Just purchased a set of these today after much frustration trying to find a decent pair of in ear headphones.
I'm probably the furthest thing from an audiophile there is, for me music doesn't need to be tuned to the Nth degree of perfection as long as the sound I get from a pair of headphones is nice and vibrant I'm content.
The main types of music I listen to are Dance and Rock and having tried these out for a few hours I'm relatively impressed although it's early days yet as bitter experience has taught me.
To give some context to the above comment previously I've had the bog standard and quite pathetic apple headphone which came with my first gen iPod Touch and then the ones supplied with both my 3G & 3GS iPhone's.
To say they were bad is a gross understatement, so the first thing I made sure of doing when I first got my 3G was to upgrade my headphones, the first set I purchased were the step up from the standard issue you get from Apple instead of the open ear bud these were the first gen Apple sound isolating in ear buds, that was a waste of 45.00 as while they may have cut out the surrounding noise the sound quality was no better than the standard issue buds plus they were agony to wear for more than 30 mins.
After that I decided to stop messing around with sub 150.00 headphones the first set I bought were V-Moda Vibe Duos, in all fairness the sound was excellent compared to what I'd been used to, I still believe they are some of the best sounding headphones in that price range I've ever owned they are bass heavy for some tastes but that's the way I like my music, sadly the build quality on V-Modas is shocking the first set's left earbud died after 2 months of moderate use so I returned them to the Apple store and exchanged them for a new set which now had a modification to the design of the phono jack they worked for a month then the left bud went again.
I returned them & traded them in for a set of Sony's and store credit the Sony's were OK but a bit flat, so I saved up and bought a set of Atomic Floyd High Def Drum's, they had all the features of the V-Modas but were built to last a nuke, all parts were made from near solid stainless steel including the Jack they didn't sound quite as good as the V-Modas but they were good and would hold up to just about anything except my cat who chewed through every wire on them overnight to the extent that one of the buds died.
So back to using the Sony's I went, when my fiancee asked what I'd like for my birthday about a month back my first thought was headphones so she got me a set of Ultimate Ears Superfi 4's, they might have had no in line remote or mic but the sound was way better than my worn out Sony's which had promptly packed it in by that point anyway.
As I said the sound was good not much in the way of bass to speak of but beggars can't be choosers, then two weeks after getting them the left earbud started crackling, it got to the stage within 2 days that I had to constantly wiggle the phono jack just to get sound through the left channel then it died and I couldn.t send them back as my fiancee had chucked out her receipt.
Now at this point you can understand my exasperation with 150.00 headphones all of which (save for the Atomic Floyd's) could have easily been outdone in build quality by a cheap 20.00 set of headphones.
One thing I noticed was that the Monster Beats & Diddy Beats headphones with control talk had an L shaped phono plug I'm hoping that will alleviate this problem as all the other sets had straight plugs which would have suffered greater stress due to the exposed jack hence causing the left bud to die, the only set not suffering this was the Atomic's and only because they had the common sense to make the jack from near solid steel which I would have thought would come as standard on all headphones at this price bracket.
Anyhow rant over that's why I now have a set of Diddy Beats, ludicrous name aside, the build quality feels nearer the Atomic's however time will tell, they are aesthetically very stylish and the cord seems near impossible to tangle, so far the sound is great the bass level won't be to everyones taste but I like it plus they'll need time to run in properly before the true sound comes through.
The main down side is the weight of the cord, the control talk buttons seem much larger than they need be combined with the shape which is perfect for snagging on collars, plus you have this rubber & aluminium dead weight where the cable splits, is this to reinforce the Y joint in the lead? if so fine but if it's for aesthetics alone then it's an annoying addition. price wise they're a little high still some of that will be royalties going to Mr Diddy himself so they may have been cheaper without the endorsement.
I can easily live with these niggles as the entire package as a whole outweighs them by far, it will be curious to see if these can hold out longer than previous makes. and to hear the eventual sound quality these produce.
One upside also is as these are fresh on the market there's not been much time for the cheap copies to appear everywhere as in the case of the Monster Beats in ears.
I'll report back to let you all know if they survive.
I'd tentatively recommend these to anyone at least until I know if they'll hold out if they do then I'd gladly recommend.
