DREX12iP/RED Phone Headset

I bought the Sony DREX12IP in black at Walmart a number of years ago back in the iPhone 4 era to replace the crappy earbuds Apple included with it. The Sonys sounded amazing, and lasted quite a few years without issue until one fateful day they got caught in the sliding track of my driver’s seat and did not survive the extraction. LOL By that time Walmart had already stopped carrying this iPhone-specific model.Searched around for a while for them in other stores, but eventually gave up, upgraded phones a few times, and ended up back to Apple stock earbuds and a variety of full size over-the-ear headphones including Sony’s MDR-V6, which I also bought here on Amazon, last year (those V6 sound fantastic btw, in case you’re looking for an OTE headphone, and work very well with portable/mobile devices).Those Apple earbuds are dying again so I decided to see if I could find these same ones I had from Sony before. I found the back card of the packaging with the model number of the other I had and searched it here on Amazon. The white ones under the same model number were available for about 1/2 the price I paid for the ones a long time ago so, of course. :DThey arrived today, and straight from the packaging and with proper size silicone ear-things on (3 sizes included) they sound every bit as great as I remember the first pair I had. All controls work with the iPhone I’m currently using (5S) but may not with those newest models of iPhones that require a dongle to connect wired headphones.They block out most ambient noise, though not entirely noise canceling or anything like that. But the advantage of that is they don’t need to be turned up as loud in order to be immersed in the music.Listening to a variety of music as I’m typing this, and I’d consider them every bit of 5 star quality as my first pair from years ago. And a 20 bucks, an excellent deal.Totally recommended.Tip: Switch the silicone ear-things until you’ve got the most snug fit. These require a ‘seal’ in order to have full sound. If they sound bright, with little or no bass, they’re not making a good enough seal with the ear canal and may require the next step up. If the silicone ear-things are too big, they’ll wrinkle a little upon insertion, and also not make a proper seal, so the smaller ones may need to be used.When you get the right fit, you’ll hear it immediately.

Proprietary functions are not the way to be better, Sony and the rest of the world need to knock it off. Not sure how useful a volume rocker is if it doesn't work on a non-sony, non-samsung phone. Maybe perfect for you, but annoying for me on my LG G4. Apart from that though, these are great. Ear buds fit like magic, probably the best in-ear buds I've ever had and I have a pair of Ultimate Ears from early 2000 (Before Creative labs ruined their product line). Cord doesn't tangle at all which is impressive, but the wires to each bud do - like mad. The L headphone jack is great for when my phone is jammed in my pocket & I'm sitting etc. Sound production is better than throw away earbuds, and they fit so well that most external sound is blocked. Low range is lacking (but better than many), but mid range is good and high-frequency reproduction is great - and since ultimate ears is out of business you're probably SOL if you'd like to find any buds good at low range. Volume fidelity isn't great, if I was trying to damage my hearing by listening to them on plane, for example, I don't think they'd work but they are fine in most situations. The in-line mic works well. These are good for funk, jazz, old school rock, alt rock, spoken word, and non-base centric music. Workable for Hip-hop, rap, and hard rock. EDM, break-beat, industrial, and metal, sound flat compared to my $400 state of the art ear buds that will probably never be made again - so for under $15 these are really solid. Maybe the best sound reproduction you can get for under $100, maybe even under $300. If they only made the inline controls conform to a standard so they work with all devices and the earbud leads themselves wouldn't tangle so much - these would be great and I'd have nothing to complain about.

To start off I did not buy this for myself; I bought it for my mother, who needs the use of her phone while she's driving but cannot hold the phone up because of safety reasons. I haven't used it much, just borrowed it on a few occasions where I need an ear bud for sports practice or something like that. On to the actual review: Now, by no means is this earbud an equivalent to say, a MEelectronics earbud or something like that, but it works fine for the purpose of having a mic with your earbud. Now, some may think, why not just get a Bluetooth. Well the reason I bought this for my mother is so that she can also listen to music on her phone while being able to pick up and answer calls. So this kills 2 birds with one stone. While I would give the sound quality for this pair a 3 or 4, the product for the purpose it was meant to be used for deserves a five. This is no earbud set meant for high quality music(I'm a basshead myself) but it still sounds pretty good, with the exception of a noticeable decrease in bass. Otherwise, my mother loves it FOR THE PURPOSE of using it to pick up calls and listen to a few jams while on the road. Oh yeah, and the volume control is pretty neat, a small thing but it's cool. The fit in the ear canal is snug, and allows for a lot of sound blocking from outside sources, so that is a plus. Again, for this price range, it's really good. You aren't going to get $500 sound quality from $21.