Look at that will you, just look at it. That's a pair of $50 iFrogz EarPollution DJ Style (heavy on style, light on the DJ) headphones we've been testing for the last week. As you can tell by the colors, graphics, faux-chrome accents, and over-the-top bulk, these headphones are meant to communicate a statement just as tersely as they'll strum your cochlear nerve. If you don't care about posturing cool, if you're the type who walks the sidewalk wearing a Bluetooth headset in
staunch oblivion to ridicule, well mister these aren't the headphones for you. For the rest, click through for our expert urban-hipster review honed by years of knee-jerked responses to trends, ironic facial hair, and a taste for thrift-store clothing. With cred like that, how could we be wrong?
Build quality and comfort
The materials here are, how should we say,
good enough. The 1.2-meter cable with 3.5-mm plug is just the right length to reach the audio player tucked inside your skinny front pocket or shoulder bag. Too short if you're a DJ, which you're not, so get over it. The chrome is fake, the fit is a bit rigid, and the padding on the headband is almost non-existent and could be a bit more supple around the otherwise plush earphones. The DJ-inspired hinges offer variable (and therefore suspect) resistance -- the left speaker is harder to rotate than the right on our review unit. Not that we'd expect much better from this class of "lifestyle" headphones. Besides, who cares about long term build quality with these? You'll likely replace them to match your new Vespa jacket come autumn or they'll be stolen or lost long before you manage to cause them any real harm.
While these iFrogz aren't the most comfy headphones we've tried (they're close), we've made it through marathon stretches of 3+ hours (twice) without suffering any serious injury to our fragile egos or form. They'll certainly get you back and forth to the cubicle farm each day in stylish comfort and fold up, nice and compact when you arrive.
Hint: You can deftly slide a single can behind the ear -- the ultimate in DJ poser moves -- to engage in what people with social skills call "verbal communication."
Sound
The sound is decent, about exactly what we'd expect for this market segment and price. To these ears, the iFrogz 50-mm driver brings a fuller sound with deeper (but not by much surprisingly) bass than the standard buds shipping with Apple's gear. They're not even close to the head rattling thump of Skullcandy's bass amplified
Skullcrushers ($70) but definitely superior to the relative limp sound produced by Skullcandy's popular
$50 Hesh-series of comparable urban headphones. A decent showing for iFrogz since Skullcandy is king of this market based on our casual observances of the beautifully unaware. Just don't kid yourself into thinking that you're buying these EarPollution cans based on the quality of the listening experience alone.
Wrap up
Besides looking the part, the iFrogz EarPollution DJ Style headphones also serve the purpose of adding a soundtrack to your life, dampening the city hum, and thwarting requests for change from vagrants with dirty outstretched palms. Oh, and chicks dig 'em. Lets wrap it up with this; we've had more ladies and dudes stop to ask us about these headphones in one week than seven years of wearing white earbuds. They're like a puppy without all the high-pitched yowling and mess.
posted April 10th 2009 11:28AM
These headphones are perfect for hipster trash. Mock 70s style, 70s colors, and overpriced but look like they are much cheaper so they can keep their "low-income chic" street cred.
Sick. This is relevant to my interests.
It's like, Fisher Price and the Black Eye'd Peas made a set of headphones.
do yourself a favor, get Grados instead. Even their cheapest pair will destroy these in sound quality... and they kinda look retro-hip, too, if you need to do that sort of thing.
http://www.gradolabs.com/
Their flagship pair will run me a grand according to Amazon. They BETTER blow these shit cans out of the water.
And, of course, the less expensive models can probably do the job just as well. : P
What do Grados have to do with 50bucks headphones?
Brian, the _new_ flagship pair (PS1000) will run you 1.7 grand. And you don't even get a nice wooden box Grado used to give you with their high end cans.
Haven't heard the s60s, but from what I've read, they compete pretty well in their class (sub-$100). I just bought a pair of Senn HD555s for $60; they're in the mail now :D
Where'd you get the 555s for $60?
