What I really like about the headphone sample I received is that they ACTUALLY stay in your ear unlike most ear buds. They stay in your ear, and they look freaking adorable doing it – kind of like an added accessory. I would even wear them to the gym. They are made of a hard plastic so they’re not really comfortable for extended use, although for music on-the-go, they are just fine.  Unfortunately, sound quality was mediocre at best – for the price you don’t really expect Monster or Shure quality drivers. If you turn the volume up, the music will get loud without giving you too much static or reverberation. There are no additional pads or different size buds included- one size fits all here.

 

Conclusion

The earphones come in a zippered semi pliable case for protection, so I feel confident just throwing the case in my purse knowing that the headphones won’t break or get tangled. For an inexpensive pair of headphone and the fact that these are so easily customizable -  I’m very happy with the iFrogz Ear Pollution. Sound quality may not be of the highest grade, but if you lose them, for $19.99 you can just grab yourself another pair to customize without having to break the bank.

The Good: Can be customized with a large selection of designs, affordable price and it comes with a convenient carrying case.

The Bad: Sound quality could be better, but for the price with all the extras you get, you really can’t complain.

 

What’s in the box:
The packaging is very minimalistic. Constructed from recycled materials, this small package includes the headphones, warranty information, and a cotton carrying pouch (sewn from renewable sources), which contains a cord clip and 3 different sized silicone eartips. The eartips come in XS, S, M, and L sizes.

Design:
Wooden housing is a real classy touch on earbuds. It comes in Black Chocolate and Silver Cherry finishes [Black Chocolate pictured]. The wood housing serves its function by providing more resonance than buds in a similar price range. The cable is appropriately sized at 50 inches, and is PVC-free. It feels a bit thicker than regular headphone cables, and is also “tangle resistant”. While tangling is always likely to occur with any cable, it does seem to be easier to straighten out then many other headphone cables out there. The gold-plated straight plug is well reinforced with a thick casing. The silicone eartips are black with the Black Chocolate model, and a white with Silver Cherry finish. They are also quite comfortable.

Performance and Audio/music quality:
Finding the right eartip fit is important. The difference between a good seal and the perfect seal was quite large. With the perfect seal, music sounded very natural on the TS01. As previously mentioned, the wood offers more resonance than you would notice from metal or plastic earbuds. If you don’t think you have the ear for resonance, you would very likely  be able to hear the difference when listening to a song with acoustic guitar (try Eric Clapton’s acoustic version of ‘Layla’). The bass is deep and the highs and mids are at the right level. The passive noise cancellation will mask out a lot of background noise and ambient sound, including most chatter.

Conclusion:
Thinksound TS01 retails for $74.99, but can be found for $44.99 online (Amazon). For just under $45 these earbuds are well worth the audio quality they provide, not to mention the small part you’d be playing in maintaining environmentally friendly. From audio quality alone they are a close competitor to many of the $100 earbuds we listen to. These eco-friendly earbuds will stay comfortable sitting in your ears for hours. They also come with a six month limited warranty.

The Good: Great bass, great resonance, looks good, feels good, and great price!
The Bad: They may expose sub-par MP3 bit-rates like 128kbps.

 

As far as sound goes, the headphones have been designed particularly in mind for acoustic instruments, classical music, violins, etc. They promise clarity, more detail, and are suitable for orchestrations. Hands on the sound seemed very similar to the original Turbines, with less emphasis on bass, but more emphasis on the mid-range, clarity and transparency, and more attuned to acoustics and concertos that have wind instruments. The headphones will retail for $199 and will ship in April and will come with 7 eartips. The headphones are also an exclusive product that will only be sold in select stores, with future designs to come out too.

In addition to their elegant Butterfly themed cosmetic, Monster’s Butterfly in-ear headphones are designed for total wearer comfort and tuned to reproduce the subtle nuances of music. They come with a beautifully designed carry case that reflects the elegant Butterfly theme and aesthetic design of the product. Finally, Monster’s innovative cable management system features a convenient designed on-cable slider and clip that keeps weight off the headphones so they stay snug in the user’s ears. The debut of Monster Vivienne Tam headphones is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to improve the quality of the portable audio experience.

Design:
Even the JayBird Sportsband packaging exemplifies the fact that the Sportsband is intended for those who work out and are athletic. It’s headband style design seems to be a growing popular trend for bluetooth headphones, since its design is pretty similar in style to the Jabra Halo that we reviewed not too long ago. So forgive us if we compare it to the Halo a lot. But unlike the Halo, its design is not foldable so you’ll need to be careful when tossing it into a gym bag, that it doesn’t break. However, the Jaybird’s Sportsband’s earpads do move and contour to your ears for extra comfort and improved sound quality unlike the Jabra Halo which earpads are stationary. The headset itself is a made of a rubberized material and if bent hard enough, it just might snap, but it is otherwise very sturdy. The headset is also adjustable to the size of your head, allowing for the earpads to fit onto your ears perfectly regardless of the size of your head.

Also, unlike the Halo, there are no touch controls on its earcups, but instead there are actual tactile buttons that you press to increase/decrease the volume, pair the device and go the next song or answer a call. I prefer this over touch controls on the Halo which aren’t always reliable. The previous/next buttons also indicate that the headphones have AVRCP support, unfortunately the iPhone doesn’t fully support AVRCP so you wont be able to take advantage of the previous/next buttons when playing music.

