Earlier this year a new set of earphones came out that drew immediate attention to itself for its sleek curves and oval shaped ear tips. And Unlike most earbuds on the market, the Klipsch S4i supports all of the latest Apple devices including the iPhone 4/3GS/3, iPod touch and the buttonless Shuffle 3rd generation. For a price of $99, these will be serious candidates for anyone looking for an alternative to the standard buds from Apple. But are they any good?
Box
The klipsch S4i comes shipped in a box that’s impossible to open. Instructions are printed on the back on how to open it but I actually ended up having to use a knife to open the packaging.
Once open I was presented with a basic of accessories: a few ear tips, a cleaning tool, a hideous shirt clip and last but not least a metal can for keeping it all together. The small metal can felt particularly out of place, it reminded me of the way grandma used to bring cookies.
All in all they give you just enough to stay quiet but most of it will probably remain unused. I found the one ear tip that matched my ears and kept everything else in the ugly can, with no intention of taking it out anytime soon.
Design
I’ve been pretty spoiled on this part. I previously owned Apple’s in ear headphones, which look absolutely gorgeous but breaks every 4 months. Now with the Klipsch S4i I can say that these are really good looking headphones.
They’re very small and share a design consistent of silver, black and white. I find them really sporty and dynamic looking, but without being over the top and screaming for attention.
The point where the two cables meet is where the remote is located. It’s slightly bigger than Apple’s version, but the operation works really smooth. More on that later. At the end of the 47-inch cable rests a straight plug enforced by black plastic. The durability remains to be seen but the Klipsch S4i is one of the best looking earphones on the market, bettered only by Apple. Plus it’s in white, which is a real crowd pleaser.
Again build quality wise I’m still not in the know. I’m interested to see how these things withstand the test of time under normal everyday use. Just from observing I guess things aren’t looking good. The cables are thinner than those on the Apple earphones and the plastic plug doesn’t look too sturdy either. I’ll report back to you when and if they break. Hopefully that time won’t come anytime soon.
Remote
When I said it supported the latest from Apple, I wasn’t kidding. Klipsch has worked closely with Apple in the production of these and it shows. The remote supports every command the standard i-buds can do.
You can take calls on it, end calls, pause songs, skip songs and even do voice commands using the microphone, which is located on the back of the remote.
I tested the remote using my iPhone 4 for the last couple of weeks and I can confirm that everything works like advertised. Operating the buttons is very easy and intuitive. The remote is located on chest height so you won’t have to reach for your right ear when operating the buttons, it takes some time to get used to but ultimately works like a charm.
Now you might be wondering how the mic works when it’s so far from your mouth. Well Klipsch advertises it as a 360-degree microphone which blocks out ambient noise and makes you come through just like a regular cell.
To test this I made a few calls both outside and inside, and asked them if they understood me clearly. And they confirmed they did during every test, even when I went outside for a jog in the city. So I can only praise the quality of the mic, at least if the people on the other line spoke the truth.
Unfortunately there’re a few problems with the remote as a whole. Using the remote without looking -although do able- is very hard because the three buttons feel exactly the same. Klipsch could help this by making the up/down volume buttons a different (longer?) shape.
And I wasn’t particularly happy with the size of the remote either. There seems to be a lot of unused space surrounding around the buttons. Perhaps it would be even easier to operate with larger buttons or a smaller body.
Sound quality
To test the sound quality I used a wide range of music, including pop, country and dance. I played songs I listened to often on the regular buds, Apple’s in-ears and a pair of Sony in-ears from 2005. During the music I paid special attention to the bass reproduction, higher notes and the little details only truly great headphones can reveal. The files varied from lossless music to MP3s from 128kbs to 312kbs.
I started playing pop songs and was blown away by the bass these things can produce. The Sony and Apples couldn’t compare. The lower tones remained really tight and never got too bloomy, still I felt the need to tone it down a little.
Higher notes were about on par with the in-ears from Apple. Guitars and drums came in very cleanly and much more dominantly than they had on the many earphones I owned before. Music I listened to for years suddenly sounded very different, in a good way!
