V-Moda Bass Freq earphones (Black)

These ears get to hear a lot of great- (and horrible-) sounding headphones, but the style of these musical monitors rarely changes: black and white synthetics are the norm, with an occasional chrome accent. V-Moda aims to change look of our ear wear with two lines of fashion-forward earphones, the Bass Freq and the Remix M-class, both competitively priced at $50 a pair. The Bass Freq, a brightly colored bass-enhancing model, is the subject of this review.

The Bass Freq earphones' main style point is the brightly colored earbuds and cable. You can choose from eight colors: black, blue, camo, green, orange, pink, red, and white. The camo version features an olive cable and orange earbuds with olive accents, but the rest of the styles are uniform in color but for a bit of chrome accenting. The result is a fashion-forward design that can blend with your favorite outfit. And though I didn't expect the stylishness to make much of a difference in practice, it did: the colorful cord is much more jewelrylike--and thus looked significantly more stylish running down the front of me--than the thick white cord of my Shure E4cs. Also, though the 46.5-inch cable is insufficient for most at-home use (with your computer or stereo, for example), I found it to be the perfect length for on-the-go use.

The Bass Freq matches the Creative Zen Micro series of MP3 players quite nicely.