A friend of mine picked these up and I can't believe people are talking about these like they are a good headphone....they are simply an afterthought accessory to go with an iPod or iPhone. They sound better than iBuds but IMO my old pair of beats solos even sounded better than these.
I will respectfully offer in return that there are far worse options, sonically, in the iPod accessory market. I even think there are worse options for phone-compatible headphones in iur target market space.
I think the best things they have going for them are build, aesthetics, feel/comfort, driveability and phone control. And price, when they are below $80. If I were the type to not sweat a $150 headphone, I think $150 would be a fair price considering competitive offerings like the Aviator and the M-80 and the respective trade-offs.
And yes, sound was not among the things I liked the best about these. I think that the stock sound will appeal to people who enjoy dynamic compression and wide boost of deep bass. In this way they remind me a lot of the Philips SHE3580, a dirt cheap IEM I picked up at Target during an "audio emergency" only to find out it's been gaining traction here on Head-Fi among bassheads, some of whom own "audiophile" IEMs. But back to the acoustic design of these headphones, what intrigues me about this headphone is that when I open it up and look inside, I can see where I can apply some techniques to address the shortcomings of the sound signature. Sure, I mentioned this quite a while back, and I haven't had them on my head except to take some phone calls* since then. But I encourage everyone who can get inside a pair of these headphones to try to change them into what you want. I think a lot is possible, and they won't be the phoenix that an $80 T50RP is, but even with its far more modest driver I think there is some alchemy that's waiting to take place.
* I was walking around during a long phone call with the cord running down my shirt to avoid snags. When I wear it like this,I have to pull the mic module out so it hangs just above my collar. A few times during the call, the mic would fall back into my shirt and remain there for a few minutes until I noticed it. At the end of the call i asked the guy if he noticed the voice quality changing. He said no. I don't think the happens with my Apple or generic headsets. I should try it with my Klipsch IEMs and again with my V-moda mic cable.
iPhone posting; typo city, I imagine.
