Headphone choice is very personal. Some people opt for sophisticated, audiophile-approved $300 earbuds, while others pick up the cheapest pair possible so it doesn’t hurt so much when they’re lost or broken. And some want their earbuds to have little blinking lights. Of course they do.
They're designed well, but they just don't work so great.
The iBlink earbuds come in black or white with either white, blue, or pink LED lights that flash “to the music.” However, they don’t blink right on the drum beat or the bass line, but rather flash crazily to whatever is playing, including vocals, pianos, guitars, or steel drums--you name it. The LEDs flash brighter when the volume is loud and dimmer when it’s quiet, which is pretty cool. A control pack midway down the 44-inch cord has an on/off switch, three LEDs of its own, and the port to recharge the LEDs’ built-in lithium-ion battery, which can last up to 30 hours on
a charge.
If you’re still using these ’buds 30 hours later, that is, because these things don’t sound very good. Music is muddy, like you’ve got cotton in your ears. The bass is artificially boosted to comically bad levels. At about half-volume on an iPhone, we could hear extra noise, like buzzing or faint static, on top of the music. This improved when we turned the LEDs off, but the rest of the sound stayed bad.
LEDs can be turned on or off. Three sets of rubber tips for a comfortable fit.
LEDs don't really blink to the music. No microphone for using it with an iPhone. LEDs add noise. Sound is muddy.
