got oxygen in it, it's just super-compressed from being fossilized. THAT SHIT COMES OUT OF THE GROUND AND IT'S OLDER THAN THE UNIVERSE. People in Africa died so I could have superior bass. Unlike them, I live in the future.

you, sir, have just solved the nigga/bling equation. I totally get it now! The more gold you hang from a gangsta, the phatter and more potent his beats become!

Mr. T can probably still hear the echoing birth screams of the universe.

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long story short: grilles block alpha radiation particles so you dont get lung cancer while inhaling aplha particles

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And here I am perfectly happy with my surprisingly high quality 8$ Realtones.

GreyGhost said:

Actually, it gets louder, sort of a dull rumble like an approaching subway train. Maybe I should get my blood pressure checked.


Tensor tympani? I can make the rumble happen in my ears on demand, it's a lot like what you think the inside of your head would sound like if it's a collapsing mine shaft.

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