My quest for the perfect cheap earbuds has begun. After a long wait my first order of earbuds arrived.
The first pair I'm reviewing are the OCEA Super Bass earbuds. As I mentioned before I'll be rating them based on Build Quality, Tangle Rating, Audio Quality and Overall Impression.
The best sets will also be for sale on our coldplaysucks.com store – but we will only stock earbuds if they achieve a high enough rating.
Build Quality
The packaging of these earbuds was a bit less sturdy, basically a plastic tyvek bag (like a UPS Pak) . . . which I'm not sure is a bad or good thing – the earbuds did arrive in perfect condition so "no harm no foul" I guess.
The build of the earbuds themselves are cheap in a weird design I'm calling "planned cheapness." The plastic near the earbud comes loose really easily. I suppose its a better design than some cheap glue coming apart in a week? Perhaps my test pair just missed the glue on the assembly line.
I'm deducting one star right away since there is no L/R indicator painted on. What are these, mono earbuds?? I did a test and they are not - and apparently I guessed the correct way to put them on but I prefer some indicator painted on the side of the earbuds.
I'm giving them a build quality of 2 out of 5 stars.
Tangle Rating
These have a "beats style" no tangle cord. I give them a really good tangle rating: 5 out of a possible 5 stars.
Audio Quality
At first my impression was that the bass was terrible, but thats not the issue. The bass is actually quite prominent but these earbuds have a terrible response near the middle and high end. I guess it was a design compromise, one or the other. Badly decided, I give them a rating of 2 out of 5.
Overal Impression
These are great to throw in the gym bag or keep around for travelling or commuting. I wouldn't use these as my every day earbuds and I won't be offering these as part of my store at coldplaysucks.com store – they just don't meet our quality standard.
The overall rating for these will be 9 out of 15 stars. Not bad for a simple order online and surely some retailer is selling these for $30 in some "convenience" store or airport!