COMPLY T-500 HEADPHONE EAR BUD FOAM TIPS

Well here is a surprise!

I purchased a pack of Medium Comply T-500 tips for my beloved Skullcandy Heavy Medal, well beloved until I but Sennheiser (oh no not again) IE-80 or Shure SE 535 or something similar.

There was a pair of Memory Foam Tip included, albeit one and I correctly guessed they were MEDIUM tips lol. I had initially assumed these WERE Comply and looked very much like many photo I have seen of them with their shape, look and patchwork quilt look alternating from matt, porous and shiny surface textures.

I suspect it might be the shiny bits that are key to how they sound but what surprised me was that I expected these to both FEEL the same as the included ones as well as SOUND the same. On the former I was correct in my assumptions but on the latter I was rather shockingly way off the mark!

Basically I HAD to turn the volume down on my Fiio E7 from the usual 42-45 level to around 35-38 and it was on 35 for hours before I upped it a little ... err then dropped it after a track or two, lmao.

Yes they really do improve the sound and I must say that I am very pleased to have my doubts on what I had read previously well and truly quashed!

I have also had many thoughts in the last couple of days wondering if there are a better pair, noise isolation is better than included pair but I can still hear, and what they would sound like on better headphones that have bigger drivers, a la Sennheiser IE80, or MORE drivers, a la Shure SE 425 or 535?!

Oh dear! I will think I will wait a month before deciding whether I want to go down that road of finding out?!

Also in the pictures provided you can see that the back of the pack shows you compatible headphones but PLEASE NOTE mine are not on it?! LMAO. So just because yours are not there do not assume they will not fit!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE GREY PAIR ARE NOT COMPLY! LMAO!

(They came WITH the Skullcandy Heavy Medal)

CASING THE FIIO & SONY WALKMAN by WEIFENG

Well if like me you have been bamboozled looking for a case to house your newly found heavenly sounds that are a Sony Walkman (shudder to owning a Sony again) and your Fiio Portable Amp then I am here to help!

LMAO!

EDIT: Seems hard to find but goes under name of Fancier and I have only found 3 smaller cases of the other 15 they make even for ZOOM DLSRs?!

EDIT: Search for :

Fancier Photo View Accessory Bag/Memory card/Remote/battery holder/Case UK

In fact I bought something that is 99.9% perfect.

Well in fact it would be perfect if bloody Fiio would stop doing what most companies do, are you LISTENING SONY, and act as if Apple are the only people who make portable MP3 players?! I would KILL for a 'L' shaped Line Out lead, like the one they do for the iPod!!!!

Incidentally I tried passing music through the player via the 3.5mm jack as opposed to the Sony dock connector ... DON'T!! JUST DON'T!!! I was amazed at how crap the sound quality was ... I really was as well as the amount of difference too.

For all those out there that returned their portable amps or run them down for being not all that well you must be the ones who refused to pay that extra £5 to £8 for the Line Out lead and ... oh boy what a bloody big mistake you made.

These things are brilliant and I would not go anywhere without them and if I end up leaving the house in a hurry and forgotten to top up their JUICE prior to leaving I am disappointed with myself. Well throwing myself off a bridge like disappointed, lol.

Now yu have to understand that despite owning TWO smartphones and previous phones capable of playing music as well as owning a iPod Classic Video thingy (yes, yes I KNOW) this is the first time I have listened to music while BEING MOBILE! This has become CONSTANT too!!

MANUFACTURER: WEIFENG

(I KNOW NOTHING OF THE MANUFACTURER NOR THERE LOCATION)

(Eagle Eyed: But that is a camera case! ME: No imbecile its just a bloody case! lol)

I am normally dead SET AGAINST Velcro Belt Loops but NOT this time! These are stiff and sturdy and the belt loop attaches to back of case and a loose section loops over for a reassuring hold!

(Now why do other manufacturers do not think of these simple things?!?! i mean these cases DO house expensive gadgets after all!)

 Even the case itself is quite stiff, reassuringly so and good padding too.

That clever loop over part I mentioned. You can see the stiff look of the belt loop and it is as stiff and sturdy as it looks!

A picture of the top with the Fiio E7 & Sony Walkman housed within. Despite how it looks, it is a tight squeeze I admit hence 99.9% perfect, it does zip close easily. This is probably down to the stiff and well made casing.

Side on view with the Fiio E7 and the Walkman is in there as it is never taken OFF the Fiio!! LOL!

Not pushed RIGHT in but to give you an idea. I should ADD that the other end of the two devices does have an 'L' Cable. So should you purchase this when you use NO 'L' Cables whatsoever then it will not fit!!

But then this case may come in other sizes?! Oddly enough this reminds me of what I thought when I was out for the first time with this case ... 'Bloody Hell! I am buying more of these!!' One for my compact Nikon and I may look to see of there are indeed bigger and smaller ones?!

PAIRING THE FIIO AND SONY WALKMAN

Well here is a couple of what I hope to be informative posts regarding PORTABLE MUSIC that in ENJOYABLE within EUROPE?!?!

Eh, EU?! LMAO!

