“The new EarPods sound way, way better than the old ones. In fact, to my ears, the new EarPods have more bass than a pair of $160 Tour earbuds from Beats by Dr. Dre, which are marketed for their extra bass boom,” Leander Kahney reports for Cult of Mac. “And they cost $130 less to boot.”
“I’ve spent the morning listening to the new EarPods. They sound great. There’s good separation of the instruments and pretty good bass. The bass isn’t as good as that from a pair of AKG K414P headphones, which I used as a reference,” Kahney reports. “But the bass is better than the bass from a pair of Tour earbuds from Beats by Dr. Dre. I listened to some electronica (a mix by Adam Freeland), some classic rock (Martha by Jefferson Airplane, which sounded great) and some reggae (The Pioneer’s Longshot Kick De Bucket, which could would have been bassier. A lot bassier actually). I also watched a couple of TV and movie trailers, including the new Walking Dead trailer.”
Kahney reports, “The EarPods are perfectly comfortable. They are light and airy. They don’t hurt my ears, even after extended listening. They don’t slip out, even when I shake my head.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Teardown of Apple’s EarPods reveals more durable, water-resistant design – September 18, 2012
Wired reviews all-new Apple EarPods: Sleek and comfortable with striking improvements to sound quality – September 14, 2012
Meet the all-new Apple EarPods (with video) – September 13, 2012
I have both And apples are MUCH better then before but no way is the bass better on the apple head sets. Or the overall sound PERIOD.
I will say if you don’t have the right tips on the beats the sound will not be good. Gotta have em in there real snug.
They are ok. Not as good as my $30 Scoche’s though.
MDN is so bias. do you think that $29 piece of shit is better than $300 headphone? everything is good if apple makes? what’s wrong with you? it’s absolutely not. crap is just crap no matter what. stop doing fanboyism. I am sick of you.
Did I miss something. I don’t see MDN making a comment.
If you are sick of MDN, why visit the site? There are plenty of sites out there that try to be objective. MDN doesn’t claim to be. It’s sort of what makes this site fun for Mac fans. There are plenty of sites out there that make fun of Apple products.
well, you are a part of typical apple fanboy. I don’t need to ask your answer because you can’t hear it.
but he’s right- MDN just linked it and said nothing…
edward,
Just go play with yourself will you and don’t waste our time here. You don’t have two brain cells to rub together to make a valid point.
errr… actually he has just the one functioning brain cell now. The other one died of boredom. The last one, sadly, will die of loneliness.
lol!
Macbias u need to shut The fuck up. Apple has a great quality of things and im still damn 100% there new EarPods are way better them dr.dre’s ibeats. So shut up ur fuckin mouth. Your nothin more then a phonie pedo kid.
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Edward – wasn’t he the lead vampire in Twilight?
Oh look, he sparkles!
‘crap is just crap no matter what’
I see you had extensive experience with Samsung products.
Love it! And because something is $300 doesn’t make it good. Like saying a $1200 Windows 8 tablet is better than an iPad.
Dr Dre stuff has long had a reputation as being overpriced, underperforming crap sold to wannabes.
No surprise hear.
dr. Dre didn’t get shot by puff daddy or something (lol) years ago?
You’re new here, aren’t you?
I’m sick of people who don’t read. First paragraph after the opinion quote says: “Leander Kahney reports for Cult of Mac.” NOT MacDailyNews.
And MDN provides the link to the article. READ EDWARD.
edward reads but hardly comprehends. His mind is made up anyways, from every post “everything apple makes is crap”.
“edward”, the anonymous coward, is one of our Samsung-Paid-Trolls by reputation. His hate mongering crap is entirely ignorable and/or deplorable. It’s kind of sad to see Samsung has no QA for the trolls they hire.
This is Gupta-type ranting. There are tons of these anonymous assholes that get their rocks of posting on MDN. They just want to provoke a response. Don’t humor them.
Edward, you are a fucking idiot. Please, do us all a favour and drown yourself.
I’ve got six pairs of Apple earphones that have never been used, along with Shure SE215, Ultimate Ears SuperFi 3 Pro and UE TripleFi 10 Studio in-ear monitors, that’s a price range from around $75-300, and I’ve been listening to music all afternoon through a pair of the new Apple ‘phones with my iPod Classic, playing music of just about every genre, from folk to heavy rock, ripped at 320Kb, and I am astonished at just how good a pair of $30 ‘phones can sound! They really are fantastically good, not quite up there with my TripleFi’s, but they have triple-flange eartips which really seal the ear canal, and give very deep and extended bass, but the Apple ‘phones are very detailed, brushed drums and vocals really shine, it’s only very busy mixes with lots going on that get a bit muddled, which is hardly surprising.
It’s only the fact that a certain amount of background noise leaks through in noisy environments that stops them being my everyday phones of choice, as I frequently operate noisy machinery and my Shures and UE’s block 26dB of background noise, which is a requirement for work.
