Creative Technology EP-640 Headphones - Excellent Imaging, Frequency Response and Insulation
Written: Oct 27 '08 (Updated Aug 11 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent, detailed sound, imaging, frequency response, insulation, price, comfort
Cons: Need long break-in to sound their best
The Bottom Line: The Creative EP-640 headphones sound great, are stylish and feature excellent noise insulation. I recommend them for use in a gym or in other areas where noise insulation is...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Creative Technology EP-640 Professional Headphones |
Recently I went on one of the mini-shopping sprees for headphones. One of the headphones I got was Creative EP-640. You can never have enough headphones. After getting several enclosed and a few in-ear headphones (Sennheiser HD201, Sennheiser HD202, Koss KSC75, Koss SparkPlug, Philips HS500 among some others), I bought the Creative EP-640 to check out the promised wide frequency range, bass, noise insulation and clarity. After a nonstop 40-hour burn-in in my iPod connected to the AC jack with a power adaptor, the headphones impress me quite a bit.
About Creative EP-640
The Creative EP-640 are in-ear headphones. They come with a small carrying bag, three types of ear pads (medium size installed on the headphones, small and large supplied). The headphones are black, look stylish and have replaceable ear pads (see above).
The claims by Creative are as follows: pristine audio with 9-mm neodymium drivers, in-ear design, clear transmission with gold-plated 1.2mm oxygen-free copper cable, compact size and excellent noise insulation. The replaceable silicone pads are of different sizes to fit your ear (I used the ones that the headphones came pre-attached with).
Some specs: 6-23,000 Hz frequency response, impedance of 16 Ohms, 106 dB sensitivity, 3.5-mm plug for use with portable gear, 9g weight without packaging.
Performance
One thing that immediately attracted my attention was the absence of ports on the headphones. The previous in-ear headphones I used had ports that improved bass, but made it less "tight", reduced overall sound clarity and reduced sound insulation. Covering ports in those headphones produced better sound overall and tighter bass, but much lower bass output.
Well, the lack of ports does not prevent these Creative EP-640s from delivering good bass. And it probably helps with overall sound quality and noise insulation. If you need excellent noise insulation, these headphones work extremely well. They are also much more stylish than the Koss Sparkplug and feel more comfortable.
It is difficult to have compact headphones with powerful bass. Some manufacturers (e.g. Koss with their SparkPlug) employ ports to make bass more powerful, but this makes bass less "tight". Same applies to iSolate headphones I used for a while. The EP-640 is excellent. The bass is powerful and "tighter" than ported designs mentioned above. The treble quality is excellent and the midrange is great. The frequency response seems to be very wide, although I doubt it really goes down to 6 Hz at anywhere near +/- 3 dB.
The imaging and definition are very, very good. Electronic music and (surprise) some simple (fewer instruments) classical music (e.g. E. Bloch Piano + Viola only) sounds great.
Listening to Gogol Bordello, I discovered that the EP-640 have excellent instrument separation in the midbass to midrange, even better than the large enclosed Sennheiser HD-202. EP-640 produce excellent violins as well. There is some congestion in the upper midrange however.
The EP-640 sound pretty warm overall. The only (very small) concern I have is very slightly harsh treble and I wish the bass was slightly tighter.
The volume is pretty loud comparing with some other headphones I have tried. This means they can play loud with portable gear (I use them with my iPod Nano). Overall, with excellent noise insulation, these are good headphones to use in a gym, on a train/plane. I intend to use them while exercising on my rowing machine at home (it is moderately noisy and I used Sennheiser HD202 in the past, but they are too bulky and not really designed for working out).
I also played some Preludes and Overtures of Richard Wagner through my Panasonic SA-XR57 receiver and its headphone jack and compared the EP-640 with Koss KSC75 and Sennheiser HD202. Overall (taking the different sources), the Koss KSC75 sounded the best with open sound, good frequency response and warm sound. The EP-640 did not sound as open as the other two, but had less hollow sound then the HD202 and better lower-end definition.
So, to summarize among these three very different headphones (aside from the similar price range):
Sennheiser HD202 sounds the most open, but a bit hollow and compressed.
Creative EP-640 sounds least open (not surprise since they are in-ear), has best lower end definition and good sound balance and excellent insulation.
Koss KSC75 sound the best overall, with better definition in the mid to upper range and warm overall sound.
The headphones are well-made and should be durable.
Reliability
As of 04/2009, I have had the EP640 for 6 months. The EP640 proved to be durable and reliable.
Bottom Line
The Creative EP-640 headphones sound great, are stylish and feature excellent noise insulation. I recommend them for use in a gym or in other areas where noise insulation is important or elsewhere. I am very impressed with their imaging, frequency response, detailed sound and sound insulation for the price.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
 - Top 10 |
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Location: California
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About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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