Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Hearing Things Monster releases in-ear headphones

I'm surprised they don't have thicker wires....

http://www.uncrate.com/men/gear/headphones/monster-turbine-pro-earphones/

At $300, I'm sure they're a bargain... I will try to reserve most of my judgment until somebody competent reviews them.

Hopefully someone who uses the terms "Turbine" or "Pro" in their name will sue them.

Knowing how tight those turbines cement themselves to the RCA inputs, I'm a bit leery about sticking them in my ear.

For some reason when I read this the first time I read it as "reduced anal leakage"...

I don't want to know why. I really, really don't.

Perhaps I just think of Monster Cable and anal leakage as one in the same...

All kidding aside, I really think that these could be decent. Just based on a gut feeling, they probably are worth 30-50 bucks... too bad they feel the need to price gouge.

Why wait?
You know if it says "Monster" on it, and it sells for over $2.00.....all the "Cliff Clavins" around here, are going to freak out anyway.

That's a bargain at $300, but I think I'd send them out to the Ninja Guy to improve them for another 3-4 hundred.

Shure, Etymotic, and other IEM manufacturers should all band together and sue Monster for patent infringement.

It's a FEATURE!

But only if used as NOT intended. They might stop you up for a while, anyway.

He will sell you 2 pieces of felt with holes cut in them to duct tape to your head for $60.00. It keeps the treble from bouncing off your nose thus time aligning the resonance of you sinus cavities with the ligaments in your knees that cause your brain to smear the sound inside your o-blah-di-o-blah-da.

You have to lend him your pair to test though, because he doesn't actually own any. For the privilege of letting him develop a commercial product he can sell developed using the equipment you have paid for, he will give you a discount to purchase his tweak. If you think I'm kidding about this last bit, hold your nose and wallow in his forums.

The design looks a lot like some headphones I picked up off of Woot a year or so ago for $10. They were a real bargain on Woot since they normally sold for something much higher (as I remember), but of course, you slap the Monster name on them, put some angled cuts into the metal to call them "Turbo," and then give it a stupid high price so you can call them "Pro" and you have what they are selling...

Part of the price is justified by the lifetime warranty. They'll replace them if you break them.

I wonder how many you need to break to justify the $$ tag ?

Oops

I would even buy Bose headphones over Monster

My guesse at their strategy is this. After seeing the "Supertip" ear tips (marketing drippage), which look identical to the style om my Zune's premium ear pieces and also the Klipsh models show in the pictures below, I had the thought that many of the people 'uneducated in audio' enough to buy any monster product have probably never tried inner-ear earphones.

If their design is reasonably good, and I'm sure they made them good enough to not fall prey to general scrutiny by reviewers, then those used to ear buds and such will certainly experience better sound isolation and probably better audio quality than the Apple (or most Apple style) buds they were using previously and also probably much better than many 'open' (Walkman style) earphones they were using previously. They will then spout on about how much better it sounds and justify to all their friends why they are worth so much money. Monster may not be very ethical but they are brilliant marketers.

In reality, I'm doubtful they sound much better than my Zune phones but normally that would be unfair to say without hearing them myself or a after few authoritative reviews are published. However, given Monster's proven track record of ripping of the consumer, I'm leaning on guilty until proven innocent on this one.

Edit: Before I'm corrected: Re. my describing them as "inner ear" I realize they are not true inner ear phones, such as are my Shure's that litterally get stuffed right into the canal, but this style are often described as such as they do tend to engulf further into the ear and create a seal to give you the extra isolation.

Speaking about Monster heaphones. They are really getting into celebrity endorsements such as:

Dr Dre Beats
http://beatsbydre.com/products/Products.aspx?pid=B5800

Diddy Beats
http://beatsbydre.com/products/Products.aspx?pid=B5624

and something for the ladies:

Lady GaGa Heartbeats
http://www.ladygaga.com/heartbeats/

Smart move suckering the average consumer.

You also see a lot of athletes wearing the beats by dr.dre in public. I am pretty sure that is what Michael Phelps wears when he is in the spotlight and a few other high profile athletes. Monst. must pay them for endorsing the product because I hear they are horrible sounding headphones.

Yeah, I see the Beats everywhere. People do love them though. Then again, people really like Skullcandy's too...

I heard about those Turbines. Apparently there's a Miles Davis version. Oddly enough, there's a long thread on HeadFi w/ some positive reviews. I haven't heard them but who knows.

Just in a quick glimpse of watching the Academy Awards (probably ten minutes or so), I swear I seen a conductor type wearing beats as well as a singer in one of the clips before they awarded the winner. Wouldn't they want more of an accurate/studio sounding headphone?

I just saw the Dr. Dre ones at Best Buy today. I was visiting my sister this weekend, and she needed some new headphones to go with the computer I gave her, so she ended up with some $60 Sennheisers. They felt and sounded the best of the ones that were on display. Usually I'd do more research than that, but it seems like they'll work out well.

I got these today from Amazon.com (via Buy.com). At first listen (no break in), they are very good. Solid bass and lots of good mids/highs for us Axiom/Grado lovers.

Not a bad deal either.

http://thinksound.com/rain.html

Those look kinda neat. I like the wood housing.

cool, I like the wood housing look too! How "wood" you say these compare to other in ears in a similar price range?

I haven't heard the Dr. Dre/Lady Gaga/whatever headphones we're talking about. I've seen them around though, so they do appear popular. I do think it's a bit presumptuous of us to just assume that these are crummy headphones. I mean, yes, I feel a little prejudiced against them too because they're not made by Shure, Etymotic, Grado, Sennheiser, AKG, or one of the other half-dozen brands I feel are "worthy".

But they may be very good. Or they may be crap. I don't know 'till I've heard them.

But yes, it seems that 1+ year ago, any time you saw someone wearing headphones on TV, they'd always be Bose cans. Now it seems they're wearing either standard white Apple earbuds (Vancouver Olympic games, I'm looking at you) or these new rap-star-marketeer cans.

I have read a few reviews of them. What these cans strive for is over-emphasized bass. Based on the marketing of Dr. Dre with these it makes sense that they would have this kind of sound signature-which would be appealing to the teenager that likes that "boom boom" car audio sound - not somebody in the studio. It is also interesting headroom does not show measurements of the Monster headphones yet every single other headphone on their site has measurements provided. It makes me assume Monster does not want their specs published. Because of their noise cancellation they would be good for blocking out outside noise on a airplane.

You always see Bose, Apple and now Monster products because they pay for product placements. Either to be used by actors in the movie/tv show or to be worn by athletes (Michael Phelps). It is very common to see bose headphones on television shows especially if the scene is on a airplane - thats the market Bose wants to appeal/market their product too.

Sennheiser HD 238. Apparently $60 was a clearance price. I probably should have picked up a pair for myself. I'm going to be in the market for a pair of headphones sometime soon, I think. I may have to get some input on that.

This website is a good source for headphone information. It breaks down headphones into type, MSRP (Amazon is a good source to find the cheapest price), descriptions and they also provide graphs. You can also compare multiple headphones and their graphs which is neat which will give you an idea about their sound signature.

http://www.headphone.com/

After a few weeks of burn in/usage, I really like them for the price. I like them MUCH better than my UE 5EB's. I got tired of the UE's muddy bass. The Rains' bass is much more solid and controlled. The mids/highs are quite good as well. There's an internet IEM called the RE0 from Head Direct that's popular around $79. My friend loved them when he had to replace his old Shure 4EC's. I tried them and really liked the mids/highs but the bass was almost invisible. The Rains were better.