iLounge

Company: Apple Computer

Website: www.Apple.com

Model: Apple In-Ear Headphones

Price: $79

Compatible: iPod classic 120GB, iPod nano 4G, iPod touch 2G, Other iPods*, iPhones*

Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic

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By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Thursday, December 4, 2008
Category: Headphones & Earphones

Some people have a hard time taking Apple's earphones seriously. Consider the company's past forays into listening accessories: several generations of low-end iPod Earphones and Lanyard Headphones, a pair of $39 In-Ear Headphones that were derided for lousy fit, and the infamous iPod Hi-Fi, an overpriced all-in-one speaker. Could this company really make a pair of premium earphones worth owning?

Though it would be patently foolish to rush to judgment on Apple’s new In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic ($79)—we’re going to do real testing before publishing our full review—there are reasons that our answer might well be “yes.” Apple, of course, also makes iPods and iPhones, which have continually improved in audio quality over the years, even as they’ve fallen in price. And despite our access to virtually every pair of important earphones out there, iLounge’s editors have actually really liked Apple’s designs, carrying them as back-ups and using them on the road. Extensive testing has demonstated that people who rip on the iPod’s packed-in earphones for anything other than fit have clearly not really tested other inexpensive options—they are a legitimately strong pick, sonically, for the price. Similarly, fit aside, the old Apple In-Ears were actually great; their sound quality and balance was very strong for $39. They just had a tendency to fall out, a problem when earbuds are too small or misshaped. So we’re genuinely excited to try the In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic ($79), which despite their similar name have been fully redesigned to offer superior sound quality, functionality, and importantly, fit. This extended First Look discusses each of those issues; we’ll have more to say in our final review.

Sound: Virtually every pair of earphones you can purchase for $150 or less is a “single-driver” design, which is to say that there’s a single miniature speaker inside each plastic earpiece, and that speaker is responsible for replicating highs, mids, and lows. Frankly, one speaker doesn’t do a very good job of handling all that, so companies have come up with two-, three-, and even four-driver earphones, many of which we’ve reviewed. The In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic are Apple’s first earphones to use two miniature speakers per ear, one for the lows and mids, and the other for highs. This combination differs from many of the multi-driver earphones we’ve tested, which use one speaker just for the lows and one or two others for the mids and highs.

Functionality: When Apple released the original iPhone, it included new iPhone Stereo Headphones, which paired the then-current iPod Earphones with a highly unique in-line control box that served both as a microphone and a single-button remote control. At the time, it was unclear how good the microphone would turn out to be, and whether the limited remote would prove useful. A year and a half later, it’s very obvious that Apple chose a relatively excellent microphone—competitors have since struggled to offer ones that sound much better, even for higher prices—but that the remote was too limited. The single button worked only to pause or resume song playback or start/stop calls when pressed once; a quick double-click let you skip a track ahead. Apple recently changed this for iPhones and iPhone 3Gs, letting a triple-click reverse tracks, as well. It mightn’t be as convenient as having three separate pause, reverse, and forward buttons, but in typical Apple fashion, it’s cleaner.

The In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic’s new remote control has three buttons. One handles the same click, double-click, and triple-click features found on the iPhone remote; the other two are for volume up and down. Notably, these new volume buttons work only on the late 2008 iPods, specifically the 120GB classic, fourth-generation nano, and second-generation touch; they don’t work on earlier iPods or iPhones. They will probably work on future iPhones and iPods—they are, after all, no longer called “iPod In-Ear Headphones,” but rather just “Apple In-Ear Headphones.”

Why the compatibility issues? In addition to changes to the iPods’ hardware, there’s a new Apple chip inside the headphones, which developers expect will add $10-20 to the retail cost of future remote-equipped accessories, once other necessary components are included. The new In-Ear Headphones also include a microphone, like the one in the iPhone Stereo Headset, letting iPod users record audio and use other mic-dependent applications, such as iPod touch VoIP.

The net effect of these changes is a belated but big positive: several years late, Apple has remedied the disasterous removal of the useful top accessory port that had been found on iPods up until 2005, the omission of which forced remote control makers to create awkward bottom-mounted remotes and attempt to attenuate the iPods’ line-level output. Now, remotes can work in-line with headphones, without blocking access to the Dock Connector port, or forcing developers to struggle to change iPod output levels.

Fit: The single biggest problem with the prior In-Ear Headphones was their shape; they were designed to look futuristic and cool, but didn’t stay put in your ears. Apple has redesigned them with a more deluxe appearence, adding slim rings of metal and newly reshaped silicone ear tips that have a better chance of staying put. Three left- and right-matched sets of clear tips are included. The company also includes metal speaker filters—one set factory-installed, the other spare—and plastic containers for the unused tips, and for the Headphones themselves.

We’ll have much more to say on the Apple In-Ear Headphones in our full review; are they “just another pair of canalphones” with Apple branding, or something really special?