Customer Reviews

Lift Audio Icon Series Premium Noise-Isolating In-Ear Headphones (Black)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

SOME PROBLEMS

To get usable sound, these earphones need to be inserted properly. It was not easy to figure out. You need to push them well into your ears (gently), with the tips a bit into the ear canals. At first the air pressure that forms causes my ears not to hear the sound well. Now pull them slightly out, and get a sensation a bit like your ear popping, as the ear equalizes pressure. It helps to listen to music while you're doing this so you know when it sounds right. If you hear almost no bass, they are not inserted correctly.

You can get a sense about what they SHOULD sound like by pressing them gently well into your ears while listening. This causes a good air seal, which is essential to hearing the bass. I find they sound pretty good if I hold them in place; eventually I figured out how to get them to stay there, at least awhile.

Isolation with sounds around you - on an airplane or train, or a noisy office - is not as good as earbuds like Koss "The Plug" (the earphones I have been using a few years), which have a fitting like a foam ear plug to fill my ear and isolate outside sounds. Of course outside noise will be less of a problem if you are listening to music fairly loud, but doing so will degrade your hearing over time.

The cord is covered in a woven fabric. If anything rough rubs against it, you can hear it through the cord attachment to the earphones. For example, when I am walking, the cord rubs against my face, and if I don't have a *very* clean and fresh shave, my whiskers cause enough friction to send a sound a little like someone blowing into a microphone.

A minor problem is that the plug is long and slender. On my Koss earphones (Koss "The Plug") and most others I have seen for portable use, there is an L-shaped plug that is less prone to getting into the way or even breaking than this one is.

They are much smaller than my other earphones, but I don't think that is an advantage. Then again, it might be just the thing for the person who always finds earphones too big for their ears.

iPOD lovers: beware, these are black. :-)

THE SOUND

Once I figured out how to insert it correctly, I began to appreciate the sound. These earphones are very clear in the middle and high range. The DO play bass notes (and if you think otherwise, re-read the first two paragraphs), but they are definitely NOT for a listener who likes a lot of bass. I think they are best suited to jazz, classical, or listening to the more subtle aspects of dynamic material that has a broad range of sounds.

My Koss earphones are a bit louder, much stronger in the bass, but a bit more mushy in the middle and high end.

Adjusting the EQ on your player will make a big difference in how these sound - unless the problem is that you don't have bass because they are not inserted properly, in which case pumping up the bass won't help that much (I tried). In that case, re-read the first paragraphs.

OVERALL

Not for the loud rock listener who loves bass, but maybe near-audiophile at a low price point, IF you can get them inserted properly and stay there. Better for children and women, who don't have beards to scrape against the cord. But I'm not sure they are worth the trouble.

I'll keep listening and perhaps post an update if I change my mind.

DISCLOSURE: The Amazon Vine program gave me these earphones free of charge in exchange for reviewing them. I do not get paid to review products, beyond that, and I always give my honest opinion whether I pay or not.

These fit well and sound good for the money -- so long as you don't move in any way that will allow the headphone cables to rub against your clothing, your body, themselves, or anything else.

I intended to use these while jogging. No way. Just walking around with them causes the cable to rub against my clothing which transmits a loud series of thumps, thuds, and swooshes along the wires, directly into the ear piece, and directly into the ears. Very distracting and greatly reduces the sound quality.

Might work well for laying on a couch and reading while listening to music.

The sound range on these in-earphones is very good, possibly the best I've experienced with any in-earphones. They really do deliver surprisingly big sound in a small package. The sleek design makes them easy to slip into your ears, while the three sizes insure a good fit. They block out ambient sounds extremely well. The price is quite reasonable considering their quality.

I still prefer high-end over-the-headphones because they're a lot more comfortable to use for hours than the in-ear kind, but the sound quality of these could compete with them. If you're looking for quality in-earphones for a decent price, these should do the trick nicely.

Review of GOgroove audiOHM, V-MODA Vibe and Lift Audio Icon Series

I was in the market for some new Earbuds headphones to use at the office.
The last Earbuds I had was the Shure E2c and I very pleased with the sound quality
and for the last 5 years I have been using the Audio-Technica ATHANC7 Noise-cancelling
headphone. This review will focus more on sound quality and the comparison will be
based on my experience with these 2 headphones I've used in the past.

