... When I purchased my Sony Walkman mobile phone it came with a set of earphones with knobbly bits. To me there were real issues with them, firstly if you were not careful the knobbly bits would drop off, secondly I found them uncomfortable in your ear and often they caused minor scratches quite ... Read review
Advantages: Excellent sound levels and quality Disadvantages: Disturbingly dangerous
...better. When I purchased my Sony Walkman mobile phone it came with a set of earphones with knobbly bits. To me there were real issues with them, firstly if you were not careful the knobbly bits would drop off, secondly I found them uncomfortable in your ear and often they caused minor scratches quite deeply into my ear. But the final and most annoying thing of all was that they keep falling out of my ears, intermittently as if tipping the other off ... ...given up I entered a Sony Centre store for a completely different reason, during my visit I happened to glance back and saw them gleaming back at me knobble free earphones. I grabbed them like my life depended on it and left the store, having walked four stores I realised I had not actually paid fore them.
Having returned back to the store and paid the £9.99 reduced from £29.99 to clear. The earphones are of conventional earphone size ... more
Do you like knobbly bits? I don't! Have you tried buying some without knobbly bits lately? Its not an easy task, knobbly bits are the way of the future; but I'm happier in the past! I'm of course talking about this revolutionary style of earphone. The knobbly bit as I refer it is is a plastic or rubber piece that generally tends to go further in your ear than a conventional earphone, the whole set is more streamlined and apparently the sound quality is better. When I purchased my Sony Walkman mobile phone it came with a set of earphones with knobbly bits. To me there were real issues with them, firstly if you were not careful the knobbly bits would drop off, secondly I found them uncomfortable in your ear and often they caused minor scratches quite deeply into my ear. But the final and most annoying thing of all was that they keep falling out of my ears, intermittently as if tipping the other off they would fall out of my ears; I could deal with this to a certain level but three or four times a track is excessive. Finally one of the knobbly bits fell off never to be seen again and at this point I decided it was time to take the plunge and get a set of good quality conventional earphones.
My mission began in Argos where they sold a variety of different styles, but the few they had without knobbly bits were all out of stock, I then headed for T-mobile, Panasonic, O2, Vodafone, Orange, Currys.Digital, and even some specialist stores. The only places I could get conventional earphones were the sort of place where you know they would only last a day or so. When I thought I'd given up I entered a Sony Centre store for a completely different reason, during my visit I happened to glance back and saw them gleaming back at me knobble free earphones. I grabbed them like my life depended on it and left the store, having walked four stores I realised I had not actually paid fore them.
Having returned back to the store and paid the £9.99 reduced from £29.99 to clear. The earphones are of conventional earphone size and a mix of neon blue and black colourings. They come with a series of different attachments to connect with a variety of audio devices, four replacement sponge like coverings all in two different styles. And a couple of green clip on panels that give the earphones a different look for those that are fashion conscious I guess.
Having attached my earphones to my phone the initial shock was traumatic, the previous earphones although weaker on sound than most seemed loud enough, except at time they tended to distort the sound. These new earphones however nearly caused my brain to bleed. I had not anticipated that the new earphones would have such a dramatic sound difference quality and certainly never considered they would be much louder; as a result when I put them in my ears I had not even considered turning the volume down on my phone. The only way I can describe the sound was not dissimilar to being hit over the head with a large mallet. Although a shock initially it was kind of reassuring to now be able to use my phone to listen to music louder than I would ever need to hear it. The key thing being was that despite the drastic change in volume the earphones still seemed to keep the clarity about them that other earphones often do not. I had to reduce the volume to half the normal rate in order to replicate the sound I was familiar with. Everything is just wonderful, at 5am in the morning I can now walk the dogs with a sound quality I had only ever dreamed of, I can turn the volume to a level I cannot tolerate without reaching the maximum level (good for quieter tracks). But best of all, they have never once fallen out of my ears having now owned them for several weeks.
There is one criticism of these earphones, I'm quite worldly aware, I know my surroundings and am careful when it comes to roads and other hazards. As we all know however some younger people are not, and because kids just love top volume on everything I know that noises such as vehicles will be drowned out, even if the vehicle was right on top of you. I also think about dangers such as mugging etc. As a result although I love these earphones, I feel if your going to use them out of the house you must be 100% in tune with your surroundings, and pretty much sure your living a visiting a safe area. As a result I'd not recommend these to anyone living in an inner city area who has the intention of using earphones on the move. But lets be honest where really is safe nowadays anyway?
