If you’ve never heard music through $400 earbuds, there’s no real reference point; the best way I can paint the picture is to say that none of the usual superlatives like “incredible” or “pristine” have any hope of being sufficiently accurate. You’ll hear new intricacies in your favorite music that you’ve never previously noticed, and the overall audio experience is so expansive it’ll leave you so spoiled that any subsequent attempt to listen to less expensive earbuds will leave the music suddenly sounding oddly two-dimensional.

In that sense the 10vi fully lives up to its billing. And while the inclusion of what probably amounts to a few cents worth of iPhone-specific functionality may not sound like a deal-maker (even some $20 earbuds come with those same built-in controls), my tests with the 10vi were the first time in my 2.5 years as an iPhone user where I could actually take a phone call while listening to my music with earbuds this good (without having to frantically unplug everything so I could hold up the iPhone to my ear or put it on speakerphone). So this product changes the entire equation for iPhone users who value the built-in controls as much as I do, as from our standpoint there simply is no usable competition at this price point (in fairness there are third party mic/button adapters available for use with any earbuds, but they place the mic too far away from your mouth, make the cables too long, and typically make the whole thing too heavy – I’ve used such adapters and I don’t recommend them as anything other than a last resort).

That having been said, from an audio standpoint, the 10vi needs to be compared to other earbuds at its price point whether the competition is iPhone compatible or not. At $419, that means we’re looking at Westone’s competing 3, which sells for a similar $399 and is presently our highest-rated earbud product at that price point. After having spent time with both products, if I were choosing based solely on audio quality, it would be a close call – but I’d have to go with the Westone 3. When the audio sounds this amazing, you can only make comparisons in terms of degrees of magic, and the 3 audio experience is just a tad even more magical than the 10vi audio experience. But if I were to arbitrarily assign a percentage based on my perception of the audio quality, I’d end up pegging the Westone 3 as being five to ten percent better-sounding than the 10vi. In other words, unless it psychologically eats at you that there’s a similarly priced competing product out there that sounds slightly better than the one you’re using, there’s no harm in choosing the 10vi due to the fact that it has iPhone controls and the 3 doesn’t.

Strangely enough, where the 10vi falls down a little is in its physical design. As you can see in the photos, the earbud casings are larger than than what you’d find on less expensive (lesser-sounding) earbuds, and that’s to be expected. But I’ve used various Ultimate Ears earbuds priced anywhere from $60 to $250, and they’ve all managed to be plenty comfortable – yet the 10vi is actually a bit less comfortable than other Ultimate Ears earbuds. The problem appears to be that the rubber/foam buds end up right next to the casings, with no space, so those of us with smaller ears have no breathing room even when we do use the smallest included rubber buds.

In the included accessories category, the 10vi delivers the kitchen sink as you’d expect. In the box you’ll find four different sized rubber earbud tips, plus two sets of foam earbuds tips (which I’ve found consistently improve the audio experience of almost any set of in-ear earbuds), a splitter, a quarter-inch stereo plug adapter, a low-profile port adapter that turns ninety degrees, a cleaning brush, and a hard metal case. The idea of protecting a product this expensive inside of a steel compartment sounds like a good idea, and it is, although the included metal case is about thirty percent larger than the hard plastic carrying case that comes with less expensive Ultimate Ears earbuds and thus doesn’t fit into your pocket as easily.

The TripleFi 10vi isn’t perfect, which is a shame because at this price you have a right to expect it to be. But based on the fact that it’s the only product that can give me this kind of audio quality with built-in iPhone controls, I’ll take it. Even though it’s not even the best earbud product at its price point, nor is it as comfortable as most other earbuds the 10vi is still my new favorite set of iPhone earbuds. Just don’t ask me to give it any more than four stars out of five.

It’s worth pointing out that with Apple’s move toward three-button volume and voice controls for newer iPhone and iPod models, it’s probably just a matter of time before most major earbud manufacturers offer three-button versions of your favorite earbuds (we saw quite a bit of this at CES this month, although nothing in this price range). But as of today, these are the best-sounding iPhone-enabled earbuds at any price – and by a million miles.

