By Craig Anderton | Fri, 01 Jan 2010
www.monstercable.com
Can you really mix on earbuds?
The Turbine Pro Golds are
designed more for consumers; the companion
Turbine Pro Coppers are for
neutral, critical monitoring.
Unfortunately they weren’t available as
of this writing, but if they’re shipping
when this goes online, I’ll include an
addendum.
However, the Golds are nonetheless
highly impressive. They’re far and
away the best earbuds I’ve heard, and
while they may be a little more forgiving
than the Coppers, they still
present an accurate representation
of a mix. They’ve now become a
part of my “traveling laptop studio,”
saving a lot of space over carrying
conventional headphones.
The biggest difference compared to
standard earbuds is superb transient
response (drums crack instead of
thud), and exceptional detail—which
provides a wide, precise soundstage.
And if there’s any distortion, I couldn’t
detect it.
I went to Europe shortly after
obtaining the Golds, and did several
mixes for videos while on the road.
Upon returning, I was shocked at how
well the mixes translated over speakers;
I didn’t need to change a thing.(As a bonus, on the plane the
movies sounded downright vibrant,
and my MP3 player never sounded
so good.)
There’s one caution, though.
Spend the 20 minutes it takes to
check out all the earbud tips
included with the package, otherwise
you’ll cheat yourself out of
the optimum bass response. Also,
while these aren’t noise-canceling,
the in-ear design is good at keeping
out ambient sounds if you use
the right tip.
I never expected to get this
excited over a pair of earbuds, and I
certainly never thought of Monster
as a headphone company. The Turbine
Pro earbuds aren’t cheap, but
you get what you pay for—and
maybe more, because they really
are outstanding.
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