I had the pleasure of checking on a unique pair of headphones for the past month and below are my thoughts. Initially, I thought they were just a regular pair of mundane in-ear buds like many you can from other headphone manufacturers like Beats, Sony, or Bose. Honestly, I wasn’t that wrong, but I wasn’t right either…
The Good:
Customobility. I feel like I made that word up, but I don’t care. Long story short, for being a really simple pair of in-ear headphones, they offer quite a bit of customization options. Not just the size of the ear tips either which come in XS, S, M, and L. But the eartips actually swivel. This is important because this is the main reason why I’m not such a big fan of in-ear headphones. I can never quite get the earbuds to sit comfortably in my ear and these swiveling tips really helped. Another big deal was the “c-tips” that kind of hook onto the curvature of your ears. They also have different sizes here as well so they’ve got most ears covered. I was a little skeptical at first, but they did go a long way in providing comfort and for stopping the headphones from completely dropping out of my ear every time I turned my head. Lastly, they have some cool colors. I got a white pair and I’m giving away the red pair. Check out details below.
The Bad:
The mic wasn’t very convincing and I ended up not using it at all. Granted, I live in NY and there is always tons of ambient noise so this is a factor. But if you are in a busy city like me, you may end up having to take the headphones out and speaking into your phone normally.
The “c-tips” I added to “The Good” section because they were useful. However, if your jogging, working out, riding in a packed subway, or doing any other activity that causes large movements they really didn’t help as much as I’d like. The cord would get trapped on my bag or jacket button and would plop right out of my ear. Now this is more of a mark against cord based headphones in general than a knock against Audio-Technica. I really don’t see this problem going away for cord-based headphones.
I did like the volume notch on the side of the mic, but it was really easy to move so every time I’d start my music, the volume was either too low or too high because the notch wasn’t where I left it. I advise caution here.
Summary:
A cut above the rest I’d say, but not by leaps and bounds I’m afraid. If you’re just looking for some inexpensive headphones that will take you from point A to point B I’d say these are a good choice since they offer better than normal comfort and versatility. Sound is not going to be ear melting and there really aren’t any other features that will fulfill your wildest audiophile dreams. You’ll need to come out the pockets a little more if you want that, but they are a great middle-of-the-road headphones for a normal commute.
Win a Pair!
I do have an extra pair sitting here and I’d love to give it a way. Just write in the comments, tweet, facebook or other social media that you see this post on why you need these headphones before March 31st. I’ll get in touch and send them over!
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