Support Our Site
Get Better Gear!
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App from Ginger Labs, Inc, US$0.99
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful from Scosche, US$129.99
- IPEVO’s Typi Folio Case & Keyboard for iPad is First-rate from IPEVO, US$79.99
- Scosche’s boomSTREAM BT Speaker: Features & Compromises from Scosche, US$99.95
- FX Photo Studio HD: iPad Painting of Effects Made Easy from MacPhun LLC, US1.99
Top 5 Free Apps
iTunes New Music Releases
Top 5 Paid Apps
Discover New Music
Live at the Magic Bag, Ferndale, MI
- Supersuckers
- Man, there's nothing like good, old fashioned, rock and roll... add a bit of industry resentment to that with a double-shot of cynicism, and you get one of the best "new" rock bands going. This album
- David Bowie
- It must be a lonely place to be considered David Bowie's worst album by just about everyone, including the artist himself. As the last album before Bowie "rebooted" and formed the band Tin Machine, "N
Every Day: The Best of the Verve Years
- Joe Williams
- Joe Williams was Figure Two in my three-man education in singing. A brilliant vocalist, scatter, and interpreter of jazz and blues, Williams produces music that's totally unique, yet sounds so effortl
- Depeche Mode
Oddly enough, Playing The Angel is a return to form for Depeche Mode, even though it may well be argued that they never truly deviated from their roots in their more recent offerings. In the
- Ray LaMontagne
At first, Ray LaMontagne might strike you as just another breathy-voiced knockoff of folk/rock guitarists like John Mayer and Jack Johnson. But he's actually got a better voice than either, he tell
Reader Specials
Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!
In-Depth Review
Cerulean XLR Earphones
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 7:00 PM - by Misha Sakellaropoulo
When Apple shipped its first iPod in fall of 2001, critics were quick to praise the included earphones for not only their attractive design but also their above average quality. Compared to what consumers were used to receiving with their music players, Apple's earphones featuring neodymium transducer magnets were praised as being a cut above. A year or two later, those same critics were seemingly lampooning the stock earphones, saying they were barely satisfactory and certainly not acceptable for a $400+ music player.
I've never understood what exactly changed (to the contrary, Apple actually improved its earphones slightly with the second generation iPods), but pitching the ubiquitous white earphones suddenly became a way not only to improve your iPod listening experience but also differentiate you from the millions of "regular" iPod owners. Third-parties have responded en masse, designing earphones that better match the iPod but remain distinct, all the while pushing price tags into the hundreds of dollars�fantastic news if you are an audiophile or truly want to take advantage of encoding your music in Apple's Lossless format, but less appealing if you're on a budget and need to replace your stock earphones, since Apple only sells its own as part of a $40 remote combo.
Cerulean XLR Colors |
The Cerulean XLR earphones are designed for this more casual listener, carrying a price tag of $30 (or half that if they're purchased alongside a select iSkin case). While the XLR's description may lead you to believe you're getting a premium product at a budget price, what with talk of "powerful magnets" and "extraordinary super-thin oversized mylar drivers," the reality is more down to earth. In fact, the frequency response of the XLR earphones is less than Apple's own (50Hz to 20KHz, compared to 20Hz to 20KHz).
Still, numbers and buzzwords aside, the XLR are solid, but solidly average, earphones. We found the sound quality, particularly bass, to be marginally better than Apple's own earphones across a wide range of music, but the contrast is naturally not nearly as apparent as a pair Shures or Sennheisers.
Perhaps the biggest appeal of these earphones to many prospective buyers will be the eight colors they're available in (white with seven color cord/accents, or grey with black cord/accents), perfect for matching your iPod's case or your wardrobe. Of note, the XLR earphones have a shortened left cable to help keep cable clutter out of your way, but many people find this earphone design to be more sloppy than the typical Y design.
Bottom Line
The Ceurlean XLR earphones are good replacements for Apple's stock earphones if yours get lost or damaged or you want a different look, but don't expect a signfiicant improvement in audio quality. At $29.99 the price is not unreasonable, but they're much more appealing at the special $14.99 pricing available when purchasing an iSkin case.
Just The Facts
Pros:solid replacement for the iPod's stock earphones, with marginally better sound quality; eight different colors
Cons:apart from colors, nothing particularly distinct
Recent Headlines
- Reading, Writing, & Saving the World
- Free Retro Gaming for iOS - Activision’s Kaboom!
- Apple Adds Chomp Bits to iOS 6 App Store Discovery
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful
- Tim Cook & Larry Page Reportedly Discuss Patents
- Analysis: Amazon Kindle Fire Sold Out, Kindle Fire 2 Pic Leaked
Post Your Comments