Purchase and Receipt:
My Shure SE215 were stolen last week and I wanted a very cheap temporary replacement with over the ear cable routing. I have seen the hype and the hand waving and smelled the BS, but also noticed some reasonable people say some reasonable things about these so thought they would be worth a try.
I bought these on Amazon UK from the Monoprice UK marketplace seller (fulfilled by Amazon). They cost £5.31 which at the moment is US $8.23. Delivery was free.
They arrived boxed, with medium size tips attached and a small packet containing one pair each of small and large silicone tips. The model number is MEP-933 and these are the metallic looking style with fabric covered cord.
First Impressions and Fit:
These are big for an In Ear Monitor. The driver is very large for this type of 'phone, so the housing is correspondingly large and the tube which holds the eartip is quite long and unusually angled. The silicone tips sit right on the end.
The cable is fabric covered and routes up and back over the ear. It is shorter than usual for this type of design and at its limit when you take your player out of a trouser pocket or unclip it from a belt or waistband. This is acceptable but not ideal. This is the most tangle prone cable I have encountered. Usually this type of design has a slider on the cable so the cable can be kept snug against the back of the neck. This prevents noise from the cable (often called microphonics) and keeps things tidy and convenient. The Monoprice cable has no such sliding keeper. It doesn't seem important until absent at which point the absence is constantly irritating and inconvenient as the cable slips off the ear and twists and tangles. A zip tie with any excess trimmed does just as well. The cost to a manufacturer of doing this properly could only be in fractions of a penny so the omission looks mean.
I suppose my ears are medium to large because I have no trouble accommodating these IEMs in my ears and they are perfectly comfortable in normal use. They are extremely light. The tips don't go deep into the ear but are sit in the ear canal entrance and should seal it. Despite the size these don't protrude but sit flush inside the shell of the ear. At first glance these might appeal to anyone who likes to fall asleep with earphones in, however the point where the cable exits is designed without regard to the shape of the ear. It does press onto the ear, there is no avoiding it, and over time causes a pressure point.
The product description/name/claim "Noise Isolating" is a bit misleading. Almost any other IEM will offer as much or usually more isolation than these. As well as failing to isolate you from external noise the Monoprices also leak sound - people nearby can hear your music. If you expect the kind of isolation offered by Shure, Klipsch and Etymotic IEMs you will be disappointed. Probably the worst aspect of poor isolation is that to mask external noise you tend to raise the volume to extremely high levels without realising it has become loud enough to damage your hearing. These Monoprices are sensitive enough that they can be driven very loud indeed even with a small player so if you need IEMs for use in a noisy environment then avoid these or risk hearing damage.
Sound Quality:
NOTE: HUGE EDIT!! I've now spent many hours with these and have tried them with a wide variety of music and they fail so badly in important areas that I have had to rewrite this review to reflect this..
To clarify: I have used these with the supplied tips, with Sennheiser tips, and with Comply TX-400 tips. With the Monoprice and Sennheiser tips I have also used them modified with material from foam earplugs. I am perfectly familiar with getting and recognising a good seal. With the Comply tips there is no doubt that the foam tips expanding to fill the ear canal makes a very good seal. The modified silicone tips also work really well. The deficiencies I describe in this review are not related to seal or fit issues. I used the Monoprices with good quality sources: iRiver H140 and H340 and a Sansa Fuze+ (all Rockboxed) and also with a Yamaha Home Theatre receiver connected via TOSLINK to my PC. My music files are lossless, flac ripped from CD.
