review: Woodees Vintage earbuds for iPhone and iPod
November 29, 2010 by Bill Palmer · Leave a Comment
by Bill Palmer
Wooden earbuds, once a rare novelty, are becoming more popular and with good reason: they have a noticeably more natural sound to them than standard earbuds housings do. The latest spin on wooden earbuds comes from the appropriately named Woodees Vintage which – surprise – comes with three buttons and a microphone, rare for its $69 price point.
But before you even get to listening to them, the Woodees Vintage jumps out due to their obviously wooden styling, which includes a gold-orange-brown-black gradient on the buds and keeps the earth tone theme intact with its gold cabling and black trim throughout. They’re the kind of earbuds you hope will sound good, because otherwise the awesome styling would be a waste. But as it turns out, these are the clearest-sounding wooden earbuds I’ve ever tested. Of course their original $99 price tag would have made them the most expensive wooden earbuds I’ve ever tested, but their new $69 price makes them less expensive than the competing Thinksound TS02+ wooden earbuds, which I already very much like the sound of. Except the Woodees Vintage sounds better.
If you want wooden earbuds, the Woodees Vintage are the ones to go for. Audio quality, styling, price, and the fact that they have three-button controls for playback and volume for iPhone and iPod.
Just to be clear, there are $99 earbuds on the market (not wooden ones, mind you) which offer overall superior audio quality. But at $69, the Woodees Vintage is a steal, and the natural wooden kick in the audio is just a bonus.
rating: 4.5 stars out of five • price: $69 • Woodees.com
Top earbuds and headphones for iPad, iPhone and iPod: Beatweek 75
The sixteen top rated earbuds and headphones on the market for iPad, iPhone, and iPod, ranging in price from $25 to $400, including three button, one button, and no-button control options:
Etymotic hf2 • one button earbuds • $179: An essentially perfect product for their price point, the hf2 offers a triple-flanged design goes deep into the ear canal and provides the kind of detailed listening experience that’ll make you hate your existing earbuds. The catch-22 at present is that Etymotic’s three-button hf3 has been announced but isn’t yet shipping, so it might be worth it to wait at this point.
Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Tour with Control Talk • three button earbuds • $179: Dr. Dre’s signature earbuds are certainly the most unique looking we’ve ever tested, and they’ve got a fantastic sound to match. While the competing hf2 slightly edges them out in audio quality, the fact that the Tour is available with a three button configuration right now is enough to get them onto this list – along with the definitively 21st century styling.
v-moda vibe ii • one button earbuds • $119: An oldie but a goodie, this product has a firm grip on the sweet spot of not being too expensive and yet offering audio quality that’s head and shoulders above any other iPhone-specific earbuds in the roughly hundred dollar price range. And the earbuds themselves are lightweight and tiny. Fair warning: they have a higher than usual bass to treble ratio.
Shure SE115m+ • three button earbuds • $119: These earbuds sound excellent for their price and offer perhaps the best noise isolation of any earbud product we’ve ever tested. The colors are a bonus, as are the built in three buttons; make sure you’re actually getting the SE115m+ and not the older SE115, which doesn’t have three buttons built in.
Ultimate Ears 220vi • one button earbuds • $89: The overall audio quality of these earbuds is the best of any sub-$100 iPhone earbuds we’ve tested, crisp and expansive on both the high and low ranges. The design is lightweight and non-bulky, without feeling fragile. If you can afford an extra $30, you should probably move up to the vibe ii. But if $89 is the high-end of your budget, you’ll be plenty happy with these earbuds.
Radius Atomic Bass • one button earbuds • $49: These earbuds surprised us by sounding noticeably better than even some competing iPhone-specific earbuds that were more expensive. We can’t be the only ones who’ve caught on, as the silver model is out of stock at the time of this publication. No worries, though – also available in red, black, and pink. There’s also a $39 non-iPhone-specific version.
Macally HifiTune • one button earbuds • $49: These earbuds are remarkably similar to the Atomic Bass earbuds in overall quality, with the primary difference being that the HifiTune sounds a little better on the high end and the Atomic Bass (as its name would predict) wins the battle on the low end. With an identical price tag, you can use that fact (along with the differing styles) to decide which of the two is right for you.
