Whether it’s the guilt from years of environmental damage from gadget obsession or just the fact that the product photography is so good, but I’ve decided that the thinksound ms01 in-ear headphones are now officially on my wishlist.
Thinksound have made their name by creating quality earphones using recycled wood and aluminium, and the ms01 are the first product from the new monitoring series, which were supposedly created in conjunction with some unnamed musicians and producers to create a superior sound. Each earbud is powered by a small 8mm speaker driver, with passive noise isolation buds (in a range of sizes) work with the wooden body to create a solid sound.
Given the quality of the last pair of thinksound headphones we checked out, it’s probably a safe bet that these will be worth every cent of the $119 RRP when they launch next week.
jeremy
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 11:05 AMWooden and metal bodies do not create a solid sound, what a pile of crap. Wooden/metal bodies look good and sound colored due to resonance effects, full stop. Sounding colored is great in a musical instrument (think flutes and clarinets and guitars etc etc), but shite in a driver which is reproducing sound, not hacking it. This is why proper “high end” headphones with “executive touches” like timber generally do it a reasonably thin shell “decoration”. The best material for highend inears are quality composites and plastics constructed in careful layers – etymotics and shures are made this way. This is crap, I guarentee it on physical principles and having owned tens of pairs of headphones :-)
Aaron Fournier
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 1:18 PMJeremy,
I just wanted to address your comments personally.
1. “sounding colored is great in a musical instrument but…in a driver”
Response: This is incorrect. If it was then the best loudspeakers wouldn’t be made of wood.
2. “executive touches” do it in a thin shell
Response: Again, incorrect. Grado makes some of the best on ear headphones on the market and they too are made of wood. We are also developing larger headphones as well.
3. “best materials are composites and plastics”
Response: This is also not true. If you are pointing in the direction I think you are you are talking about balanced armature transducer earphones. These drivers work on a different acoustical mode as dynamic drivers for headphones. These earphones don’t actually depend much on the material at all as that it is pretty much already an enclosed system. The most important part of those designs is the spout that the sound transmits from.
I want to let you know I understand that a good portion of headphone companies don’t even have audio or acoustical engineers anymore but it is not always the case. I personally hold a bachelor’s degree in audio engineering and I can tell you my design history certainly is more than the 10’s of earphones you may have owned.
The housing materials in thinksound headphones are chosen for acoustical reasons and chosen with the environment in mind. The front housing is made of aluminum because it is more dependent on high frequencies. If the front was wood then the tolerances would be too large and the accuracy would suffer. The back of the housing is certainly for resonance and the same function serves in loudspeakers. I have even proven this by making replicas of headphones in both wood and plastics.
Feel free to contact me directly. I can be reached at hello@thinksound.com
Best regards,
Aaron Fournier
President/CEO/Engineer
Thinksound
http://www.thinksound.com
light487
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 11:24 AMI just use “Sony Deep Bass Ex Stereo Headphones”… they are only $50 but sound awesome.. unless you’re mixing audio, I just see the point in paying more.
light487
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 11:25 AM“don’t” see the point I meant….
Greg
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 11:54 AMhave also a pair of these, and they are really quite good. I won’t say excelent, but they are definatley a cut above.
chris
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 11:32 AMjust got some Klipsch Image s4i for $79 and have been loving them dearly.. amazing how much bass you can get out of a set of in ear, ear buds. One of my best purchases in a while
XPK
Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 9:14 AMSarcasm aside I used to own a pair of the regular S4′S (they’re the same same as the S4i’s but they don’t have an in-line mic and controls) and they were amazing, well worth it for anyone on the budget.
Adam
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 3:00 PMI bought a pair of xxx headphones once and they were good therefore i must tell people about them instead of commenting with anything relevant to the article
smurfydog
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 9:06 PMOMG!!! Me too!
And I totally only use them on the bus where the difference in sound quality matters so much! (and lets all the other passengers know my good taste in music)!!
I can’t tell you how much I love my brand xxx headphones!!!
[/sarcasm]
Ghazarios
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 5:15 PMEr, how do you fit in your ear? Haha
areslv
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 12:12 PMBeats By Dr.Dre On-ear Headphones – Pink
http://www.monsterbeatbuy.com/beats-by-drdre-onear-headphones-pink-p-193.html
areslv
Friday, December 30, 2011 at 6:20 PMBeats By Dr.Dre On-ear Headphones – orange
http://www.monsterbeatbuy.com/beats-by-drdre-onear-headphones-orange-p-194.html