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| From Left to Right: a.) The in-ears b.) The control panel pause button c.) the main jack d.) accessory jack |
This is my next follow up post to
the Beyerdynamic dt990 Pros. It’s a review about an in-ear headphone that
doesn’t seem to have enough exposure or reviews in the internet as I would like
it to be, but that’s just me. That in-ear is called the Audio-Technica
ATH-CKM300iS. Like the Beyerdynamic dt990 which is overshadowed by the
Beyerdynamic dt880. The Audio-Technica ATH-CKM300iS is the overshadowed little
brother to the Audio Technica ATH-CKM500. As opposed to my previous post, I’m
dealing with a piece of audio equipment below $100 (Php 4, 300). Hopefully,
I’ll be able to give enough confidence to potential buyers of this little
in-ear to pull the trigger without regrets.
The Audio-Technica ATH-CKM300iS is
currently my main in-ear for portable use, and I simply love it. I use it when
I commute to school, when I’m at school, and when I commute home for a minimum
usage of 3-5 hours a day. It’s not the best, but for its price point, and its
usability I daresay that you’ll be using it for a very, very long time before
you decide to replace it with a better in-ear.
Build
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| Pretty minimalist packaging, eh? |
The
build at its size is almost close to trivial, but I am compelled to talk of the
salient points within its eclectic design so that you may better understand the
practical purpose behind the beehive look. The in-ear is made entirely of
plastic housing with a thin glossy paint cover to make it look sleek, shiny,
and attractive to a certain degree. First thing I have to discuss is the angled
direction of the speaker unit, and the reason behind its angular direction is
to make placing the in-ears properly in your ear canals a lot faster than the
traditional design of most in-ears because the traditional design will cause
you to place the in-ears approximately 0 degrees horizontally into your ear
which will make the sound bounce around because the speaker unit is being
blocked by a part of your ear, and is not directly in the canal. The design
makes it so that placing it approx. 0 degrees horizontally will insert the
speaker unit directly into your ear canal, thus, maximizing the in-ears sound
quality. The beehive shape of the housing is supposed to house brass rings that
circumvent the dynamic drivers to produce a clean, and tight bass response (but
that’s just a claim, I’m not if it really does that). Contrary to the way the
housing looks, it doesn’t increase isolation in any way possible. It is merely
for faster ear placement of the in-ear. Honestly, the build is nothing to brag
about, but, hey, when have headphones just been about looks right?
Comfort/Fit
It comes
with 3-sizes of single-flanged silicone buds from large-small that are kind of
thin so don’t expect a lot of noise isolation, but do expect a good fit that’s comfortable
for hours and hours of travel time. However, fit is kind of awkward, at first,
but once you get used to it (maybe after around an hour of listening) they’ll
feel just like any other universal fit in-ear out there. Its comfort is pretty
good, and by “good” I mean just like how any other universal fit in-ear “should”
feel.
Noise Isolation
I’ll be
honest, I was underwhelmed by the Audio-Technica’s noise isolation. It’s “almost”
like an open-backed headphone except that it shaves off 10-12 db of noise from
all external stimuli. 10-12 db may sound like a lot, but that’s only if you’re
looking at music or an equalizer. The audible human voice is around 40+ db and
Public transportation can go for 60-70 db so yes, now you know how
underwhelming the noise isolation really is. However, I’ve found quite a use
for this mediocre noise isolation, and that’s using the Audio-Technicas as ear
plugs during concerts, New Year, and etc. The few db shaved off keep your ears
safe from sound damage, and still allow you to communicate with others EVEN IF
you’re listening to music (at tame, but decently audible volumes of course).
This other use for its tame noise isolation doesn’t save the Audio-Technicas
from my book though because it just won’t cut it for the primary use of the
in-ears, and that’s listening to music while commuting which is a noisy
endeavour in itself so you’d have to crank up the volume to (in my opinion)
insane levels (my normal volume is around half the bar, I consider ¾ of the bar
insanely loud).
Accessories
The
Audio-Technica ATH-CKM300iS comes with a small carrying pouch that is
sufficient in size to store only the in-ears. Three single-flanged silicone
buds ranging from small-medium-large. It also comes with an accessory jack whose purpose is an enigma to me (never used it, never needed it). The in-ear
has a control panel (more of an accession than an accessory) that is compatible
with android smartphones. The control panel comes with its own volume control
for those who can’t be bothered to reach into their pockets or for those who
want to fine tune the volume, a button which acts as an instant pause for the
music, and a mic to provide a crystal clear voice signal to the receiving party
although the same cannot be said for you. Pretty tame, I know, but sufficient
for your commuting needs because who in the world (who am I kidding, there are
people like this) would be messing around with headphone accessories while commuting
when they know it’s not safe?
Sound Quality
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| Comes in four different colours, actually I own the blue colour, which isn't here hehe |
The
first time, I used these babies. I thought, “Wow, this is really tame…do I
really want to buy this?” However, as you can see, I bought them due to
necessity. They sounded better than most of the cheaper models I could afford,
had a control panel, and a pouch so I ended up buying them for Php3000 ($75
more or less, but they’re selling for $65-68 in the US). The bass response was pretty
good considering it had a lot of bass quantity with above-average bass quality.
It presented drums and bass guitars with this kind of “fun” quality that made
them an easy listen, and sometimes, if the passage was good enough, they could
even put a smile on my face considering how much they were worth. It gave the
low-frequencies that nice kick every time you heard them, injecting a little
more excitement to songs that would normally be pretty mellow, and, at times,
outright boring (depends on my mood). The Treble doesn’t really stand out, and
that’s what makes it stand out. It’s just there, ever present, not trying to
pull your attention to it in any other way then by doing what it’s meant to do.
To simplify the Treble, it’s clean, and sufficiently detailed so that you’ll be
none the wiser if any really subtle details were missed. The Audio-Technicas
execute instruments like chimes, triangles, and etc. with a quality that makes
you feel that the *tings* of these instruments resonate into your ear with a
satisfying clarity that will just amaze you to no end. The mids of these
in-ears, like the Beyerdynamic dt990s, were the stars of the frequency curve. It
simply eats violins, pianos (in their midrange area), acoustic guitars, and
female voices, and spews them to your ears with such creaminess that you’ll
look back at your purchase, and be proud of your decision. In terms of
soundstage, it’s like a narrow room with 3 chairs per row, but the fact that it
allows you to experience a soundstage is pretty neat because most in-ears just
tend to use your skull as a soundstage, and it can get pretty messed up if you
knew that you’re injecting voices into your head. So at this price point, how
can a soundstage presence go wrong?
Conclusion
It’s not
exactly the best buy around the block, but the Audio-Technica ATH-CKM300iS is a
pretty good buy for its price. Considering that you get a decent amount of
functionality, and practical uses out of an in-ear that’s only supposed to have
one and only one purpose for its creation. I would recommend this to anyone
with a budget below $100 (Php 4,300), but there are better sounding earphones
out there at the same price range. So it’s up to you if you want to pull the
trigger or not, the sound signature is the thing that’ll seal the deal.
*I’ll probably be doing reviews on the Shure SRH750DJ budget
over-the-ears, and the Creative Gigaworks T3 2.1 speaker system over the course
of August*
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