As a side note, although I wasn’t able to separately test them, Ultimate Ears also offers this product in a non-iPhone “TripleFi 10” version for $399, which appears to be physically identical to the 10vi but without any iPhone controls.

As was the case with the 1, the 2 comes with all the trappings of the 3, including a zippered hard carrying case, an attachable volume wheel (which is larger than it really ought to be), a quarter inch adapter for traditional stereo systems, and a whole array of single and triple flanged rubber earbud tips of various sizes and colors, plus multiple-sized sets of squishable foam tips – the latter of which I’ve found capable of delivering noticeably superior audio quality over their rubber counterparts.

And man oh man do the Westone 2 earbuds ever sound great. Are they worth their pricetag? Absolutely. Are they the best-sounding $249 earbuds I’ve ever listened to? Yes. So why couldn’t I give them five stars? At only 60% of the price of the 3, I wouldn’t expect the 2 to measure up in terms of audio quality. But the difference is that the 3 has this magical quality where you’d swear you’re listening to big cup-style headphones – and you’d seriously consider robbing a bank just to afford the $399. The 2, on the other hand, doesn’t have that same magical feeling such that listening to them would make you consider a life of crime just to cover their $249 price tag.

So that gut-level difference tells me that the Westone 2 is not a five star product. It is, however, worth every penny if you can afford it. I just wish Westone would hurry up and start offering iPhone-specific versions of its earbud products.

review by Bill Palmer

While the best iPhone earbuds have prices that run into the triple digits, those users on a budget should be pleased to learn that they too can drastically improve their listening experience simply by replacing their iPhone’s bundled earbuds with almost any in-ear earbuds at any price point. And while the number of options is reduced if you’re looking for earbuds that include iPhone-specific functionality including a built-in mic and play/pause button, there are in fact a few iPhone-specific in-ear earbuds that clock in under the $20 mark. And while their audio quality is likely to get scoffed at by those accustomed to the aforementioned $100+ earbuds, those used to using the bundled iPhone earbuds will be pleasantly surprised at what twenty bucks can them – as most recently evidenced by Macally’s TunePal earbuds for iPhone.



These all-black earbuds look fairly stylish for their price (I’ve seen more expensive earbuds that looked cheaper), and while many inexpensive earbuds suffer from lack of bass, the TunePal goes in the opposite direction by cranking the bass up to a level that’s higher than most other earbuds I’ve tested at any price point. It’s not a particularly sophisticated bass like you’d get from more expensive bass-leaning earbuds, but it’s not bad, either. It certainly adds to a user’s options at this price point. As far as overall sound quality, however, you can do noticeably better by paying five dollars more for RadTech’s competing ProCable earbuds.



So you really only want to lean toward the TunePal if you’ve got a specific reason, such as being a bass lover, or liking the all-black styling, or if your budget is tight enough that $19.99 sounds that much more attractive than $24.95. While it seems like a fairly random inclusion, the TunePal’s free bundled headphone splitter may also come in handy for you. Is the TunePal the best-sounding option in this price range? No. However, it’ll still represent a marked improvement over the audio quality of the iPhone’s bundled earbuds, without losing any of their functionality. [No star ratings one way or the other for sub-$20 earbuds.]

Learn more about the TunePal at Macally.com.

review by Bill Palmer

Some folks refuse to listen to any speaker systems but those made entirely out of wood, favoring the more natural sound that such systems provide. And based on the ones I’ve tested over the years (Vers 2x, Speck Retro), I can understand why, as it gives what might be described as a more “human” edge to music that these days is typically recorded, produced, and played back in an otherwise all-digital capacity. iFrogz has taken that same concept and improbably applied it to iPhone earbuds in the form of the $49 Timbre with mic (also available for $39 without the mic).



What initially appeared to be a mere styling choice instead turns out to be the real deal: these are wooden earbuds that offer up that same natural sound you get from wooden speakers. And while I’m not about to give up the significantly more expensive, better-sounding-overall iPhone earbuds that I use most of the time, I really appreciated the Timbre’s unique sound. If you’re the type who thinks that CDs and MP3s sound too warm, then you’ll really get a kick out of these. The rest of you may appreciate the Timbre or may not.



