Pros: Excellent construction and fitting.
Cons: Sound quality isn’t much better than stock ear buds.
Price: $99
In-ear monitors for musicians are nothing new; they’re simple and compact. But getting decent sound quality out of such little devices usually means good ones are expensive, and cheap ones…well…sound cheap. I-MEGO is combining high quality construction with a decent price.
Right out of the box, the first thing that sticks out is the cable. The braided design adds strength, and its shielding hides silver wiring, not the usual copper. It feels quite durable, which is nice considering with more expensive ear buds it’s not uncommon to find thin cables that tend to stretch, break or fail, even when the speaker or the connector is still good. The cables have a natural curve to them, the intent to have the cables go over the ears, like other in-ear stage monitors, which helps keep them in place.
There are four types of molded earpieces that attach to the ear buds, giving the user the ability to custom fit the buds to their ears. The usual accessories are also included: a 1/4” stereo adaptor, a 2-prong adaptor for airplanes, as well as a disc-shaped metal carrying case.
The sound quality is OK overall. While an improvement above the stock ear buds that usually come with an mp3 player, they are not a real big step forward in sound quality, considering the $99 street price. Using an iPod and iPhone, as well as a CD player, they’re a bit thin, and need to have EQ added to them. But if a playlist varies from Sinatra to Slayer, the optimum EQ for each type of music is so radically different that a different EQ is required for each individual track. Even when bringing up the low end, the high end doesn’t get dark; it tends to still feel a bit thin overall. It comes down to a bit of adjustment, but the hassle of really having to adjust so many other variables for a set of headphones really might not be worth it to a lot of musicians. They’re well designed and built, which is kind of a bummer considering the sound isn’t a lot to write home about.
FEATURES
Driver Diameter: 10mm x 2
Frequency Response: 20 – 20,000Hz
Sensitivity: 105 +/- 5db
Impedance: 16 ohms
Cable Length: 4ft (1.2m)
Connector: 3.5mm gold-plated stereo plug