These are great BUT...

Update after a month:

I sent these back. The problem is a very slight graininess. It's slight, but it keeps music from being well musical. I wouldn't call them sterile or analytical. They do have a nice detailed sound. They are slightly revealing of poorly recorded music or low bit rate. They need a little bit of volume to sound their best. I have about 25 songs I use to audition speakers and headphones. While using these I found myself skipping to the next song instead of forgetting that I was auditioning headphones and getting lost in the music. And while using them that bit of graininess on horns or grating vocals (think Bob Dylan) would pull me out of what I was doing. They are very light and I wasn't crazy about the angled cord but it wasn't a big deal either. Another pair of phones might be better if you wear them wire over the ear but these are so light you may not feel the need to wear them over ear.

Knocking a star off for the slightly irritating sound on some music.

Original review

First let me say these only have about 20hrs of time on them so I would not call them fully broken in yet but they should be over that new out of the box sound.

Like a lot of people I'm looking for all the sound I can get in cheap headphones. And technically these are very good and the internet is filled with great reviews. The highs are good and just walk the line of sibilance. If sibilance is there you can hear it, but it's not going to make you want to scratch your ears out. Mids are nice but not particularly impressive. Mid bass is not as controlled as I'd like but it's not smeared either. Drums are handled adequately. I'd like to hear a little bit better separation between kik drum and bass guitar, but it's not bad either. There is a very subtle bloom/extension on the bass. You don't really notice it but you would notice if it was missing. The bass is quirky. If you like a big emphasised bass it's not here. If you like super controlled bass (like hearing the beater on the kik drum and the pluck of fingers/pick on bass guitar strings) it's not here either. But for many people, I think they would find the bass handled well overall. The level of detail on bass I'm talking about just doesn't come on sub $50 headphones.

They do a very good job with acoustic guitar. Where I think they do best is on details like cymbals, and other things with 'ring'. Don't get me wrong these are very nice phones, i'm just being super picky for people who are trying to pick based on the sound signature.

I'm not a soundstage guy, but I would say that soundstage on these is barely adequate. There is no sense of space around the instruments and all the instruments sound like they are in a straight line. There is little sense of the room the instruments are being played or and/or you can't hear much of reverb on the instruments. I'm not saying that these things aren't there at all, but they don't stand out.

What I'm saying is they do a very nice job, and do a nice job for the price, but I'm not hearing the $100+ headphone beaters some make these out to be. But I can see where some people would really like these, and many people do if you read reviews They just are not super impressive in ways I look for. While I could make a case that these are technically better I liked my Vsonic GR02 Bass Edition more. And I liked my old NUFORCE 700M's (about $90 at the time) much better.

At times they are a touch forward and a bit unforgiving of poorly recorded music. Not bad, just a bit unforgiving. A case can be made that is a good thing in 'phones because that is accuracy. And I agree but sometimes it is enough to take me out of the music. If something is bit blaring, like a trump, you are going to notice it is blaring. If you hate Bob Dylan's voice you will really hate it with these. LIke right now I'm listening to Miles Davis and the horn just doesn't sound right. Yeah it should be raw and in your face and it is, but it lacks a certain depth of the horn that would/should balance that out.

They can be a tiny bit dry, a bit sterile? By that I mean they lack a bit of musicality that makes me want to listen to more music. When I was first auditioning with my music I found myself skipping to another song instead of getting lost in the song and forgetting that I was auditioning headphones.

I suspect that these might benefit from a headphone amp, but I"m not going to buy a $50 amp for $50 headphones. I'd rather put that money towards a bigger budget for the phones themselves.

I wanted to try these to see what I think of these and if your budget is less than $50 they are probably hard to go wrong with for a balanced sound. Not flat, not V-shaped, and not too fatiguing. If you told me I had to keep these I would not cry myself to sleep but I plan to up my budget a bit and find something that suits me a bit more. At touch more musicality, a bit more air around the instruments, and more impressive mid-range.

Note: in spite of my criticisms I'm giving these 5 stars because they really are very good and I could see where people would really like these.

These IEMs were billed as balanced, but it's not true.

The bass is way forward on these with some of the highs rolled off. While they sound relatively crisp, the mids are colored by the bass, and a lot of musical detail goes missing in the mids section. Highs are very musical and clear but slightly laid back. Cymbals and vocal detail (especially for female vocals) can sound incredible at times.

They're pretty good given that 80-90% of IEMs below $100 stink. I wouldn't buy these again if they broke, but I don't regret having them.

On the other hand, if you like bass but are not a basshead, you will probably like these a lot. The mids are clear enough and the highs are relaxed without becoming irrelevant. The soundstage is quite wide and instrument separation is very good (the ones you can hear, at least).

My only gripe is that my head hurts after a while because of the amount of sub-bass and some of the instruments I'm used to hearing (rhythm guitars, pads/synths) are wayyyyy far back in the soundstage to be relevant.

Being a sound engineer for live music and studio, it's just too hard to find something that's satisfying for cheap. WIth that said, the Carbo Tenore's are better than most of the IEMs in the sub-$100 range for a slightly bass forward sound with lots of detailed yet laid back treble.

I wish they'd charge $10 more and give you some better quality in the cables & accessories department, but sadly that's not the way it goes. Still a great value and well worth it if you're looking to try it out.

These are the real article; they've lived up to the hype for me. How many times can you say that? All the things others have said--isolation, clarity, sound stage, frequency response, are pretty fantastic, especially for this price range. To me, they have all the good stuff of high-end sounding headphones while also being pleasant to listen to. I enjoy listening to them more than my Shure SE 535's (which I find a little fatiguing) and more than my SoundMagic E10's. Also, they have plenty of low end without being too bass-y, murky, bloated, etc. I like bass as much as the next guy, and these have plenty for me. As for durability, I've had them about a month. So far, so good. Frankly, other than the aforementioned SE535's, they all break on me eventually. The E10's for instance, seemed more sturdily constructed than the Carbo Tenore phones. But even the E10's shorted out on me after about a year.