These Monoprice IEMs have severe defects which are especially obvious when listening to unamplified voices or unamplified instruments. These Monoprices are quite tolerable for short periods with amplified music, and especially electronic musc where natural tones are absent but even then the harsh, unconvincing mid highs become intolerable. I was trying to like these but it isn't possible. I played my lossless rip of my CD of "Christopher Gibbons: Motets, Anthems, Fantasias & Voluntaries" and this was the final proof that these IEMs are irredeemably terrible. This is an album of beautiful solo and choral works and consort music, so there are some exceptional singers supported by a small ensemble of players. It is music composed for the acoustic of an English church (a stone chamber with long decays and reverberations) and was recorded brilliantly in such a place. With good or even just modest headphones it sounds fantastic. Unfortunately these Monoprices produce a hideous and ugly sound as they fail to even begin to offer any lifelike reproduction of natural tones. Out of curiosity I found my iRiver ear buds from about 8 years ago that were supplied with my 2005 model iRiver H340. In 2005 these were low end Sennheiser buds rebranded for iRiver player, real throwaway stuff. They sound way better than the Monoprices! My even more ancient Sennheiser MX-5 buds (good quality buds from the 1990s) were better again. My 2009 Sennheiser CX 95 IEMs sound utterly fabulous in comparison with these Monoprices on this kind of material. Next to the Monoprices my Koss KSC75 seem like they arrived from heaven carried by a unicorn and sprinkled with magic pixie dust. I am sorry to say it but unless you only ever listen to artificial and over produced sounds that are all bass and top end then these Monoprices don't belong in your ears but in the trash, they are that bad. They are easily outperformed by disposable OEM earbuds from decades past, the kind of things people throw out, and so massively outperformed by very modest modern IEMs and portable headphones that any money spent on them is money wasted.
These earphones are horrible, hideous and not worth even their tiny price.
Monoprice 8320? Bleeeuuurggh.
edit: I had another session with these, taking some time with parametric eq to see if/how they could be made usable. It is possible to tame the huge spike at 3000 Hz and to introduce a little warmth at the bottom end but eq only corrects frequency response, it can't help with ringing, distortion, imbalance and other issues and these still sound like ess aich eye tee even with a seemingly quite balanced tone. And it gets worse: what became apparent with attentive listening is that the left and right drivers are seriously unbalanced, one being obviously much louder than the other! These things have not a single positive attribute and the people hyping them (the same few who regularly hype mediocre and poor products) ought to be embarrassed, and a lot quieter too. My advice is to look at the people who started the hype on these, look at the other stuff they relentlessly hype (usually just ordinary or below average even for budget gear), remember their names and in future ignore everything they say.
My Shure SE215 were stolen last week and I wanted a very cheap temporary replacement with over the ear cable routing. I have seen the hype and the hand waving and smelled the BS, but also noticed some reasonable people say some reasonable things about these so thought they would be worth a try.
I bought these on Amazon UK from the Monoprice UK marketplace seller (fulfilled by Amazon). They cost £5.31 which at the moment is US $8.23. Delivery was free.
They arrived boxed, with medium size tips attached and a small packet containing one pair each of small and large silicone tips. The model number is MEP-933 and these are the metallic looking style with fabric covered cord.
First Impressions and Fit:
These are big for an In Ear Monitor. The driver is very large for this type of 'phone, so the housing is correspondingly large and the tube which holds the eartip is quite long and unusually angled. The silicone tips sit right on the end.
The cable is fabric covered and routes up and back over the ear. It is shorter than usual for this type of design and at its limit when you take your player out of a trouser pocket or unclip it from a belt or waistband. This is acceptable but not ideal. This is the most tangle prone cable I have encountered. Usually this type of design has a slider on the cable so the cable can be kept snug against the back of the neck. This prevents noise from the cable (often called microphonics) and keeps things tidy and convenient. The Monoprice cable has no such sliding keeper. It doesn't seem important until absent at which point the absence is constantly irritating and inconvenient as the cable slips off the ear and twists and tangles. A zip tie with any excess trimmed does just as well. The cost to a manufacturer of doing this properly could only be in fractions of a penny so the omission looks mean.
I suppose my ears are medium to large because I have no trouble accommodating these IEMs in my ears and they are perfectly comfortable in normal use. They are extremely light. The tips don't go deep into the ear but are sit in the ear canal entrance and should seal it. Despite the size these don't protrude but sit flush inside the shell of the ear. At first glance these might appeal to anyone who likes to fall asleep with earphones in, however the point where the cable exits is designed without regard to the shape of the ear. It does press onto the ear, there is no avoiding it, and over time causes a pressure point.
