Overview:
Today, we got to test out 2 pairs of headphones from the guys at I-Mego, a Street Series "X-Game" pair and the eco-friendly Earth Series' "We Love Green" pair. When it comes to listening to music on the go, I am usually very much reserved to earphones which are very much subtle, but I decided to give headphones the chance they deserve to prove that they are worth it.
Review:
The specifications of both pairs of headphones, although a lot of the time for headphones/earphones can mean almost nothing, as most people would find it very hard to notice differences in specs are probably worth having a look at for the more precise among you:
- Driver unit: 40mm
- Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz
- Impedance: 32ohms
- Sensitivity 105±5dB
With the specifications meaning little to nothing to me (I wouldn’t normally check them while buying headphones or earphones being a cheap buyer), so I decided to get a better grip on the important factor of whether they sound good or not. However, the frequency is very much normal with the range being basically everything the human ear can hear, the impedance is reasonably low which means they will use little power on a portable device, and the sensitivity of 105±5dB means that you can expect to get a satisfactory sound in terms of volume.
I tested out the headphones to get an idea of their sound quality on a variety of devices including; an mp3 player, a computer, a Nintendo DS and PSP, and a bass amp.
Through the mp3 player the sound quality is excellent, and handles bass sounds particularly well, and for the best results it's always best to fiddle with your EQ settings. The computer was much the same, with videos, games and music all sounding great, although I'm more of a sucker for using 5.1 speakers with my computer, so I would only use them if I needed to be quiet.
When playing the Nintendo DS and PSP with the headphones, the headphones actually performed better than the built in speaks on the devices, making the sounds of the games I played with them much better quality, actually picking up some noises which I hadn't noticed before with the console's speakers.
The bass amp (16 Watt) I tested the headphones on unfortunately didn't go so well. The headphones clearly weren't made with this sort of thing in mind giving very fuzzy noises even at low sound levels. With a fear of breaking them, I was pretty quick to unplug them.
However, when it comes down to it, one of the most important things people want from their headphones is for them to look good. The headphones have a rather love them or hate them look. The i-mego headphones have a rather unique look, which is based around their size adjustment parts which slide up and down. People with a smaller head will find that they poke out a little like antenna, whereas if you have a larger head, the band that goes over your head can distort a little.
The earpieces are quite small, so if you were going for the larger 'retro' look you may want to look elsewhere.The design on the earpieces is a the same really, with the a 'street' look, and the 'We Love Green' pair saying exactly what it says on the tin on them. Personally, I prefer the 'We Love Green' in looks, but taste is different for every person.
As far as conformability goes, the headband is close to unnoticeable, and the earpieces have a cushiony layer around them which makes them comfortable to wear. If you want to have the headband behind your head, you're out of luck unfortunately as there is not support or particular tightness which can keep them in place.
Thanks to the cushiony layer around the earpieces, you can say goodbye to external sounds if you have the volume high enough which thankfully for your ears sake isn't as high as you would need earphones to be to block out noise.
We Say:
It's likely you already know if you want a pair of i-mego headphones just from whether you liked how they looked or not. At first, I wasn't 100% sure how to approach looking at headphones, being very much used to earphones for years for listening to anything on the go (I guess headphones just aren't really my style), but the sound quality does stand above your average headphones and I would listen to them over earphones any day if I don't care how I look. Unfortunately, I am not a personal fan of the design, which is for me the most important factor when getting headphones. But, if you like the design, then definitely get these headphones for their great quality sound.
You can get the i-mego "Street" series headphones from i-mego's website now for $34.99 (£21 approx) which also has a little mobile phone accessory with it or if you are feeling a little more eco-friendly, the Earth series headphones are coming out this month for $47.99 (£30 approx).
Gaj-it Rating: 6/10