AmazonBasics Headphones
Feb 21, 2015 at 10:16 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 15
SludgeBelcher

SludgeBelcher

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Greetings all, I saw that Amazon made headphones of their own that look good and some actually have a good rating. After searching the forum to see if someone talked about them but couldn't find any. So, what do you guys think of these headphones if you tried them. Obviously, their headphone are of the budget class headphone so you wouldn't expect them to be beyond average performance. These are the headphones I found made by Amazon:
 
-Amazon Premium Headphones
-AmazonBasics On-Ear Headphones
-AmazonBasics In-Ear Headphones
-AmazonBasics Premium In-Ear Headphones
-AmazonBasics Sport In-Ear Headphones
 
Quite a range yah? Also, some include the option of having a mic, or single/double wire..
 
Jun 23, 2015 at 5:49 PM Post #7 of 15
I just asked Amazon for a sample to review of the On-Ear Headphones.  While they could not give it to me for nothing, I did get if for $5 and free one day shipping.
 
I'll post up my thoughts on it in a few days.
 
..
 
Jul 11, 2015 at 5:53 PM Post #9 of 15
So I figured I'd take one for the team (I've lurked here long enough and figured I should probably contribute).  This won't be a long review, or anything; I just want to supply my thoughts on a brief listening.  I'm currently pushing them through the following setup:
 
27" MacBook Pro running Tidal
USB to McIntosh MHA100
 
The MHA100 is set to 8 - 40 ohms, as the only info I could find on Amazon headphones impedance was with the premium headphones, at 16 ohms.
 
For reference, my usual setup for listening to music at my desk is the MHA100 with Audeze LCD-XCs, Audeze EL-8s closed back, or V-Moda M100s.
 
I'm going to say this in spite of myself; I'm damn impressed. Punchy bass and decent treble, I'm really really surprised.  While these are clearly tuned to pop and hiphop fans - the bass is heavy out of the box and the mids are a little more flat than I'm usually comfortable with, treble was nice and clear while with a fairly open soundstage.
 
Physically, they don't feel like the best headphone you can buy.  Not.  Even.  Close.  If anything, they feel closer to cheap airplane headphones.  That said, the audio quality is much improved.
 
I did notice, while playing Beyoncé's Drunk in Love, when the bass kicks in, there's some residual buzz in mids and highs because the bass is so deep.  In the end, I had to take the low end down a bit, because it was overpowering mids and highs.  Alternatively, activating McIntosh's HXD feature helped significantly, although I'm not usually a fan of Crossfeed.
 
I played a few tracks with these:
 
Beyoncé - Drunk in Love
C2C - The Beat
Cake - Italian Leather Sofa
Brad Mehldau - Blackbird
Melody Gardot - Mira
 
Overall thoughts.  Over.  All.  Thoughts.  Hmm.  Would I buy these as a gift for someone?  Hell no.  I have too much self respect for that.  They look and feel like I fell out of a United Airlines storage room belowdeck with my carryon full of cheap paraphernalia.  That said, would I bring them with me if I were going someplace I'd fear them getting stolen?  Or broken?  Or ruined?  Absolutely.  would I recommend them to someone else?  Sure!  $14.99?  No problem.  I would personally like to see Amazon dial back the low end a bit, as it seriously overpowers the mids and highs, and it'd be nice if they'd work on improving the mids a bit, as they seem a bit flat.  They also seem a bit sluggish, although not annoyingly so.  That said, slow can be nice for certain types of music.
 
Either way, I give them a solid B+/A- for $15 headphones.  Now I want to hear the premium version.
 
Sep 6, 2015 at 5:56 PM Post #10 of 15
I bought the Premiums and think they are just okay. The build is between flimsy and sturdy. They look like the Street By 50 on ear headphones but fit like an over ear. The detachable cable is a plus but I used a custom 3.5mm that I had laying around.

Listeniing with an iBasso DX50,bass is there doesn't have much punch. It's not a bloated bass,it's just lean especially with electronic bass. Mids and treble are better than I expected but the the mids seem the more lacking of the two to my ears.

Not bad for $40 but I think it has nothing special about it to warrant keeping it around. It just does the job and that's it.
 
Sep 7, 2015 at 6:48 AM Post #12 of 15
I have the premium over-ear. They look like the size of most on-ear headphones with over-ear pads that barely fit over my ears.
 
Nov 10, 2015 at 4:47 AM Post #13 of 15
I bought the black on ear basics. I paired it with a Fiio E6 and the 7" fire 49.00 tablet. with the amp. they do sound good. Bass is heavy but not overwhelming. Actually, they sounded way better than then the Sony's that I bought in the same price range. I wanted a to see what I could do with a 49.00 dollar tablet, hacked to include Google play apps. for 95.00 total it sounds really good. In fact I use this combo knocking around the house. I would say the sound out of these amps is very similar to my Senn Momentus  on ears. I wouls say properly amped they are a  very good bargain indeed.
 
Nov 10, 2015 at 10:10 AM Post #14 of 15
 
Nov 16, 2015 at 7:05 PM Post #15 of 15
FWIW I bought the cheap $15 on ears for my 8 year old step-daughter and the Premium "over-ear" for myself. The cheapo $15 of course are decent at best but she's 8 and doesn't care, they work for her YouTube video listening lol. I like the Premiums, I hated the cable, I ordered a FriEQ 3.5 cable and I BS you not the sounded improved quite a bit. Haven't used them in a few weeks but so I'll go back to them tonight and do some more listening, I like them over my M-50's due to the size and the real over ear of the M50's make my ears sweat though these on-ears (not actually over ear like they say) hurt my ears after a while. 
 
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