Setting aside the wood factor and judging them on overall sound quality, the TImbre is doesn’t quite measure up to Scosche’s $49 IDR350m but is on par with Macally’s $49 HiFiTune and the Radius $49 Atomic Bass, which is to say that the Timbre is near the top of the pack in terms of audio quality at this price point, although not quite at the top.



Close enough, though, if you think the wooden sound is something you’ll prefer to that of traditional earbuds.

Learn more about the Timbre at iFrogz.com.

review by Bill Palmer

The original iteration of Zagg’s Z.buds for iPhone was the epitome of the kitchen sink approach taken just a bit too far: by including everything from an oversized volume controller to a dongle for attaching the cables to a button on your shirt, the company had created an earbud product that was a great value and yet bulky enough overall that you had to really want those features in order to make putting up with the fuss worth it. But this time around it’s a different story, and while the audio quality hasn’t changed, the structural revisions are significant enough to merit a new review of the new Z.buds.



Fans of the volume wheel can relax: it’s still there. But it’s been miniaturized and embedded into the existing iPhone controls in such a way that you might not know it was there if you weren’t looking for it. Gone is the little shirt-button dongle that oddly changed the direction of the cable midstream. In fact the new Z.buds look so normal that the most unusual remaining aspect of their appearance is the unusual array of color choices: yellow, pink, black, or red.



When it comes to comparing audio quality at this price point, the $79 Z.buds continue to lag slightly behind the competing $89 Ultimate Ears 220vi. But it’s a sufficiently small difference (only really discernible during hands-on comparative testing between the two) that I feel comfortable recommending the Z.buds over the 220vi for those users who feel the volume wheel is important; those making the decision based solely on audio quality at this price point should stick to the 220vi.



One point of minor frustration with the new Z.buds is that the entire control piece is too close to your ear, almost like a dangling earring, such that you can’t see it while wearing the earbuds – and the new volume wheel is tiny enough that you’d do well to be able to eyeball it when reaching for it. That aside, the new Z.buds are the rare example of iPhone earbuds whose star rating can improve from one version to the next (in this case from 4 stars to 4.5) without audio quality having anything to do with it.

Learn more about the Z.buds at Zagg.com.

review by Bill Palmer

The sheer number of earbud products available for the iPod (which essentially includes every single pair of earbuds on the market) allows users to be more than a bit picky when it comes to not only getting the best overall audio quality for their dollar, but also the specific bass/treble mix, built-in features, and even aesthetic styling and color choices that suit their own personal tastes. And that’s what makes AKG’s new K 340 earbuds interesting in a comparative sense.



First of all, they sound excellent in their own right. But put them up against similarly priced competing earbuds and you’ll be less than enthused. Do they measure up to, Westone’s “1” earbuds, priced at a modestly higher $139? In a word, no. The 1 has an expansive sound that isn’t found here with the K 340. So how about Shure’s SE115, priced at the same $119 as the K 340? No, not quite. The SE 115 still sounds noticeably (if not hugely) better. So we’ve established, rather quickly, that the K 340 doesn’t compare to the top products in its class when it comes to audio quality.



So how, then does the K 340 still end up with four stars out of five? Three factors come into play. One is the built-in volume slider, which is all too rare for earbuds, and even more rarely done well (the Westone 1, for instance, includes an overly bulky volume wheel, and the SE 115 has none). It’s not true volume control, as it just reduces the iPhone’s output by a percentage, but it’s svelte and one of the better in-line volume implementations I’ve seen. Secondly, the K 340 has a higher than usual bass-to-treble ratio, not so much as to be outside the mainstream, but the bass is immediately noticeable. Users who prefer it this way generally have slim pickings in this price range (v-moda’s $119 vibe ii is tops, but only comes with iPhone controls built-in which don’t do anything with an iPod). And for good measure, while the K 340’s styling isn’t anything too unusual, it does have a unique look.



And that’s the story of the K 340, a set of earbuds worth 3.5 stars based on overall audio quality, finds itself getting bumped up to four stars based on the total package (the built-in volume control in particular). Audio quality is still king when it comes to earbuds, but sometimes the devil is indeed in the details.