RadTech ProCable • one button earbuds • $25: You wouldn’t think you’d be able to get your hands on iPhone-specific earbuds for twenty-five bucks that would sound even decent (and some competing products at this price point don’t), but these earbuds will significantly improve your audio experience over the ones that come bundled with the iPhone – and they come in a choice of five colors.
Westone 3 • no-button earbuds • $399: These iPod earbuds offer such a stunningly expansive sound that after using them for a few minutes you’ll forget you’re wearing earbuds and swear you’re instead wearing cup-style headphones. They’re also stunningly expensive, leaving us skeptical going in, but as it turns out they really do offer four hundred dollars worth of sound quality – you’ll notice it immediately.
Future Sonics Atrio • no-button earbuds • $199: For those of you who can’t quite manage to spend four hundred dollars on earbuds, the Atrio will still move you nearly to tears of joy over their audio quality while not quite as likely to leave you in tears over their price tag. As with the 3, our only knock on the Atrio is that they won’t come in an iPhone-specific version with a built-in mic and button. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.
Wi-Gear iMuffs MB220 • wireless headphones: We’ve tried out any number of wireless headphone solutions, but we keep coming back to the iMuffs, which provide playback controls on the right headphone and allow you to toss your iPhone in your pocket. Good luck finding them though, as we can’t currently find them in stock anywhere.
JayBird SportsBand SB1 • wireless headphones • $89: These new challengers in the wireless headphone arena are a virtual tie with iMuffs in our book: they’re comfortable and they sound great. The only catch is that the SB1 is about to be replaced with JayBird’s even newer SB2 – which we haven’t had the chance to test out yet – and while we expect the SB2 to be even better, the SB1 is in fact the model that’s available now.
Ultrasone HFI-2400 • high end headphones • $329: These massively sized headphones sound so brilliant that you’ll think you’re in a room equipped with surround sound speakers – and for this price tag they’d better. They’re brilliant across all audio ranges, and comfortable. Yeah, you probably can’t afford them, but they are more than worth their price tag.
v-moda Crossfade LP • high end headphones • $249: Metallic styling and the best bass at any price – the two hallmarks of v-moda’s line of earbuds – translate nicely to the company’s new headphones. If you like your bass crisp and heavy, the Crossfade LP is what you’re looking for. As a bonus, they come with a pair of cables, one which includes three control buttons and the other of which doesn’t.
AKG K 450 • portable headphones • $189: These small fold-up headphones are designed for traveling light, as they have some of the smallest cups of any headphones we’ve tested. But that doesn’t keep them from sounding great – and for those who want to travel with something more substantial than earbuds but can’t lug around full size headphones, the K 450 represents an excellent middle ground.
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7b • noise canceling headphones • $219: We’ve tested various active noise canceling headphones, which surround your head with white noise to block out the surrounding fray, but none of them measure up to Audio-Technica’s rather technically named ATH-ANC7b in terms of audio quality or noise suppression. These are a lifesaver if you’re on an airplane or just trying to block out neighborhood noise.
View all seventy-five winning accessories for iPad, iPhone, and iPod (including cases, earbuds, car products, stereos, batteries and more) in Beatweek Magazine’s 75th issue which you can read digitally for free right here.
Best of Show CES: Etymotic hf3
January 9, 2010 by Bill Palmer · 1 Comment
Editor’s note: iProng Magazine has been on-site at CES 2010 in Las Vegas all week reporting on newly introduced products for iPhone and iPod. This is just one of our “Best of Show” winners…
“The best just got better” sounds like a marketing pitch, but in this instance it’s an accurate description. Our top-rated iPhone-enabled earbuds at any price for 2009, the $179 Etymotic hf2, have given way in 2010 to the company’s new hf3. The big difference here is that the single button and mic on the hf2 have been replaced by a tiny triple-button controller and mic which provide not only playback and voice functionality but also volume control which works with the newest iPhone and iPod models.
The hf3 continues to sport a sharp-looking future-tinged styling along with included triple-flanged earbud tips. We’ve said enough about the hf2 in the past, and it still applies to the hf3, so suffice it to say that you really can’t go wrong with the hf3 – unless you can’t afford them.
Read about all of iProng’s “Best of Show at CES 2010″ winners and finalists in the January 14th issue of iProng Magazine, which will feature a cover story interview with The Flaming Lips and more.
