Apple In-Ear Headphones-€49.99 (was €80)

Dman001

Argos are selling Apple's In-Ear Headphones for €49.99, which is well below the Apple Store's price of €80. They have received generally positive reviews, and come with a Mic and Volume controls built that works for iPhones and any recent iPod.

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5241352.htm#tabrev

Argos have the picture wrong in their ad, which is confirmed below in the User Reviews.

Overheal

Thats still an absolutely absurd price :P it only costs them $2 to make those!

For the same kind of money you can get Bluetooth stereo headphones.

Dman001

Overheal wrote: »

Thats still an absolutely absurd price :P it only costs them $2 to make those!

For the same kind of money you can get Bluetooth stereo headphones.

True, but going by the reviews, these Headphones were considered to be very "reasonably priced" compared to competing Headphones. And that's when they were priced at €80.

dunworth1

Dman001 wrote: »

True, but going by the reviews, these Headphones were considered to be very "reasonably priced" compared to competing Headphones. And that's when they were priced at €80.

but those are probably apple fanboys. i wouldn't pay €49 for these.
when i can get a good pair for about €20

Dman001

dunworth1 wrote: »

but those are probably apple fanboys. i wouldn't pay €49 for these.
when i can get a good pair for about €20

Going by TrustedReview, Gizmodo, Cnet and iLounge reviews. I don't know much about Headphones, but seeing as these reviews said they were a good buy at €80, I thought they would be a better buy at €50.

ShaneU

Do yourself a favour and go buy some sennheisers for half that price.

Hogzy

Dman001 wrote: »

Going by TrustedReview, Gizmodo, Cnet and iLounge reviews. I don't know much about Headphones, but seeing as these reviews said they were a good buy at €80, I thought they would be a better buy at €50.

They are not a good buy, They are a good freebie to get with an iPod, But i would never buy them if i were spending my hard earned money on headphones. Like the others have suggested. Go to Amazon and get a pair of proper headphones for half the price.

Snowc

Thanks op, just reserved 3 for my iphone,ipad and mac when I am watching movies .Great price

GSI

Hogzy wrote: »

They are not a good buy, They are a good freebie to get with an iPod, But i would never buy them if i were spending my hard earned money on headphones. Like the others have suggested. Go to Amazon and get a pair of proper headphones for half the price.

Believe me, they are no "freebie" you are paying very well to get them.

Mandzhalas

+1 for sheinheisers.I have pair for 2 years.They have seen water,mud,concrete,been washed in machine atleast 5 times,etc....

the ones i have cx400 II

Mandzhalas

:P it only costs them $2 to make those!

It makes no difference how much cost to produce them.You hardly expect apple be selling them for 5$ .Fair play to apple keepin production cost so low

mcgovern

Just to offer an alternative view, I've had about 10 pairs of Sennheisers, none have lasted more than 3 months and they do not get rough treatment.
Apple ones have lasted about 18 months so far.

Mandzhalas

mcgovern wrote: »

Just to offer an alternative view, I've had about 10 pairs of Sennheisers, none have lasted more than 3 months and they do not get rough treatment.
Apple ones have lasted about 18 months so far.

i believe you.There is ALLOT fake Sennheisers on ebay.They would not have near quality to originals

jwcurtin

mcgovern wrote: »

Just to offer an alternative view, I've had about 10 pairs of Sennheisers, none have lasted more than 3 months and they do not get rough treatment.
Apple ones have lasted about 18 months so far.

Would totally agree with you, I've had 7 pairs of Sennheiser CX 300's which never lasted more than 4 weeks each...

Edit: They were bought from 7dayshop.com who i must say were absolutely sound in offering replacement ones

paddydriver

Dman001 wrote: »

Going by TrustedReview, Gizmodo, Cnet and iLounge reviews. I don't know much about Headphones, but seeing as these reviews said they were a good buy at €80, I thought they would be a better buy at €50.

That's only cause Steve Jobs threatened to stop bankrolling them if they didnt give a good review of his stuff:pac: - Its all about paying off the right people and suddenly a crap overpriced product can do very well!

