The Apple in-ear headphones with remote and mic are comfortable in the ear whilst still giving impressive sound isolation, two high performance drivers in each earpiece result in a rich and accurate reproduction of your favourite sounds and the convenient control capsule allows for minute adjustments to further enhance your audio experience.
This all sounds pretty impressive, but is it? Are Apple in-ear headphones as good as Apple say they are? We’ve had a good look around and found some rather interesting details for you.
It appears that most of us like to buy Apple accessories to go with our Apple devices, although some of these accessories may be included in the purchase price of course, we seem to like the complete, overall “look” of an Apple device with its Apple accessories, it just looks right, in a more streamlined kind of way. This is because Apple has designed it to be this way, there is no doubting that an Apple product is a thing of beauty and the accessories are just as beautiful, so together they are very desirable indeed. However, beauty is not always matched by performance and some of us, despite how aesthetically pleasing a product might be, will always opt for quality of operation rather than looks.
Reviews for the Apple in-ear headphones are unremarkable, with generally middle of the road scores. Criticisms are levelled mostly at the fact that Apple do not supply replacement silicone ear tips, if one or both are mislaid then a new headphone set is required – we completely agree with this complaint, it is unacceptable. Low frequency sound quality is another grievance, particularly with bass, other comments are that treble is tinny and the tone is generally too flat. Good reviews heap praise on the excellent sound and build quality, the handy carry case and the good looks.
Other good choices for in-ear headphones are the Soundmagic E10, realistically priced at $35 and given 5 star reviews, more pricey at $84 are the Beyerdynamic MMX 101 iE with 5 star reviews, a more considered purchase are the Sony XBA-2iP at $110, also reviewed with 5 stars. Finally, and for those with very deep pockets are the Sennheiser IE 800 – at $716 and the AKG K3003i – at $1279, both have 5 star reviews, as would be expected.
So there you have it, Apple’s own in-ear headphones at $79 with middle of the road reviews, or one of the other brands we have listed perhaps?