Like most Amazon customers I wanted to buy earbuds that had the highest ratings in my price
range (less than $50) This narrowed my search down to the following (3) earbuds

GOgroove audiOHM Ergonomic Earbuds
ASIN: B003ZKG10K

V-MODA Vibe Earbuds (Gunmetal Black)
ASIN: B000V5L5MG

Lift Audio Icon Series Premium Noise-Isolating In-Ear Headphones (Black)
ASIN: B003RRYAXQ

While these headphones had high ratings and good comments, I was reluctant at first to buy from a company I did not know so I decided to buy all 3 earbuds, compare them and share my finding with you. Hopefully you will find this review useful.

GOgroove audiOHM Ergonomic Earbuds
Clean loud sound, the Frequency Response says 20Hz-20kHz but these headphones sounds like they are biased more to the lower end so they gives good bass. I find it's good for hip-hop
(Like "40 Island" - Kool G Rap/Musolini/Noreaga) type stuff and just "OK" for people speaking like podcast or put it another way for complex tones like ("Taken at All" by Stills and Nash Crosby) where you need
to or should hear fine details it tends to sounds a little muffled (makes we want to reach for an EQ to adjust the sound) overall I would say these Earbuds are "not bad" I find the frequency response range not to my liking, but for $16.99 it's a good value.

V-MODA Vibe Earbuds (Gunmetal Black)
I think the V-MODA is just like the GOgroove except it has deep bass but its done in a good way....I think the Technical Details sums it up best when they say "Rich yet precise bass levels accentuate bass-enhanced music" this is very true, clean rich thumping bass. I tried some electronica/dance music
(Audio Underground ~ DJ Irene) and it sounds really good.

But for those discerning listeners looking for a more complete audio experience keep reading...

Lift Audio Icon Series Premium Noise-Isolating In-Ear Headphones (Black)
Now the Lift Audio was the 2nd headphone I tested of the set, after the GOgroove. When I put the Lift
on I immediately noticed the rich response curve...I was surprised! The sound was amazing, I could notice subtleties in songs and these are not expensive headphones! It has Great working bass not like the V-MODA but closer to the GOgroove audiOHM. But since the Lift also has those excellent midtones and highs I find it to be well balanced. If you play high quality audio you will LOVE these! even with the volume turned up its still distortion free, you can hear everything clearly! I tried RAP/Hip-Hop and Tchaikovsky Nutcracker: Waltz of the Flowers, both ends of the spectrum and sound equally well on the Lift.

In my opinion these are great and at $29.22 you are easily getting a lot more for your money
If I were to nitpick the only and I do mean only one negative I can think of (same for the V-MODA)
is the little sounds that get transmitted up the braided cable when it rubs against something. I can only hear this when the volume is very very low! To put that in perspective on my windows PC if I set the volume higher than 15 I don't hear the cable rubbing anymore and I normally listen to audio with the volume at 25. This is so minor it doesn't really bother me. When I had the Shure E2c the stiff wires kept breaking I had to RMA it 2 times, so I am all for earbuds that use braided cables.

I think it's safe to say that the Lift Audio Icon Series with its excellent all-round performance
is going to be my new favorite.

As part of the Amazon Vine review program, I selected a pair of Lift Audio Icon Series 6 mm Premium Earphones for review. I had two purposes for this... I have an iPad now, and I thought a decent set of earphones would be nice. And second, with my kids around, I never HAVE any earphones that seem to stay in one place for very long. So why not kill two birds with one stone?

Fair warning says I'm not an audiophile of any sort. I don't listen to a lot of music, so most of my usage would be watching videos or not disturbing someone around me with sound. What I *did* want is something that was comfortable, stayed put in my ear, was loud enough to hear, and if it could drown out a bit of noise in the process, so much the better. And this item delivered well on all counts. My first chance to use them was on a flight back from a conference, and I happened to be in the fussy-baby part of the plane. I pulled out the headphones (really nice hard case they come in, too!) and stuffed the earphones in my ears. Even without any audio coming out, the babies sounded like they moved to the back of the plane. And once I fired up a movie, it was even better. No babies, no crying... just me and the movie.

Of course, I found out within 10 minutes that it's not good to be watching certain scenes of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on the iPad when you're sitting in the aisle seat with people moving past you... Just sayin...

