Could 300 yen (US$26,000) headphones actually have enough sound quality to distinguish them from other headphones?
Daiso is a 100-yen shop, where you can take at least everything, from kitchen to storage to beauty products. For less than 500 yen (3,76 USD), you can get more than anything at the same time. But did you know that they sold electronics even? Our Japanese-language journalist and 100-yen store tester Go Hatori was browsing Daiso’s headphone section when he found a bunch of different colored earphones that seemed identical, but which claim to be slightly different.
After all, the fact that the 300-yen earphones really differs between us, has anyone ever doubtful. Naturally, he decided to buy five of them and sing them the same song to see how they compare.
Every color has its different function. The black elongated high-frequency sound surrounded by a good bass; the gold, a strong balance type; the reds could play music with ambiance; the blues had strong bass and strong vocals; the oranges had a pleasant mid-to-high range. There were more colours and varieties at the store, but there were just minor variations, and so they didn’t seem to alter the sound, so Go picked these five.
For his test song, Go picked Funkshones It Aint Never Gonna Work.
The song is a fun, jazzy tune, and perfectly balanced with treble and base as well as vocals, perfect for Gos experiment.
Go started to test the gold earphone, the almighty balance type. The first thing he noticed was that the sound quality was somehow reminisced. In any case, as soon as the song started playing them, he could say they that have put more efforts in directing the speakers to a tune. It was the same experience as sitting outside the back of the concert hall.
Go really liked the black ones. Even though the bass appeared with the heavy odor, they didn’t appear to play the high and low notes as well as the low notes and had a pretty balanced tuning. The sound was, too, quite clear. If Go could compare it to live music, then he said that it was similar to standing near the front, where you would dance. The sound produced by these phones is certainly a good dance!
Blues were able to deliver powerful bass and comfortable vocals. They’re better than the black earphones. Moreover, these earphones are very effective. They developed an amazing sizing for the experience of attending a concert. Such a clear base would feel like Go was sitting in VIP seats, right in front of the stage. Personally, go like these ones the best.
The orange ones, who had a nice mid-to-high range, were interesting. They felt like listening to music through a wall or something. In an environment where music is heard by a live band, it would be like sitting at a solitary meeting while the show was working. Still, the sound was very refreshing, almost transparent. That is what was stated in the first section. Go and see that these might be good for classical music.
Lastly, the red earphones had roughly the same balance as the almighty gold, which was pretty. With these headphones, the sound a lot clearer, so Go likes the red ones better than gold. A concert hall was thought to be the centre of the audience. However, he received less points for his left and right buds – both easily recognizable and easily differentiated, making it difficult to say which one is in which ear.
Just a bit surprising, these 300-yen earphones from Daiso really had pretty good sound to them! He was particularly impressed by the versatility of blue earphones with its powerful bass and comfortable vocals. If he wished him to decide the colors as well, he opted to chose blue instead, then black, red, orange and even gold.
Even more to Gos’ shock, they weren’t all the same. Go never would’ve guessed they would produce sound very different. Sorry that I doubt you, Daiso! Go said, and he said that. In truth, he really should have known better, considering that his experiments have yielded a lot of important discoveries at Daiso. This is the one who learned you can get a little more to go camping.
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