Wrapped in a gleaming, polished shell, the V-Moda Vibe headphones deliver a kick to the head for fans of party music. Should they be your next buds?
Review summary of the V-Moda Vibe:
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 The V-Moda Vibe headphones are perfect for certain types of music, but flounder when accuracy and a clean sound is what you're after. For dance tracks and workout music with a steady, thumping beat, the V-Moda phones have a great kick, and a warm low end that remains clean, without distorting the bass. Still, the headphones have a serious problem with treble, and muddied some of our smoother tracks, overheating songs that should have been bright and clear. The phones are attractive looking, but after only a day we had problems with a frayed cable, an issue that has sidelined too many headphones we've used in the past. We like the included accessories, and overall we think that customers who listen to bass-heavy music exclusively will find these a perfect fit. Those looking for more accurate reproductions should look elsewhere. Release: February 2007. Price: $84.
Pros: Good, heavy bass kick. Fun sounding headphones that interpret party music well. Nice, shiny color and design. Great included accessories.
Cons: Fraying cable worries us about build quality. Poor high-end and lack of higher mid-range sound.
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Full V-Moda Vibe Review:
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Sound
The V-Moda Vibe headphones are a fun pair of headphones, and the sound reflects the style. We compared the headphones to a pair of Shure E3s, and were amazed at the difference. While the Shure phones produce an even sound across the board, the V-Moda headphones pound you relentlessly with their bass, and their rich low-end. Some tracks we tested, like Lady Sovereign's "A Little Bit of Shhh," seemed to spring to life with the V-Moda headphones. The fuzzy bass and the subwoofer kicks all came through nicely, though we wouldn't call the vocal sound nuanced by any means. Other tracks surprised us with the bass they seemed to have been hiding, like an Easter egg. Regina Spektor's "Fidelity" had surprising kick to it, and though we lost some of the tinkling brightness of her piano, we still enjoyed the sound nonetheless.
Unfortunately, songs without the heavy kick suffered. They Might Be Giants' "Dinner Bell" seemed restrained by the headphones, as if the tune were hiding behind a wall of low resonance, and we lost much of the pinched, shrill whining that makes TMBG fun. Classical music fans will complain about the lack of a higher mid-range, and the dampening of the high end, which blurs higher strings and brass together. Classical Thunder fans, however, will thrill to the tympanum-thumping bass and strong low-end.
The headphones have great separation, creating a nice soundstage, and revealing some voice doubling, like on the Lady Sov tracks, that we didn't hear previously. Spoken word audiobooks and podcasts suffered from the bass-heavy sound curve, requiring some tweaks of the equalizer to produce an acceptable sound.
Design
The V-Moda Vibes are certainly shiny, though we can't decide if they are fashionable looking or more industrial chic. The cord seems a bit flimsy, and we had some problems with fraying. Though the cord connects to the earbuds with a rubber grommet, the jack end of the cord connects to a shiny, slick piece of polished metal. Trying to pull the headphones from our iPod, our fingers often slipped off the metal and we ended up pulling the cord. After only a day of use, the cord loosened from the jack, and we could see exposed wiring. We were able to stuff the wiring back into the jack, up to the point where the plastic coating around the wire begins, but even with constant vigilance, we worry about the build quality of the headphones. To be fair, the actual earbuds themselves seem very sturdy, made of a strong but lightweight metal. Also, though we did expose the wiring at the jack end, we noticed no degradation in sound quality, so it doesn't seem like the headphones were damaged by our ruthless pulling.
Accessories
V-Moda includes three different sizes of earplugs, in black and clear white, so we had no trouble fitting them into our ears, though we do prefer the foam earplugs that came with our Shure headphones for the best noise-isolation. The headphones also come with a carrying case and a cable wrapper, a small piece of plastic that you can use to wrap up excess wire while you're wearing them. We thought the plastic wrapper was a nice touch, especially since we've seen these devices sold elsewhere as an extra accessory. The phones also come with a shiny golden bag.
Odds and ends
The V-Moda Vibe headphones we reviewed are the Red Roxx color, and the accompanying product literature describe the color as a perfect match for the Product (RED) iPod nano. Though the color may match the iPod perfectly, we're a bit put off by the fact that V-Moda seems to be riding the coattails of the popular Product (RED) movement, without actually participating in the charity fundraising. With recent reports by market research firm PSFK showing lackluster results for Product (RED)'s first holiday season, we're disappointed by the number of companies that are benefiting from the recent (RED) fad, but don't contribute to the Product (RED) charity.
Price and availability
The V-Moda Vibe headphones are available from the Apple Store and other online retailers for $100.
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