I am usually not easily impressed. I had a client ask me the other day, "you don't get excited about much, do you?" I had to answer honestly, "no, not usually". It's just in my nature to remain calm and try to think things through rationally before coming to conclusions. So when something actually makes me say "wow" out loud, I think that says a lot. I had a "wow" moment when trying out the Radius Atomic Bass Earphones back at the MacWorld show in January. Don't let the name fool you, these earphones (more acurately earbuds) are not just for bass-heavy music. I can see that many people will appreciate these earbuds for reasons more than the sound.
Let me start off by saying that the first thing that impressed me was not the sound from the earbuds, but the way they fit into my ear. I am very picky about earbuds. Most low-cost earbuds don't fit quite right, seem to fall out too easily, and leave my ears feeling sore. These earbuds seemed to fit like a glove, so to speak, and are incredibly light. I can't see a way that these buds will fall out without actually tugging on the cords. Once set into my ears, they seem to "disappear", as I can hardly tell I am wearing them. The cords connecting the earbuds seem heavier than the buds themselves. So my first impression was that these earbuds were very well designed and as long as they sound decent, I'm going to be happy with them.
More than sounding decent, however, my "wow" moment came when the music started playing. The name Atomic Bass is quite accurate. I could not believe that such little earbuds could produce such a big sounding bass response. Honestly, words can not do these justice - you must try these earphones yourself to understand. One problem with many bass-heavy speaker products is that they sacrifice overall tonal quality to highlight the bass response. However, I feel that these earphones have a very good tonal quality to them. I also conferred with one of my employees who is also a musician and much picker about audio equipment than I am. He also agreed that these earbuds gave a very good quality sound for the price.
Which brings us to the last reason that I think people will appreciate the Atomic Bass Earphones. Most earphones of this quality cost at least $100. The Atomic Bass Earphones are only $40. There is also model with a microphone for iPhone users that are only $50 (the microphone models also work with any iPod that can use a microphone, such as the iPod Touch 2G). It is going to be very difficult in my opinion to find a better overall pair of earphones for the price. But if you'd like more opinions than mine, Radius' web site has links to other reviews as well.
I was so impressed with the Atomic Bass Earphones that we are going to carry them in our store. We will carry the black color earphones to start with and special order the other colors that are available - maroon and silver in the earphone only models; pink, red, and silver in the microphone models. If you'd like to try them out, we should have demo models arriving soon, so feel free to stop by and check them out.
If you have any ideas for future Tech Toys of the Month, send them in today!
