9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Everything I needed for Under $20
Date of Review: Oct 24, 2006
The Bottom Line: At $20 this product is hard to rival. Crisp sounds and wide frequancy range might just surprise you. From joggers to desk jockeys, these headphones work beautifully.
After using my previous pair of cheap ear-bud headphones for the past year, I ran into circumstances demanding I have headphones with their own volume control. After making the rounds to all the local retailers and doing some online research of my own I decided on this particular model.
I've only been using them for the last day but can all ready make some observations about the headphones themselves.
Comfort & Design:
These headphones rate about a 7 or 8 on the comfort scale of 1 to 10. They are left and right marked so both buds have that odd shape that either works for you or doesn't. My ears have always been on the smaller size so I have to be careful when buying new buds and I'm always leary about what they'll feel like after an hour or two but after having them in for a straight 5 hours now they are still comfortable enough for continuous wear. That alone makes or breaks a pair of headphones for me so we're all ready on to a good start.
These headphones also have a very thick, sturdy feeling wire that is a bit heavier then I am used to but fine for desk use. However, I can see a potential problem using this particular pair to jog with as the cord may be a bit too short, (as the split is a little higher up then most pairs I've owned - most likely due to the addition of the volume control.)
To talk about the volume control for a moment, it is very small and easy to use with my smaller hands but I wonder if someone with thicker hands might have a problem using it - especially while on the go. Another thing I've noticed is that while the max volume on this control is actually quiet loud, the minimum volume isn't really as quiet as I would expect, or even kind of like it to be.
Sound Quality:
First, I should say that I've only tested these with my XM radio thus far. The good news about this is that they really do provide a crisp, realistic sound with deep base notes and a good handling of both middle and high frequancies. The bad is that I don't know how well they can handle a more mundane portable radio. But I'm sure the quality would translate well - leading to a very well balanced and hard to rival sound quality in this price bracket.
