Tag Archives: headphones

Review – Monster DNA Headphones

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I’m not a real headphone kind of guy. All of my on-ear phones are gifts, like the one I’m reviewing. And all of my earbuds break super fast so I just get the cheapest I can find. But I already have the Monster DNA headphones, so I thought I’d give them a review.

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The have a compact and sleek design. I’m not really a fan of the overall looks, but they function well enough. The head strap (? What do you call that?) is flexible and quite comfortable, with a bit of rubber on the interior to prevent the uncomfortableness of straight plastic-to-hair contact. Each side is capable of receiving input from a standard audio cord. They also fold up, which I find unnecessary and silly. Each side is adjustable, to allow the headphones to better fit the head, and I find that the various positions they click into are at short enough intervals that the majority of people will be able to find a comfortable position for themselves. They come with two audio cables: one standard aux cord, and another with a 90-degree bend for devices. The device cord also has controls for volume, and the pause/skip forward or back button.

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The performance is great. The bass is clear and the cushions around the edges conform to one’s ear allowing one to listen with fewer outside distractions. Many even slight sounds can be picked up but the main parts of the music (or whatever audio is being listened to) isn’t interrupted or detracted from. The cables are sturdy and hold in the devices well, and the buttons are well constructed.

Overall I’m happy with them. They were a great gift, and are my primary, non-travel headphones. Not to say I haven’t traveled with them: they can become very compact and are quite sturdy for traveling purposes. And they’re just nice headphones. They’re all I, a standard music and entertainment enjoyer, will ever need out of headphones. I know there are likely better ones, but I’d still give these a shot.

Review – GTC Earbuds

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In my recent quest for the least expensive headphones I can get away with using, I found the GTC basic earbuds. This review will be quite short as all I have to say is these buds were $2.50 and for the price they aren’t bad. They don’t give out good sound, but it’s definitely above ear-bleedingly bad; the package talks about them having “more bass”, which is there, if you compare it to no bass. The noise reduction they claim is about the same as any other earbud I’ve worn as well. But the point is they are so cheap that just working is an accomplishment. I’ve used them for a while and they haven’t broken, and I tear through earbuds, so that’s a good thing. If they last as long as my inexpensive Skullcandy pairs, for a quarter of the price, then I’ll definitely consider that a win. They are relatively comfortable, deliver relatively good sound, are relatively sturdy, and only a few bucks. If you really like high quality music I’d stay as far away as possible. But if you break earbud cables with any frequency, and aren’t listening in the best environments I’d give them a look.

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Review – Sentry Talk Buds

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My earbuds broke a month or so ago, and since I keep breaking them I went out and tried to find the least expensive earbuds possible. This led me to pick up several different inexpensive earbuds.  The first was the Sentry Talk-Buds from the crummy shelf of my local store.

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Now if you’ll allow me to spoil the review only this far in, (and really, you could guess by the price) these are not a good product. But they don’t seem like that at first.  A bit off maybe: the buds themselves are made of metal and give a strange cold feeling in the ear, but that’s just because I’m not used to it. The sound is crap. Nothing is really unbalanced (I’m not a bass person myself so the lack of heavy bass doesn’t bother me)– it’s just fuzzy, like one would expect from inexpensive earbuds. The real problem here, though, is the microphone, more specifically the “answer call” button on it. This button also acts as a play/pause button, and it broke within a week of me owning the thing. But if it just broke in an unobtrusive way that would’ve been fine, since I didn’t want that feature really anyway. But it broke in such a way that it randomly paused and unpaused the music I was listening to, and that was unacceptable. If the button, or even the microphone, was removed I might have liked these (I’m not much of an “Audio Snob”– I just want what I listen to to be recognizable and not make my ears bleed). As it is, though, I’m not a fan. It does seem like it might be a quality control issue and thus hit or miss, but with so many other cheap and better options I wouldn’t bother.

(Also these came with a case, which I was semi-excited about, because I like small containers. But this one has a cheap, plastic hinge I could break with no effort, and came with what seemed to be a type of oil inside, so it was dirty. It might have sold me in the store, but once out of the package it was quite disappointing.)