I own both (SR60s and 555s) but at that price I'd pick up a few more....
Grado SR-60s. They cost $10 more, and have stunning sound. Also, they look more retro (style point!) and less...garish.
These are closed. The Grados are open. Not that I would buy these, but you're talking about different designs.
it takes a special person to like those....
emphasis on "special."
special with a capital R
I guess we can't expect too much for $50.
Umm, are those repainted Sony MDR-V700 DJs with a crappier cable?
Exactly...except for the horrible colours they are identical in design.
Even the inscribed font for the 'R' and 'L' on the headphones (see pics 8 and 17 in the gallery) is exactly the same.
:-/
Repainted would imply the have some DJ use, which they don't. They're definitely a direct ripoff of them though.
my mdrs have lasted 6 years i doubt these would last 2 from what i've put mine through
http://users.telenet.be/FransNijs/Beelden/Vlaams/Vlaamse%20vlag.jpg
lol they stole our flag for that crappy product...
of all names to choose from....
Can people recommend good headphones for image-conscious hipsters with a budget and a need for high quality audio? I wear my Shure SE420 earbuds everywhere but I've been looking for a pair of more stylish cans for the "urban environment." I'm only being like 60% ironic here.
Growing an ironic mustache and switching to boatshoes will offset the garish looks of your Shure earbuds. I had a similar problem when I found out that I wasn't really allowed to be wearing pearl-snap shirts anymore, but it was a heavy investment, so I compensated by cutting my hair asymmetrically and switching from Pabst bottles to Schmidts fishbear cans.
The best set of DJ headphones for the buck, by far, is a pair of old Pioneer SE-405's from eBay. You can get 'em for $30.
They sound awesome and will score you infinitely more cool points than these toys.
@absinthe party,
I'll see you in the Lower East Side.
Thomas
As suggested earlier, Grado SR-60s are excellent for the price ($70ish), aren't that big, and look decidedly retro.
Ask around at head-fi.org in the forums for lots more help.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=grado+sr60&hl=en&cid=3405044689788078144&sa=button#ps-sellers
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/
EarPollution, more like EyePollution.
dammit i was going to say that..
dammit, I was going to say that I was going to say that.
I find it amusing that a company would use a font that they downloaded for free. Bleeding Cowboys is one of my favorite fonts, but I don't feel that the Western font really fits with the whole design. http://www.dafont.com/bleeding-cowboys.font
EXACTLY what I was thinking!
Cochlear Nerve = Basilar Membrane?
From the sound (LOLOL) of it, it sounds like these cans'll take a dump all over the inside of my ears. How appropriately named! Call in the real headphones, we've got a wet spill in aisle OH MY GOD IT BURNS.
Koss portaPros $35 and sound excellent
Yeah, but your hipster hair will get caught in the sizing adjuster.
lol @ Steve Wozniak link. No, seriously, I loled.
@dvsbstrd
That is actually a feature. Saves you money on those expensive hipster haircuts.
ugly man, looks liek we goin back to the 70's or 80's or some shit
your camera work is so artistic....
So they'd be paying me how much to take them?
I KNOW they can't afford to get me to wear them.
Theres no way you guys where able to lay that down on the rocks without it scratching a part.. whomever did that prolly picked it up and saw the scratch and was like.. shit.. how am i going to explain this..
lolz....try wear these outside in my neighbourhood... talk aboiut low key
Hey lady, nice cans! I'm always a fan of girls with big headphones. It would be better if they were decent headphones, though.
How about a review on the Nixon Nomadic headphones? Wearing those iFrogz makes you look like you're trying way to hard.
I did it!
Wow, I'd beat up anyone who pays for those pieces of crap. Some people are just plain stupid.
"Oh, and chicks dig 'em..."
Sold.
Who cares if they sound like crap?
I can confirm that the colors are exactly those of the flag of Luxemburg. The lion is taken from Luxemburg's second flag. The hardware is exactly the same as the expensive sony headphones mentioned early. Interesting!