I'm a new member that just joined because I wanted to offer my impressions of these headphones. The best in-ear headphones I've ever used are a pair of skull-candy INK'd that I purchased for 7.99 at Marshall's. I own grado SR-80 headphones, and have a very nice bowers and wilkins 804 setup for home listening with mcintosh amplification.
To be honest I have always been impressed with the sound of the skull candy headphones. Weighty bass, clear highs, very pleasant sound that brings a lot of life to the music I listen to which is a pretty even mix of jazz/acoustic/blues/rock/classical/vocal.
I figured I must really be missing out on great sound if I listen to my 320kbps MP3s with $8 headphones from skullcandy. I went to Magnolia in Best Buy ready to pick up the Bowers and Wilkins C5 IEMs but saw the martin logans. Martin Logan is a serious audio company and their electrostatic speakers are crystal clear and detailed so I figured the Martin Logans IEMs would be awesome. Did a quick search on my iPhone in the store to find reviews on the Martin Logan Mikros but guess what? No reviews!
Here's my review after using them with my iPod classic and iPhone 5 last night:
Weighty bass. Not lacking in this department at all.
Not harsh. Classical music is sounds wonderfully balanced with a bit of bloat in the lower midrange (around 250hz)
The place these headphones is lacking, and severely so, is in the mid and upper-treble. There is no sparkle to speak of and upper frequencies seem rolled off. You can't hear the space in the music and I struggle to hear fine detail and shimmer. It's a deal-breaker for me because I wanted head phones that would be crisp and clear with a healthy weight to the low end. Unfortunately these martin logans don't offer much in the way of clarity. I went back and listened to my 7.99 skullcandy INK'd headphones and felt like despite the exagerrated bass, they actually offered better mid-range and clearer highs than the martin logans. It's like listening to a speaker with a blanket tossed over it.
The tips fit in my ears with ease. Rather comfortable to wear, no issues there. The aluminum construction is pretty nice but the actual cord is rather thin and cheap feeling. I absolutely hate the volume rocker, without looking right at the buttons it's very hard to feel where you are supposed to press to adjust the volume or play/pause.
I'm going to return them. How can I justify spending close to 20 times more money on IEMs that offer so little? I was hoping to be blown away with clarity- liveliness-robust sound that puts you in the room with the musicians. Instead the sound was off-putting, dark, and muddy. On another note- these things probably cost Martin Logan less than $10 each to make, including the packaging. Charging $150 is just SO ridiculous, and I almost thought because of the price and the brand name it would actually be that much better than budget headphones. No such luck.