Edward, blow your stupid, ignorant and ill-informed comments out of your ass.
Hey edward you young troll you. Or are you going to come out as gupta or chris? Is it noon in Korea?
I bought a pair of the ear pods while on a baseball and bbq trip to KC. I think they are fantastic. Very good overall sound and you just can’t beat the for $30. Well worth the money.
I’ve put my ears up to seashells that sound better than Beats.
I bought a pair to use with my 5th gen iPod nano. They DO sound quite good. I like that they sound so good without needing to block out external noise (like “in-ear” headphones do), because when I’m walking down a busy city street, I want to hear those external sounds (for safety). I can barely feel them in my ears (“light and airy” is a good description), so when I use them, it sounds like I’m listening to a nice set of living room speakers. The control buttons on the cord are also much better than before.
They are a bit too loose in my ears, but that’s not different from the previous Apple earbuds. If I’m sitting or walking, they are fine. If I’m running (or it’s very windy outside), they fall out. Interestingly, the right one tends to fall out more. I think it’s because of the larger (and probably heavier) remote control that’s on the right side cord. It seems to swing around more when I’m running, and also catches the wind.
With in-ear headphones that come with three sizes for the rubber “reverse suction-cup” earpiece, I use the largest size. So, I’m guessing my ears are larger than average. I won’t be able to use them when I run (I’ll use my Sony “MDR-E10LP” earbuds), but I think I’ll use them at all other times.
Rode 10 miles on the bike listening to some deep, low end theory music. These bass cabinets rumble so goood..
Really sound much better than my 4S buds.
Who’s Dr. Dre? An audiologist? What?
Sennheiser!
Scheiser!
Gesundheit.
EarPods are absolutely fantastic. A $200 dollar value for just $30.
All those air holes actually work as described too……try covering one up with your finger and you see what difference it makes. Just “Superb Engineering”.
Leander claims, “The new EarPods sound way, way better than the old ones. In fact, to my ears, the new EarPods have more bass than a pair of $160 Tour earbuds from Beats by Dr. Dre, which are marketed for their extra bass boom.”
Well gosh, Leander, where did you get your ears tuned? You publish opinion as fact and expect us all the just trust your golden ears? You offer no published frequency response & total harmonic distortion curves, and thus no way to believe this amateurish review.
Why, why, why, with all this modern technology at our fingertips, are we still acting like black magic voodoo-believing cavemen, spreading opinion and guesstimates as fact?
ARE WE TOO LAZY THESE DAYS TO MEASURE IT AND REPORT THE RESULTS?
I swear the internet could easily be reduced to 1/100th its current number of sites if repetition of corporate news released masquerading as journalism and uninformed opinion parading as reviews were all eliminated. Apple, why don’t you get working on that.
It’s an OPINION piece. How do I know? Oh, I don’t know…… but I think the words “….to my ears….” give it away slightly.
And, what’s that? You want Apple to act as web master? What?
I wonder how “Fanfare for the Common Man” by ELP does with the ear pods.
nice cutting of the quote. you almost included a full sentence in your snippet.
Let me remind you again the full context:
Leander claims, “The new EarPods sound way, way better than the old ones. In fact, to my ears, the new EarPods have more bass than a pair of $160 Tour earbuds from Beats by Dr. Dre, which are marketed for their extra bass boom.”
What does “in fact” give away to you, my friend? Facts, distortions, unsubstantiated guesstimates, or lies? To me it sure seemed like opinion masquerading as fact, but you seem to have gotten something different our of it. Do, please, enlighten us how it is value added for MDN to take a piece that proclaims itself to be “fact”, and then we discover that we and the rest of the planet is just supposed to take it as opinion. It this the best rubbish MDN can dig up?
Quantitative and Qualitative are not the same thing. “Measuring and reporting” gives quantitavie results in the manner of Windoze/PC and Samsung. Qualitative is as it appears in real world usage. Subjective results are denounced by quantitive mindsets and techies, yet “Subjective” is personal and more life like.
I tried them for a while last night I admit they sound good but they started to hurt my ears after a few minutes, not because of the volume but the hard plastic didn’t fit so well. I normally use the old ones with the plastic tips using the smallest size in bed and Bose over ear outside so I think I will stick to that for my noise needs.
Good. Glad to hear it. Now can we move on from the obligatory Apple’s pack-ins suck, when it comes to earbuds. Then again, I never had a prob with the old ones. Nevertheless, I’m really looking forward to purchasing a pair of these beauties. Gawd only knows what it cost to design and produce these, but if it silences the echo chamber with the pack-ins suck bit, it’s money well spent. Thanks again AAPL holders, probably couldn’t have done it without you.
