Creative Labs EP-630 Noise Isolating Earphones – Black (Eco Packaging)

The creative headphones are designed better, and cost £5 less (always seems the way with Sony). Perfect length cable for pocket or bag, nice weight, very comfortble to wear. Cable feels stronger too.

I got fed up with Sony's ridiculously sized cable, but really loved the sound (actually I'm convinced that phones at 5 x the price of these wouldn't sound better). I spent a long time testing these headphones, comparing them with the Sony's, and honestly couldn't tell the difference in sound. I really listend for it, absolutely sure that there must be something. But no. Excellent bass, deep, strong, rich (etc). Very clear trebles, and everything in between.

The best sound is achieved by choosing the right sized cups for you. You get 3 sizes, and once you have the right one, you'll know. It might take a little while to get used to it feeling as though you have your fingers in your ears, and being able to hear everything internally, like breathing and walking, and zipping up your jacket ... but it tunes out after just a little while, and you never really notice it again. I sometimes put them in my ears with no music on just so I don't have to hear people's inane mobile phone conversations. It's wonderful, and makes your train journey calmer, and more relaxing, just for that.

Highly recommended over the Sony's, over any others in fact. The tech specifications are identical, the quality is absolutely excellent, the price is ... shocking! I used to recommend the Sony's, but now I recommend these to everyone I know now.

Get 'em - you'll love 'em.


Better than I thought   February 18, 2006
S. Grenyer (Hampshire, UK)
298 out of 308 found this review helpful

Just bought a new MP3 player after losing my IPOD shuffle on a business trip. Thought I'd buy a set of earphones and was looking for something not too expensive (certainly not more than the MP3 player to go with it) and one which would help cut out some of the background noise. I'd tried regular ear phones with noise cancellation gadgetry and found the sound to be not very good. Read some reviews on the Shure E2C but thought these were a bit expensive as I didn't know if I'd get along with sticking these things in my ear. Decided to go with the creative Ep-630 as they were affordable and had good reviews.

My first impressions when using them were truly awful. No bass, tinny sound, worse than the headphones the MP3 came with AND the darn things kept falling out...........

THEN I figured out how to fit them properly......WHAT A DIFFERENCE.

I'm a bit of a sound nut but for the money these sound great AND they cut out a lot of the background noise such as car traffic when I'm walking the dog. Will be on a plane at the weekend for 10hrs so these should help with the noise there as well.

How do you fit them.

Well first of all try the various sizes of rubber earbuds until you find the right size for your ear. It took me several goes.

When fitting try the following;

Take your left hand over your head to grab top of your right ear with the left hand's fingers.

Pull the top of right ear up to open up your ear canal

Put your ear phone in while you hold up your ear as above.

While you hold in the ear phone, let go the ear held by left fingers.

Keep pressing the earphone in place with your right hand for a few seconds to let everything settle down as this help the ear "grip" the earphone bud and hold it in place

Do the same thing for the other side .... just use the right hand over the head instead..

If its a good fit you can tell as if you tap the earphone (gently) it feels as if the noise is inside your head. You need to get a good seal to give the right sound with decent bass.

I thought I was fairly intelligent but it took a search on the internet to find these instructions (they're not mine then). Now fitted correctly I'm very impressed.

Would I buy these again......you bet. Highly recommended


Creative CAN do earphones   January 31, 2006
Tom
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

These earphones are truly superb for the price. The sound quality (especially the awesome base) is extremely satisfying and will do justice to any type of music. The noise isolation blocks out pretty much any unwanted sound and doesn't disturb others around you even at decent volume levels. I bought some to go with my Creative Zen mp3 player and they complement it perfectly. Even after prolonged periods of use they remain very confortable. If you're looking for reasonably priced earphones with great sound, look no further, buy these NOW!


Better than the Sony EX-71   November 28, 2005
38 out of 40 found this review helpful

I've had two pairs of Sony EX-71 both of which developed identical faults (lost sound to one earphone due to faulty connection in the cable). I decided that after two pairs developing the same fault, it was a design flaw with that product and I wouldn't buy again.

That said the passive noise reduction and sound quality the Sony EX-71 earphones offer is excellent for commuting (I'm on the tube for 2 hours every working day). After looking at alternatives for a while I noticed the Creative EP-630 earphones and given that they were only £20, took the risk and bought them straight away.

So far, I've found these earphones surprisingly good. They are as comfy as the Sony headphones (which is not surprising since the ear buds seem to be identical). I think audiophiles are dopes, but I can say that I *believe* the sound quality is pretty good from these headphones. I get sufficient bass and there isn't too much screechy treble like you sometimes get with cheaper earphones. In fact, I might even say that the sounds quality is better than the Sony's, since with the Creatives I can actually hear the very quiet digital distortion that I know some of my CD rips have got (from ripping from some specific copy protected CDs).

All this said, I haven't had these long enough to be sure they won't develop similar faults to the Sony's, but at first glance the earphones themselves seem to be of better build quality (nice little grills rather than Sony's wax prone single little holes) and the cable quality seems fine.

One final point, these earphones come with a full length cable and not a short cable with additional cable extender like the Sony EX-71 earphones do. This isn't a problem for me as I don't have an inline remote for my player, but might put some people off as there can be a lot of spare cable to deal with if you do.

All in all a nice little pair of earphones for commuting, and comfortable enough to use for several hours in the office too.