October 14, 2009 3:53 PM PDT
Monster Turbine Pro earphones scream style
In recent years, Monster Cables started to expand its business to include a handful of headphones, the first models coming from a collaboration with hip-hop producer Dr. Dre. The company's offerings now comprise a couple of in-ear sets, including the top-of-the-line Turbine Pro In-Ear Speakers, a $299 number that features the same heavy, metal earpieces as found on the first Turbine earphones. While we wish Monster had incorporated an integrated mic and iPod controls at this price point, it's hard to overlook the Turbine Pro's high-end look and feel and top-notch sound.
For more than five years, Jasmine France has covered a variety of tech products for CNET--from scanners to keyboards to GPS devices--but she's happiest where she is now: sitting atop a pile of MP3 players, "testing" every music service known to man, and jamming a variety of earbuds in every shape and color into her absurdly small ears. E-mail Jasmine.
This is why we have products with prices out of sight that are made for pennies in China. She says the sound is great. That is purely subjective. Give me some hard numbers on frequency response signal to noise ratio. Then there?s Dr. Dre. Something about a rapper?s involvement does not impress me in a positive way.
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by jskrenes
October 15, 2009 7:48 PM PDT
- I know a good pair of headphones goes a long way to a good sound, but really how much is worth a good sound when we're streaming from Slacker or Pandora or we've compressed everything by converting to WMA or MP3 and we're on the bus or at the gym. I stopped giving Monster cables serious thought after I realized that I could be spending hundreds of dollars to deliver a pristine guitar sound to my tube amp which had its own harmonic distortion anyway. This is a $300 placebo you put in your ears.
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by Tech Diva XXX
October 15, 2009 8:19 PM PDT
- I agree about compressed music. I usually never spend over $150 on earphones for MP3 players.
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(8 Comments)But if you must spend $300, I'd think Shures would be a better choice. I was impressed by the clarity of Shure, they were just too heavy during constant use for me. I need more convincing the Monsters deserve $300. I'll look for user reviews. So far I'm looking at Klipsch for my next pair and they have some under $100 right now, so there would have to be some sterling user reviews to get me to change my mind and spend more.