Go Apple!
funny. then you isheep just listen to music with piece of crap even you don’t know how it is bad. pathetic. there is a reason why some headphones are expensive. I think that most of you never bought more than $500 headphone. did you? trust me. you’d better experience how these kind of premium headphone is awesome. you have no idea. well, I don’t need to tell you because you guys are so broke, can’t pay one time to buy any mac or freaking idevices. I think that all of you are just justify, defend apple no matter what they do. you are such a mindless zombies.
Hahahahaha
“B… But… EarPods aren’t as good as headphones that cost over $500!”
Is that all you’ve got? That is weak.
whenever I buy idevices, I just throw away that piece of crap anyway. or give somebody else because I know that it doesn’t make sound good any better. if you think that apple earbud is good, you don’t have a good ear to listen to nice music. I am sorry for you.
You buy I devices, edward? God bless you!
Can we see your birth certificate? Or report card? You’re more cluttered than the old woman in a shoe with 500 cats and no litter.
I found these phones great for the price- especially the bass and isolation. Apps like AudioXciter and Equalizer on my phone make them even better. I highly recommend these apps for any music listening, and the phones are perfect for just sticking in your pocket for whenever you want. Dr. Dre’s stuff is overrated crap. Then again, listen to his music…
FEED ME EDWARD! FEED ME CRAP! I WANT TO EAT CRAP!
Bwahahahahaha!
No, fake ‘edward’: We are all sorry for YOU for missing out. You’ve been wasting your life on the dregs of ripoff scammers. 😯
Edward, read my reply above to your stupid comment.
I compared the new earbuds with a pair of professional Ultimate Ears monitors, and the Apple buds are not lacking by comparison.
As someone who has been going to live concerts for over forty years, and buying and listening to music for longer, and sold audio equipment in the past, I know what sounds good, which you clearly don’t.
Now run away and play on the freeway.
Now that iPhone Friday is over, I’m headed out to the local Apple Store (newly upgraded to 3X its previous space at the local mall) to buy a pair. I liked the previous version, which were comparable to Sony’s high quality bass ear buds I’ve had for yonks. If these are even better, I am even happier. 😀
Not a fan of earbuds. we use Sony cans in the studio. We like ’em
Our whole studio just ditched their Sony cans and and Dr. Dre deep base crap and replaced them with earPods. We have Dr. Dre coming in for an interview, not sure how he’ll react. Will let you know.
The earpods are excellent earbuds for the low price. No surprise, but they aren’t great for cycling or running outdoors, because they are significantly impacted by wind noise. So my in ear noise isolating buds will still be used for those activities. But for the gym or home listening, the earpods are my go to earbuds now.
Just wondering how these compare to the Bose earbuds. Anyone with firsthand experience with both?
I have both the Bose and the Earpods now, and was curious myself. Here’s what I think: The Earpods hold up surprisingly well I feel.
• Both have warm, rich bass. The bass isn’t punchy at all in either, unlike some cheaper headphones I’ve used in the past. But they feel perceptibly different.
• The Earpods are actually louder for the same volume level (I tested this in the iPhone 5 with the iOS Music app and the Spotify apps with the Equalizer in Settings set to both Off and “Bass Booster”)
• The bass in the Bose in-ear headphones (I have the IE2) felt a little “softer” in a way, but not in a bad way at all.
• The Bose has more clarity, especially top-end (higher frequency) clarity — the low-end and high-end frequencies seem much more cleanly separated than the Earpods. The Earpods are perhaps slightly more bassy overall, and the treble and mid-range have a little less separation compared to the Bose.
• If you like your music a little bass-heavy, you might actually prefer the Earpods over the Bose. In my own tests, I felt that I seemed to get a bigger “kick” out of listening to the Bose — even though the bass is perhaps arguably slightly softer, it felt slightly cleaner and therefore came though better, and the net listening experience seemed more pleasing than the Earpods to me (again, this is all subjective. Your mileage may vary)
• The Earpods sound to me (if I can even remember this right) very similar to the older Bose in-ear headphones. (The new one, the IE2 added more top-end clarity I feel, and this I feel is probably the main difference between the Earpods and the Bose IE2)
Bottomline? Earphones are subjective, and you should go listen to the Earpods in your local Apple store to judge for yourself. Here’s my take: the Earpods are the best headphones your can get for this price (and better than many other high-end headphones), and have nice warm, rich bass. If you’re an audiophile on a budget, the Earpods are the ones to get. If you’re looking to spend much more, there are other choices (like the Bose IE2), which felt better to me, but the Earpods hold their own very well against them.
don’t be fooled by the other headphone brands… get Grado’s or get the apple earbuds… I’ve wasted too much money on high-end buds that suck and grados beat the crap out of Dre.
In my opinion the EarPods do sound great. Balanced sound with deep base and rich highs. Stellar work Apple!
Siri said base not bass.
I have both the Ibeats and the new “Earpods” while the Earpods are step-up from the original itouch headphones, they are nowhere near quality in bass to the Ibeats or bose headphones.
This is just purely my opinion