Let’s all face it, You can buy a pair of Shure monitors, or a pair of V-Moda Vibe Duo’s which will sound just smashing, but the company with the most headphones in use?

That award probably goes to Apple, simply because of the amount of iPod’s and iPhone’s they’ve sold. Every single one gets a pair of white earbuds, which, since the start of the iPod line, have been of sub-par quality. Seemingly more a design after-thought then something the Apple design teams paid much attention to.

That is, until late last year, and the introduction of new iPods and the new iPhone 3G, seemingly un-noticed in the swhirl of news coming from the keynote, was Apple’s introduction of some new “canalphone” style white earbuds, but these werent the normal “pack-in” style, They’re a £50 (79.00USD) accessory those wishing to upgrade from the stock earbuds can purchase.

I’ve recently been in the market for something more compact to take along with me when on the go, It’s more common then ever to see people on the bus, or just out and about tuned into their iPod’s and iPhone’s, and yet, I had nothing better to use then the stock iPhone/iPod pack-in earbuds.

So on I mission I went.

After debate between Shure SE-110’s for about £70, V-Moda Vibe’s for about £75 and Apple’s In-Ear headphones, I settled on the In-Ear headphones, due to reviews, the design, as well as the price, being between 20-30 quid cheaper then the competition, I decided that I really had nothing to loose.

Packaging

Apple has always been a master of detail, not just in products, but also in things like packaging. Almost any time you purchase an Apple product, your going to be rewarded with a unique, yet efficient package design. This has always been the case, and Apple hasn’t stopped just for these £50 headphones.

They come in a plastic “shell” somewhat like what Belkin packages a small selection of their iPod/iPhone cases in, It can be a bit difficult to get into at first, as its sealed shut by a (very) stick plastic tape/hang tag contraption.

Once you manage to murder that strange, sticky contraption without also murdering a finger, Your greeted with a paperboard tray, pull this out, and your then able to remove the triangular storage case, your also provided with a white “tube” below that, which is the container for the other headphone caps (upon purchase, your provided with three normal sizes, small, medium and large.)

Look and Feel

Once you remove them from the storage case, you notice one immediate difference, these in-ear headphones manage to have quite a bit of weight, not enough to where they may become an annoyance to try and use, but enough to give them a solid feel when your just holding them in your hand.

The design is a cross between that of the previous generation of the In-Ear headphones, and the current generation of pack-in earbuds. There is a silver ring between the point where the gray rubber caps end, and the white plastic enclosure begins, It’s a nice little touch in the design.

Audio Quality

Now the part that matters. How do they actually sound? And to be honest?

They sound shockingly good. I was nothing short of stunned when I first started listening to music with them. They sound nothing like any of Apple’s previous attempts into making a pair of earbuds/headphones.

They manage to create a fair amount of bass, without creating so much as to overwhelm you and distort and ruin all the work done by the other driver.

Interestingly, It should be added that each headphone contains two drivers, a woofer for bass and mid-range, and tweeter for higher frequency tones. This makes these seem an even larger value for what at first seems a high price tag for just another pair of “white earbuds”.

The first real test of these was with the track I listen to the most, Decode by Paramore, If they’re not able to make it through this track, emitting not just volume, but also detail and clarity through it all, they might as well be put back in the box, Decode is my number one track, I’ve accumulated over 2,000 plays of it in iTunes.

How did they do on this test? They smashed it. They manage to emit detail I’ve not actually heard before, even with my Sony “Professional Studio Monitors” costing < £100 a pair. High’s and Mid’s sounded crisp, and the amount of bass produced was sufficient, but not overpowering.

Enabling the EQ feature on my iPhone really wasn’t necessary. The EQ did nothing but in some cases, distort the audio or cause it to have a more “tinny” sound to it. The only EQ setting required is “Off” nothing more.

Additional Features

As per the box, these are more then headphones, they also have a “control capsule” which is just a very fancy way for saying, they have an in-line remote. Depress the middle button once to play or pause, twice to skip forward in your current playlist or album, and three times to skip backward. Simple and efficient.

Also included is a microphone, for those with an iPhone like me who may wish to also use this as a headset, iPhone automatically will fade and pause your music in the event you receive a phone call and wish to answer. Press the “control capsule” once you accept the incoming call, and then again once you’ve finished to hang up. Once you do, your music will fade back in, and begin playing where it left off.

Yet another nice feature, which shows un-matched attention to detail on the part of Apple.

Little annoyances

There are a few things which do tend to get on my nerves in the five hours I’ve had these headphones.

One being, The “control capsule” is placed very high up on the cord for the right headphone, which requires you to reach up fairly high to change tracks or answer/end a phone call. I can see why this was done, the microphone is contained in the package for the control capsule, so putting it higher, in theory means better quality audio from the microphone in calls, but at the cost of usability the rest of the time.

In phone calls, I’ve found myself having to reach to the right cable and pull it closer to my mouth, as some complain that they’re unable to hear me, and that I sound distant. This is a bit disappointing due to the fact that Apple has raised the location of the microphone to prevent this, but I suppose not everything can be perfect, and if its only the fact that some are unable to hear me fully in the rare occasion I do get a phone call and decide to answer, I think I’ll be completely able to live with that.

The final verdict

For £50/79USD, are they worth the money? I would have to say, For sure.

These are the first set of white earbuds Apple has produced to sound as good as they look, Many, if not most will be scared off by the higher price tag of them, but the higher price tag is there because they’re of higher quality, and quality isn’t cheap.

I believe this may be the first time that Apple has ever set aside a team (most likely a small one, but a team none the less.) to solely, prototype, design and refine a pair of headphones/earbuds, and the results are highly noticeable.

If these were the iPod/iPhone pack-in earbuds, they would be even more amazing. But for now, they’re not. Anyone who has recently purchased an iPod or iPhone, or even those who have had one for years should really give these a look and a chance.

It’s true that they have a higher price tag, but those wishing to spent under £100/100USD while getting something that manage to have a fair amount of noise reduction, and crisp audio reproduction with nice built quality, would really be challenged to go wrong with these.

I’m not one to award “stars” in reviews, but in this case, I would award these 4.5/5.0 stars. Excellent. Nothing short of it.