Skullcandy released their iPhone Full metal Jacket earbuds at this years Macworld, and I just received my set from a bud that was there. So far I’m very impressed at both the design and the sound quality in these $79 earbuds ($39 Macworld special yo).
Ever since getting my pair of Shure E2gs I’ve been a huge fan of noise isolation earbuds. They don’t have the bulk or price of a good set of noise cancellation earphones, but still work quite well to cut down ambient noise. The iPhone FMJs are no different. They cut down ambient noise when listening to my tunes, and have the bonus of actually FITTING in the iPhone’s headphone jack. Damn you Apple! Oh, these buds also have the iPhone mic and play/pause/answer button built-in so they don’t lack anything compared to the ones that came with my iPhone.
The FMJs have a very nice metal enclosure and contain a surprisingly large 11mm driver. These babies put out pumping bass while still maintaining an undistorted higher range. My FMJs came with 2 sets of foam inserts, and a pair of medium ear gels. This is actually the first time that I’ve used foam inserts (even though my Shure E2gs came with them) and I think that I’ll be sticking with them. The medium ear gels are a bit too small for my liking, and I can’t be bothered to order a bigger set from the website :)
My only issue so far with the FMJs is their tendency to bleed audio out. If I’m riding a bus I don’t want people around me to hear what I’m listening to, I’m not a jerk. I may have to turn down my tunes and podcasts while on the bus to prevent that. It’s not a huge issue, and since I can normally hear every word of a song coming from other people’s headsets, I may be in the minority in worrying about audio bleed through. Call me crazy.
All in all I’m very impressed with these earbuds, and have no problem recommending them to anyone looking for a new set of iPhone earbuds. If you don’t yet have an iPhone Skullcandy makes plain old FMJs as well that do not contain the mic/controller on it as well.
