[size=medium]I am only about a year late but I have a story to tell you. Last year at computex I was aimlessly wandering the back paths and out of the way corners. Quite unexpectedly I run across a dark red and black covered booth. It was a real man cave, dark, broody and full of sci-fi looking audio equipment. I just had to go in.
Therein I found 2 gentlemen, one older I will call Pops. And one younger guy I will guess and call Rob. Rob and I hit it off immediately. I could tell that like me he was born with the gift of gab but that he also had great love and enthusiasm for the product he was showing me. Pops was nice but I got the impression he was more a business or RnD guy and not big on the show. Either that or he did not like my shoes. Yes, I am the guy in sandals. Mind they were expensive Birkenstock sandals I was wearing because the shoes killed my feet the first days of the show and I needed some more support. His exact words, to the best of my limited memory “I can’t believe I am giving a sample to a guy in sandals.” Well, here we are.
The product in question is the A03 Ossicle from Taipei based RedGiant. They only made their first public appearance at Computex in June 2011 and I just happened to stumble upon them. So I set out on my journey to test and review them. Now, I am a computer guy not an audiophile, so an earbud review is a bit of a challenge to me. But I try my best.
I got to admit, my first impressions were good. I love their style. They have a geeky sense of humor and it shows in everything from the packaging to the left right marks on the buds. If you can’t read BBcode you don’t know left from right. I like the looks although i know some feel they are a bit big. They remind me of Kryten from the Red Dwarf show. An angled hi-tech look that matches their name.
But after a few days of them I was not so impressed. I did not get great sound, although the bass was superb to my ears. And they were not working well. It seems I had a short or defect in the line. I set them aside and only tried them a few more times after that, to check. But I kept looking for other reviews of them online. I only found one small review and never found them for sale. So I almost gave up.
Luckily I am stubborn, and that shoe comment really stuck in my mind. I tried one more search recently. I ran across this great review and story here at HeadFi. Right away I saw one of my problems, fitting. I had not had to fit buds properly before. I could also tell I had early models of the tips. So I ran to the local 3C and bought a set of memory foam tips, for comfort. The audio guy warned me that foam will make the bass oversaturated but I can live with that. This and tom’s fitting description helped immediately. I was able to wear them much longer and the sound was impressively better. To quote tomscy2000 “Once the A03 gets into your ears the right way, however, the real magic happens...” and he was right.
Tom also mentioned that an amplifier would help. It just so happened that I had one, also a sample from that computex. I also had pre-release samples of the A03 that did not have an inline mic and controls. But I can see how adding an amp to an already complicated set up of player, cord, controls and head does complicate the issues. But this brings me to the main issue I had with these buds, my phone.
I mostly listen using my phone. I have an HTC Sensation XL. This means I was able to replicate Toms beats vs A03 review too. I actually like the beats. They fit under my helmet a bit easier than the A03s. Did I mention that most of my listening these days is during a 40 minute scooter commute to work and back? I bought a full face helmet just so I could listen without the wind noise. But once fit properly and amplified the A03s just blew the competition out of the water. They were much easier to listen to than the beats, ATH-EM7 pads or the cheap emergency buds I bought at 7-11. They give great sound and look good doing it.
But they have 2 strikes against them in the market now. First they are still hard to find. This will right itself naturally as word of how good they actually are gets out. But second is the price. Although they are not unreasonably priced for the quality, putting themselves at over $150 is going to slow their adoption. It takes a lot to get me to pay that much for something that is easy to get at good quality at $100 and under. Going over the century mark makes it more likely that only people who know what they want will look at these.
So if you are a person that knows what you want, and these appeal to you, I would recommend looking for them. If you can find them on sale I have no trouble recommending them at all. I won’t say “Your ears will thank me,” because ears can’t talk but you get the idea.[/size]
