[canali]

If you prefer the sound of EarPods - you need to try the FiiO EM3 paired with the thin foams from the Monk Plus. You can thank me later

 
thanks...not trying to diss monks plus.....for value, sure they're fine, just not my sound signature.
it's funny, but despite the earpods not having as much bass as the monks plus, the bass they DO have
is deeper when it hits (that air flow)...at least to me.

 

[Brooko]

I think it's the directed sound into the ear cavity. I loved the EarPods for what they delivered. Mine are replaced by the EM3 now though

 

[canali]

I think it's the directed sound into the ear cavity. I loved the EarPods for what they delivered. Mine are replaced by the EM3 now though

what i find after more listening:
the apple earpods are more lean in the sound...more towards treble
...while the monks sound are a bit thicker but also a bit boomy, smeary at times, losing the resolution i prize.
feel those red/blue foam sleeves (both the same right?) muffle the sound a bit...but without them they don't sit in my ear as well.
 
update after 1 week of listening:
..with the foam sleeves off they're superior sounding to the earpods, imo...more slam, detail, balance...but with the foamies on they're more muffled sounding imo. thanks for nmatheis for suggesting earhoox, have just ordered a pair.

 

[canali]

well a few weeks later and I think i prefer the apple earpods over the monks plus...
imo they're more detail, precise, balanced...esp important is good placement
(I use earskinz which are great for fit...they're well made too).
 
and as one poster noted, the 'air' the earpods can move with bottom end is pretty impressive for their price.
I wholeheartedly agree....so they're my backup to my FLC 8S.
 
will be interesting what the new ones sound like with the apple iphone 7 launch...will they tweak them or not?

 

[bubsdaddy]

  well a few weeks later and I think i prefer the apple earpods over the monks plus...
imo they're more detail, precise, balanced...esp important is good placement
(I use earskinz which are great).
 
and as one poster noted, the 'air' the earpods can move with bottom end is pretty impressive for their price.
I wholeheartedly agree....so they're my backup to my FLC 8S.
 
will be interesting what the new ones sound like with the apple iphone 7.

Earskinz make such a difference in sound and fit. 

 

[danmlr]

Earskinz fit well, but aren't especially comfortable, and make the EarPods sound abysmal. The sound becomes garbled, echoey, and destroys high end response. I find that thin foam covers work reasonably well in terms of improving fit, and don't change the sound signature at all. 
 
I like to think of EarPods as the earbud equivalent of portapro's, only much smaller and far more, ahem, portable. Unfortunately, neither portapro's nor EarPods offer any noise isolation. I can only use them at home or in a quiet library (lots of noisy libraries these days). 
 
EarPods are the best freebie earbuds of all time, to date, anyway. I wonder if apple can come up with a design with similar sound signature but with superior noise isolation. 

 

[canali]

  Earskinz fit well, but aren't especially comfortable, and make the EarPods sound abysmal. The sound becomes garbled, echoey, and destroys high end response. I find that thin foam covers work reasonably well in terms of improving fit, and don't change the sound signature at all. 
 
I like to think of EarPods as the earbud equivalent of portapro's, only much smaller and far more, ahem, portable. Unfortunately, neither portapro's nor EarPods offer any noise isolation. I can only use them at home or in a quiet library (lots of noisy libraries these days). 
 
EarPods are the best freebie earbuds of all time, to date, anyway. I wonder if apple can come up with a design with similar sound signature but with superior noise isolation. 

 
too bad you don't find the skinz comfortable (for me they're fine)...also how can they distort the sound?...how can the skins change the sound when don't really cover anything up?
this said, however, i'll have a listen both with and without the skinz this weekend to see if there is anything to your observation.
....that is the thing with gear: in the end it's never an objective pursuit instead is 'YMMV'.
sorry they didn't work out for you, but i'm enjoying them....for now
 
i do agree with the lack of noise isolation (but given their design, it's an inherent flaw in all earbuds, i think...there is no total seal..so a great fit is even more important than using an iem, imo)...i have seen some of their iems before but unsure how well they sold.

 

[danmlr]

I don't find earskinz uncomfortable. They just sounded so much worse with them on. Fortunately I was able to return them for a refund. I'm totally fine with some cheap foam covers. They add just enough extra material to keep the 'pods in place and don't change how they sound, either. 
 
Even though the 'pods remind me so much of portapro's, I just really enjoy PE headbanded koss headphones so much more.
 
I use IEM/earbuds all the time, but mainly because I need the noise isolation. When in a quiet environment open back koss headphones are the best.
 
As much as I like them, the 'pods get lost in the shuffle practically speaking.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Properly eq'd I'm surprised by the performance I'm able to get out of these. The bass can reach pretty high levels without distorting, and the mids/treble remain almost impeccable, as far as the ability of these to resolve detail goes. Soundscape is good too, and comfort is almost like these aren't there. They sound a lot better off the Mac's DAC eq'd. If Apple released a higher-end version of these, I would bite. As far as I've heard about the AirPods, sound is the same but if it used higher-quality drivers I think it could be something special. The design of these to produce sound would be quite good if they didn't use cheaper drivers. When I get the iPhone 7 I'll be curious if the Lightning version sounds at least as good as the 3.5mm version sounds on a MacBook Pro DAC.
 
They easily go from a ~2/5 to ~3/5.

 

[20degrees]

I had a few galaxy s7 laying around and the silicone tips from those earbuds are similar to the ear skins. So if anybody has access to some, they work well.

 

[Deftone]

Properly eq'd I'm surprised by the performance I'm able to get out of these. The bass can reach pretty high levels without distorting, and the mids/treble remain almost impeccable, as far as the ability of these to resolve detail goes. Soundscape is good too, and comfort is almost like these aren't there. They sound a lot better off the Mac's DAC eq'd. If Apple released a higher-end version of these, I would bite. As far as I've heard about the AirPods, sound is the same but if it used higher-quality drivers I think it could be something special. The design of these to produce sound would be quite good if they didn't use cheaper drivers. When I get the iPhone 7 I'll be curious if the Lightning version sounds at least as good as the 3.5mm version sounds on a MacBook Pro DAC.

They easily go from a ~2/5 to ~3/5.

They sound really nice indeed for me using these EQ settings.

60Hz -3dB
170Hz - 4dB
310Hz -2dB
14kHz +1dB
16kHz +2dB

The rest is left flat

 

[YAGIZ]

Anybody tried to remove the front filters?

 

[Fox2twenty]

Anybody tried to remove the front filters?

Any good?

 

[YAGIZ]

Curious as well