I don't know that I would rate these as a great deal at their $79 list price. They're nice, but they're not THAT nice. But at the Amazon price of $25, they are perfect for what I needed. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another pair if needed. But I'll be making sure I hide these, so another purchase will *not* be needed...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Amazon Vine Review Program
Payment: Free

I originally got these for my husband, because he uses ear buds regularly, and I rarely do. But I figured I'd give them a shot.

It took me a few attempts to get them to fit and sit in my ears correctly, but I only tried with one of the three sizes available...very nice that it includes three different sizes. I have small ears, but the ones that were attached in the package fit pretty well.

I am seriously impressed with the quality and clarity of the sound. I first put on Rush's Tom Sawyer and could hear every little nuance of Geddy's voice and Alex's guitar. VERY cool. If you're listening to well-produced music, these ear buds will really bring home those little details and make the song more interesting.

Noise canceling is very good...I can hear my fingers clacking on my keyboard right now, but I only hear my husband a few feet from me if he makes a louder-than-usual noise. But if he speaks near me, I can hear him. He can hear me slightly...not loud enough to tell what song I'm listening to and not loud enough to be distracting. I do have it up louder than I would if I were crunching numbers or writing something more serious than a review ;-) but I generally don't listen to music that captures my attention when working like that anyway. So these are great for keeping yourself awake while doing dummy work. ;-)

I also love the carrying case...it's small enough to fit in a shirt or pants pocket, and it has a clip for hooking onto a belt loop, backpack, etc. Inside, it has two netted compartments to put the pieces in. They really thought of everything, making it well worth the price and a much better investment than buying the cheap ones at Walmart.

Not sure how often I'd use these since my computer set-up puts the cord right in the way of my keyboard unless I secure it to the side, but if you use ear buds often, I would DEFINITELY recommend these. As it is, my husband will likely be stealing these off my desk when I'm not looking! He was very impressed.

I really REALLY was looking forward to these headphones. The earphones that came with my ipod are awful and hurt my ears if I use them for trips and these looked like a great option.

I tore the package open and marveled at how small the headphones were, how thin the wires and that it all fit nicely into the small zipped carrying case. Unfortunately, only one ear piece worked when I tried them. No amount of fiddling would get sound. The plug connection also presented a problem; sometimes, it would not fit flush into my ipod and the sound was affected. Also, the volume seemed much lower and not great when compared to my ipod headphones but this was probably due to this one being a lemon.

I love the ear pieces, they were super soft and easy to change (2 other ear pieces in different sizes were provided) to get the perfect fit. I also love that after being in your ears for a while, you could dispose of them and get new ones. A nice touch!

I am saddened that these headphones do not work properly and might try another pair since others rave about them.

These earphones are as small as they could be and still fit in your ear without falling out. They look great, the cord is adequate in length, they come with a nice looking case and 3 different sized fittings. They sound great, in fact, they have a bit more bass then I prefer. They fit so well you can't hear much outside of them which could be a concern for jogging or being where you would need to hear noise around you. Great sound from a little package!

I had been looking for earphones that would block socially rude sounds (cell phone half-a-logs and ear-drum-busting iPod listening) from others during two-hour commutes between NYC and Philadelphia. After about a hundred hours on megabus, I can say these do the trick. And they come with a handy case. So, why only three stars?

One, they are not as comfortable as ear buds, but for two hours they're okay. Two, the cloth-covered wires audibly rustle against clothing, so one cannot move about when wearing these. Three, they easily fall out of the ear and have to be reinserted, which, as other reviewers have noted, takes careful doing. (Saliva, preferably my own, helps.) Four, one of the channels is difficult to engage unless the jack is properly inserted; once it is engaged, sit still. Five, one must wrap the cord carefully before stowing it to prevent it from becoming a tangle of granny knots.

Although I now realize that any in-the-ear phones will block external noise better than ear buds, these are not the earphones of choice for that. As far as the case that comes with them: nice touch, but a better-made product inside that case would give greater appreciation.

I had these for a few months before I wrote the review. I wanted to wait until I travelled on an airplane before posting my thoughts. They work great, even in the suffocating noise of an airplane. They're lightweight and stay in my ear easily when I'm working out. They block out the surrounding noise and deliver a great sounding music experience. The corded contruction of the wire seems to be much more durable than the cheap rubber other ear phones are made from. These are light, compact and work great.