Monster Turbine In-Ear Headphones

After a burn-in period over night, I have to say that these are the best IEMs I've ever listened to.  Now, to be honest, you may need to take that with a grain of salt considering I'm only coming from a pair of JVC Marshmallows, and these Turbines will be my first foray into high-end IEMs.  Be that as it may, I believe the Turbines are the IEMs to beat at their price point.  They provide an ample amount of bass as well as bright highs, however the mids are just a touch recessed if I'm being honest.  The sound stage is quite good and opened up even a bit more after being amped, and even though I do have these amped now, they really don't need it all that much.  If you can snatch these up at around $100-$125, I absolutely would.

The Monster Turbine in-ear headphones are very good bang-for-your-buck IEMs.  The bass seems slightly more powerful than other aspects of the sound signature to me, but some people like this type of sound and to be fair the bass is not bad.  Let me explain: some cheap earbuds have one generic bass sound.  Skullcandies have a kettle-drum BOOM.  Urban Ears have a pleasent THUMP.  Turbines have it all- they replicate many different bass sounds with relatively accurate precision (and yes, accuracy and precision are too different things).  The mids on the Turbines are also good- they lack some of the crunch that make some earbuds so fun, but they are pretty accurate and certainly not in any way disappointing.

The highs fluxuate.  On hip hop, rap, R&B, and other high-hat heavy genres the highs sound good.  On some classic rock or classical, they sound less so.  They are never shrill or painful, though.

The panning is not very exciting.  Sennheiser products tend (IMO) to exagerate the soundscape, whereas these seem to underperform where soundstaging is concerned.  However, they occaisionaly sound absolutely superb (like on the Bride and Prejudice soundtrack) so really, again, these earbuds seem to live up to my summary of "quite decent."

The build is tough, but it is far too heavy as a result.  Heavy earbuds can get uncomfortable, and hanging one earbud while listening to the other doesn't work because the hanging but is so heavy it pulls the other out of your ear.

The wire could be thicker, or even removable. Mine just broke after four months of four to five hour a day use, and I'm going to sauter it this weekend.

So, to conclude, these earbuds are superbly moderate, fantasticaly decent, and pretty much worth exactly (no more and no less) than what you paid for them.

Also, the buds themselves do not stay in my ears well at all.

One last note- this earbuds have amazing noise cancelation.  They isolate more than some active noise isolating buds I've tried.

Sorry for the typos and I hope this helped,

-Me

The Turbines are so-so IEMs with muddy sound that left me fairly disappointed.

BUILD: 

The build on the Turbines is stellar. I purchased these before I began taking-care of my belongings, and they survived even the heaviest abuse. They've been crammed in pockets, run through the washing machine, and dropped countless times, and they still look brand new. The metal buds are extremely durable, fairly heavy, and just feel expensive. They're also very beautiful, and fun to touch. 

SOUND: 

This is where the Turbine falls short. The sound is not bad, but it is beat by many cheaper IEMs. The bass is very heavy, and is almost always out-of-control. The mids are the best part of the Turbine's sound, but they are often destroyed by the overpowering bass. The highs are very disappointing, to say the least. Crash cymbals, screams, and synthesizers sound as if they're being muffled by a pillow. Even though the sound quality is nothing remarkable, the noise isolation is phenomenal. Even the noisiest buses are made nearly silent by the incredible Monster Super Tips. I often stick these in my ears while I'm drumming, because they isolate noise better than ear-plugs do. 

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

The Monster Turbines look and feel expensive, but they do not sound the same way. To the average listener who is often in noisy places, the Turbine is a fairly decent pair of IEMs. Unfortunately, with so many other IEM options (most of which are much cheaper), I cannot recommend these to anyone.

ok first off this is my first review on ANYTHING. so bare with me if its dumb. but let me just say im no audiophile and im not rich and cant afford to try alot of different phones. im just a guy who hates getting swindled. so thats why i do tons and tons of independant research before i buy any kind of electronic. with the turbines, i would seriously say i have read at least 75-80 reviews on them AND the pro copper/golds, from alot of different websites, i researched them against different types of phones and i even looked at the more scientific side of things like ohms and output impedance and stuff like that. the monster family of phones get a overall positive feedback amungst the internet community very consistantly. so i decided to get them finally( after about 2yrs of desiring them). like i said above the packaging and the accessories are very very good. the design of the phones are awesome. now ive read enough reviews to know that iem's are a very different expirence for each person, so i just wanna tell you about mine with the turbines. the fit is wayyyyyy to finicky if you look down the sound changes, because the seal changes in you ear. and the pressure that these put in your ear is so immence that i feel it is hindering the ability to hear the music properly. when im pressing these into my ear the pressure created is so much that it can completely mute the earphone until you back it out a little. seriously, i never felt like the fit was correct and i have fiddled with them for ever. i even bought the 20 dollar set of super tips from best buy, same crap wayyy too much pressure in my ears. when ever i finally got them to feel decent, and try to analyse the sound quality i found that the bass is the only thing about these phones that even remotely stands out as being a better than the average phone. the highs are regular as hell and i think the mids are plain as hell too. and the soundstage is so small there is none. it does not feel as if your surrounded by music.its a very tight close up short sound overall and the bass sounds to me like the range is lower than ive heard from any other phone of mine. but range and impact are two very different things. the bass never blew me away at all. these did not sound like in ear speakers to me. at all. and after wearing them even with the smallest tips for 6 hrs or so they hurt. and its not the weight of them its the diameter of the bud. it felt like it was gaping my ear canal. bottom line... i wanted sooooo so baldy to like these, but that pressure in my ears killed it for me. i feel it contributed to not hearing the audio like i was supposed to. its seriously felt like the seal was so tight that the trapped air between the bud and my ear drum was creating some kind of pressure sound filter....i know that doesnt make sence but thats how it felt.