I'm probably the furthest thing from an audiophile there is, for me music doesn't need to be tuned to the Nth degree of perfection as long as the sound I get from a pair of headphones is nice and vibrant I'm content.
The main types of music I listen to are Dance and Rock and having tried these out for a few hours I'm relatively impressed although it's early days yet as bitter experience has taught me.
To give some context to the above comment previously I've had the bog standard and quite pathetic apple headphone which came with my first gen iPod Touch and then the ones supplied with both my 3G & 3GS iPhone's.
To say they were bad is a gross understatement, so the first thing I made sure of doing when I first got my 3G was to upgrade my headphones, the first set I purchased were the step up from the standard issue you get from Apple instead of the open ear bud these were the first gen Apple sound isolating in ear buds, that was a waste of 45.00 as while they may have cut out the surrounding noise the sound quality was no better than the standard issue buds plus they were agony to wear for more than 30 mins.
After that I decided to stop messing around with sub 150.00 headphones the first set I bought were V-Moda Vibe Duos, in all fairness the sound was excellent compared to what I'd been used to, I still believe they are some of the best sounding headphones in that price range I've ever owned they are bass heavy for some tastes but that's the way I like my music, sadly the build quality on V-Modas is shocking the first set's left earbud died after 2 months of moderate use so I returned them to the Apple store and exchanged them for a new set which now had a modification to the design of the phono jack they worked for a month then the left bud went again.
I returned them & traded them in for a set of Sony's and store credit the Sony's were OK but a bit flat, so I saved up and bought a set of Atomic Floyd High Def Drum's, they had all the features of the V-Modas but were built to last a nuke, all parts were made from near solid stainless steel including the Jack they didn't sound quite as good as the V-Modas but they were good and would hold up to just about anything except my cat who chewed through every wire on them overnight to the extent that one of the buds died.
So back to using the Sony's I went, when my fiancee asked what I'd like for my birthday about a month back my first thought was headphones so she got me a set of Ultimate Ears Superfi 4's, they might have had no in line remote or mic but the sound was way better than my worn out Sony's which had promptly packed it in by that point anyway.
As I said the sound was good not much in the way of bass to speak of but beggars can't be choosers, then two weeks after getting them the left earbud started crackling, it got to the stage within 2 days that I had to constantly wiggle the phono jack just to get sound through the left channel then it died and I couldn.t send them back as my fiancee had chucked out her receipt.
Now at this point you can understand my exasperation with 150.00 headphones all of which (save for the Atomic Floyd's) could have easily been outdone in build quality by a cheap 20.00 set of headphones.
One thing I noticed was that the Monster Beats & Diddy Beats headphones with control talk had an L shaped phono plug I'm hoping that will alleviate this problem as all the other sets had straight plugs which would have suffered greater stress due to the exposed jack hence causing the left bud to die, the only set not suffering this was the Atomic's and only because they had the common sense to make the jack from near solid steel which I would have thought would come as standard on all headphones at this price bracket.
Anyhow rant over that's why I now have a set of Diddy Beats, ludicrous name aside, the build quality feels nearer the Atomic's however time will tell, they are aesthetically very stylish and the cord seems near impossible to tangle, so far the sound is great the bass level won't be to everyones taste but I like it plus they'll need time to run in properly before the true sound comes through.
The main down side is the weight of the cord, the control talk buttons seem much larger than they need be combined with the shape which is perfect for snagging on collars, plus you have this rubber & aluminium dead weight where the cable splits, is this to reinforce the Y joint in the lead? if so fine but if it's for aesthetics alone then it's an annoying addition. price wise they're a little high still some of that will be royalties going to Mr Diddy himself so they may have been cheaper without the endorsement.
I can easily live with these niggles as the entire package as a whole outweighs them by far, it will be curious to see if these can hold out longer than previous makes. and to hear the eventual sound quality these produce.
One upside also is as these are fresh on the market there's not been much time for the cheap copies to appear everywhere as in the case of the Monster Beats in ears.
I'll report back to let you all know if they survive.
I'd tentatively recommend these to anyone at least until I know if they'll hold out if they do then I'd gladly recommend.
For anyone reading this, read the other review, this one is not an accurate summary of these.