So I feel I defiantly needed some IEM's (Ok maybe IEM is pushing the term) for listening to stuff at home and really did not want to shell out a fortune for a basic home dj-monitoring device.
I've already got my trusty Sony V-6's for proper audio work - however in +35c heat they act like freaking radiators on my head and I end up sweating like a piggy after an hour or so at home.
I've also tried a few variations of IEM's in the past (Shure / Senn's) pretty much always the issue is I have freaky small ears and even freakier small earholes, so choices are pretty limited to what will actually fit without going over to the custom side of things.
So enter Beats Tour .....errrrr, fakes :P
I'm not even going to call most of these "copies" as they have pretty obvious Cosmetic differences, they are similar looking, most are not similar sounding (at all!).. kinda like the Galaxy vs Iphone :P
And not all fakes are Equal
Ok .. well first off I'm living in Asia, and there is literally thousands of varying qualities of the fakes available in the markets here, and from online resellers etc ... most "look" pretty close to the real thing, most had obvious differences and it took me going though about 15 pairs before I found what I was looking for. Decent looking, decent sounding, with the smallest earbuds possible for my freaky ears :P
Variations ranged from.
Box Perfect, Phones look terrible, straight connector, moulding awful, only large buds supplied.
Box Small, Phones Perfect, straight connector, only large buds
Box Perfect, L-shape Connector, Control-Talk device, all bud sizes provided.
Box bad photocopy, L-shape Connector, No control Talk, only large Buds
Box Perfect, straight Connector, Phones are decent (not perfect looking), All buds provided.
These are just some the cosmetic differences !!! :eek:
Sound Quality
So down to sound quality, I have a good idea what a particular track "Should" sound like (Sasha, xpander in WAV format) - I brought my V6's for comparisons, I have tried the "real" beats tours before and knew to expect the boomy bassend anyhows and was prepared to compensate for it.
The first ones I tried were the most expensive ones they looked great, had all the bits in the box, Control Talk included ($30 ) .. But Alas, the sound was CRAP, really "middy" and Bassy.
So onto the next ones .. ear one-sounded great... ear two, oh no! it was about 10db lower in sound, awww crap.
Onto the next ones (I was getting really funny looks).
It was ALL bass, couldnt make out a damn hat to save my life .. NEXT!
Next ones - hmmm, not bad at all, little too much lack of midrange, but we're getting there.
This went on for about an hour, while the assistants are running up and down the market fetching me every variation of boxes and phones they could find LOL
Eventually ...
Black variety, Straight connector, 6 extra earbuds (including the tiny honeycomb ones that DO fit in my ear), decent - but not great logo (who cares, its coming off anyhow), nicely moulded plug and strain relief.
These sounded freaking great! - admittedly I needed to turn the iphone to "bass reducer" on the EQ, but that was expected anyhow, I needed to do that for the Originals anyhow.
They are a good bit louder than my Sony's, but stayed crystal clear up to the "Max" levels on the iphone (uncomfortably loud though).
At the end of the day I got a decent set of phones for home mixing for about $12 ....
Bottom line though, buyer beware I would not even think of ordering a pair of these online! I happened to be in the lucky position of being able to try pretty much every variety under the sun with a pair of studio monitors beside me for comparison.
After 24 hours, I'm considering the possibility of getting my ears moulded and making these into more form fitting IEM's, I know someone who can do the moulds themselves, I reckon a bit of playing around and they'd do a pretty decent job .
I love a bargain - don't you
Just thought I'd share my interesting experience, I honestly don't endorse buying fakes, I was just looking for a decent and reasonably priced set of phones. Its actually a shame that these aren't available from their respective company with their own branding instead of badly copying someone elses... how much R&D goes into the drivers, who knows, perhaps they are OEM, perhaps just OEM clones or whatever. But I guess the cost of marketing and trying to break a new breed of followers outweighs the cost of following the sheep who want something that looks "similar" to the real deal.
Mod's feel free to hit delete if it goes against T&C ...
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