 

What’s in the Box:
In the box is of course the Sportsband, as well as a USB cable to charge the device, and User Manual. That’s about it – no carrying case or holster for your Sportsband.

Setup:
Typical of all Bluetooth devices, in order for them to work they need to be paired. The same goes for the Jaybird Sportsband. Unlike, the Halo It doesn’t turn on automatically when adjusting the earcups. To power your Jaybird Sportsband, you must first hold down the main center button on the right earcup and wait for a red light that then turns blue. Second, in order to pair the device you must again hold the center button down for at least a good thirty seconds and the blue light starts to turn red and pulses quickly between both colors to begin pairing phase. I paired it first with my Macbook Pro and then my Nexus One, so that they were both paired at the same time. Overall, the headphones paired easily between each device. To shut the Sportsband off you just hold down the main center button on the right earcup again and it shuts off by emitted a red light, and then a slight beep noise.

Call Quality:
Call quality was clear indoors and outdoors. Would I answer a phone wearing a pair of headphones all the time? Probably not, but having that option is certainly handy when you are exercising. I was able to pick up a call and chat for a few minutes clearly without any noise or feedback, and the party on the other end had no problem hearing me either. I was also able to walk pretty far away from my Nexus One without the call dropping out or getting any kind of noise. I would say that I was able to get as far as 30 feet away without audio starting to cut out.

Music Quality:
As much as we love to answer the phone to chit chat, really this device is going to be used for traveling, working out, or just lounging while listening to music. The need to listen to your music with out the pain of wires is becoming more the norm, but sadly the sound quality for these type of wireless bluetooth headsets are usually poor in comparison to its wired counterparts.And unfortunately, in the sound quality department the Jaybird Sportsband didn’t blow us away – the sound quality was just OK. I listened to music on both my Nexus one and Macbook Pro and even the iPhone, and I wasn’t that all impressed. In comparison to the Jabra Halo, the Halo performed much better. The Sportsband exhibited a lot of noise and feedback, especially when I turned the volume up. And yes, you could hear the bass in the Sportsband, but the overall quality of the sound was not very impressive.  I had to keep increasing the volume in order to really feel the music and when I did – it became even more watered down with static… The sound quality did improve, when you played songs with higher bit rates, but most Mp3 players or cellphones will generally not be playing higher bit rates. We had expected more from this pair of headphones since our previous review of the JayBird JB-200 headphones left us very impressed with the headphone’s audio quality. The headphones also don’t provide noise isolation, but that really didn’t bother me as I like to be aware of my surroundings.

Battery Life:
According to Jaybird the battery music time will last 8 hours, the total talk time will last 11 hours, standby will last 250 hours. Well first things first – the Sportsband did not last the 250 hours it claims on standby – by the next day the battery was already dead and I had to recharge it. It’s also annoying because it charges on by the included USB cable that was included and that needs to be attached to a computer in order to charge. The 8 hours of music playback was about right, but because the battery life is sucks on my Nexus one, I never made it to 11 hours of talk time. However, when I recharged my phone and attempted again (the Jaybird had not been recharged) it did last another few hours of talk time. So all in all, it’s battery life is solid, and as long as your phone has a decent battery life – the Sportsband will keep up with it.

Conclusion:
The Jaybird Sportsband definitely has a lot of nice features: earcups that pivot, a very comfortable design that stays on your head, dedicated buttons that you can operate easily, decent battery life, and solid call quality. However the few places were it lacked seemed to overshadow the other aspects that were good, like the overall sound quality for music and the fact that the Sportsband is not convenient at all for traveling without the fear of breaking it. Pairing can be temperamental as well, when trying to re-pair with a device after you switched to another device. If the Jaybird Sportsband and the Jabra Halo got together and had a kid, then maybe we would have the perfect Bluetooth handsfree headset once and for all. To its credit though, the JayBird Sportsband is much more affordable than the Halo as it retails for $89.99 or $79.99 at Amazon.

The Good: Adjustable earcups, sits on your head comfortably and doesn’t slip off, pairs quickly, tactile buttons.

The Bad: Sound quality was just passable and not outstanding, Sportsband doesn’t fold and could be cumbersome to travel with.

 

If you want our pair of Lil Wayne In Ear Buds just tweet at us your Fave Lil Wayne song we will pick a winner on Sunday. Once product availability and permanent pricing becomes available, we will be sure to update the post.

Update: The giveaway is over and we have announced the winner via Twitter

We get our fair share of headphones around these parts so coming across the these new ankit headphones was certainly a treat. They are  ergonomically designed with enhanced noise isolation and have g-bass technology. They also come in extremely cute or edgy 3D metallic design – “Stay True,” “Break Away,” “Naughty Naughty,” and “Forbidden.” The packaging is also quite impressive and also a bit Ed Hardy-esque. However one thing Ed Hardy or rather Christian Audigier wouldn’t do is plant a tree with every purchase and ankit will. Pricing and availability is TBD but I can’t wait to hear how that g-bass feels. 

Features and Benefits
•Reduces hum from your car´s electrical system                                  
•Provides a direct connection to your car´s AUX (auxiliary)
port for pure sound                                                         
•Cable braiding for strength, durability and limited tangle
•4-ft long, 3.5mm audio cable

Available at Kensington for $20.

2/4/10 UPDATE: Best Buy began an online presale of Diddybeats on January 29 at www.bestbuy.com/diddybeats. Diddybeats will launch exclusively in Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile standalone stores March 28 and are projected to retail for $149.99.