Review: V-Moda Vibe Earphones. Hear Your Music The Way It Was Intended.

Posted by: dgoldring on Mar 26 2007

So, you have bought a new MP3 player.  Let’s see how you did.  50-80 GB hard drive?  Check.  Video Capabilities?  Check.  Multiple Audio Codecs?  Check.  High Quality earphones?  Uh, yeah.  That is what I thought.  Earphones provide the critical link between your ears and the media stored on your iPod, Zuna, or other MP3 player.  Using substandard earphones means all of the money you spent on an MP3 player may as well have been flushed down the toilet…unless you enjoy listening to muffled, scratchy music while potentially injuring your ears.  Thankfully V-Moda is ready to come to your rescue.  The new V-Moda Vibe earphones, in their words, are the "world’s first hi-definition luxury earphones designed for fashion-forward active lifestyle."  Let’s take a closer look at what this really means.   

 

Packaging: The Vibe earphones come in a nice black box with a window artistically displaying the earphones inside.  Within this outer box, however, the Vibe earphones are held motionless in the dreaded hard plastic bubble packaging.  I honestly did not see the need for this hated vacuum sealed monstrosity within the outer box.  There are numerous alternatives which would have allowed the earphones to be displayed, without slicing open fingers and knuckles while opening the packaging. 

What’s In The Box: They really crammed as much as the possibly could into one small box.  Opening it, I started to feel like I was opening a clown car.  Accessories just kept falling into my lap.  In addition to the Vibe earphones, you will also find:

• a gold leather storage pouch
• multiple sized silicone fittings (in white and black) to fit any ear
• a Modawrap cable manager

 

Look and Style: I have to admit that I have become a firm believer in Bluetooth technology, so I was a little wary of testing traditional wired earphones.  The wires on the Vibe, however, are even in length, which means you don’t get a disproportionate amount of pull from one side or the other when you are wearing them.  Additionally, the wire is wrapped in a flexible plastic coating, which ensures that it will not get damaged when it is exposed to the rigors of every day life.  In fact, the wires were so unobtrusive, that I hardly remembered they were not Bluetooth.

Of course, the earphones themselves are the height of style.  They feature a reflective metal surface with a ring of textured plastic, ensuring that you can easily grip the earphones firmly when inserting or removing it from your ear.   You can even have your choice of colors:

• Gunmetal Black
• Flashback Chrome
• La Mocha — to match the Brown Zune
• Red Roxx — to match the red iPod Nano

I do wish, however, that the plug end, which is made of matching smooth composite metal, would have been designed with a textured plastic ring as well.  I found this smooth metal composition made it a bit slick to grip when I was inserting and removing the earphone plug in my MP3 player.

 

Fit and Comfort: Regardless of how well earphones look, they are essentially useless if they do not remain lodged in your ears.  Of course, V-Moda has a solution for this.  Each earphone features an ultra-soft silicon fitting which conforms to the shape of your ear, ensuring a secure and comfortable fit for each user.  In addition, because people and ears come in all shapes and sizes, so too do the Vibe earphones.  Each set of earphones includes a complete set of small, medium, and large silicon fittings, ensuring the perfect fit for your ears every time.

 

Sound Quality: Earphones may look great and fit like a glove, but what happens when you plug them in is probably more important than anything else.  Would we all rather have ugly earphones that sound great or great looking earphones than sound like cellphone reception in a tunnel?  (I hope you answered the first).  V-Moda makes this easy by giving you your cake and letting you eat it too.  These great looking earphones also sound fantastic. 

I spent several weeks testing the Vibe earphones in various conditions, and I found that they sound at least as good as they look.  First, the silicon fittings conform to your ear, creating a noise reduction environment.  They ensure that outside noises have little room to enter your ear and interfere with your music.  At the same time, the silicone fittings ensure that the music you want to hear does not escape from your ear or become muffled.  The design of these earphones create an ideal listening environment.

Additionally, the Vibe earphones features the V-MASQUE dynamic driver technology and the Bass Level Isolating Soft Silicon (BLISS) to provide a precise balance of rich bass, warm midtones, and an overall incredibly clear sound.  This all ensured that the Vibe was among the cleanest sounding earphones I have ever used. 

Modawrap: One of my biggest pet peeves with traditional earphones is what I call cord mess.  This occurs when you reach into your bag to retrieve your earphones and find nothing but a tangled mess of cord.  Rather than listening to music, you spent the next 10 minutes untangling your earphone cord.

Fortunately, V-Moda offers a simply, yet practical solution to this problem.  The Modawrap looks like a simple "V" shaped plastic stick with two grooves on the ends.  In fact, when I first found it, I almost mistook it for a piece of packaging.  Wrap your cord around the Modawrap, and clip the ends onto either end of it.  This will hold your earphone cord tangle-free until your are ready to use it.  When you want to listen to music, simply unwind it to the desired length.  You can even leave the excess cord wrapped around the Modawrap while listening if you prefer a shorter cord. 

As simple as this seems, I have never seen any other earphone manufacturer offer a solution such as the Modawrap, and I certainly appreciated it.  Over the entire course of my review of these earphones, I never experienced more than a minor twist of the earphone cords, thanks to the Modawrap. 

Case: The case which comes with the Vibe earphones was probably my least favorite part of the package.  It is a metallic gold, soft leather case, with a pinched opening at one end (like a coin purse).  V-Moda referred to this as, "an elegant gold leather case," however, I really did not feel this case reflected elegance.  I would have preferred a simple black leather case with a zipper.

Pricing: I do not typically mention the price in the body of my reviews.  I am doing so here for two reasons.  First, the Vibe costs $101, which seems a bit odd.  The reason for the price is a tribute to the famous Highway 101, which runs past V-Moda’s Hollywood Hills headquarters.  

Second, while $101 may seem expensive to some, I found this to be an incredible bargain for the quality of sound offered by these earphones.  If you can afford to put some extra money into your listening experience, you will be well rewarded by investing in the V-Moda Vibe earphones. 

Conclusion: I was a bit apprehensive going into this review, because I have grown increasingly frustrated with traditional corded earphones.  The last set I used would become so tangled in my bag that they became virtually useless.  The Vibe earphones, however, far exceeded my expectations.  First, the Modawrap ensures that they will remain tangle free throughout the day.  This simple plastic stick seems like an extremely small addition, however, it truly meant the difference between the Vibe being useable or sitting in a tangled mess in my gadget bag.

Second (although probably more importantly), they sounded amazing.  The soft silicon ensured that outside noise was reduced in order to avoid interference with your music, while the music itself was pumped directly into your ear.  The design of these earphones ensures a clarity of sound which I have never experienced with similar earphones before. 

So, now that you have purchased that new MP3 player, make sure you can enjoy it to its fullest capacity.  Throw away the cheap earphones that were included in the box (there is a reason they are referred to as throw away’s), and replace them with the V-Moda Vibe.  If you are an audiophile like me (or if you just enjoy being able to hear all of the rich and subtle tones offered by your music), then this will be the best $101 you ever spend on your music collection.

Vital Statistics:

Name: Vibe Earphones

Manufacturer: V-Moda

Where to Buy: V-Moda

Price: $101

Technorati Tags: V-Moda - Vibe - earphones - music - iPod - Zune - Sansa - Just - Another - Mobile - Monday

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!