I now have my Sony Walkman NWZ-A845 wrapped in a Silicone case that has slot for an Armband, also included. This has now reduced the need for a couple of things and they pair up back to back while remaining still and sturdy.

See next post for the perfect case for them!

See the post POST that post, lol, to the explanation as the why my Skullcandy Heavy Medal Earbuds have turned RED?!

FIIO E7 PORTABLE HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER

Right some odd things about this one you eagle eyed out there will notice!

This IS a Fiio E7 in all but name ... well it does have a E7 in its name within the PHE7 AB model number that is, lol. To my surprise I fond this on Amazon and I knew immediately that it was a Fiio E7 and I guess the sell a bunch of unbranded ones to someone, Pyle in New York on this occasion, who re-brand them.

This is a common practise and only come about due to the greed that has infected the western world and had everyone send out their manufacturing abroad which has not benefited the country who outsourced and did help the countries who took o the manufacturing. I have a pair of Revelation Astro 15x70 Binoculars and along with them are the Celestron Skymaster 15x70 and Adler Optik Jupiter 15x70 are all made in the same factory in China and there could well be others.

So now that we have that out of the way, as I read someone state somewhere who is obviously devoid of brain matter that someone should send their Pyle E7 back and get the Fiio E7 as they are better. You bloody idiot! LMAO.

Anyway... on first firing up I was appalled at the sound and thought, what the hell?!?! It was utter crap and OK yes it was loud, alot louder yes but all this talk about the volume limiter function I was wary I might blow the headphones apart. No you will not do that and after turning this volume limit ON I then turned it OFF and it stayed OFF, lol.

Then I remembered I had pumped up all the setting on my Sony Walkman NWZ-A845 so went in and turned them all off, changed the Matrix setting to Studio, as only that or NONE improves sound, and dropped all the pumped up equalizers to one above the flat line.

BA-BOOM!!! We was in business!!! Oh boy that was just the ticket. I then went out and about with my new gadgets linked up, using some extra bumf by the way with the Line Out Fiio cable for the Sony dock socket a gold plated 3.5mm jack coupler and the angled 3.5mm jack to jack lead. Rubber band around them and off.

By the time I had been out an hour things sounded even better still and the volume was great. I had also set the equaliser setting on the Fiio, or Pyle, Amplifier to 1 out of the 0-4 settings which all seem to be just bass boosts. On these headphones, the Skullcandy Heavy Medal, these setting seem to be about perfect.

Do not take these as the perfect setting for you if you buy or indeed OWN ALREADY one of these as you will simply have to play around to find them best settings. I have three other headphones here and they are Atomic Floyd Airjax Titanium 2, AiAiAi Y-Connects and old over the ear Koss TNT/88 and I can assure you that what works for one will NOT work for another. I tested all four headphones and on each occasion I had to drastically alter settings on BOTH devices to get a good sound.

In the box you get a thick Velvet type pouch, not BIG enough, a rubber band, you need TWO, and a silicon rubber case. The rubber case is a great inclusion but the others were not thought out and I do not know if this was the fault of Fiio or Pyle on this occasion. My Sony Walkman is VERY THIN but wrapped around the back of the Fiio and it will not go in the pouch so nothing else is likely to either.

The jack sockets on the device are a little temperamental and there is the experimental side of my brain is thinking their could be a way around this. My device had some light scratches on the screen and I wondered if it had been a return or refurbished one but did not say on the advert.

The Fiio E7 normally sells at around £63 to £65 so I was surprised to see this one for £49.99 and was intending to get the E11. I have not found out as yet why the E11 is cheaper than the E7 as normally the model numbers increase in price with the model number.

Anyway after initially reading some bad things about this device AFTER ORDERING IT I will now NOT be sending it back. Over my dead body will I be doing that, oh unless it fails for some reason of course but if it does I will simply get another one and make sure it is better again and with no manufacturing problems.

HOORAY!!

Oddly I started to recall the Pyle name after ordering and realised the first car I eve owned had speakers in it by them?! LOL That was a Vauxhall Viva!!

The cable in the picture is the Line Out and does NOT come with device. If they did it would be a much bigger box with all the necessary cables to all the different docks there are! Around £6 give or take a pound or two.

 Rubber band (see Fiio and says Fiio on the manual too!)

Pyle logo glows pink/red when charging, goes out when full.

Ze BOX!

The Control buttons all together.

The POUCH ... OK for just the AMP!

The silicone case but you GUESS the buttons!

From amp: Jack to Jack-Coupler-Line Out

Need second band as the devices keep moving! Scratches? Nope two pieces rubber between them!

Now you can see the rubbers

Mind you if the band was TIGHTER?!

Skullcandy Heavy Medal Headphones

After realising that my beloved AiAiAis grumbled and complained over Bus rides I knew I would have to replace them at some point.

My many a year want where a pair by Shure and preferably the SE535s. However that was an expense i could not stretch too and likely never will and both Littlewoods and very, very curiously ONLY stock headphones that have a really bad reputation for failing inside a year and are NOT authorised dealers of most of the crap they sell you anyway... so a recipe for disaster and an invite to be ripped off, ignored and then taken to court for a higher amount than the RRP for a refurbished product.

