Appletell reviews the Diddybeats in-ear headphones
Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iDevice Accessories, iPod, iPod Accessories, iPod Headphones and Earbuds, Macintosh / Apple Hardware, Peripherals, Speakers and Headphones, Reviews
Provides: High quality audio playback
Color: Black, Powder Pink, and soon White
Developer: Diddybeats
Minimum Requirements: Audio player with 1/8” mini-jack
Price: $149.99
Availability: Now
Diddybeats—a headphone company created by Dr. Dre, Diddy and Monster—aims to provide in-ear headphones with the highest quality sound possible. According to the description on their site, these headphones were “engineered to reproduce all the emotion stirring, crowd moving power music lovers crave.” In terms of doing so, I’d say these headphones are among the best I’ve ever heard. However, as with many products, that advantage also has a few drawbacks.
The headphones certainly are of the high quality the site advertises. You can tell this even before using them from the Apple-esque packaging the headphones come in. Then, not only do they feel of a higher quality than the headphones that come with all iPods, they look it, too. They are built with aluminum and high gloss enamel that makes them sleek in appearance. Furthermore, while the headphones themselves are nice, they also come with a variety of little rubber covers to try in your ears (see below). These range from big to small and wide to narrow in order to allow you to find the best fit. They simply slide over a slender cylinder that holds the speaker, and they can be interchanged as many times as you’d like. A case is included as well.
The audio that comes out of these headphones is superb. As I’ve really only extensively used Apple’s standard headphones (as I’m sure is true with many people), I’ll compare the quality to those. The Diddybeats headphones certainly provide richer music than Apple’s, and I hear more of the music with the Diddybeats. After listening to these, all other headphones I’ve used appear to play music in a flat manner. The speakers in these small earphones capture all the deep basses as well as the high tones, and they make listening to the music as enjoyable as through a home music audio system.
However, the extremely high audio quality has led to some drawbacks as well. For one, the earphones are quite heavy compared to Apple’s. This means a few things. For one, don’t plan on running in these at all, and be careful when you walk with them. The heavy ear phone itself—along with the heavier than usual piece where the headphones split into two lines—means that these earphones noticeably pull down on your ears much moreso than with others such as Apple’s. Regardless of the earphone cover I used, I couldn’t keep them from falling out while on the go. It’s clear that they’re built more so for style and audio quality than comfort.
The Diddybeats headphones also come with a small device for pausing the audio, skipping tracks, answering phone calls, and controlling the volume (see image below). Called ControlTalk, it works in much the same way as Apple’s audio controls, as you’d imagine; a double click will skip a song, a single click will pause and play as well as answer calls, and the top and bottom are meant to control audio levels. The feedback from the click isn’t as nice as with Apple’s headphones, but it still feels okay. Unfortunately, on my iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 4.0 beta, the volume up and down control didn’t work. That said, I wasn’t very disappointed, as it never worked using Apple’s standard headphones either regardless of the operating system I had on my iPhone.
In summary, these headphones do basically what they are advertised to do. Dr. Dre said he made these headphones because people weren’t hearing all the music; after you use them, you’ll understand how true that is. The Diddybeats do allow you to hear all the music you could want and expect from a speaker the size of your fingertip. That said, they aren’t meant for listening to music on the go much at all. In other words, only purchase these if you plan on using them on airplanes, car rides, etc. If you like to run with your iPod or iPhone, these aren’t for you. And although they’re quite expensive (in my opinion) for a pair of headphones, they do come with a one year limited warranty.
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