Review: Shure SE115m+
October 29, 2009 by Beatweek · 2 Comments
New in iProng Magazine: a hands-on review of the SE115m+ earbuds for iPhone and iPod from Shure, priced at $119…
review by Bill Palmer
Even if we waited to release our “Best of the Year” awards on New Years Eve, there would still invariably be one enticing product that shows up just after the deadline. In this case it’s not an entirely new product, but instead a revised version of Shure’s SE115 earbuds. The original SE115 was the most highly recommendable set of iPod earbuds on the market at its $119 price point. But its optional add-on implementation of iPhone-specific controls made the product overly bulky and put the controls in the wrong place, and also added $49 to the price point, pushing the product into a price range where it couldn’t compete – leaving the SE115 in the odd position of being a five-star product for iPod users, but not recommendable for iPhone users at all.
We here at iProng complained loudly, and so did users. And to their immense credit, Shure has responded with the new SE115m+, which is basically just the original SE115 but with an iPhone mic and play/pause button built into the left earbud cable, right where it belongs, at the same $119 price point. This evolution wasn’t unexpected. But in a mildly surprising move, the controls also include volume up and down buttons and the ability to record audio. Nice touch. Of course that functionality only works with the latest iPhone and iPod models (sorry, iPhone 3G users), but it’s a great addition that I’d like to see implemented on all earbuds going forward.
Until now, our advice at $119 was simple: the SE115 for iPod users; the competing v-moda vibe ii for iPhone users. But the SE115m+ changes everything, and had me conducting some serious listening tests across various genres, now that the SE115m+ and vibe ii actually compete with each other instead of being different accessories for different devices. And those listening tests confirmed what my previous experiences with the original SE115 had told me: they have a slightly more expansive sound than the vibe ii overall, and sound a bit fuller in the higher and mid ranges – but the vibe ii continues to dominate the lower ranges. Acoustic guitar sounds better on the SE115m+, while Lady Gaga’s new single sounds better on the vibe ii. You get the idea.
The wild card, of course, is the additional controls built into the SE115m+. If you’re a user of the iPhone 3GS or new iPod nano or shuffle, the volume controls in particular may prove to be very handy. On the other end of the spectrum, an iPhone 3G user might consider it an annoyance to have on-board volume controls that flat-out don’t work. This is Apple’s fault, of course, for not implementing the ability to receive volume commands into the iPhone sooner. But it’s likely that your relative enthusiasm toward the volume controls is going to be specifically dependent on which iPhone and/or iPod models you currently have or plan to purchase soon. Ironically the biggest winners here are probably third generation iPod shuffle users, who more or less have to purchase earbuds with these controls or be stuck with the earbuds that came with the shuffle.
Beyond the whole “functionality is dependent on which device you own” angle, there are two other caveats when it comes to the SE115m+. One is that while they’re already available from the Apple Store, they’re going to only be available from the Apple Store (including the online store) through at least the end of 2009. While that’ll amount to no more than a one-time annoyance on the day you purchase them, the more tangible caveat is that unlike the original SE115 which comes in colors ranging from red to black to pink to blue, the SE115m+ is currently only available in black.
If you’re looking to spend $119 on earbuds and you’ve read this review, and then looked at the fact that the Shure SE115m+ and v-moda vibe ii have both received five-star ratings, and are thusly unsure of which one you should purchase, then I’ll cheerfully suggest that you go back and read the review again. While neither can measure up to the audio fidelity of Etymotic’s $179 hf2 earbuds for iPhone (our star ratings are price-dependent), both of these products are ridiculously strong offerings for their $119 price point. Which of the two you choose should depend on what style of music you primarily listen to, which generation of which iPhone or iPod you own, and if it’s important to you, preference for color and styling.
The bottom line here, at the risk of sounding cliche, is that iPhone users who’ve lusted for the original SE115 are the winners, as they’re no longer left with the difficult decision of choosing between fidelity and functionality; they now have equal opportunity for both. I’ve tested too many dozens of earbuds over the years to get excited often, but I have to admit that as an iPhone user the Shure SE115m+ has me genuinely excited.
Learn more about the Shure SE115m+ at store.apple.com.
Review: Zagg Z.buds
October 8, 2009 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
New in iProng Labs: a hands-on review of the latest version of the Z.buds earbuds for iPhone from Zagg, priced at $79…
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.