Learn more about the K 340 at AKG.com.

review by Bill Palmer

iPod users who decide to invest in higher-quality third party earbuds have budgets that vary significantly in size, and in recognition of this, JAYS offers earbuds that range in price from $70 to $249. The company’s j-JAYS are the low end of the product line, at a price point where you know you’re not going to get the same audio quality you’d find at $200 or even $100, but you’re still entitled to have pretty high expectations for what you can get with your $70.



All told, the j-JAYS does pretty well on that front. Before you even fire up these earbuds for the first time, you’ll find that the package includes not only three different-sized pairs of rubber earbud tips but also a pair of foam tips (very rare for this price point), along with a zippered carrying pouch, an airplane adapter and headphone splitter (again, rare for this price point), and a cable extender (we’ll get to this in a moment).



As far as audio, the j-JAYS are impressive with a sound that’s crisp in both the higher and lower ranges. At $70 you’d expect them to sound almost as good as this category’s current dominator, Scosche’s $79 IDR600, and they do come close – but not quite close enough to justify not spending the extra ten bucks for the IDR600, which on most of the music I tested had a noticeably wider range than the j-JAYS.



About that cable extender: it would be a nice option if it were merely optional, but thanks to the fact that the cable built into the earbuds themselves so short as to be unlikely to reach your waist, the extender becomes a necessity – and an annoying one, as it makes the cabling so long that I could literally lay my iPhone on the floor while wearing the earbuds standing up. And yet without the extender my iPhone didn’t even reach to my pocket (higher priced JAYS earbuds suffer from the same bizarre design). In all, these are four star earbuds based on audio quality, which get bumped up to 4.5 stars due to the generous bundled items, but then loses the extra half star due to the cable length. But they do sound nice and crisp for their price.

Learn more about the j-JAYS at jays.se.

by Bill Palmer

Westone’s four hundred dollar “3” earbuds are impossibly awesome sounding – but the price tag means that for many users, owning the 3 is just an impossibility. Enter the new Westone 1, currently available for pre-order, which essentially takes the triple-driver 3 and reduces it to a single-driver product, at about one-third of the price.



The 1 comes with all the high-end trappings of the 3, including an astonishing ten different pairs of foam and (single and triple flanged) rubber earbud tips of various sizes, in-line volume control, a zippered carrying case, and an adapter that allows the earbuds to be used with larger quarter-inch stereo ports.



The catch, of course, is that the 1 doesn’t sound anywhere near as perfect as the 3. Nor would you expect it to, of course. The only fair test is to put the 1 up against similarly priced competitors. The first obvious litmus test is that the 1 blows away any sub-$100 earbuds I’ve ever used. From there the most direct comparison is Etymotic’s $149 hf5 (a non iPhone-enabled version of their award-winning hf2). In my tests I found that the two were a virtual tie in terms of audio quality, with one or the other sounding slightly preferable at various times. In the case of an audible tie, the nod goes to the 1 for including the attachable volume control (even if it is bigger and clunkier than it should be), at least for those users who care about that; then again, the hf2 does come in a choice of colors. Those who care about none of the above may instead consider styling in general, which is secondary to audio quality but, again, works as a tiebreaker.



Bottom line is that this is a fantastic set of earbuds for the price, and as an iPhone user I’m left wishing there was a version that included iPhone-specific features. The only thing that keeps the 1 from a five star rating is that they’re not a category-killer. And for those users who consider the $399 Westone 3 to be the best earbuds they’ll never be able to afford, the Westone 1 might make for a heck of a consolation prize. Westone’s four hundred dollar “3” earbuds are impossibly awesome sounding – but the price tag means that for many users, owning the 3 is just an impossibility. Enter the new Westone 1, currently available for pre-order, which essentially takes the triple-driver 3 and reduces it to a single-driver product, at about one-third of the price.



The 1 comes with all the high-end trappings of the 3, including an astonishing ten different pairs of foam and (single and triple flanged) rubber earbud tips of various sizes, in-line volume control, a zippered carrying case, and an adapter that allows the earbuds to be used with larger quarter-inch stereo ports.



