iWorld Stealth Sound Earbuds, Unpackaged, in White
They refer to these iWorld Stealth Earbuds as Stealth Sound, presumably, because those around you will not hear your music if you’re properly wearing these. As is typical for iWorld, they again devised a cheap, reasonably well performing headset for CD and MP3 player users.
The Stealth Sound series is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod players and a large body of smart phones and tablet computers. They provide acceptable performance for their low price, and this bargain-basement cost makes them easy to pitch upon failure. But are by no means junk.
Joggers and gymnasts who trash earbuds with high frequency, will like the dispose-ability of this audio accessory. While not measuring up to higher-end portable headphones from Koss, Pioneer, Sennheiser, Skullcandy, these iWorld Stealth Sound Earbuds appear reasonably rugged. They can play quite loudly, fit well in the ear, and stay put once you insert them. You get mid-grade performance at a very low-grade price.
In this iWorld earbuds review, we shine the spotlight on the iWorld Stealth Sound Earbuds line of noise isolating, in-ear headphones. These feature highly flexible ribbon cables, and, are marketed in the five-dollar earphone niche. Often though, you can find them for less than five dollars at many retail outlets.
The drawbacks, in summary, are that these buds may have the worst sounding ear speakers we’ve tested.
As low-end ear buds though, there are some pronounced advantages. Due to reduced high frequency output, these earbuds virtually eliminate the hiss of old reel-to-reel tapes, and the static and rhythmic snapping of aging vinyl records. The reduced bass frequency output eliminates the rumble and hum of cheap grade turntables and amplifiers.
The quality here is enough to be widely approved for these specific situations. Yet the near-minimum price is low enough that you can break them with abandon, expose them to rain, and just sweat all over them Earphones like these make a great first-pair for the novice listener.
Bought this set for $5. Pretty cheap price for as good as they sound.
In the iWorld tradition, the packaging is perhaps even more durable than the product inside. Difficult to open, but solid. These will likely never be damaged in shipment.
Gold plated 3.5mm plug.
Flat, thin and lightweight ribbon cable, which is also long, at nearly four feet from the plug to the buds.
We’ve seen these in red and white colors.
Generally remain securely in the ear. However, the speakers stick out of our ears by a quarter to three eighths of an inch. So accidental and even gentle pulls on the cables can yank these out of the ears quickly.
The buds are made of a hard but sound-not-so-neutral plastic, for enhanced durability if not improved audio performance.
No holes at the back of each driver. So, you hear little noise from the surrounding environment, and those near you do not hear your music. This provides adequate sound isolation. You hear little from the outside and the outside hears little of what you’re listening to.
Not sure what that means, but they make this claim on the package.
Instruction manual and three sizes of ear inserts provided. Standard equipment with most earbuds these days. The included ear cushions are replaceable too, and these driver units are of a pretty standard size so that the inserts from other iWorld earbud sets fit this set well.
Harder to hear imperfections in recorded music; due to the curtailed frequency response.
This may improve the sound. However, these earbuds do ring when tapped, and, when listening to thumping bass drums. This can be distracting and take away from the sounds of realism in the music.
Each earbud fits equally well into either the left or right ear.
It seems that iWorld could have taken the small extra step of adding two additional buttons for a loudness control to the cord. But for players that would not support this feature, these aren’t a bad alternative.
But definitely noise isolating. What? You didn’t expect active noise cancellation at this price, did you?
Frequency response seems to change as you raise and lower the volume, with the mid range values becoming distorted and harsh as sound levels rise.
The ends of the buds touch the eardrum when fully inserted; a rather intimate audio interface to be sure.
Perhaps this is not needed, given how flexible the included robbon cables are. However, we’ve nearly always found that earbuds that do not include some form of flexible strain relief fail prematurely, and predictably.
Will not work with cell phones, except if you’re just listening and not talking. For talking, you would still need to use the cell phone’s built-in mic. So, no hands-free phone operation supported here.
So unless you know well how the particular songs your listening to are laid out in stereo, you won’t be able to tell which earbud goes into each ear. Most people don’t care about getting the left earbud into the left ear, except for the stereo purists, that is.
We’d recommend against these iWorld Stealth Sound earbuds for more than the most casual music listening. Indeed, high fidelity sound is quite stealthy here. But for a sale price of $5, we expected no more than this tier of performance. Over all, we’d rate them at 93 out of 100. Save the inserts if you hate the earbuds themselves, as they appear to be about the best parts on this headset.
Look for them in the black box with white lettering, at numerous bargain stores like Amazon, eBay, and local flea markets. Though iWorld headphones can be difficult to find, we found ours at the Gabriel Brothers discount store here in central Pennsylvania.
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