Tommy Collison

I’m currently sitting on the Heuston train going up to work. As always, I’m listening to music. The one difference though is that I’m not using my usual pair of Seinhousers; I’m using the Apple headphones that came with my iPhone – something I don’t think I’ve ever done.

iPhone headphones are like Vodafone – I’d heard things about them that made me steer clear of them for years and when I actually go to try them, they’re fantastic.

The real pull of them for me are the remote/microphone on the wire, meaning that I can answer calls and skip songs without taking my phone out of my pocket. With one of my hands permanently in use (with the cane), handsfree is a big plus with headphones.

What I found though, when I actually began using the Apple headphones, is that they’re actually quite good quality. Yes, they have no bass but to be honest I don’t notice any difference.

In my opinion, people have a thing for headphones like they do about wine:

The more expensive the wine, the gooder it is

Bernard Black; Black Books

That’s what’s perceived anyway – this is expensive, so it might be good. That leads on to the question: is cost directly proportionate to quality?

I think that in some cases, yes, because you have to think about what you’re paying for. Is one pair of shoes €300 more expensive than another for the same reason that a laptop is?

Phone cost is usually proportional to quality: the Nokia 3320 is a pretty basic phone that does everything. It retails for €150. The iPhone 4 is a high-end smartphone which retails for €500 (balancing contract cost vs. SIM-free cost here). You’re paying an extra €350 – but you’re also paying for a far superior camera, an infinitely higher size and resolution screen, about 16 times the capacity… so I think that while you do pay the higher price, said price is proportional to features. And trust me, the 3320′s screen is tiny. I spent a sizable chunk of my time owning it squinting at the screen wondering if that was a d or a p.

One place, on the flip-side of the coin, where cost most definitely isn’t proportional to is when it comes to brands. People pay extortionate prices for the brand, even if the product around the brand isn’t wonderful.

Getting back to headphones, the original topic of this post – another area which I’m doubtful as to whether you’re getting satisfactorily more quality for paying more.

I got a pair of Etymotic hf2s for Christmas last year. They retail at €99 and I loved them to pieces. Light-weight, they took in-ear to a whole new level from what I was used to – these went really far into my ears. They had a remote/microphone too, which earned major brownie points with me. They also blocked out 99.5% of noise: at half volume, a song would drown out conversation around me. I loved them to pieces but one day I carelessly left them behind me on a train in Wexford. When I got them off IrishRail the following day, I found someone had stepped on them and the right earpiece refused to give any sound, and the remote was dead. I was gutted.

Around the same time as this misfortune, I went to CTYI, which meant that I had very little time to listen to music anyway. It’s only recently, in mid-August, that I’ve gotten back to listening to music. I’m actually using the headphones that came with my iPhone 3GS. With a microphone and a remote (that does volume, not just pausing/skipping the song), they’re perfect for handsfree users. Where they really stand out, though, is their sound quality.

Vodafone and these headphones actually have a lot in common – I could’ve used them for years but didn’t because I had people saying to me that they sucked. I’ve tried them both in recent days and found them to be quite excellent.

Between the hf2s and the Apples, volume is about equal – I don’t get noticeably less volume in the Apples. If I do, it was probably damaging my hearing anyway. Noise blocking points go to hf2s though, as the Apples, er, have none. I miss not having to listen to the colour of Jim’s new room from someone on the train who’s on the phone. Noise retention is also nonexistent on the Apples, so I always have to be careful that the people around me aren’t subjected to second-hand music (one of the public deadly sins along with second-hand smoke). Sure, Apples also have no bass, but to be honest, I have no bass music!

So, yes, sometimes quality is proportional to price, but not always