Panasonic's RP-HJE900 earbuds sport detachable cables and fake diamonds

Cubic zirconia is the bane of would-be brides with cheap beaus worldwide, but did you know it's also a miracle cure for sound distortion? Panasonic would like you to think so, it's touting the material's distortion-reducing qualities in the new RP-HJE900 earbuds, which offer a sensitivity of 100dB/mW and a claimed frequency response of 6Hz to 28KHz. The buds are also detachable, since you don't want to shell out a few hundred dollars only to have 'em destroyed by a cable snag. No word on price, but they'll surely cost less than the real thing.

[Vidit Bhargava @ May 27th 2008 9:34AM]

why would anyone need to detach the earbuds???

[Richard Lai @ May 27th 2008 9:35AM]

Read the second last sentence of the article.

[Shinigami @ May 27th 2008 9:36AM]

Thats easy - when you accidentally pull the cable (wearing shoes and stepping on the cable without noticing) and the buds remain in the airs, your cable is not destroyed, but only plugged out.

But there is a problem with buds however - you can simply lose it when its disconnected...

[gabe @ May 27th 2008 10:58AM]

the more u break the wires the more you deteriorate the sound.

hence not an audiophile quality product

[azakreski @ May 27th 2008 11:07AM]

Memories of the original X-Box's safety dongle detaching at the slightest shrug or bump. I ended up zip-tying them together in the end.

[TavisJohn @ May 27th 2008 11:48AM]

@azakreski
I use Heat Shrink Tubing. It works great, and looks nice! (Plus you can use different colord tubing if you want, or just use clear.) A bit of duct tape will work in a pinch tho.

Well that is untill I replace the cables with a USB "B" female socket on the controllers, and modified the cable with a USB "A" female socket. Now I just use any USB cable wth my XBOX controlelrs.
I have noticed that I get a faster/better response from my modified controllers than my unmodified ones. (Same brand/type vs same brand/type)

[timbuckto @ May 27th 2008 6:50PM]

This is a similar idea probably taken from Ultimate Ears and it works out great. I my self have had to replace the cables on my Ultimate Ears since I used them so much and the cable started to separate at the "Y" junction. This is a whole lot better than paying another $250 for the Ultimate Ears (or $99 if you have the UE3's).

[Shinigami @ May 27th 2008 9:35AM]

Wonderful idea! Now if only every semi-cheap headphones (I hate buds) had a single detachable cable, life would have been better! :)

Semi-cheap - not expensive enough to make you not buy it, expensive enough to produce nice sound. For example - Koss Porta Pro.

A pity but Koss company doesn't seem to learn...

[Flashpoint @ May 27th 2008 9:43AM]

ITs a good premise but its terrible execution.

The cables are proprietary which means you'd be forced to only rely on this company for new cables. That's even if this company goes out of business.

The betterway to do this would be to have a cable with 3 2.5 or 3.5 mm male jacks.

A DIY novice could easily rebuild their headphones then, using easy to find 2.5 mm or 3.5 mm male jacks.

[John P @ May 27th 2008 9:46AM]

Though a good point, I'm not too afraid of Panasonic going out of business for awhile.

[Kaiser-Machead @ May 27th 2008 9:54AM]

I wish Shure would do something like this. For the thick cabling, they're not nearly as durable as they let on, and I'd love to not have to replace $150-$200 buds because the cable split. The only issue I have with these is the bulky plugs that fit into the bottoms. And my concerns about how tight the connection really is (I'd hate to have them slip out and lose one of the buds in my pocket). If you ask me, snap-on cables would not be my kind of wiring to go with, but rather a screw-in, which is damn-near impossible to pull off by accident. Of course, something like this would probably be more expensive, but if it's a set with great sound and the added comfort of easy-to-replace cables, I'd definitely put down change for that.

[sSsSprinkles @ May 27th 2008 10:34AM]

As my family business is being one of Panasonic's parts distrobution stors, just thought I would note that Panasonic has little chance of going out of buisness anytime soon.

Also @Vidit, my last pair of Skull Candies were caught on a desk, the wire got pulled, and broken on me )=. Depending on the price I might have to pick a pair of these up.

