Able Planet Clear Harmony Headphones Review
Have a peek here at the highest quality member of the Able Planet audio lineup with the Clear Harmony headphones set complete with LINX Audio. For those of you that've never heard of this patent pending technology, LINX Audio is unique to Able Planet audio products and enhances your listening experience with distortion reduction, "undesirable sound" filtering, and increases in perceived loudness without increasing your volume. We gave these beasts a test this past week to see how they truly performed.
When I took these headphones out of the case, I was surprised to find how extremely light and plasticky they felt. They certainly look fine, they're extremely unassuming without a doubt, and they do come in a nice case besides. They do not feel like they're going to be high quality, I said to myself, and the fact that I had to take off one of the covers of the phones to put in two AA batteries didn't make me feel a whole lot more confident about the situation. That said though, once I had the phones plugged in to my MacBook Pro and turned on Stankonia (OutKast) (free from Google Music and full of heavy base and beats) I knew that we'd found a winner in the uniquely powerful sound business.
It's a strange feeling to have to turn on your headphones, that's for sure – especially when you're not working with Bluetooth at all. These phones work with your normal headphone jack, 1/4 inch stereo jacks, and dual-pin airline jacks – the latter two made possible by included adapters. All of those fits inside a hard shell protective case that'll keep your phones clean. This unit fits on my relatively large head comfortably and can adjust to essentially any head size within reason with their simple click-to-fit sides.
Once you plug these headphones in and hit the "on" switch at the back of the left ear, you'll understand what LINX Audio technology is. It's basically like a really awesome equalizer right inside your earphones rather than in your computer or smartphone. Listening to Chop Suey (System of a Down) showed its power simply: when LINX Audio is off, I can't hear the cymbals. When LINX Audio is on, I can hear the cymbals, the vocals, the guitars, every little big of noise in an impressively well-balanced way.
These headphones provide a top-quality bit of sound in a package that will not break the bank – that's the point that Able Planet seems to be driving home with this package, and they're right. With LINX Audio, Able Planet has won awards from CES several years running for their innovations in Design and Engineering. These awards come were given mostly due to the awesome fact that LINX Audio technology allows people to listen to the full range of sounds in a bit of music without max volume blowing out their eardrums.
These headphones are not going to absolutely change your life, but they are really awesome, and LINX Audio is the real hero here, definitely worth checking out if you're in a place where you want full quality without heavy volume. You can pick up the Clear Harmony headphones you see here at Able Planet's online store for $299.99 right now – and if you do so right now here at the start of the summer of 2012, you get a free Apple 8GB iPod touch – sounds like a deal to me!