I bought these because my other in-ear phones (Sennheiser CX 95 and Sennheiser CX 300) sound excellent but offer very little in terms of isolation and can't compete with the noise of trucks, buses and so on. In the past I've owned Shure E2c, Sony MDR-EX71, some terrible Panasonic in-ears and I also have a pair of Razer ProTones so I'm quite used to these kinds of in-ear phones. I also occasionally use full size headphones (not intended to be portable). These Klipsch earphones do offer far better isolation than all except the Shures but the similarity to the Shures stops there. People who criticise the sound quality of in-ear phones usually claim there is no bass/not enough bass but this is dependent on a good fit and doesn't say much about anything else. The Klipsch phones do have a very good bass without it being boomy or exaggerated. But they forgot the rest of the sound spectrum! The high frequencies are essentially absent and the midrange is muted and indistinct. They really sound poor. To get an idea of what they sound like you could put in some plain old ear plugs and crank up the volume on your home audio system, or wait till you have the flu or a heavy head cold, or try listening while underwater....OK some exaggeration but not as much as you might imagine. The midrange and higher frequencies being poorly represented means almost all instruments and especially voices sound indistinct and dull. After obvious defects like distortion it's one of the worst qualities to find in headphones or speakers. If you compare these with the junk that was supplied with your mp3 player you might think they are pretty decent. Compare them with anything actually decent (even similar products at similar price) you'll realise they aren't.
Good points?
They are cheap.
Most in-ear phones suffer from unwanted noises from the cord, caused by contact (this is often incorrectly described as microphonics). Touching the cord when listening causes noise and outside on windy day you get a whistling noise. The Klipsch cable seems well designed and has a slider for adjusting the amount of slack, and these phones minimise unwanted noise better than any others I've used.
You get a cloth case with a snap closure, maybe useful.
Bad points (apart from the sound): the owner's manual diagram shows how to use a Klipsch cleaning tool to clear the tiny apertures of wax but none is supplied.
Comfort: this is entirely subjective but these are the least comfortable phones I've owned. Fit is similar to the Shures i.e. you definitely know they are in there, but Klipsch don't supply the same variety of tips; you get tiny, medium and big silicons, distinctly less soft than Sennheiser silicones and there is nothing like the Shure foam tips. Putting them in is fine but when pulling them out the rear of the tips have a distinct edge that can give your ear canal a scraping you didn't want.
The isolation is first class so for noisy environments I'd put up with the less than ideal fit and comfort if the sound quality was even close to the Sennheisers and Shures, but it isn't. These are a very long way behind some other in-ear phones even at this very low price point.
EDIT: 7 months later and I finally lost one of the silicone tips. Klipsch don't supply any spares with the new product and the Klipsch replacements are about two thirds the price of the earphones themselves and I find them uncomfortable and annoying. I decided to try an alternative
Comply T-100 Ultra Soft Foam Tips 6 Pack Size Medium
These are excellent. The comfort is transformed and the sound is much improved. If the Klipsch phones came with these as standard they would rate 5 stars as a budget earphone. Having foam tips that shape themselves to your ear is very comfortable and provides the best isolation. It also demonstrates that the Klipsch marketing puff about oval tips idea is indeed only marketing puff. Your ear canals might not be round but they aren't exactly oval either. The isolation was already good, now it's as good as or better than any phones I've used and doesn't sacrifice comfort to achieve it. The phones have now cost me an extra 70% aprox but finally I'm impressed and think this represents good value. I modified my rating from 2 stars to 4 stars.
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