At the beginning of May I had a meeting with the guy who was our Lab Tech while I was in college studying Audio Recording. Both of us are no longer in the industry, but we spent a good amount of time talking about how much the consumerization of audio has changed where the transducer industry is going.1 During that conversation he mentioned that you could get a great deal ($13.99) on a pretty good pair of in-ear, noise-isolating2 headphones at Monoprice.
I'm super easily distracted when working (I have a curious brain) so, I decided to try them out, and despite the fact that they're always wiggling around in my ear canals, I really like them. These are not the best in-ears out there, but for under $15, they are a great deal. The low-end usually overwhelms the mids and highs, so I just turn on the “Bass Reducer” EQ preset on Spotify/iTunes/Apple Music. Then things sounds pretty great (again, for $15).
In fact, as I'm writing this I'm sitting up at the cabin my in-laws rent reading and typing from the kitchen table while the rest of the adults watch The Bourne Supremacy about 10 feet away and I have been focused on reading and writing since I took out the earpods and put these in. I'd highly recommend you check out these if you're easily distracted by sounds and need to work remotely often.
07-15-2015 09:50 PM: It looks like the headphones are temporarily on sale for $10 – you may want to get them now!
Hi-Fi Reflective Sound Technology Earphones w/ Microphone-Black/Bronze – Monoprice.com
- BLUE Microphones will always be a professional brand that happens to make some consumer products in my mind. I remember when the Mouse and Dragonfly were the two cheapest mics that they made. And let's not forget about their short-lived Red Microphones. A few years ago, even though had stopped recording years earlier, I picked up a Blue Kiwi as it was always my dream mic and I found one for an incredible deal. ↩
- Note these are noise-isolating, not noise-canceling. Noise-cancelation makes me feel queasy due to the phase-cancelation techniques it uses. I'm all about passive noise-isolation. ↩
Sweetness of Freedom 