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| iSpark Earbuds |
My iPhone earbuds have been wearing out for a while now, so a couple of months ago I decided to buy a new pair. I didn't really care whether they were the original iPhone earbuds or not, but since I do use my iPhone for listening to music a fair amount I needed earbuds that had a "clicker" that little remote bit that lets you change tracks and control the volume.
So at the headphone store during lunch, I asked to see all the earbud that had this "clicker" and after being presented with all four, I went with the KOSS iSpark Earbuds. They're black, looked simple, fairly cheap, and had the clicker, so all good. Or so I thought.
I had never heard of KOSS but my co-workers assured me that they weren't a BOSE imitation, so I was happy with that. However, after opening them up and connecting them to my iPhone I tested out the clicker, and that's where it went downhill. The KOSS remote thing didn't have volume control, which is not a big deal since the iPhone has buttons I can get at even when it's in my pocket, but the big drawback is that the clicker didn't change tracks. Apparently, the clicker was only to answer calls, so disappointed with myself for not reading boxes better I stuffed them in my desk and continued using my old iPhone earbuds.
Recently I broke the clicker on the iPhone earbuds, I think I squished them with my laptop, which meant I didn't have a reason to use them instead of the new ones. So I pulled out the iSparks [is this a valid plural? I mean a pair of headphones comes joined together so even though there's two of them, it's still one item, right?] from somewhere on my desk and decided to give them a fair chance on my commute from work.
Now, the iPhone earbuds are supposed to be in-ear [I think] but the iSparks takes in-ear to a whole other level. They have some sort of foam that you pinch closed that then expands once in your ear. So once both earbuds are in and in place they basically turn my skull into a sub-woofer with decent bass. The sounds is so good with these, that I'm discovering new sounds in songs and games I've had on my iPhone forever.
Apart from making my skull a sub-woofer and giving me better sound quality than I'm used to, because they are so fitted they essentially make me deaf to the outside world. This is especially good at drowning out laughter when I break into my impromptu in-place bachata step on the train. However, I discovered a downside to this. Have you ever seen a singer put a finger to his ear? I think it's so he can hear himself better, which might be good for singers but now I have to hear myself sing along out of tune and probably out of pitch.
Still, these are some pretty good earbuds.
