{"id":12083,"date":"2013-06-16T02:00:36","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=12083"},"modified":"2013-05-10T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T17:44:37","slug":"enhanced-bass-hi-fi-noise-isolating-earphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/enhanced-bass-hi-fi-noise-isolating-earphones\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhanced Bass Hi-Fi Noise-Isolating Earphones"},"content":{"rendered":"

For over 10 years, I have been listening to music with the Westone UM1 In-Ear Monitor<\/a>, which I originally discovered via Cool Tools way back in 2003. They are wonderful noise-isolating earbuds, but they have a downside — I have to repurchase them every couple of years because the little plastic earbud stem snaps off, and at $100 a pop, this has become a deal-breaker. So after another pair snapped a couple weeks ago, I decided to explore alternatives.<\/p>\n

In my experience, earphones are kind of like sunglasses; it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of money on them, because they are highly likely to get lost or broken. If I were planning to wear earphones exclusively in my apartment, I might look into purchasing a premium over-the-ear pair, but most of the time I wear them while I am commuting on public transit, jogging, or at the gym — all activities which carry a high potential for impact. They routinely get tugged out or jammed into a pants pocket or bag. <\/p>\n

I’ve ordered numerous audio cables from Monoprice over the years with great results, so after reading a few positive reviews online, I decided to give their Enhanced Bass Hi-Fi Noise Isolating Earphones a try. They were cheap (<$8), so it wasn't a big risk. Also, it seems to me that the largest determining factor in headphone sound quality is noise isolation, so I decided to upgrade the stock tips with Comply T-400 Isolation Earphone Tips ($15 Amazon<\/a>). I’ve been listening to music through this setup for a couple weeks, and although the Monoprice earbuds don’t sound as good as the Westones — the treble can be a little harsh at times — the sound quality is probably 80%. Also, the Comply tips provide a tight, comfortable fit when I’m active. A tip: the cables are wrapped in some sort of fabric which makes them a little rigid, so they can spring out from behind your ears. To solve this problem, I positioned the cables and then tied a knot under my chin, which keeps them in place.<\/p>\n

I also purchased a pair of the Monoprice over-the-ear DJ-style headphones ($32 Amazon<\/a>, $23 Monoprice<\/a>). These have become my go-to pair; I’ve been wearing them every morning during my SF Muni commute. The consensus of the reviewers on the Monoprice site suggests that the DJ-style headphones are more durable than the lightweight model, and although I wasn’t able to directly compare the two, I will say that they are solidly constructed and the sound quality is great – a deep, rich bass. I’m sure they aren’t on par with a pair of premium over-the-ear headphones, but at 1\/10 the price, they are close enough for me. <\/p>\n

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Inexpensive, lose-able earbuds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[1540],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12083"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12087,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12083\/revisions\/12087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}