I digress.

I had long visited TK Maxx and browsed there headphones and recently passed up a very nice pair of Philips O'Neills that were £17.50 from £90 odd! Missing bits and cable.

I had also previously seen Skullcandy Full Metal Jackets and many seem to use Skullcandys and had passed up my chance. I had checked them out on Amazon's reviewers, have to be careful with reviewers on headphones, and noticed that the Heavy Medal was the most premium headphones.

A few days back, and just after ordering a Fiio Portable Amplifier to be posted NEXT, I walked into TK Maxx and see a pair of Full Metal Jackets only when I was looking down the side of the hanging rail they were suspended from the box behind stated ... HEAVY MEDAL?! AS the Full Metal Jackets are normally £29.99 I thought these would be £34.99 or even £39.99 and as I had just spent £50 I started to curse not waiting on the other order.

I checked to see if there were any other pairs of these with the option of hiding one at the back of the shelf somewhere, lol very sad, when I suddenly noticed that they were priced up at £19.99?!

I then spotted they have a pair of tips looking like Comply Memory Foams and that was it, I was holding them tight and hobbling towards the queue.

They are made of metal and are bizarrely light. Carry tin is metal too as are the other parts that appear metal. The tips are better than I thought they would be, a little fiddly but less so than the yellow tips that came with the AiAiAis. I am not sure what size the foam tips are and it does not state this, annoyingly as I still do not know which size to order which I will need to do in a couple of weeks.

The tips do not block out all sound and I know this due to the gaps between tracks and I will get into that with the next post!

They sound great and ever so slightly better that the AiAiAis and in all honesty I have not tried the silicone nor the triple flange tips yet but will tomorrow.

A local store had a pair of Atomic Floyd MiniDarts and now have Atomic Floyd Superdarts which I would have bought in a couple of weeks. So saved myself a whole heap of cash on these, unless they fail within two weeks of course, lol.

I hope not as I really do feel nothing at all when they are inserted in the ear. I know not that they are there and only the music lets me know they are still in place.

Also my left ear has pressure trouble and using the silicone tips of any kind is damned annoying as I have to push and pull them around in y left ear to stop the ear from popping and losing 50% or more of my hearing on that side. I do not have this with the right side which is slightly down on hearing... ohhh long story. No pressure troubles with these tips which are exactly what I had hoped and more.

These are pretty decent headphones before you go into ORBIT on pricing and they have an oversized driver which is around 13.5mm and on the pricier headphones I have seen 9mm to 11mm so this was a surprise.

Nice and will suit me well in case of any 6 hour coach journeys I might have to take in 2013!

Along with the Headphone Amplifier these two seemed to get better as time went on while I was out and about listening to them. Yes I have read about this umm warming up thing people refer to but I do not know which models of headphone it applies to, like only expensive cutting edge models, or whether or not it is just anal talk but audiophiles that are anything but and a PLACEBO effect going on and really its just your ears getting used to the new sounds and frequencies.

Well something was definitely going on even if I cannot say with any certainty what it was!

Hmm only does make me wonder what the Shures and Westones would sound like though?! LOL.

My Logik DAB Radio

I got this thing cheap and love it. Looks cool with that pine and silver design!

Normally had finances, due to the government, been different I would have bought a Roberts or a Pure DAB Radio but this was silly cheap and looked cool as well as matching my house and furniture!

Think I paid £17.56 for it.

If I am not listening to Planet Rock Radio or that Arrow then i am normally listening to LBC or even as I am about to do in the bath listening to the match between my beloved pains in the arse Spur v. Everton!

Well made for the money and works better than a Technika one I have upstairs as my alarm clock radio. This one goes one better has stereo speakers too!

KOSS TNT88 HEADPHONES with PHOTOS!!

I forgot I had these and dug them out this morning and thought I would show you how headphones SHOULD be made and USED to be made.

I understand that these were a popular favourite way back then and that Koss were one of the top, if not THE top, headphone manufacturers of the time.

They are mint condition and I plugged them into my Sony Walkman NWZ's and am currently listening to Cream's White Room on them! THEY SOUND GREAT!! LMAO!

Hmm I wonder if classic headphones can become antique and collectable?! Hehehe!

But then I also wonder what I would have to spend today to get a BETTER sound while being just as reliable?!?!


This is why I have lambasted many headphones lately costing anywhere between £80 to £350 for their absolutely fragile and faulty manufacture. These Koss were around £60 to £80 back then and the Jeklyn Float were about £150, though I loved that Doctor Who Cyberman like design of the Floats.

My brother bought there many years ago and ended up with Jeklyn Float Headphones and I inherited these. Did not know a great deal about them or other headphones at the time but I loved them and have had these since before my daughter was born who is a few months away from 20 years of age!


I had to give them a bit of a wipe down as they have been gathering dust for several years and I can see fron the photos below I missed some of the dust, plus the hair and dust on the headband?! LOL. Every part of these are present and correct and even the leather is tip-top.