The catch, of course, is that the 1 doesn’t sound anywhere near as perfect as the 3. Nor would you expect it to, of course. The only fair test is to put the 1 up against similarly priced competitors. The first obvious litmus test is that the 1 blows away any sub-$100 earbuds I’ve ever used. From there the most direct comparison is Etymotic’s $149 hf5 (a non iPhone-enabled version of their award-winning hf2). In my tests I found that the two were a virtual tie in terms of audio quality, with one or the other sounding slightly preferable at various times. In the case of an audible tie, the nod goes to the 1 for including the attachable volume control (even if it is bigger and clunkier than it should be), at least for those users who care about that; then again, the hf2 does come in a choice of colors. Those who care about none of the above may instead consider styling in general, which is secondary to audio quality but, again, works as a tiebreaker.



Bottom line is that this is a fantastic set of earbuds for the price, and as an iPhone user I’m left wishing there was a version that included iPhone-specific features. The only thing that keeps the 1 from a five star rating is that they’re not a category-killer. And for those users who consider the $399 Westone 3 to be the best earbuds they’ll never be able to afford, the Westone 1 might make for a heck of a consolation prize.

Learn more about the Westone 1 at Westone.com.

review by Bill Palmer

That the market has become deluged with third party iPhone-specific earbuds here in 2009 is a testament to just how many iPhone users there now are – or perhaps a testament to just how many current iPod users expect to find their way to the iPhone before too much longer and thusly want any accessory purchase to be forward-compatible (of course they generally also work with the BlackBerry, but we don’t talk about that around here). In any case, we’ve now tested earbuds that have the built-in microphone and play/pause button at nearly every ten dollar price increment from $19 to $99 and up. And with so many good options out there, users have reached the point where it’s okay to be picky.



As such, the new iP-HS5 from Maximo is a perfectly good sounding and nice-looking set of $79 earbuds ($69 at PowerMax) which comes with double and triple-flanged rubber earbud tips, rare at this price point, along with an optional cable extender, a shirt clip, and sturdy carrying case – and yet still can’t manage to score more than four out of five stars on our scale. The bottom line is that while they sound better than the top $49 iPhone-enabled earbuds, for instance, they just don’t come close enough to the best $89 and $99 iPhone earbuds to merit any higher of a rating. Don’t get me wrong here, as these are the kind of earbuds you could give to even a fairly discerning listener who wasn’t familiar with similarly priced competing offerings, and they’d be impressed and thank you for the gift. But of course that’s why you’ve come here to read the reviews before buying, particularly in a field as densely crowded as the sub-$100 iPhone earbud market.



Then again, the fact that no sub-$100 iPhone earbuds have ever earned five stars tells you that the variations in audio quality between the best of these earbuds is sufficiently incremental that if you like the styling or the included items, you might reasonably opt for the iP-HS5 over competing earbuds that sound a little better.

Learn more about the iP-HS5 iMetal at MaximoProducts.com.

review by Bill Palmer

If you’re going to spend this much on earbuds for your iPod, they’d better rock your world. They should sound so stunning that you start noticing things in your favorite songs that you never knew were there. They need to create such an expansive, three dimensional listening experience that if you close your eyes you can convince yourself that you’re wearing full cup-style headphones instead of tiny earbuds. And they’d better come with enough various-sized earbud tips that you can get a good fit.


The q-JAYS earbuds offer all of the above and then some. Small and lightweight, they offer the kind of sound quality that you swear should be coming from a product ten times as bulky. It only took me a few songs of listening before I was able to identify a subtle instrumental part in the background that can’t really be noticed with earbuds half the price. Included are eight pairs of earbud tips (including a foam pair) that should match up with every sized ears out there – along with two airplane adapter plugs and a zippered carrying case.



In short, these earbuds provide the highest quality listening experience in the $200-$300 range I’ve ever encountered. And yet my quest for the perfect $249 earbuds continues, thanks to one odd design choice that makes the whole product just a tad less practical than it should be. Two extender cables are included, one with a flat head and a straight-on one, but both the same length. Which is good, because without using one of the extenders, the built-in cabling isn’t long enough to keep the device stored in my pocket while listening to it. But both extenders are a few feet long, so long in fact that I was able to lay my iPod nano on the ground, while standing up, with the earbuds still in my ears. The excess cable can be rolled up and stashed into your pocket, but that’s not what you’re looking for from $249 earbuds. Fine if you keep your iPod on your arm or clipped to your shirt (in which case you can just skip the extender), but that’s not where most iPod users keeps their iPod.



