iFrogz EarPollution Timbre earphones with mic Review
Posted by Bill on January 12th, 2010 at 09:11pm Comments
iFrogz EarPollution Timbre earphones with mic
Reviewed by: Bill Henderson
Ifrogz - Product Details
Price: $49.99
Lately, I’ve been listening to iFrogz EarPollution Timbre earphones whose claim to fame is that the main body is made of wood. iFrogz claims that this results in outstanding audio ‘timbre’, which as defined, is the quality of tone as it relates to music. Based on that definition, the Timbres perform quite well in their price range with some reservations.
At $49, they are quite affordable and blow away the supplied Apple earbuds (what doesn’t?). However I have two areas of concern. While the earphone’s main body are perfectly acceptable in size, the speaker opening that goes in your ear is - to my ears - really wide. As in 3/16 in. wide. If your ears are on the small size, this can become an issue with extended listening. If you have normal to large ears, there shouldn’t be a problem.
Another issue is weak bass. Listening to classic rock or older pop songs, this wasn’t a big deal. The mids are prominent and the highs are bright without being harsh. Overall the sound is clean, and detailed. But if your tastes run to more modern music (pop, hip-hop) or jazz, the bass isn’t as pronounced as it should be. If I press the earphones deeper into my ears, the bass is much better but with the width issue, they won’t stay deep enough, so it seems to be a correct seal problem rather than an audio one. A better selection of eartips may help here, but I couldn’t find any in my collection that were wide enough to fit. I would have preferred some flanged silicone or foam eartip choices in addition to the ubiquitous three sizes of round tips.
The design of the Timbres is outstanding. They are some of the prettiest earphones I’ve seen, at any price. The real wood makes them seem more expensive than they actually are. The look is Scandinavian with a medium wood color paired with aluminum accents. Very clean and modern.
The Timbres come with a mic to use with your iPhone. There is a model available without a mic for a little less. The pack-ins are at a minimum. Three sizes of tips. No case is offered. I carry mine in an old Altoids tin - in fact, I carry most of my earphones in these tins. They really work great!
The iFrogz EarPollution Timbres are fine for their price range if you have normal to large ears. While I think a more defined bass is possible with a different set of tips, they handle older music fine as is.
iFrogz makes a lot of different earphones, so if the Timbres are not to your liking, there should be a model to suit just about any desire, budget or lust for bass you may have.
6/10
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