Just the right earbuds for today's bass heavy youth.

There is no way getting around it. Finding the right earbuds is just like choosing underwear. There's a lot of trying out brands and styles before you find the right pair for you. And what works well for one person may not work well for everyone.

Christmas-time 2006 brought a brand new pair of earbuds of the jWIN iLuv 301 white variety from my wife. She told me she didn't want to spring the cash for Bose. I guess I know where I stand.

Opening the package revealed the buds, 2 other earbud rubber sizers, and marketing propaganda for other jWIN items.

I'm very picky about my audio (partly because it's what I do for a living) and know that my ears are naturally bassy. Putting the buds on as speced out of the package lasted about 3 seconds in my ear. I normally run my video iPod with EQ off knowing that I've EQ-ed everything within iTunes before exporting it. To make the buds fit better, I changed them to the smaller set. I then went into my iPod EQ settings and experimented with "treble booster" and "bass reducer". There was just no making them sound better. There was just booming bass coming from these buds. Back into the package they go and back they will get returned. If my wife won't do it, I'll have to buy myself the Bose (or something equivalent).

The packaging is great in that it shows you exactly what you'll get. The 3 sizes of ear tips that it comes with reminds me of tilt steering; once you get the steering wheel just right, why would you want to move it? The volume control in line seems a little redundant in that the volume control on an iPod is really accessible. It also seems to add unneeded weight to the cables.

At $10-$20, these are priced in range for exactly what you get. For someone who thinks bass is only one part of the musical mix, you will want to look elsewhere.