Testing and Usage

 

For testing I used the Street by 50 One Ear headphones with my HTC One, ZuneHD and even my PS Vita along with my computer.

 

So these headphones are by SMS Audio which is from 50 Cent, obviously a comparison is going to be made to the Beats by Dre line of products, primarily just because of who they are. I don’t own any Beats by Dre but I own Denon and I-Mego headphones and others along with several brands of earbud style earphones.

Headphones are hard to review honestly, they’re very subjective, you can be objective to a point but when it comes to sound everyone has different tastes and likes or dislikes in their music. The kind of headphones you want will greatly depend on the type of music you listen to really.

 

Usage / Remote:

Getting ready to use the headphones is simple just plug in the cable to the headphones and then to your device. The cable is removable and many people consider that a great feature to have but personally I’m not too sure, I just look at it as one more thing to lose, so I’m not sure really about the whole removable cable thing, but it is so here we are.

The remote is a what they call a 3-click remote. One click for answer/end calls and for play and pause. Two clicks to skip forwards and three clicks to skip backwards.

Since I used it with my phone, the HTC One, I got a chance to test the remote for calls and it worked just fine for answering and ending calls.

The user manual does say the cable controls are compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod, no mention of Android or anything else.

Three clicks on the HTC One was redial as was two clicks, so that didn’t work, but I didn’t expect it to and I could speak into the microphone.

I found if I held the button in for a second or more it activated Google voice commands.

It did work fine for play and pause controls though, so that’s what is most important I think.

There is slight problem though somewhere along the line. I found that sometimes when I plugged it into my phone the phone would like ‘flip out’ and activate Google voice, redial the last number I called and play/pause the music, skip forward and back and keep flipping back and forth between them. The same thing happened if I rotated the connecter in my phone. It didn’t act up all the time when I plugged it in but every time I rotated the connector it did. So there’s something funny going on there.

I have many pairs of earbuds and over or on ear headphones and none of them ever did this with my phone, so I can only conclude it’s something to do with the in-line remote.

The headphones are foldable and they lock tightly into place, and they are adjustable up and down and lock that way as well.

The case is nice, it’s semi-hard but I think it’s a bit large, but then again the headphones do fit inside comfortably and you can fit the cable and cleaning cloth in as well if you wanted. The case seems well made overall and should protect the headphones very well.

 

Comfort:

The first thing I noticed when I put them on, or maybe I should say didn’t notice, was the headband, it’s very soft and I really didn’t feel it at all on my head. The band is so padded that I didn’t fell any weight on the top of my head at all.

The earpads are very soft, and I mean very soft making them just , well, very comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

I do wear glasses, usually in the evenings, I wear contacts normally, but the Street by 50 headphones can be worn with glasses with no issues I would think. Yes I could feel the frames of my glasses more but it wasn’t overly uncomfortable. The headband seems to apply just enough pressure to hold them on your head, but not too much to be uncomfortable.

 

Sound Quality:

If you like bass heavy music then you’re in for a treat with these headphones, as they have a lot of bass. They’re not overly bass heavy but it’s very pronounced to the point where I noticed the headphones themselves vibrating on my ears. The louder the volume the more the vibrations from the bass. They have what they call Thumpp enhanced bass that provides extra punch and deep sound and they surely do. The bass is there, it’s really there but it doesn’t overpower the music like with some headphones. I like bass, but not a lot of it, and I like these, they work well.

I like the highs in my music, the treble or higher frequencies, and these headphones are slightly lacking in that area. It’s there but just not as pronounced as I personally would prefer.

The Street by 50 do produce a nice full sound in terms of volume and audio levels, nothing seems to drown the other out, and it’s all very clear and crisp sounding thanks to the 40mm drivers.

As far as volume, yes they can get very loud. I can lie them on my desk and hear the music clearly when turning up the volume.

The volume can get loud, but it does not get distorted no mater how much bass heavy music you throw at them.

 

Noise Reduction:

These aren’t active noise reduction headphones, but they do a very good job at reducing background noise even at low volume levels.

They’re on ear headphones so they essentially seal on your ears to help keep the external sound out and work very well.

 

Cord Noise / Cord:

As I mentioned earlier the cord is about 56 inches long, that’s pretty long for an audio cable which is nice as it allows you to have your phone or music player anywhere on your body.

The cable is supposedly anti-tangle and yes it is, but I found it very springy and a bit annoying honestly. Going to put it away to wrap it up and if you let it go it just like explodes out of your hands. Yes I might be nitpicking but it’s an observation.

Cord noise is the noise that you’ll sometimes hear in your ear when you move the cord, the vibrations transfer up and it becomes audible and sometimes annoying. Cord noise with the Street by 50 On Ear headphones is virtually non-existent, you really have to violently shake the cord to hear it over music and when there’s nothing playing there is some noise, but it’s muffled. So these do a very good job at eliminating cord noise.

 

The last thing to mention here is price, and you’re going to pay a high price for quality headphones, but these aren’t ridiculously high priced, they’re selling for about $180 and for that they’re well worth it for the build quality and the sound quality.