Ricky91t

mcgovern wrote: »

Just to offer an alternative view, I've had about 10 pairs of Sennheisers, none have lasted more than 3 months and they do not get rough treatment.
Apple ones have lasted about 18 months so far.

I was gonna' say this but thought it was just me. Mine lasted 6 months and the 'gold' wore off the jack and they were unusable. Cost me £30 too.

Hank_Jones

I always found Apple headphones to be terrible.

Probably had 5/6/7 pairs of apple headphones and am never going to buy a pair of Apple earphones ever again.

It's always the right one that goes first, so then you're left with one earphone working correctly and one earphone that works 5% of the time or not at all.

Apple are one of the biggest rip off merchants going imo, amazing what a bit of good advertising will do for a company.

Voodu Child

Anybody spending €50 on Apple earphones would want their head examined.

NTMK

cx 300 are far better value and more reliable than apples buds. I've had mine cx 300s for 9 months now and ive put them through hell i take them swimming and its no problem for them and far better sound than anything apple can produce

Hogzy

Mandzhalas wrote: »

It makes no difference how much cost to produce them.You hardly expect apple be selling them for 5$ .Fair play to apple keepin production cost so low

You mean fair play to apples marketing dept for convincing people to spend that much on crap headphones

Fnz

First review on the Argos page indicates that the earphones pictured are not the correct product. However as there's no model number supplied what are people supposed to think?



They look cheap and no different to this €6 pair on amazon... which receive poor reviews.




IT'S OFFICIAL: Apple Fanboyism Is A Religion: Neuroscientists Find Both Trigger Same Reaction In Brain

Dman001

paddydriver wrote: »

That's only cause Steve Jobs threatened to stop bankrolling them if they didnt give a good review of his stuff:pac: - Its all about paying off the right people and suddenly a crap overpriced product can do very well!

I'm not even going to respond to that statement.

I assumed these were on par with a €80 pair of Sennheiser headphones. By the looks of things, I was wrong. Although I don't think they are as bad as everyone has made out to be. People has a tendency to bash a product the second they see an Apple badge, just as people will stick up for anything with an Apple badge.

johnny_ultimate

I abandoned in-ear headphones long ago. True, I've been unlucky with Senheisers (broke one set in an airplane headphone jack and another wore out after about a year) but I have a no-brand pair of over ear headphones that I got in first year of college back in 2006. They're bulky and impractical. But they are still many times more comfortable, better sounding and sturdy than the many pairs of in-ear ones I've had in the past. I know they're handy for mobile listening, but my ears just rebel when I put pods in there!

I'm an Apple fan for definite, but would never use their earpods!

CMpunked

Apple reducing their price on a product?
I smell a new range coming along.

I had those earbuds and they are seriously on par with the Sennheiser or Bose, sound quality wise. The only downside is that the actual earbuds are a little uncomfortable if you don't like the feel of them in your canal, as opposed to some more cushiony ones like Bose.

Richard Dower

Another vote for the Sennheiser over the Apple-tart crap.

dowtchaboy

Snowc wrote: »

Thanks op, just reserved 3 for my iphone,ipad and mac when I am watching movies .Great price

This may be news to you but you only have 1 pair of ears - why not unplug the earphone and move it?
You grasp the macbook in your right hand, take the earphone plug in your left, pull gently (get another fanboi to help you if it's a struggle) and voila! you now can use this earphone in a DIFFERENT Apple product, even (whisper it) if it not colour-coordinated.

mcgovern

Mandzhalas wrote: »

i believe you.There is ALLOT fake Sennheisers on ebay.They would not have near quality to originals

None were got from eBay and I tried a few different types too. I wouldn't spend €50 on the apple headphones but I wouldn't spend a tenner on senheisser any more.

Laisurg

Still a complete rip off.

rivalius13

Hank_Jones wrote: »

I always found Apple headphones to be terrible.

Probably had 5/6/7 pairs of apple headphones and am never going to buy a pair of Apple earphones ever again.

It's always the right one that goes first, so then you're left with one earphone working correctly and one earphone that works 5% of the time or not at all.

