“Apple has certainly improved on the dismal bundled earbuds in terms of fit and output. But that’s not a difficult thing to do. The In-Ear headphones are certainly crisp, and offer more bass than the earbuds, but they don’t offer nearly as much bass and overall fullness of sound that even Ultimate Ears’ $40 Loud Enough earphones do—and those are a pair with a limited volume output to protect your ears. On songs with deep bass, the earphones do not distort—which is good—but they also lack the power to reproduce those low-end frequencies with any real oomph. The result is a fairly flat response, which some audiophiles will actually prefer,” Gideon reports.
“The allure of Apple’s In-Ear Headphones is primarily the in-line remote control and the Voice Memo feature they unlock on the newer iPods. Bass fiends should steer clear, though, as there isn’t much to be had here,” Gideon reports.
Full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gideon sounds like he’s the first one in the room to run over and mash on the “loudness/Mega Bass™” button. That’s not a good thing in an audio reviewer.
Maybe Apple could license “Mega Bass” buttons from Sony!
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Sennheiser CX-300
Any chance of an iPhone version? Or a version that works with all?
From what I have read, I believe they will work for the iPhone much the same as current iPhone headphones work.
Maga Bass is a good thing. It keeps you from having to actually talk to people in social situations.
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(Not to be confused with Mega Bass which is the biggest fish I ever saw.)
I’d rather pay $30-50 for a dongle that could add the remote and microphone to my existing pair of headphones than $80 for the same features on a pair of headphones worse than what I already have…
In audiophile lingo, “flat response” means accurate, un-exaggerated response. This is the first time I’ve heard the term used to criticize an audio product. Where do they get these morons!
It’s comical that an “audio reviewer” would expect serious low-end accuracy or response from a pair of In-Ear headphones–from any manufacturer. It’s just completely counterintuitive to what we know about sound.
Dumb.
“The result is a fairly flat response, which some audiophiles will actually prefer,” Gideon reports”
Guess he’s not an audiophile, nor audio engineer. My guess is a Bass thumper only. One of the A**holes who drives down the road in the car with the the body panels rattling and a muffled Thump, thump as he drives down the street. I want to point out this type of subsonic assault that the car hitters impose on everyone as they pass by is not music. Looking for Headphones that will simulate this subsonic assault in your ears is stupid and damaging to the hearing. But, if you really want to expose your hearing to a damaging subsonic assault why not just strap a couple of Sub-Woofers to your head and ears and turn them up to eleven.
I hate these kinds of mickey-mouse reviews.
The guy takes Apple to task for the *name* of the product because it doesn’t fit into his picky ideas of what correct usage is, but makes all kinds of grammatical and syntactical mistakes himself.
He then ends up dissing them for a “flat” response, even though this is actually *preferred* by audiophiles and anyone who knows anything about music, which he backhandedly mentions at the same time?
This is the kind of customer review you expect on Amazon, not a professional review site.
I won’t paste the same quote here, but I’ll add my few cents. The phrase should be corrected to say that most (if not all) audiophiles would actually prefer that flat response.
Now, the only question is whether these $80 earphones are better, and by how much, than the $40 ones he mentions in his story. And by better, I mean, with flatter response and lower distortion levels.
Wile original iPod/iPhone earphones aren’t all that bad, they are just cheap ordinary earphones. However, $80 is a lot of money for just a pair of earphones with a microphone, therefore, they’d better be flat and crisp.
@Jacob, I think OWC, aka Macsales.com, has a dongle that adds the iPhone mic to any set of headphones, for like $19. Not $50 or anything like it.
they are crap., get yourself some sennheisers instead
well worth it.
Mega Bass is stupid. Clean, clear distortion free, bass is what you look for. Not MEGA BASS.
The iPod is a fine audio component. Treat yourselves to some high-quality sound-isolating earphones from Shure, Ultimate Ears, or Sennheiser.
Even the most expensive earphones are dirt cheap compared to the Least expensive speakers any audiophile would put in their home theater.
What is your hearing worth to you?
Shure SE530’s. Like God cooing in your ears.
Isn’t there something called “EQ” on the iPod/iPhone that lets you adjust the curves to a sound you prefer? Seems like that’s the answer to mr. bass’s review.
<Unrelated> My mom looked at the stereo once, and apparently with fish on her mind asked, “Why does it say Mega Bahss?” Me, “Uh, it’s called Bass, ma. It’s the low stuff.</unrelated>
Maybe he would prefer Apple add a ‘Big Bottom’ feature…
with a bigger sound that leaves others ‘behind’!
Etymotic ER-4s or nothing.
The Dude loves his v-moda Vibe headphones. Good clean sound, good all around sound. The headphones that come with the iPod are intended to get you through until you can plug in some real headphones, or hookup to a full system.
The Dude abides.
@ KevinOpp ,
“Like God cooing in your ears.”
Makes me think of the movie Dogma, where Alanis Morissette is God… and if you heard her speak you would be deafened. lol
Much like real life where, when Alanis sings I am deafened.
The Dude abides.
Wow. I’m getting murdered here.
For the record, I am a former sound engineer and I definitely prefer flat response to “bass thumping” systems. But flat response, as you might note, means an accurate portrayal of all frequencies in the range of human hearing–that includes the frequencies that sub-woofers cover. Only misused subwoofers are distorting the music–there’s absolutely no reason listeners should be deprived of 50Hz when it’s actually in the music. And there’s no way the Apple In-Ear headphones could touch those frequencies. Unfortunately, these earphones, because of their mic, did not lend themselves to proper testing with our Head Acoustics system, but for further information on how we normally test earphones at PCMag, click here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2324419,00.asp
As a final note, I don’t write for Stereophile; I write for people researching consumer electronics–not high-end equipment. No matter how I much I love my own hi-fi equipment at home, I have to consider that my audience may actually like “mega bass” or whatever you like to call it. Most of my reviews tell bass fiends and audiophiles, alike, what to expect.
Cheers,
Tim
@ The Dude–
so the next time i listen to “Jagged little Pill”, is it possible that i create a wormhole that destroys the universe as we know it?
This board would be so much better if it wasn’t dominated by 15 year old Cohen Brothers fans.