Cat Ear Headphones - Kickass or KickFart?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,384 words · ~6 min read
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when I saw these accent wear cat headphones absolutely smash their goal
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on Indiegogo about a year and a half ago
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I knew I had to have them not because I
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thought they looked good not because I thought they would sound good but
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because the beginnings of the kick farted video format were already forming
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in my mind and these things had epic disaster written all over them but let's
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see how that turned out then shall we
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the Arya headphones from Phoenix come complete with a cardioid clip mic and
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acoustic Chambers constructed entirely of Japanese Pinewood check out the link
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in the video description to learn more our epic tale begins as it always seems
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to with the original delivery date estimate of April 2015 given to me when
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I backed this project in October of 2014
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it took all of one month to get the inevitable derp we actually can't use
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the manufacturer we intended email something to do with a poor human rights
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record fair enough and after four months of radio silence an update comes through
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Brookstone will be taking over customer service and Manufacturing cool shortly
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afterward I sent an email to Brookstone asking if I could get one of the first
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off the line to facilitate a timely review they told me that pre-sales go up
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in the fall so I replied back saying saying i' never asked that and I had
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already bought one and then I never heard back so all right then from there
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the backer updates were actually looking great August onward is rapid fire photos
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of prototypes and good news all around so then why has it taken until now for
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you to review it lonus good question a combination of it being shipped to my
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old address in spite of me sending a request to find out where it was being
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sent so that I could change it through Indiegogo and the shipment eventually
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being abandoned after an apparent attempted delivery to the wrong address
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though I never actually got any notices which took about 6 months to finally
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resolve though to the credit of accent Weare and Brookstone who seems to have
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basically acquired them outright they did eventually deliver my product which
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is good but what about the headphones are they good well honestly at $130
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retail price I've seen much worse than the cat phones that's what I'll be
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calling them you get a surprisingly rugged carrying case a meter long cable
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with inline volume control and a gaming grade bendy microphone that feels kind
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of cheap and sounds a little something like this moving on the folding hinges
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do not lock and the size and swivel
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adjustments are plastic and will therefore wear out relatively quickly
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but the leather covered ear cups and headband have a thick and soft if not
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especially breathable memory foam covering them not too bad but any old
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random pair of headphones from a completely unknown brand even one with
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decent build quality shouldn't have performed this well as a crowdfunded
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product let's discuss the main selling point these plastic caders are not just
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cers they also along with the ear cups
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light up for up to 5 hours in the color of your choosing I ordered purple and
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they have speakers inside so you can share your music with your friends and
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family in a unique and creative way according to the marketing materials
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thanks to these add-ons the cat phones are a little on the heavy side but I'd
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still describe them as reasonably comfortable even after an hour or more
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of continuous wear but of course I wasn't actually expecting any of that
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stuff to suck it would be relatively hard to screw up a plastic mold and some
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LEDs at this point so let's talk audio quality the kind of thing that's easy to
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brag about on a spec sheet with frequency response numbers but that is
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actually very difficult and requires Decades of engineering experience to to
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deliver the cat phones are better than I
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expected not an a wow these are great go
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buy them now kind of way but in more of
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a they surprisingly aren't the worst thing I've ever heard kind of way Low's
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are handled surprisingly competently at low to moderate volumes with tighter
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base than I expected though at higher volumes Distortion does set in and if
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mids and highs behaved in a similar manner you'd actually have a pretty
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competent pair of 100ish dollar or less headphones on your hands Unfortunately
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they sound kind of like there's a sock over them or something with vocalists in
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particular coming across like they're a little too far from the microphone at
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closer to 40 to 50 bucks they'd actually be pretty compelling on a pure sound
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quality basis but what about the other features pressing the second button from
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the back activates the speakers built into the ears at low volume to help you
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avoid getting punched on the subway you'll need to actually turn it up each
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time you activate this feature and turned up they actually
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sound all right I guess not nearly as
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good or even as loud as a high-end Bluetooth speaker like a UEI boom but
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better than trying to use your phone so there you go which leads us finally to
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the answer to the question posed in the title of this video evaluating the cat
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phones as headphones there's no contest
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dt770 pros from beay Dynamic can be had for the same price they both sound and
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fit much better with hyperx Cloud 2 headsets available in masculine or
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feminine flavors for actually significantly less if having a
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microphone is your thing so it comes down then to how much value you assigned
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to the statement that you're making by wearing these for me that's not much to
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people I've never met I'd rather wear unfashionable audio file headphones and
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look like someone who appreciates craftsmanship rather than someone who
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thinks caters are cool and besides I've come up with my own way to stand out
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