Second test was a genre I personally hate: house. The computerized noise of sounds combined to make a song for drunken partygoers to swing too. No offence. I’m glad to report that the wider range of frequencies that the Klipsch S4i can produce will make the genre sound a lot better. I felt like I heard the music exactly the way they wanted me to, much more than on the Sony and Apple in-ears I used before. The lower tones never stepped out of line, which is a fantastic achievement that few speakers and headphones for this price can match.
Opera is on the rise. Okay, not really, but I like it nevertheless. I listened to Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti and Paulo Buonvino. These tenors are leading the industry and are in my view the best of recent time.
Time to say goodbye by Andrea Bocelli sounded clear and crisp, but this couldn’t be said of Nessum Dorma. This song sounded fine on my previous buds but now the Klipsch S4i emphasized the low compression quality of the song. In general they really emphasize poor compression and other issues in the songs I previously had no problems with. I guess this is because almost no quality is lost between the iPhone and what comes in your ear.
I can’t mention enough that songs sound so different on the Klipsch, than they do on other headphones. Overall the quality is excellent, especially for this price.
In real life
Now it’s time to put the quality of the design and the sound in every day situations. I’ve been using these for several weeks now and here are my findings.
First of all I wanted to use these for exercising and running. I did a lot of research on this topic but never found what I was looking for, nevertheless I decided to take the plunge because of lack of alternatives.
They work great in the gym. They did a terrific job blocking out the horrible gym music, and letting me focus on the content of mypersonal music library. I was able to listen at a volume of 1/3, without hearing a thing of my surroundings. I felt like I was working out alone, like no other person was there. They particularly excel when the cord doesn’t move, like on biceps machines or during strength training.
It became less pleasant doing cardio. I went for a 7-mile jog the other day and the sounds of the cord hitting my body literally drove me nuts. I think it’s an in-ear design flaw because the same happened with the Sony and Apples. The situation became a bit better a couple of miles in, probably because I got used to it, and because the seal became loose, letting the nasty sounds out.
Near the end of the run I was sweating quite heavily and the tips started to feel very loose. I had to press them in every 200-300 feet. But despite this I found them better than the Apples in comfort and sound quality.
Conclusions
The Klipsch S4i is a great alternative for people looking to replace the standard apple headphones for better quality ones without sacrificing the remote. They look amazing and are quite comfortable to wear, with a sound quality unmatched by anything I’ve heard in this price range, ever.
A few small hiccups prevent these from being perfect. The added ear tips might not fit your ears properly and the cheap can is a good idea turned bad. But for the most part –if they withstand the test of time- the Klipsch S4i is one of the best in-ear headphones I’ve ever seen under the $100 bracket.
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I’ve discovered a way to almost eliminate all the bouncing wire noises while running, although with hindsight pretty obvious.
First of all try to make the wire as short as possible, tuck it in your pocket, make sure it goes straight from your ears to your pocket. This will help against the bouncing as the cable has less places to go, it will remain tighter against your body for most of the run.
It also helps to make the Y shape as short as possible. Use the little slider above the remote to make the cables split just underneath your chin, instead of right after the remote.
For me it almost eliminated the entire problem. Now the only problem for me is to find a way to keep the buds in after the sweating kicks in, but that’s not Klipsch’s fault.
I was wondering… Have you tried listening to Andrea Bocelli’s “I Believe”? It’s a duet with Katherine Jenkins. I’ve been eyeing these earphones since i heard they were out, but I need to know if they’ll get crackly towards 3.45 mins onwards in the song. -_- My current earphones are great for every other song of his, but this particular song is giving my trouble and I only want to get new earphones that lets me listen to this song perfectly. -_-
Sounds great with the Klipsch S4i. Klipsch support really wide frequencies and to go better than this is really difficult in the $99~ bracket.
But given your situation, try listening to a different version of the song. Download a different file, youtube etc, because often a very apparent crackle is a file problem.