Apple are one of the biggest rip off merchants going imo, amazing what a bit of good advertising will do for a company.

Apple in ear headphones aren't the ones that come with iPods. They received pretty good reviews when they were launched and for €50 are a decent buy.

I'm going out on a limb here and guessing most in this thread don't have a clue what they're on about and have only used the Apple earphones that come out of the box before replacing them with a pair of cheap, low end sennheisers and pretending there's a HUGE difference.

TimeToShine

Snowc wrote: »

Thanks op, just reserved 3 for my iphone,ipad and mac when I am watching movies .Great price

Sarn

Fnz wrote: »

First review on the Argos page indicates that the earphones pictured are not the correct product. However as there's no model number supplied what are people supposed to think?

This. The image is of the crappy stock apple earbuds. I couldn't get rid of them quick enough. However, the in-ear noise cancelling ones are supposed to be reasonably good based on various reviews. If I was looking for a pair I might consider the noise cancelling ones at that price, considering the in-line features. Personally, I went for the Klipsch Image S4i.

I think they mean these ones

yimrsg

€50 would be better spent on:

Head-Direct re-0 (mine survived going through the washing machine)
Soundmagic pl50
Brainwavz M2
Meelec M11+

All of these have far better isolation than apple or sennheiser cx300. In a review of nearly 200 earphones/in ear monitors, Apple's top of the range ADDIEM scored far lower than all of the above. All of my apple earphones have had the cable split and/or lost sound in one ear far too easily.

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/478568/multi-iem-review-184-iems-compared-unique-melody-miracle-added-7-24

There is a forum here to ask more questions.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=624

Dman001

Sarn wrote: »

Fnz wrote: »

First review on the Argos page indicates that the earphones pictured are not the correct product. However as there's no model number supplied what are people supposed to think?

This. The image is of the crappy stock apple earbuds. I couldn't get rid of them quick enough. However, the in-ear noise cancelling ones are supposed to be reasonably good based on various reviews. If I was looking for a pair I might consider the noise cancelling ones at that price, considering the in-line features. Personally, I went for the Klipsch Image S4i.

[URL=""]I think they mean these ones[/URL]

These are the Noise Cancelling ones Argos are selling,but have the wrong picture displayed.

32yg

Mandzhalas wrote: »

It makes no difference how much cost to produce them.You hardly expect apple be selling them for 5$ .Fair play to apple keepin production cost so low

What do you mean fair play? That just means they're a poor quality (as in SQ) earphone!

PseudoFamous

For that price, you could get a pair of Klipsch, beyerdynamic or shure headphones, which would be vastly superior.

General Atomic

The headphones mentioned here are not the standard sets you get with iPods/iPhones, they're the dual-driver in-ear headphones as sold here on the Apple Store. I own a pair and they're excellent headphones. They're some of the best value dual-driver earphones you can buy and have received excellent reviews. Apple haters should try to be objective before spouting off nonesense.

Appleguy

ShaneU wrote: »

Do yourself a favour and go buy some sennheisers for half that price.

You cant buy a decent pair of Sennheiser heaphones for €25.

-Corkie-

I have two sets of those headphones here and they arent worth 5 euros not to mind 50...

I bought two new Samsung Galaxy phones and the earphones that I got with them are savage. I always use them with the ipod now.

crazygeryy

-Corkie- wrote: »

I have two sets of those headphones here and they arent worth 5 euros not to mind 50...

I bought two new Samsung Galaxy phones and the earphones that I got with them are savage. I always use them with the ipod now.

see,its a matter of opinion really.i got those samsung galaxy earphones with the phone and i thought they were awful.i went away and bought sennheisers.different strokes for different folks i guess.

Hogzy

General Atomic wrote: »

They're some of the best value dual-driver earphones you can buy and have received excellent reviews. Apple haters should try to be objective before spouting off nonesense.

In all fairness though. They are not the ones pictured on the link the OP posted

Dman001

I think people are seriously confused as to what Headphones these are.

