Velodyne vPulse In-Ear Headphones (Classic Blue)

FOR THE LEAST PATIENT OF YOU, SCROLL DOWN FOR THE TL;DR SECTION.----------------------SOUND: 5 / 5.The bass is clear, dynamic, deep, loud and immense, without being overwhelming and tiring. Most headphones with lots of bass have a terrible loudness effect in their sound making them very exhausting to listen to for more than couple of minutes - not these. I can listen to these for the whole day and my ears are not the least bit tired.Compared to the bass, mids and highs are somewhat quiet and high end rolls off quite early, but sound is very clear and pleasant, with very little to no distortion.Very easy earphones to listen to. For the sound signature, I would call them "warm and musical", rather than "neutral and analytical". They work great with any type of music, but e.g. electronic music really benefits from the great bass response.Even though the sound is already quite satisfying on low volumes, the louder you go the more these bad boys wake up.vPulses seem plenty sensitive and not at all critical about the source: I've used them with iPhone 4S, Sansa Clip+, iBasso D10 Cobra DAC/headphone amp, and headphone outs from 2008 MacBook Pro and 2011 MacBook Air. Obviously some of these sources are better than others, but all of them can drive vPulses with ease and without added distortion, deterioration to sound quality or elevated hiss, and to ear-piercing levels.They seem to be more compatible with sources than any other of my headphones. Sennheiser CX300 introduces a noise floor with the MBP, as do Digital Silence DS-101A. MBP and MBA struggle a bit (and iPhone 4S is on the edge) while driving Sony MDR-F1 high end headphones. Hippo VBs sound clearly the best with Sansa Clip+, even though they do work with other sources as well. In comparison, vPulses sound almost exactly the same (that is, great) with any source.My other favourite earphones around the same price range are Hippo VBs, and in my opinion vPulses wipe the floor with Hippos in every aspect. Especially considering the price, these sound amazing!----------------------BUILD QUALITY: 3 / 5.Right earpiece was missing the aluminium logo plate from factory. I live in Europe and wanted these desperately enough to order them from an unauthorised seller in US before they were officially available in Europe. Alas, no warranty.I contacted Velodyne as I was willing to purchase the logo as a spare part. They responded promptly, but they do not sell spare parts to consumers. They seemed to be more concerned about catching the unauthorised seller than helping someone who had bought their product (be it from an authorised or unauthorised seller, they'll still get their money from the sale, and would have got a bit more from selling the spare part).Paint has already chipped off a bit from edges of left earpiece. I reckon this is because the edge rims seem to be painted instead of anodized.Gold plating on the plug is so thin that it has already worn off after just less than three months of occassional use.Clip provided with the headphones is totally useless. Too small, bad shape, slippery plastic, and hardly any spring force.iDevice remote buttons are plasticky and flimsy, and almost seem like an afterthought compared to the nice aluminium earpieces, but have kept working so far.Tangle-free flat cable is great. It gets a bit stiff around freezing temperatures, but is still soft enough not to crack. And the best thing, it really does not tangle! Hardly any memory effect either.A big plus from providing four sizes of earbuds, two pairs each size. It was easy to find a pair that fits my ears, and I still have a spare pair!----------------------SOUND ISOLATION: 4 / 5.Even though not on par with active noise cancelling headphones, for passive headphones, vPulses isolate external sounds very well. Combined with the great sound this would make them the perfect pair for commuting, if it wouldn't be for...----------------------MICROPHONICS: 1 / 5.Now this is the only reason why I'm still looking for the perfect headphones for commuting. Microphonics are the WORST I've ever heard on any headphones. The tangle-free cable seems to catch even the slightest rubbing, tapping or movement, which you will hear as a very loud, bassy noises through the earpieces. This makes them almost useless while on the move.You can compensate this by increasing the volume a fair bit, but it will still annoy the hell out of you. This is a real shame, as if it wouldn't be for the microphonics, these headphones would be great for commuting. Now I'm only really happy with them while at home or in the office, sitting still, which kind of defeats the point of having small, portable, great sounding earphones.----------------------OVERALL: 3 / 5.If it wouldn't be for the terrible microphonics and average build quality, these earphones would be a killer in every aspect in their price range. They are great while sitting still in the office, given their great sound and decent isolation, but microphonics really ruin these for commuting and sports.A very nice first try from Velodyne though, and I have no doubt that the second generation in-ears from Velodyne will be something the competitors have to look out for, if they just sort out the microphonics and polish up the small quality issues.----------------------TL;DR+ Sound quality: Bass response is amazing! Overall sound warm, musical, pleasant and not tiring at all.+ Sound isolation: For passive earphones, vPulses isolate external sounds very well.- Build quality: A weird mix of high quality aluminium, great tangle-free cable, plasticky and flimsy remote control unit and a totally useless clip.- Microphonics: TERRIBLE. I wouldn't recommend these for commuting or sports activities. The cable catches even slighest movements and translates them to loud, bassy rubbing noises and thumps through the earpieces. Combined with the useless clip, this will start annoying you after the honeymoon period is over. I lasted for about three months before starting to look elsewhere.

Bought these earphones off the back of reading some positive reviews from internet magazines and watching positive youtube reviews. Was bitterly disappointed when I received them, sent them back a few days later.The bass features prominently in the background throughout every song, but it is very weak, and doesn't punch when the beat calls for it to. Also, the bass' constant presence makes the vocals and other instruments far too quiet, thus there is hardly any depth and detail in these earphones.The volume is a huge problem with these earphones. It is very quiet, even if I turn my music to full volume it is still not loud enough to walk on the street and have an intense, enthralling musical experience.If you are looking for earphones with powerful bass, that not only massages your ear drums but can also stomp all over your ear drums, do not buy Velodyne V-Pulse's. Buy SoundMagic E10's, they are much cheaper, can go much louder, have more detail and prominence of background instruments, and the bass is extremely powerful.Btw, I used the V-Pulse's (and E10's) with a Samsung S3. I use poweramp and N7 music players, the two best you will find on google play which have very sophisticated, adjustable equaliser settings. So the V-Pulse's were tested to their limits.