-sSs

[azakreski @ May 27th 2008 11:11AM]

So instead of having a repairable set of earbuds, you'll just be missing one...

[DirtyHarry @ May 27th 2008 9:54AM]

wtf?

thats just itching to get itself lost.

i really dont see the point.

[Armoured @ May 27th 2008 10:03AM]

Why don't they make wireless earphones?

[FT @ May 27th 2008 10:28AM]

Depends, if you are looking for tiny wireless earbuds it is extremely difficult, you need a source of energy (Battery), and I am not so sure if you would wear a battery so close by your ear. Not to mention if the battery blows up it can can really ugly and messy...

[Jeebus @ May 27th 2008 12:21PM]

"Not to mention if the battery blows up it can can really ugly and messy"

Do you really care when you're dead?

[BIlly G @ May 27th 2008 10:10AM]

Yeah, I'm sorry, but is this actually such a big problem with you people? I have a few Shure pairs but they've never let me down. They certainly don't get killed by simple cable snags.

It seems to me that it's more likely the ear bud will just get pulled out of your ear than actually disconnect when it is tugged. Unless the connection is really loose... in which case it would probably get pretty irritating after a while.

[Down @ May 27th 2008 10:34AM]

Anyone know how much this will be? if not exact, any idea of potential price?

[Al @ May 27th 2008 10:42AM]

Hope it's got some kinda locking in place .
I second Billy G's comment.

[Breex243 @ May 27th 2008 10:46AM]

psh...only 100db sensitivity? No thanks, I'll stick to my slightly narrower range-of-sound but more sensitive Shures or Ultimate Ears for less. I like my Shures for their cheap-ness (E2Cs for only $65ish), and Ultimate Ears has dual and triple drivers (and quad for $1k) at an affordable price (and detachable headphones no less).

[Kazabet @ May 27th 2008 11:09AM]

...

[aMp 732 @ May 27th 2008 11:16AM]

These would be great if the cables werent really expensive to replace. My cats like to eat wires and when I forget to put my headphones away im out another pair. With this I could just replace the wires.

[FT @ May 27th 2008 11:26AM]

Maybe you should be replacing your cats.....not the wires..... :p

[BIlly G @ May 27th 2008 12:01PM]

Cats are definitely cheaper.

[hamster3000 @ May 27th 2008 11:44AM]

Finally other companies start using detachable wires. My Ultimate Ears Super.Fis and Sennheiser have had detachable cables then again they are audiophile quality and I wouldn't want to spend $100+ to get new a new set.

[TavisJohn @ May 27th 2008 11:51AM]

I'll stick with my RAZR earbuds and earclip headphones. They sound as good as my aunt's BOSE headphones, but were less than 1/4 the price.

[Charlotte @ May 27th 2008 11:53AM]

Also - it's slowly getting out there that "fake" diamonds like Moissanite are much better than actual, real diamonds. Not just cause of all the human rights issues and price fixing by DeBiers, but also cause... Diamonds just aren't that shiny compared to other gems!

Sorry to go off on a non-gadget tangent here, but read this:

http://diamondssuck.com/

[Jeebus @ May 27th 2008 12:28PM]

Define "better".

Diamonds are harder and tougher than moissanite, which means that if the two where to do a battle to the death, the diamond would come out the winner.

I too find diamonds an incredible waste of money, so I'm just saying...

[Charlotte @ May 27th 2008 12:49PM]

Actually, apparently diamonds are indeed harder, but not tougher. I gather there's a difference which has to do with natural flaws which make a diamond more susceptible to impacts - ie it's less tough. Moissanite is less hard - it's more easily scratched, though is much harder than other gemstones, even cubic zirconium. Though it's tougher than diamond.

Oooh, it's been an educational day on Google.

[Rick @ May 27th 2008 6:29PM]

What a terrible idea. I'd rather have to collect my dangling ear buds around my waste then take out the ear buds and fiddle with reconnecting both cables and then reinserting them everytime I snag the wire. Makes a bad situation worse.

[Sasha @ May 28th 2008 10:02AM]

Sleek audio came out with something like this a while ago. It was designed so that you can easily replace a bad cable, or upgrade to a high-er end cable. I've also read at Head-fi that they're almost set to launch a wireless app that will attached directly to any of their earphones.