Ok, so the back ground to this one is not of high end super expensive earphones but, one of best sound quality I could find at a budget. previously owned models were:
i) an early pair of Sony ear buds which was my 1st experience of noise cancelling in ear phones
ii) Shure ec2 ear buds, 1st pair of what I would call expensive earphones
iii) Apples in-ear buds, chosen because they were the only ones that supported the click functions at the time
With me misplacing my set of Apple ear buds, I was on the market for a new set of headphones, and it was clear after using the ‘shipped with’ apple earphones for a day that I was never going to be able to go back to cheap earphone.
After reading extensive reviews on the latest click control iPhone compatible headphones, and getting slammed with some counterfeit Apple earphones off eBay, I plumped for some Etymotic MC3 phones.
All reviews talk about a flat response, and the need for a great fit… and guess what… they have a flat response and sound thin without a good fit.
Thankfully the earphones come with a good array of ear tip fitting ranging from small/large trees, foam, foam buds, + the option extra of having customer ear fittings.
The trees didn’t work that well with me giving a brain probing fit that didn’t quite seal on my right ear without a ear canal lobotomy… but once I put on the foam ear buds, the sound in my head came to life!!
The Flat EQ was very welcome listening mainly to the guitar parts in the tracks I listen to (mainly rock) which were very clear.
The bass response was good and very representative of how the tracks were mixed in my opinion. (having mixed some tracks with our band, listening to the tracks back through these earphones they were ‘as intended’)
Bass guitar and drums were good. I can highly recommend these to anyone wanting a good, well balanced set of earphones, and if you want to listen to all aspects of your music rather than having it swamped by bass, all within a £80 budget.
Added to this the standard apple control options of Play/Pause; Volume; Next/Prev track and microphone and answer/ hang up functionality.
A winner.