Not Quite a Blog

Fred got me into earphones... when I say "into" I mean that I stopped looking for simply decent ones and started looking for good ones. A year or so ago, after spending way too much time with headphone.com, I bought a pair of V-Moda Vibes. I love those headphones with two reservations: the plastic-coated cord began to crack in various places near the IEMs and the plug didn't fit the 2G iPhone (which I purchased many months after the Vibes).

So, I have been eying the V-Moda Vibe Duo for some months now. It is the same (although improved) set of IEMs with nylon-wrapped cords, an iPhone compatible 1/8" plug and a nifty inline microphone with a call control button. Due to a wonderful Amazon gift certificate, I was able to get the Gunmetal Rouge Vibe Duo for about $92. Sweet!

When I first started playing with it, I had a few reservations. First, I like to wear the cord wrapped around the back of my ear to minimize microphonics. However, if one does this, the microphone slug sits very high, too high, maybe, for good call quality. Second, at first the call control button didn't seem to be working. Third, there's no cord wrapper! (V-Moda used to include a V-shaped wedge of silicon that you could wrap the cord around to avoid tangles) Sigh.

However, after a bit of testing and fiddling, I like these as much, if not more, as my original Vibes. The button malfunction was a false alarm: I figured out that the jack wasn't plugged all the way in. After properly seating it, the call control button worked like a charm (one click pauses or starts a song, two clicks skips the song; one click answers the phone, another click hangs the phone up).

As for call quality, it's pretty damn good. Of course, the great earphones make incoming calls sound great. To boot, the microphone in the cord is very good so outgoing sound quality from the microphone is high (for an inline microphone). I tested it as a headset on my computer using Amadeus Pro and left a message on a Maxemail account we have; both WAV files sound great. I will have to flip the cord off of my right ear when I get a call, but that's not much of a bother.