I could never figure out why most any mp3 player out there today costs quite a bit of money, but yet usually comes with inferior headphones, I mean you spend upwards of $200+, but yet they come with inferior headphones, I just don’t understand. Many people might not care about the sound quality, but I like my music to sound good, I like music period, I listen everyday while I’m working and if it doesn’t sound right I’m just not happy, and it’s an overall unpleasant experience. Fortunately many companies are producing decent earphones for our portable media players to replace the ones that come with them to offer better sound quality, usability, and overall comfort. Many of these companies offering these high quality headphones also charge a premium price, with earphones sometimes costing more than the multi-media device they going to be used with, for some people this is a bit out of budget, but yet they still desire good quality sound. There are a few companies popping up that are offering good quality sounding and constructed earphones a budget prices, which in this day and age is a good thing.
Once such company is Radius, they’re based out of the United States and selling quality, affordable, Japanese designed Earphones. I’ve got the Radius Bass Aluminum Earphones for review today an the first thing I noticed about these was their odd shape, the second thing I noticed was that they seemed very well made, the third thing I noticed was the price, coming in at about $40 they can truly fit into anyone’s budget. Are they any good? Read on to learn my impressions of these earphones…
I’ve got a brief unboxing for you, yes even the little things get unboxed as it’s part of the fun!
You’ll notice the Radius Atomic Bass earphones are peculiar in shape, they’re not straight, nor are they your typical eadbuds style either, they’ve got an angle to them, which I thought was quite odd at first glance. According to the Radius website the angle is a ‘tuned port’ to allow the sound waves to develop properly, especially lower levels like bass where the sound waves are longer. Makes sense to me, but does it work is the question, and yes it does work I believe, the bass does seem deeper and more pronounced when using the Radius Atomic Bass than with other sets of headphones or earbuds. Personally I’m not a bass freak, I do like some in my music but not overwhelming, I prefer subtle bass with nice crisp, defined highs in there as well, and these do a good job at both.
The idea behind these headphones is to make the bass more pronounced, they do, but that’s not always a good thing, not all music is made or styled to have thumping bass in it so constantly increasing the bass might get annoying to those that don’t care for more pronounced bass, and it can actually be a detriment to the overall musical experience. I fall into this category, while some music I listen to is made to have thumping bass, not all of it is, if I play some Vivaldi, or Mozart I don’t want the bass over emphasized as I like to hear all of the instruments that make up the piece. Obviously by the name, Atomic Bass, these aren’t marketed towards classical music lovers, but classical music is a great way to test a set of earphones as there’s just so much going on, and if you can hear everything clearly, then you’ve got a good set of headphones.
So the Radius Atomic Bass don’t pass my classical music test but throw in some Crystal Method, Zombie and even average rock music and they sound great. Sorry I don’t listen to rap, but I do listen to techno and the likes which does have quite a bit of bass in it, and the Radius Atomic bass earphones do an excellent job of adding more bass to your listening experience. The truly do work as advertised, you don’t have to change the equalizer to increase the bass at all, when switching between earphones you can really hear the difference.
As for comfort they’re very comfortable for long periods of time, they’re lightweight and after a while you don’t even notice them in your ears, you can easily wear these for hours with no ill effects.
They seem very well made as well, the actual earphones are very lightweight but sturdy. The cord though is a bit thin, I found they tangle easily, and I was a bit afraid a breaking the wire, but nothing happened yet. Also the wires are made more for people who carry their music players on their left side as the left is shorter than the right, I’ve got an ATT Tilt that I also use as my MP3 player at times and it’s always on my right so for me the different cord lengths are odd as I can’t put the wires behind my head and I’ve got the extra length of right wire just hanging around.
Conclusion:
The Radius Atomic Bass Aluminum Earphones are not only stylish, but they’re made well and they work as advertised, they truly do add more bass to your music experience.
Of course though you’ve got to like extra bass in your music to appreciate these earphones, but they’ll work well for most all music, with a few exceptions where I found the added bass can be a bit overpowering and even distorting.
Pros:
Comfortable for long periods
Good bass
Seem well made
Inexpensive
Overall good high and low reproduction
Cons:
Thin cord, worry about breakage, tangling
Not all music sounds good with lots of bass
No noise isolation
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