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Because I had a nasty fall against a table when I was small, I’ve got slightly odd shaped left ear, so I frequently find that the headphones that come with personal stereos (well, iPods!) quickly get uncomfortable after an hour or so of continual use. Some years back though, I discovered the joy that was bud earphones, and having non-white leads also, I thought, would make me slightly less likely to get mugged for my 2nd Generation iPod (ie. back when they weren’t ubiquitous, and quite the mugging target).

Unfortunately, choices for bud earphones the iPhone were somewhat more limited. There was a set of bud earphones available, but as they cost over £100, they was simply waaaay over my budget. I just didn’t need them that badly. So when I read on TUAW that a cheaper product was available, I jumped at it.

The product was the ProCable In-Ear Isolation Headset for iPhone, from Radtech. The product even boasts the strapline “Comfortable and durable audiophile quality in-ear headset with Sound Valve Technology.“. For $24.99, and just shy of $10 shipping to the UK, $34.93 amounted to somewhere around £17, which was also below the customs duty level.

A bargain. Or so I thought.

Firstly, it’s worth stressing that the service I received from radtech was excellent. The package arrived in about a week. It was all very well packaged, and no problems (or charges) clearing customs. I really can’t fault them there, and I’d buy something else from them again, quite happily. It’s just that the headset itself that proved catastrophically, thoroughly and entirely awful, useless and a waste of money. That the buds didn’t quite fit in my ear was one (minor) thing. The big problem was that the sound quality is truly awful. Cheap for a reason.

I’m far from an audiophile. I know a few of these strange creatures, and I’m afraid I’ve really no interest at all in optimal room conditions, gold-plated cabling, filtered power supplies and records vs CD’s, AAC vs MP3 and so on. I just can’t tell the difference, and largely don’t care: So long as the speakers or headset I’m using sounds reasonable and has a respectable range, I’m happy.

Unfortunately I could immediately tell there was none of that with these headphones. I was listening to Arcade Fire’s stunning album “Neon Bible”, and my favourite track on the album “Intervention” makes impressive use of a powerful church organ. If you’ve not heard it, go find it on iTunes, and give it a listen. It’s one of the stand-out albums in the last few years. But with these headphones, it was, I’m afraid, pitiful. Absolutely no punch. The song sounded poor on every level. I immediately switched back to my iPhone headphones, and the difference was profound.

Others might find them fine. Perhaps you care less about the sound, or don’t use the iPhone for music as much as I do these days (twice weekly trips through to Edinburgh). They’d probably make acceptable headsets for telephone purposes. But not music.

Ironically perhaps, I’ve found I’ve subsequently got quite used to the iPhone’s bundled headphones. Whether that’s because they’ve changed the moulding from the previous iPod earphones, or that my ears have become more used to the shape, I don’t know.

In short: Avoid. Put your money elsewhere, or stick with the excellent headphones supplied with the iPhone.

Because the iPhone supplied headphones have a small but noticeable microphone, you also get to take part in the “is-that-an-iphone-or-ipod-owner”. I’m spotting them more and more, and with the 3G phone, and v2 firmware due very soon now (next week?), I’m sure we’ll see more of them on the streets. It’s still the best portable gadget I’ve ever bought.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Apple, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.