Cingular Go Phone: Yamaha EPH-30BL In Ear Headphone, Each, Black Review

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a fan of in-ear headphones, but I use them when working out because over-the-ear headphones are too cumbersome for me.

Overall I really like these headphones for the price. They seem well built. The one thing that I initially found strange was that the cord to one ear was shorter than the other. Initially that threw me, but it actually makes sense and is more comfortable when you wear an iPod on your arm or waistband. The one key for me is good in-ear fit. These phones come with 3 different size covers and I found the smallest one provided a good fit for me. They are comfortable enough to wear for at least an hour. Sound is really subjective, but with a good fit these provided good bass and clean highs.On the bass side of things, it seems that many people prefer a very 'bassy' sound, while I prefer an overall balanced sound. If you want deep, thumping, unnatural bass, these may not be for you.

Just for fun I compared these to the buds that come with iPods and my 2 favorite headphones (I have others, but these are the only ones I use now), a pair of Shure in-ear that I bought for about $100 and the Bose over-ear noise-cancelling phones that I bought for about $350.00.

Compared with the buds that come with the iPod there is just no comparison. The Yamaha phones are more efficient (louder for the same amount of input), have much better overall sound--better bass and clearer mids and highs. I also find that I can wear the Yamaha in-ears longer than the iPhone buds. In general you would expect an in-canal phone to have better bass, but regardless these phones smoke the buds that come with iPods.

The Yamaha phones compared very well against the Shure in-ear model--my previous favorite in-ear model. Overall I would say the Yamaha was more comfortable to wear--likely because the covers are made of a softer material. The bass and high-end on the Yamaha were much more clear, though I would say I prefer the mid-range on the Shure (could be it is EQ'd that way). I think for most listeners the Yamaha phones are comparable to this $100 model.

As I said, I prefer over-the-ear headphones to the in-canal phones, so to me the Bose are much more comfortable to wear--I can wear them for a very long airplane flight with no problem. The Bose also have a much better bass, as you would expect, and are more efficient than the Yamahas (don't need as much volume to create the same sound output). The Bose are more 'warm' sounding and the Yamaha is more 'clean' sounding. Given my choice I'd listen to the Bose phones--that's just not always possible.

Overall, thumbs up for these phones--I'll keep using them at the gym.

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