The Growth of the Portable Earphone Market
Whilst not related to digital photography, I will sometimes sneak in an article about something else that I particularly enjoy. It seems that back in the days of the Sony Walkman, the portable earphones that came with the device were deemed acceptable to most users. It was rare for people to upgrade them to look for better sound quality. Full-size headphones were typically only purchased for use at home, listening to your vinyl collection.
With the advent of the iPod, we now have a device that can carry most (if not all) of our audio collection and capable of delivering very high sound quality (I will leave the discussion of compressed MP3 ‘quality’ to another post!).
As well as looking for higher quality sound, we now listen to our ipods for many hours a day, requiring a more comfortable headphone than the standard earbuds supplied with the iPod. Isolation is also important when in a noisy environment such commuting or at the gym. Being able to block out the background noise is a great way to really appreciate the music more.
This has led to an explosion in the availability of high quality earphones for portable audio use. The range is enormous, from 10 dollar earbud replacements to the range topping Ultimate Ears Custom UE 11 Pro at 1150 dollars!
