Do-it-yourself, Comfortable and Secure Custom Earphones

1 | pancakes

September 10th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Hello Amazonistas,

I bought these ear buds after the battery door on my Sennheiser set broke. They still worked, but it was a real pain with the battery falling out all the time (and the Sannheisers were bulkie5 and over the ear type, like the old fashioned Head Phones, and the noise cancelling was no where near as good). Consumer Reports gave these Panasonic buds a very good review, so I thought I’d give them a try. After owning them for over a year now, I can say without a doubt that these are the best value on the market. But, being the best value isn’t always the best thing, but aside from the value, these are an EXCELLENT product. I make at least 4 very long trips to Asia every year, and many more trips beside those, and I never leave for the airport without these ear phones… My trips to China and Taiwan usually involve a 14 hour flight from Dallas to Tokyo, then a 4 hour wait in Tokyo, then another 3 hours or so to either China or Taiwan (longer depending on where I’m going in China). And I can tell you that for almost that entire time, these ear buds are in almost constant use! Yes, by the end of 20 hours or so of continuous use, they can become a little uncomfortable, but far less so than the over the ear type.

It’s important to size the ear bud correctly for your ear canal, because a good fit is essential for both comfort and noise cancelling. If I remember correctly, these come with three sizes, and once you get the right one, you are set to go. They are light, don’t press your ears agains6 your head like “over the ear” models, such as the Bose models (you really don’t’ want that for 14 or so hours, very painful!!!), and because they fill the ear canal, the noise reduction is accompanies by great noise attenuation (it’s blocked). Besides this, I noticed that because the Panasonic’s have an internal amplifier and volume control, you will not suffer from the “too quite” sound track on some DVDs when played on a Lap Top. I don’t know why this should be, but some DVDs are almost inaudible on a Lap Top. But these units fix that problem nicely.

So, you have comfort (even on a 14 hour flight!), reasonable sound, VERY long battery life (I can easily make it from Dallas to China AND BACK on one rechargeable battery using the unit the whole way!), excellent noise reduction, light weight and compact (really important when you want to travel light), and they work great even at home. I don’t want to sound like a commercial for these, but given the price, functionality, and reliability, you just really can’t go wrong! And I won’t travel without them!

Happy Travels!

BrianB.