Maximo iM-490 iMetal Isolation Earphones

speaking of that metal clink sound, do they feel heavy in the ears when wearing them?

are they made of all metal? and do they feel ‘heavy’ in the ears when wearing them? if the fit that tight, how are people getting them out of the ears without ‘popping’ the ear drum?

Ah nice. These may just be the thing to use when I’m in the clean room late at night with all the noisy equipment.

Or rather… if I am in an environment with noisy equipment such that I still have trouble when the volume is raised past halfway (which is already unhealthy for the ears), would these be effective, or would I really have to get noise cancelling earbuds?

They don’t feel heavy in the ear, in my opinion. They are made of metal, yes, but only the rubber tips really touch your ears.

They create a nice suction to my ears, and when I take them out, I have to twist them a bit. Nothing dramatic, just that to avoid that ‘pop’ I have to do that. I’ve ripped them out of my ears countless times when I get up and forget I’m still wearing them. These things can really take a beating, as I treat mine worse than a bad lover, but they still sound like new.

One other thing I might add: the L and R on them is hard to see in poor lighting, and they feel the same regardless which ear you put them in. Just if you notice your sound is backward…

Note that the plug is too big for an mp3 player. You will have to get the smaller adapeter for that.

Uh, no it’s a standard 1/8" stereo jack.

Anyway, I have a few pairs of these - and they are quite nice for the price. They are pretty bass-heavy, and are on the large side of small earbuds, so they aren’t comfortable to sleep on.

Sometimes Woot sells some similarly-priced Sennheisers that are better, in my opinion, but I enjoyed these a lot before I moved up to stupidly expensive earbuds. - They make great gifts to musically-inclined, but non-audiophile friends!

The best-sounding inexpensive earbuds I’ve ever found, on Woot or off; I’m in for three more, with the sad caveat echoing jobezark’s observation that the tip separates from the flange after a fair amount of usage, so you should be ready to either repair or replace 'em. I wish they lasted longer but I’m happy replacing them.

That happened with mine as well, but a tiny squirt of crazyglue took care of it, and they are still running strong! (Just be careful you only get the glue on the hard plastic, not on any membrane, otherwise you’ll mess up the frequency response)

HAAA where’d you get that idea from?

They don’t feel heavy at all to me. They fit nicely, blocking out almost all noise, and even my ten year old brother is able to wear them comfortably.

I will warn you that if you live with roommates, have these on, and are not facing your door, they may knock multiple times then come in and scare the crud out of you because you didn’t hear them knocking. :stuck_out_tongue:

They’re probably confusing mp3 players with the mini (1/16" ?) jacks that xbox headsets and whatnot use.

from researching on headfi.org, a person affiliated with Maximo said:

"One thing about the Woot listing is that it does not come with a 2.5mm adapter. Unless Woot is adding it themselves! Otherwise it’s a mistake that they put that info on their listing. "

I picked a pair of these up 9 months ago and am very happy. I wear them daily at work for multiple hours and they have held up great. I usually get 4-6 months out of a pair before one side starts to cut out. No problems with these.

The sound leans towards being a bit base heavy, but they sound fine with all types of music just beware if you like prefer little base. They do weight a bit more then all plastic buds but it does not bother me unless I get stuck for a 10-12 hour day, however there is no lingering discomfort…by the next day it is unnoticed.

As for questions about feeling the metal while wearing. The front of the earbud, just behind the eartip, is plastic. Only the back 3/4 is metal (color change can be seen in image from mat silver to shiny chrome). While I only feel the eartip while wearing, if some slight contact were to be made it would be with plastic, like regular buds. I also have had no problems with them falling out like some others have complained of. They fit comfortable, not overly snug but no problem with movement. Cannot comment on jogging but have worked fine on a bike.

Ill be ordering another pair for home since they sound much better then the JBuds I currently have at home.

I would really suggest not getting these.

My first pair died on one side after using them for 5 hours, and when I went to send them back they tried to convince me to get a cheaper model sent back instead. When I refused, it took them a week and a half to send a new pair.

A month after that, the glue sealing the two parts of the earbud failed, and a couple of weeks later one side started to die due to wear on the cord where it meets the plug, which IMO is pretty terrible considering I only used them while reading, perhaps a few hours a day.

Right, but a 2.5mm jack is generally for cellphones, or xboxes. 2.5mm or 1/8" is the standard for consumer headphones / mp3 players.

I can’t find the post but I followed the advice of a Wooter and broke mine in by playing music overnight and they sounded even better the next day.

I love these headphones. Light and sound good.

i bought some of these. They are some of the worst pair of earphones i bought as far as comfort. they would have been better if the post coming out of the side of them were closer to the edge of the earphone. the little post was jamming into my ear and it hurt.

Yeah, these should be burnt in – they can sound a little muddy or muffled beforehand. Leave them playing overnight like the man says.

As for comfort, I can’t tell if they’re the exact same ones as I had. Mine fit perfectly – in terms of sound & fit they were my favorite earbuds ever.

They are a little heavy in your ears, and they stick out quite a bit. However, these are my favorite headphones Woot ever offers. They sound great.

I used to have to run my iPod at about 90% volume (uncomfortably high) to hear spoken-word recordings on a noisy bus commute. With these I could hear everything clearly at 15-20% volume. Besides the increased comfort and reduced hearing damage, my battery lasts longer. The quality difference is huge with music.

Re: durability, mine have been somewhat abused (not from use, but from rattling around loose in my shoulderbag whenever not in use–I don’t want to give up space to the case) and have held up great–I’m still on the first pair I bought in '08.

Re: fit, they’re really comfortable on me and stay in my ears with no problem (I didn’t even have to change from the tips that came on them), but my mom and my husband did not find them comfortable in their ears. So there’s no way around trying that–you can’t possibly tell from reviews whether they’ll fit comfortably in your ears.

I’m thinking about buying another batch of 3 even though mine still work perfectly, since others have reported the wires or cans wearing out and failing. I would seriously miss these.