Accutone Aquarius: cute and powerful ear candy
Another obsession of mine: earbuds (isn't it weird how the word "earphones" sounds a bit retro now?).
An assortment of earbuds I've collected over the years. I like picking up unique pairs while traveling. They weren't purchased for their exemplary sound quality, though. They were bought based on cuteness, naturally. After all, I'm neither a DJ nor a solid music worshipper, so I'm not particular about rich bass and blah blah treble.
I make sure to leave a pair of earbuds by my bedside, on my desk, in my bag, (in the bathroom!), so I don't have to rummage through my gadget drawer whenever I need a pair. When I have a big bag, I also try to bring a lending pair, for hygienic purposes. I couldn't get over this brand that was lending out "trial pairs" of headphones to different people *shudder*. I sure hope they sanitized the pairs after each use (sure, no one's died from viral ear wax, but still).
I've also found a workaround for making sure my need for personal listening and love for pluggies can co-exist: a wireless Bluetooth receiver. You can plug your favorite pair of earbuds and it can turn any pair into a Bluetooth headset. Neat, huh? I got this Sony one, but Jabra has something similar, which is available at electronics shops here.
What I do look for in a pair of earbuds are these:
1) It has to look nice. It's like wearing earrings AND a necklace at the same time. It has to look good wrapped around you.
2) Sound has to be clear and crisp. I use my earbuds more for watching videos, so sound has to be clear enough that it allows dialogue to be understood. As much as I love the cheap-o ones I get from places like CD-R King, you can tell right away that you get what you pay for--the sound is tinny and muffled, as if you're hearing something while suffering from the common cold.
3) It has to be comfortable. Sometimes I need to tune out the outside world while I'm working so the pair has to be super comfortable to the point that I forget I'm wearing earbuds. My ear canals are too tiny, so non in-ear types make my ears hurt after extended wear, which in my case radiate upwards and turn into a damn migraine (although I read somewhere that in-ear type earbuds may cause hearing loss when worn for extended periods of time so I make sure to switch my pairs around, too).
4) It has to play well with my iPhone. It's such a hassle to bring around a separate headset from your earbuds, so I love earbuds that do double duty as a phone headset, too.
5) It has to be affordable. If you're not a sound snob, you probably don't need to plunk down over $100 for a pair of earbuds, especially if you're the throw-it-in-your bag/pocket-sans-pouch type of person. The most I've spent for earbuds is maybe $80, max.
My earbuds du jour is a pair of Bang & Olufsen A8 over-the-ear earphones that I won in a raffle. I love it to pieces, because even though I don't care much about sound quality, the sound quality of the B&O's is superb--you really feel surrounded by the sound. The only thing though is it's such a grown-up shade of black. I wanted to sell it and buy the orange pair instead but I checked the price and *gulp*, I don't think I can spend that much on a pair of earbuds (it's a few thousand pesos short of an iPod Touch), so I just settled for girly-ing it up with pink foam covers and a cute pouch.
Recently, my drug gizmo dealers at Gadgeteer Online sent me a pair of Accutone Aquarius earbuds to enjoy. They know me so well that they sent me their cutest pair: the pink ones!
I thought at first that "Aquarius" pertained to your zodiac sign, and that each color corresponded to your sign (as a Leo, I'd probably get stuck with red or orange as usual). While the Aquarius line does come in different adorable shades (there's also a super pretty lilac shade, girls!), the Aquarius refers to the actual style and not color. They also have a more powerful, pricier version called "Taurus" in serious looking black.
Accutone is a brand who really deals in headsets--they make professional headsets used for call centers, etc, so you can trust they know what they're doing when they created headsets for consumers.
I love the packaging. It comes in a reusable box that you can use to store knick-knacks after. The packaging is very giftable, too. Just add bow (and gift tag).
The Aquarius' curved style is to provide the wearer comfort for long wear, while the jelly gloss finish is meant to satisfy consumers looking for stylish-looking earbuds. The Aquarius line comes in six colors to suit any color lemming (orange, green, white, pink, blue and lavender).
The headset comes with these additional accessories, too. Different-sized ear caps, a cord winder and an adapter for Nokia phones.
I love the Aquarius' quality finish. It's the little details like these that I like, from the metal innards to the sturdy-looking metal plug.
I also love how they kept the color theme consistent. Even the mic, push to talk button and volume controls are colored pink, too! I wish they colored the cord, too. That would be perfection.
While it's cute that they made the volume controls "dial type" where you have to twist this pink stick to the left or right for volume up/down, it does make the Aquarius incompatible with the iPhone's "volume up to take a photo" feature. Some users with headsets that have volume up/down buttons are able to access this feature using their headsets.
Still, that's not a big deal when you think about what you get with the Aquarius. I've spent a week with it and I love it so much that it's now made it as my "always bring" pair. It's really comfortable, and it keeps the sound out even at a reasonable volume level--I was at the grocery where people were panic-shopping for their respective cemetery trips and it drowned out the din of the crowd, allowing me to shop in peace. The sound is crisp enough that I can discern Carla Bruni singing "Mais ma jeunesse me regarde sérieuse...(I don't know how to spell the rest, LOL)" and you can hear how truly awesome Aerosmith's guitar work is in "Crazy". You also get good sound even when volume is set somewhere in the middle, and you don't get crackling distortion when it's cranked up all the way.
Making/receiving calls is very clear, probably owing to Accutone's experience with making headsets. Even with the microphone slightly far away from me, the person I was talking to was able to hear me clearly.
The best part? The Accutone Aquarius is only P1,800, not bad for a high-performance headset.
To make it even cuter, I gave it a little makeover:
I found these at a bargain store (Donki!!!) in Tokyo. I hope these make it to Saizen/Japan Home Store soon because I regret not having hoarded. I chose the mint green ear caps to pair with the pink Aquarius.
Ta-daaaah! I also added a ribbon earbud cord winder. I love how it matches the earcaps, and it's so pretty when you're wearing your earbuds, like it's wearing a pretty bowtie.
Make your earbuds last longer by keeping it separate from bag/pocket lint with a pouch (fake Rilakkuma pouch from SM, win!).
Accutone Aquarius is available at Gadgeteer Online. It's also available at retail stores like iStudio. Get in touch with Gadgeteer Online for a full list of retailers where Accutone is available.