1More Crystal Piston In-Ear Headphones are the highest quality headphones I have ever experienced.
My first impression of the 1More Crystal Piston In-Ear Headphones was “Ooooooooohh Pretty!” But, I am a “girly girl”, so the shiny Swarovski Crystals sent dazzles of joy straight to my heart… and then I saw that there were two sets of headphones in the package! GAHHH (Joyful Exclamation)!!!
I opened the box to find a pink and a black set of sparkly headphones and individual packages of additional ear tips and a metal clip (for attaching to clothes) tucked safely in their own silicon – rubber travel pouch.
The travel pouch is surprisingly efficient at maintaining cord structure for re-storage. I tested the pouch by tossing it in my purse and shaking it around a bit, and I love this little pouch! My biggest problem with any set of headphones is that I don’t have a logical way of keeping the cords from becoming entangled or from the ear pieces from staying on the sound emitters. This pouch provides a grab & go functionality that is great for palming and tossing in a gym-bag or a backpack, and a secure snug fit for the earpieces. The only foreseeable problem is that the back does not securely close. There is a quarter inch, circular opening around the outer part of the back, that could allow for snagging of the cord. Depending on how things land in a bag, purse, or backpack… keys or pens could be an issue.
But the sound quality is excellent. I listened to variety of music through them, and the music was clear and precise. The lows and highs of the tones were exactly where I expected them to be. Having these headphones in my ears was like concert perfection without the crowd. The bass was definitely present, although not over powering, and the treble was precise. The headphones have a stereo quality with perfect sound panning, I could feel the flow of the music gliding from my right to my left ear and back again.
On the cord there is volume control, a microphone, and a pause/answer/end button. I always hold my phone in my hand when I’m walking around the neighborhood, but if you are a runner and you put your phone in an arm band, this function is great because it allows for volume control without having to reach across your body to your device. I can also answer and end phone calls by tapping the middle button and that same middle button pauses YouTube videos.
The cord itself is of two different textures. From the earpieces to the main body are “TPE”, whatever that is (technical definition below), and a “braided section” from the joining of the earpieces to the plug, that is reminiscent of friendship bracelets or hair ties of the 80’s. But this is one of the coolest things about these headphones! On the 1More website, they proclaim that “the ‘braided section’ is for tangle resistance”. And it works!! I purposely dropped, and flung, the headphones around my carpet to try to get the cord to tangle, and I was unsuccessful! I wadded the headphones up and stuffed them in my pocket, sat down and wrote this paragraph, only to find… a perfectly straight un-knotted cord!
However, I wish they would have extended that braided section up to the earpieces, because while the length of the cord did not tangle during my experiment, the earpieces part with the TPE (Thermoplastic elastomers, sometimes referred to as thermoplastic rubbers, are a class of copolymers or a physical mix of polymers which consist of materials with both thermoplastic and elastomeric properties) did intertwine and knot up, twice (one of the times happened while I was pulling the headphones out of their pouch). This is the biggest complaint that I have for these headphones. It bothers me that 1More has done research on how to prevent tangling, and it is not executed to the whole of the product.
1More claims that the “TPE portion is strategically located for comfort. It also reduces friction on clothing to help prevent the annoying ‘stethoscope effect’ created by noise interference”. However, I find that if the earpieces are worn with the cord wrapped over the top of the ear, the TPE portion of the cord does not touch my clothing at all and would not, therefore, have a “stethoscope effect”. If the earpieces are worn straight down, I guess there could be an issue with this effect that they’re talking about.
In the meantime, I can go to any craft store and find matching embroidery thread and exercise my mad friendship bracelet skills to rectify the issue. My point is, that this “braiding” is such an awesome discovery, that it shouldn’t be restricted to one part of the cord.
These are the highest quality headphones I have ever experienced, and for the most part, I am not disappointed! The sound, the look, the functionality, the pouch were all very enlightening and awe-inspiring; and I know that I am not the only person that is thrilled to find a set of headphones that resists tangling. I’m so excited to finally have a set of headphones that are exactly what I need and want them to be, without breaking the piggy bank. And if for any reason I decide I don’t like pink that day, they gave me 1More.
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For more information, visit 1more.com/crystal-piston-headphones.
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