Headphones for the X5? Playing through car stereo?

[neilgunton]

Does anybody have a recommendation for a good pair of "earbud" type earphones which would do the X5 justice? I already have a really nice pair of Sennheiser "ear muff" headphones which I use at home, but I'm looking for something small and light for walking and running - but with excellent sound, obviously.

Also, how do people generally play their units through the car stereo? We have an older Subaru which just has the stock radio and cassette deck. No line in that I can see.

Thanks for any advice!

/Neil

[CrowdAds]

[origami]

do you mean earbuds (same style that usually come free with an mp3 player) or IEMs which are pushed deeper into your ears?

Earbud wise, choices are limited though the yuin pk1s are highly rated at headfi. The cheaper pk2 and 3s are also supposed to be good and are much easier on your pocket.

If you want an IEM (recommended by most) try here http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...hread.php?t=69

hope that helps

[neilgunton]

Thanks for the info, I wasn't even aware of the "IEM" concept. I guess that's what I'm talking about, since at first glance these appear to be lightweight in nature but designed for superior sound. So that's probably the type I'd be interested in.

I guess the next question would be, which of those listed in the thread you referenced would be appropriate for the X5, without going into overkill mode? I want good sound, but obviously I don't want to spend $500 on a pair if a $100 pair would do the job. At what point does the earphone become the limiting factor, as opposed to the X5?

Any ideas on the car stereo question?

Thanks again!

/Neil

[origami]

Originally Posted by neilgunton

I guess the next question would be, which of those listed in the thread you referenced would be appropriate for the X5, without going into overkill mode? I want good sound, but obviously I don't want to spend $500 on a pair if a $100 pair would do the job. At what point does the earphone become the limiting factor, as opposed to the X5?
/Neil

erm, Ive never actually heard an x5 so i cant really advise there. What I can say is that unless you want to go down the custom ear mold route, your spending is kind of limited. I would think that 100-200 USD would probably be a reasonable ammount, but it is very much the case that the more you spend, the more you get.

I think the conventional wisdom is to spend about 1/3 of your budget on source, 1/3 on amplification and 1/3 on speakers or headphones + a bit for cables and interconnects. I prefer to go 1/4 each on source and amp, then 1/2 on speakers/phones and use regular copper speaker cables/ homemade interconnects.

With regards to the stereo, you can either get an FM transmitter (crap) or a tape converter (crap). though if you haven't upgraded your car stereo in any way, it probably doesn't matter. On ballance, I would recomend the FM transmitter. they tend to be a bit less rubbish, and remove the need for cables.