Koss SPARKPLUG - Stereo In Ear Ear Plugs
by Koss
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List Price: Our Price: $14.99 You Save: $15.00 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $8.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Koss SPARKPLUG - Stereo In Ear Ear Plugs
Customer Review: Awful sounding. Not a one size fits all...
Summary: 1 Stars
Where to begin? These are simply horrible earphones. To begin with their sound reproduction is terrible. As you will read in other reviews it is very muddy, mids and highs hardly exist. The low end is there, but not at all tight. Next up is the fit... I never considered I had small ear "openings", but I guess I must because these things hardly fit in place. When they are in the feeling is uncomfortable since the foam continually tries to expand and creates a lot of pressure. These are supposed to have a 'memory' foam that you squeeze down and insert into your ear canals and allow to expand. Well the problem is they have "short-term-memory" because immediately after you release the foam from squeezing it, it returns to its expanded state leaving you with mere seconds to try and shove it in your ears. The overall construction of the earphone is cheaply made, but then again you can't expect much for this price.
The sound isolation is good, since you've got foam stuck in your ears. Which by the way the foam plus the odd looking drivers do in fact make it look like you have sparkplugs stuck in your ears (hence the product name). If you are into looking goofy, this may be a plus.
Overall I see no reason in owning these headphones unless your only requirement is blocking out as much ambient noise as possible and sound reproduction is unimportant. Maybe if you cut down trees all day with a chainsaw, these are the earphones for you. Otherwise in my opinion spend your money elsewhere.
Not recommended.
Customer Review: Best 12 dollars I ever spent!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought these headphones at the same store I purchased a $20 pair of over the ear headphones for. Those headphones sounded great, however were very poorly made, very bulky and only lasted a few months. When I purchased these earphones, I knew that Koss was a brand that I could trust. (Don't know how many people have seen a Red Dot center, but the accompanying headphones are Koss, and they are some of the best headphones you'll ever listen to.) I also noticed the build of the earphones: a long shaft that directs the sound into your ear canal. This was much different from all the other earphones I've seen in my life. I always remembered the cheesy earphones that I had listened to that just sort of "sat" in your ear and allowed a lot of sound to escape. These were different in that they kept the sound you wanted in, and the sound you didn't want out. This design also allows for the lower frequencies to sound a lot better. The only problem I've had is with one of the small tubes that the foam tips are pressed over, and the in-line mute button, since it tends to cut out if touched in even the slightest bit. However, this would probably be an easy thing to bypass with a little solder (the button opens up easy enough). I plugged them into my laptop, and was blown away. Since then, I've vowed that these would be the only headphones I'd ever buy from now on, and when the store stopped selling them, I worried. Thank goodness Amazon still has them! If I had to recommend a high quality headphone to someone, this item here would be it!Customer Review: For $12 I shouldn't complain . . . but I will.
Summary: 2 Stars
Okay, they only cost $12, so I can't complain too much - however, I'm don't ever use them anymore, so while I only wasted $12, I did WASTE $12.
1. Noise isolation is okay. When they stayed in my ears, they did a pretty good job of blocking out external noise. The problem was that the foam earpieces fit in my ear 80% of the time - I didn't have to adjust them too often, just often enough to be irritating. If they had better sound, I might have been willing to live with it. Forget about jogging or running, as they fall out every minute or two.
2. Koss claims you can reverse the earpieces for a more "custom fit", but the foam pieces wouldn't snap on in the reverse for me. Small gripe, but don't advertise an option that doesn't exist.
3. The sound quality is VERY poor. The earbuds that came with my ipod have better sound quality than this. The noise isolating foam only accentuates this - with the background noise gone, you can hear the 'phones crappy sound in all its undiluted glory. I like music with bass, but describing them as having "heavy bass" is like describing an apartment with no roof as having a skylight; the sound is so fuzzy as to make the high end nearly incomprehensable - I could barely hear the lyrics to songs, and everything in the mid-range is just gone. Taping over the airholes helped, as the "bass" was no longer drowning out everything else, but it was still all fuzzy and muddled. Yeah, I know I was getting a cheap pair of headphones, but I could have just stuck with a free pair!
Customer Review: Not Recommended
Summary: 1 Stars
Honestly would not recommend putting any money into these headphones. I bought them a few months ago and within 1 month the functionality on the left earbud started fading out and a few weeks later completely stopped working. Luckily I had a RadioShack insurance purchased for $5 (which I justified since I saved $10 when they were on sale) and had to cash this in in <2 months. Went through the whole RMA process of sending back to RadioShack and waiting 2 weeks for them to send me a cash card for the amount on my receipt. They gave me the cash card and I purchased a brand new set of headphones (which were no longer on sale), just to find out that the functionality on the left earbud was faded on this as well! Well, it turned out not to be worthwhile to have bought insurance again since I paid a total of about $15 just to get the headphones exchanged, when I could have just not been cheap and bought some good quality headphones.
I think the functionality of these headphones are adversely affected by the mute button which causes a continuous static sound and a constant muting/unmuting on the left earbud. This can be remedied (for a few minutes) by twisting the area around the mute button and pressing the mute button (or some such combination), but the quality again frustratingly degrades when your hands are no longer free. I wouldn't recommend going cheap with these Koss products because you'll just end up spending more money to constantly replace them than you would by getting a good pair once.
Customer Review: Solid Headphones; Great Bass; Some flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently bought these headphones at Fred Meyer for a whopping price of 12.99, a definite steal
First when you open the headphones there are two options for headphones. You can use the ones that area already on there or use the other pair. The other pair is the same although dosen't have suppporters to assure the foam dosen't crumple up
It takes a little while to get used to these headphones, so make sure you feel comfortable with them before making a preconcieved notion about the quality.
To insert the headphones you have to take your thumb and pointer finger and squish the earbud foam down (instructions are on back of package) and insert it into your ear. It will then fit to the mold of your ear and feel more comfortable.
Make sure that when you put them on they are as far into your ears as they can go (to assure best sound quality).
As for the pro's and cons they are as follows:
Pros:
Great deep bass (had to put the treble booster eq on my ipod on)
Decent Treble (the treble isn't its best part although is better than the average stereophone)
Comfortable fit
Cons:
Wires get tangled very easily
They can come out easily if you wear them to the gym or at any physically engaging activity
A pain to put in and out sometimes
Overall I would give the Koss Sparkplug Stereophone a 4 out of 5 stars