Musical Musings

Today, I received a new shipment of review samples from both Woodees and MEElectronics, which I’ll be reviewing in the near future. Since this was a much bigger group of samples than I am accustomed to receiving in a single day, I figured I’d share a few pictures of the IEMs I’ve received and a few initial thoughts. First up are two IEMs from the folks at Woodees.

Recently, Woodees added a few new models to their lineup of in ear monitors in the form of the Sport series and the “Vintage” and “Blues” models. I received a pair of IESW201B Sport IEMs and a pair of IESW100L “Blues” IEMs for evaluation. The Sport models are designed for active listening and feature smaller housings with angled nozzles for ease of insertion when worn either straight down or over the ear. To add to their ease of use for active listeners, Woodees also includes a pair of detachable ear-hooks, which is a nice touch. The “Blues” IEMs are higher end in design and features a three button remote for use with newer iDevices and can be used to send and receive calls on most newer smartphones as well. Both feature great sound quality based on initial listening but I’ll reserve judgment on them until after they’ve had a chance to burn in properly.

Next up is a nicely sized box of MEElectronics items from their 2011 product refresh, nine in total. The full rundown will follow below.

From the new Clarity series:

• A151
• CC51P
• CW31
• CX21P

From the expanded “M” Series:

• M31
• M21
• M16

And the sole “Sound Preference” model, the SP51, which features a tunable sound signature.

In addition, I also received MEElectronics’ first portable headphone, the HT-21, which is pictured below.

I’m looking forward to evaluating these products and I will be posting initial thoughts on these as well as my full reviews in the near future.

Thanks to the folks at Woodees (http://www.woodees.com) and MEElectronics (http://www.meelec.com/default.asp) for the samples.

Before I begin, I have to say, Amazon’s Prime shipping is amazing. I purchased these yesterday afternoon around 2:00 EST and opted for the $3.99 one day shipping option and they arrived this morning around 11:00. Amazing stuff.

I’ve listened to and written a great deal about portable headphones and in ear monitors for my site, Musical Musings. It’s become somewhat of an obsession for me. I’m always pursuing the best possible sound quality I can get for my money and, when I finally entered the market to find a suitable upgrade replacement for my full-size Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones for home listening, there was always one set that kept popping up in discussions of great budget headphones. That pair of headphones happened to be Audio Technica’s ATH-M50 studio monitors, lauded for their deep, thumping bass, detailed sound and, best of all, low price. So, I finally decided to take the plunge.

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During Apple’s annual media briefing yesterday, Steve Jobs proudly proclaimed that Apple has produced their strongest lineup of iPods in their storied history before, during and after showing off the fruits of their engineering labor in the form of the newly updated iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod Touch. While I haven’t had the chance to play with the new iPods like tech writers over in California yesterday, I have a number of initial impressions of the new iPod devices that I would like to share with you now.

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After ordering the Kanen KM-92s with an air of skepticism about the company and being impressed with what I’d received, I wanted to try out a couple more items from their extensive earphone catalog. I eventually settled on the Kanen KM-948 earphones, another budget IEM which set me back about $5.50 with free shipping. A few weeks went by and they finally arrived on my doorstep a couple of days ago. I’d heard some good things about these IEMs and was hoping that they would live up to what I’d read.

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About a month ago, I bought the Kanen KM 92 IEMs for about $6 with free shipping out of sheer curiosity. When I placed my order, I was quite wary of them, half expecting to want to throw them out the instant I placed them in my ears and started listening to music. Surprisingly, when I did just that, I found that was actually enjoying myself. After allowing these to burn in for 20+ hours by plugging them into my iPod and putting it on shuffle mode when I went to sleep the day I received them and listening to them on and off throughout the days after, I have to say, I’m impressed.

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