I’d personally still choose the q-JAYS over the other lesser-sounding earbud options in this price range, even with the absurd cable length, but it does keep these otherwise stunningly awesome earbuds from earning five stars.

Learn more about the q-JAYS at jays.se

review by Bill Palmer

Two years into the iPhone era, and the verdict is firmly in: iPhone users only want to use earbuds that have the same built-in microphone and play/pause button functionality that comes with the iPhone’s bundled earbuds – and no earbuds lacking these features are going to find a home in the iPhone universe. As iPhone-specific earbuds have found their way to market over the years, with prices that range from $20 to $200 and up, the sweet spot seems to be $99; if you’re going to bother replacing the bundled earbuds then you might as well do it right, and a hundred bucks allows you to improve your audio experience night-and-day without having to spend as much on the earbuds as you did on your new iPhone 3G S itself. The latest entry at the $99 price point is the new Sonix 3 from Lenntek, although if you shop around you’ll probably find them for as little as $69.



Sound quality matters the most of course, and the Sonix 3 holds its own against others in its price range. In fact the Sonix 3 ends up in a virtual tie with the competing $89 MetroFi 220, which up to this point has been the best-sounding iPhone-enabled sub-$100 option on the market. Based on listening tests, the Sonix sounds a bit clearer in the upper ranges but the 220 has slightly crisper bass; you can’t go wrong with either. One bit of differentiation is that while most iPhone earbuds (including the 220) place their play-pause button down around your chest so you can see what you’re reaching for, the Sonix 3 places it on the microphone itself up by your chin. You can’t see it, and that should be a bad thing, but I actually found it to be preferable due to the fact that nearly the entire thing is a button; you don’t have to aim at it to hit it. Yes it’s something of a copycat of Apple’s own implementation, but frankly, I wish more earbud makers would copycat it.



My advice for those looking to spend $99 on iPhone earbuds is still the same: scrounge up another $20 and get the $119 v-moda vibe ii, which are more than worth the extra $20 in terms of audio quality. But Lenntek’s Sonix 3 is yet another example of excellent $99 iPhone earbuds that are increasingly nipping at the vibe ii’s heels, and certainly worthy of consideration if you prefer the styling or the button implementation.

Learn more about the Sonix 3 at Sonix-3.com

review by Bill Palmer

Because they sound so much better than traditional earbuds because they go inside your ear canal instead of merely sitting next to it, and are available at so many reasonable price points, that you’d think they’d be the number one most popular accessory for iPhone and iPod users. But walk down any crowded sidewalk and you’ll see evidence that most users end up sticking with the traditional all-white earbuds that came with their iPhone or iPod. Pick your reason: budget, complacency, ignorance, a desire not to fix what doesn’t seem broken – or more recently, an unwillingness to give up the device-specific controls built into the earbuds that come bundled with devices like the iPhone and the third-generation iPod shuffle.



So if those standard white earbuds are to be retained, for whatever reason, can something be done to improve their quality? According to Acoustibuds, the answer is yes. And according to my tests, their answer is correct. These rubber-hose-attachment-looking pieces slide onto your existing white earbuds, turning them into quasi-in-ear earbuds that in my experiences deliver noticeably better sounding audio, particularly in the bass ranges, along with a more comfortable fit. Since I’ve never had trouble with the stock iPod earbuds falling out of my ears, I’ll have to take Acoustibuds at their word that their product helps with this (along with the company’s claims that they can be used with Zune, Palm Pre, and BlackBerry Curve stock earbuds, which are all outside of my ability to personally confirm).



