Pretty good for the price (depending on your usage)
Pros:
price ($20), sound pretty good, small, comfortable, isolate noise fairly well
Cons:
not good for exercising due to the noise isolation feature accentuating sounds in your head
The Bottom Line:
I don't recommend use for exercise, but if you want something inexpensive that sounds pretty good to use when relaxing to music or personal video viewing.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I was in the market for some new headphones mainly for use at the gym since that's where I listen to mp3 music the most. Generally earbud style headphones do not work for me since they never fit or stay in my ears. I had some Sony's that are like earbuds, but have a "hanger" that hangs on your ear so the buds just kind of rest in there.
Well, those broke so I had to look for a replacement. I couldn't stomach spending a lot of money since they would just be used for the gym, my aural acuity is not that refined, and I didn't want to order something online that I didn't know would be good. That last one really limited my selection as I looked at my local Wal-mart. I picked up two sets, these Koss phones and a set of Philips.
The Koss ones were a little more than the Philips, about $20. They are marketed as isolation earbuds. They also come with three sets of cushions to fit your particular ear size. I tried them out at work and they felt pretty good using the medium size cushions. They seemed to stay in my ears and if I really jammed them in there, they did seem to isolate noise pretty well. I thought they sounded pretty good, too. They had good range and nice bass.
Then I tried them at the gym. This is where they failed me. They still stayed in my ears pretty well through the intense workout, but because they are isolation earbuds, they really accentuated internal noises in my head. My breathing, the thumping of my steps as I ran, and the thump of the cord hitting my chest. If I backed the buds out a bit to allow some external noise in, then they wouldn't stay in my ears correctly.
So they failed the gym test. However, I also have a Zen Vision:M video/mp3 player that I use for other occasions and these buds work great for that so I decided to keep them. Oh, and I got the blue/black version of these, not the green, so they even matched up pretty well with my black Zen Vision:M.
Misc. things:
-The cord is asymmetrical which a lot of people don't like, but I don't mind it.
-The spot where the cord goes into the earbud is flexible to reduce strain on the wires. I hope it works since this is where my previous headphones failed.
-The little cushions are easy to switch around and also would be easy to lose, so I just keep my unused ones in the original packaging.
-They make different colors of this model. I saw the blue and the green at my Wal-mart. I believe they also have pink.
I guess that's about it. Overall, for the price, I think they are pretty nice earbuds. They sound pretty darn good and do isolate noise fairly well (not sure how they'd do on a plane, but I'm sure they'd be adequate). Not a good option for exercise use, but OK for relaxing with your mp3 player or watching a movie on your Zen Vision or iPod.