The product description/name/claim "Noise Isolating" is a bit misleading. Almost any other IEM will offer as much or usually more isolation than these. As well as failing to isolate you from external noise the Monoprices also leak sound - people nearby can hear your music. If you expect the kind of isolation offered by Shure, Klipsch and Etymotic IEMs you will be disappointed. Probably the worst aspect of poor isolation is that to mask external noise you tend to raise the volume to extremely high levels without realising it has become loud enough to damage your hearing. These Monoprices are sensitive enough that they can be driven very loud indeed even with a small player so if you need IEMs for use in a noisy environment then avoid these or risk hearing damage.
Sound Quality:
NOTE: HUGE EDIT!! I've now spent many hours with these and have tried them with a wide variety of music and they fail so badly in important areas that I have had to rewrite this review to reflect this..
To clarify: I have used these with the supplied tips, with Sennheiser tips, and with Comply TX-400 tips. With the Monoprice and Sennheiser tips I have also used them modified with material from foam earplugs. I am perfectly familiar with getting and recognising a good seal. With the Comply tips there is no doubt that the foam tips expanding to fill the ear canal makes a very good seal. The modified silicone tips also work really well. The deficiencies I describe in this review are not related to seal or fit issues. I used the Monoprices with good quality sources: iRiver H140 and H340 and a Sansa Fuze+ (all Rockboxed) and also with a Yamaha Home Theatre receiver connected via TOSLINK to my PC. My music files are lossless, flac ripped from CD.
These Monoprice IEMs have severe defects which are especially obvious when listening to unamplified voices or unamplified instruments. These Monoprices are quite tolerable for short periods with amplified music, and especially electronic musc where natural tones are absent but even then the harsh, unconvincing mid highs become intolerable. I was trying to like these but it isn't possible. I played my lossless rip of my CD of "Christopher Gibbons: Motets, Anthems, Fantasias & Voluntaries" and this was the final proof that these IEMs are irredeemably terrible. This is an album of beautiful solo and choral works and consort music, so there are some exceptional singers supported by a small ensemble of players. It is music composed for the acoustic of an English church (a stone chamber with long decays and reverberations) and was recorded brilliantly in such a place. With good or even just modest headphones it sounds fantastic. Unfortunately these Monoprices produce a hideous and ugly sound as they fail to even begin to offer any lifelike reproduction of natural tones. Out of curiosity I found my iRiver ear buds from about 8 years ago that were supplied with my 2005 model iRiver H340. In 2005 these were low end Sennheiser buds rebranded for iRiver player, real throwaway stuff. They sound way better than the Monoprices! My even more ancient Sennheiser MX-5 buds (good quality buds from the 1990s) were better again. My 2009 Sennheiser CX 95 IEMs sound utterly fabulous in comparison with these Monoprices on this kind of material. Next to the Monoprices my Koss KSC75 seem like they arrived from heaven carried by a unicorn and sprinkled with magic pixie dust. I am sorry to say it but unless you only ever listen to artificial and over produced sounds that are all bass and top end then these Monoprices don't belong in your ears but in the trash, they are that bad. They are easily outperformed by disposable OEM earbuds from decades past, the kind of things people throw out, and so massively outperformed by very modest modern IEMs and portable headphones that any money spent on them is money wasted.
These earphones are horrible, hideous and not worth even their tiny price.
Monoprice 8320? Bleeeuuurggh.
edit: I had another session with these, taking some time with parametric eq to see if/how they could be made usable. It is possible to tame the huge spike at 3000 Hz and to introduce a little warmth at the bottom end but eq only corrects frequency response, it can't help with ringing, distortion, imbalance and other issues and these still sound like ess aich eye tee even with a seemingly quite balanced tone. And it gets worse: what became apparent with attentive listening is that the left and right drivers are seriously unbalanced, one being obviously much louder than the other! These things have not a single positive attribute and the people hyping them (the same few who regularly hype mediocre and poor products) ought to be embarrassed, and a lot quieter too. My advice is to look at the people who started the hype on these, look at the other stuff they relentlessly hype (usually just ordinary or below average even for budget gear), remember their names and in future ignore everything they say.
. 