These are the €50 pair Argos are selling:


Not these ones that come with every iPod. I know that these aren't worth even €1:


As General Atomic pointed out, these have dual-drivers in each earpiece, which, if the reviews are to believed, is hard to come by in Headphones priced under €80. Can someone point out a similar spec Sennheiser pair for less money?

Mycroft H

Go buy a set of koss portapros for less then half the price on amazon instead of apple crap

CorkMan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-IE-IE-Ear-Canal-Phones/dp/B0012XFDWE

Sennheiser IE 8 -IE Series Ear-Canal Phones

Dman001

CorkMan wrote: »

Sennheiser IE 8 -IE Series Ear-Canal Phones

They are coming up as £199.99 for me?

NTMK

Appleguy wrote: »

You cant buy a decent pair of Sennheiser heaphones for €25.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-II-Precision-Isolating-Ear-canal/dp/B001EZYMF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312248451&sr=8-1

also at €50 the RE-0 are the best

Oh_Noes

An annoying thing for me is that I was given a gift of an ipod touch 3g and I happily use it for skype calls. I need the earphones with the inline mic for it. The Apple earphones I got with it were grand but with a lot of use, one of the earphones conked out and hasn't worked since. I can't find a properly priced alternative (with a mic) so I am stuck with the option of paying €30 for another apple pair. Which I refuse to do on principle.

They're like the Ireland of the technology world in terms of pricing: mid-range to poor product for three times the price of everywhere else.

Tinie

NTMK wrote: »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-II-Precision-Isolating-Ear-canal/dp/B001EZYMF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312248451&sr=8-1

also at €50 the RE-0 are the best

Those sennheiser earphones are crazy good. Got them for €20 last summer, still going strong now. Completely cancels out sound outside and very comfortable. Great mids, highs and lows, and just general sound.

Kinky Slinky

milltown

Tinie wrote: »

Those sennheiser earphones are crazy good. Got them for €20 last summer, still going strong now. Completely cancels out sound outside and very comfortable. Great mids, highs and lows, and just general sound.

I'm a big fan of the CX-300s, I use them every day (for over two years so far) and agree that you'd be hard pushed to find better value for money. They are a big step up from the normal buds that come with Apple stuff but I think this illusion is mostly due to the sound isolation that you don't get with the Apple supplied ones. Unless your main priority in music is bass then I don't think the sound quality is worth raving about.

It can be hard to filter out the hating on any thread about Apple. I like their products but can't argue that it's usually overpriced. That said, while €80 was probably a bit spicy for these IEMs, €50 seems a reasonable price. I know whoever it was posted the head fi review links did so to show us what other earphones scored better at the same price point, but the Apple ones were quite well reviewed. More so if you want/need the inline mic and controls.

Trouble is, the reviewer presumably got a brand new pair and judged them on sound quality (hopefully he burned them in first, these sort of earphones usually improve over the first 100 hours or so of use) and features and spec. If you then flick over to the reviews on the Apple store, there's a raft of reviews complaining about build quality and earphones falling apart after a matter of weeks. These are the people who have been living with them, plugging and unplugging them, snagging them on things, wrapping them up and unravelling them, putting them in and out of their ears. Few complaints about sound quality and credit given to customer service, but still...

I have a pair reserved. Haven't decided if I'll be collecting them yet. They seem ideal for listening to music and taking calls while cycling, if they don't fall apart. Hmmm.

the groutch

putting the name Apple on something is just an excuse to triple or quadruple the price.
anyone who buys into the hype are complete morons

BostonB

Personally I never liked the CX300, too much bass at the expense of highs and mids. Enventually the bass annoyed me so much I gave them away. I have a pair of MEElectronics which are just average but have better isolation. But very microphonic.

I guess it depends what you listen to, I listen to a wide range of stuff, and too much bass and weak mids and highs ruin classic rock, classical or acoustic stuff. I think people have got used to too much bass as thats what the radio pumps out and badly mixed CD's/tracks which are too hot.

If these are the ADDIEM's then they should be a decent enough at the price. Not for bassheads though, and theres no point comparing €50 earphones with €200 earphones, if you don't have a €200 budget.