Tunster wrote:neilt0 wrote:It may be worth trying again a few times, as people in the HotUKDeals thread saw OOS and then they came back in stock. Also, see if the blue ones are free.
Damn! I needed some new headphones.
I really like the idea of this sort of thread. Sharing is caring and I love a bargain.
Here are the headphones I bought recently for podcasts and old TCMS-listening -- a review I wrote a few weeks ago for another forum:
F****face wrote:Neil T wrote:They were dirt cheap ($22), but have good reviews. Thank you, China.
Details please!
I got mine off FleaBay (UK). Fleabay had a free PayPal voucher thingy for £5 off anything, with no minimum spend, so it was a bit of an impulse purchase -- I did read a few reviews first.
So, without the voucher, they were £18.50 with free shipping.
They may sound like crap, but I thought it was worth a punt. They are called
iCandy Freedom 180. They may have a different name in the good ol' U.S. of A. I found them by searching for "Bluetooth headphones" on Fleabay and sorting by price.
They also have a microphone, so can be used for hands-free calls, but you'd look like a twat.
They have transport controls too -- next track, previous, volume etc.
Review:
http://www.liquidsilver.org/2012/08/ica ... h-headset/They look a bit stupid (fat) in this video, but they are on an Irish lady-head here and I have quite a big man-head.
"There are only 2 buttons!"
Nice dumb-acting there. She's wrong, there are more than 2.
______________________________________________________________________________
Following up from the
other thread, the £13.50 Bluetooth headphones arrived!
They shipped on Friday and arrived this morning, despite being sent Second Class. Thank you Royal Mail
and China!
Here's a review (for * primarily):
They are nicely made, much more solid than I expected for £18 headphones. Way more solid than the Cheapo
Goji headphones I bought a couple of months ago which look like they'll break if you look at them sideways.
The "hard" parts are made of that soft-touch rubbery-but-not-rubber soft plastic. The earcup thingies are very soft and so far are very comfortable.
They are smaller than I expected -- bigger than Beats by Dr. Dre, but smaller than "home headphones". They don't make me look too stupid, unlike the Nokia ones apparently do:
I charged them up with the included USB cable and had a listen-er-roo. I think the initial charging took about 3 hours, but there was some charge in the battery as shipped. My other BT cans take about 4 hours to charge, so that's what I'd expect. Both claim 8 hours listening time.
The
iCandy Freedom 180 headphones are fine for podcasts, but not so great with music.
However, the charging socket doubles up as a wired audio socket, so I dug out a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable and music sounds a lot better through the cable. They've really added a ton of fake "Super-Bass", but using the Treble Booster EQ on my iPod fixed it to some degree.
They are still not as good for music as my old £80 Bluetooth headphones or even my £5 Goji wired headphones, but that's not what I'll be using them for. They'll be used for speech (podcasts and old LL and TCMS radio).
The nice thing about the wired connection is that if I have the 3.5mm cable with me, if the batteries run out, I can still use the headphones. It means I won't need another pair as backup, which I used to carry when using my older BT cans.
The Bluetooth audio is good. I hear some radio noise as they are connecting, which I also hear on my £80 BT cans as well. There's also a little interference if no audio is playing, but it's not noticeable when you're actually listening to stuff.
I really like the transport controls. Being able to tap "Pause" on the left can and pull off the headphones without having to fish out my iPod is great.
However, the volume rocker doubles up as "Next/Prev Track" -- you have to hold down the rocker to change the volume, which I do a lot if there is background noise while I'm travelling. Hitting "Previous Track" when you want the volume down would be bad, as that could send you back to the beginning of a 2-hour podcast, losing your position". Very bad.
Having said that, I quickly got used to holding down the volume rocker for the correct duration to make the volume change I wanted.
It has a stupid flashing blue light on the left can when in use, which I hate. I'll probably stick a small piece of black tape over it.
One thing I found odd is that I have to have the headband adjusted to the smallest size. I do not have a small head, so if you do, it's likely the headphones will sit too low. Unless you also have very big hair.
My Super-Scientific Rating:
Value: 9/10
Functionality: 8/10
Audio quality: 6/10
chrismoyles.net