The catch? The Acoustibuds can only work with the audio they’re getting from the earbuds in the first place. So while your music will sound richer, it’s still going to be as dry-sounding as what you’d get from the stock earbuds on their own. For about the same money, iPhone users can buy true in-ear earbuds that sound better than this, making the product probably more appealing to 3G shuffle users whose VoiceOver feature is harder to get from third parties at a reasonable price point. The $19 does get you two different sizes, which is fortunate since the “size 6” didn’t fit my ears at all but the “size 5” fit comfortably. I can’t tell you whether this product is the right choice for you, but I can confirm that it does what it claims to.

Learn more about the Acoustibuds at Acoustibuds.com

review by Bill Palmer

Noise isolating earbuds are great for blocking ambient noise such as conversations in the background, or even car traffic while you’re walking down the sidewalk, but sometimes you find yourself in a sufficiently loud environment that you need to break out the big ammunition in the form of noise canceling headphones. These cup-style earphones run on a AAA battery and emit what’s known as anti-noise around your head so that the background noises never make it near your ears in the first place, allowing you to enjoy your music in peace – or just use the headphones to block out external noise without listening to anything specific. The latest such product to come to market is the rather technically named ATH-ANC7b QuietPoint from Audio-Technica.



On my way to New York City recently, I found myself in one of the most annoyingly noisy environments humans are likely to encounter, and thus an ideal testing ground for the QuietPoint: sitting on an airplane. In those few hours, noise canceling headphones can often earn their price tag even if you don’t regularly use them while you’re on the ground. In fact I’ve kept a (now discontinued) competing set of $150 noise canceling headphones around for a few years for just for airplanes. Ditching them in favor of the QuietPoint this time, and then testing the two against each other on my return flight, I found the QuietPoint sufficiently more comfortable (even after several hours), better-sounding in terms of audio quality, and stronger at blocking out engine noise, that it’s officially time to retire my old standby in favor of the QuietPoint.



Since my return to the ground, I’ve found myself using the QuietPoint when sitting down to do some writing, not to listen to anything but just to keep things quiet for the sake of concentration, something that only works because of how comfortable they are.



Be forewarned: no noise-canceling product, the QuietPoint included, blocks out 100% of external noise; based on my tests I’d peg the QuietPoint at about 80-90%. But I like these headphones more than other noise canceling headphones I’ve used in the past. While I haven’t tested enough of this kind of product to assign a star rating, consider this to be a big thumbs up for the ATH-ANC7b QuietPoint, even at a rather high price point like $219.

Learn more at audio-technica.com or buy now at JandR.com

review by Bill Palmer

When it comes to sub-$20 earbuds there’s often not a lot to say; you’re not going to find world-class sound quality in this price range, so the various options either sound acceptably decent or they don’t, placing such products in more of a thumbs-up/thumbs-down category than actual review territory. But two things make the latest Plugz earbuds from iFrogz sufficiently differentiable to warrant a full review. First, they’ve got a built-in microphone and play/pause button for use with your iPhone, which is rare at this price point. More superificially, the color choices and unique-looking styling and not often to be found at such a generic price point either.



First the good: even at this price point, these earbuds are going to offer you better audio quality than what you’ll get from the earbuds that come with your iPhone, thanks to the fact that the Plugz are in-ear earbuds. And while the play/pause button is located up around your chin where you can’t eyeball it, as opposed to the more ideal chest-high location usually found on more expensive iPhone earbuds, the bottom line is that the button and mic on the Plugz both work just fine.



The “bad” is that for five bucks more you can get RadTech’s ProCable earbuds with the same iPhone functionality and audio quality that’s noticeably better (particularly in the lower ranges). Unfortunately the Plugz are hampered largely by the fact that the rubber earbud tips that come with it are thin and flimsy in comparison to the ones that generally come with even the modestly more expensive in-ear earbuds (including the ProCable). This keeps you from getting a perfect seal in your ear canal with the Plugz, and waters down the audio in comparison to what it could be.



As I said before and want to emphasize again, the iFrogz Plugz will improve your music-listening experience over what you get out of the box with your iPhone, even with the above stated limitations. You can do better elsewhere for just a few bucks more, but if you love the Plugz styling and color choices, there are worse ways to invest $19 into your iPhone user experience, especially if you’re on a budget. So in that case a tentative, if not enthusiastic, thumbs-up.

Learn more about the Ear Pollution Plugz with Mic iFrogz.com or buy now.