Win a Pair of Ultiate Ears super.fi 3 Studio Headphones

[Jason Dunn]

<img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/ultimate-ears-supferfi3.jpg" /><br /><br />Here's a contest for regular Zune Thoughts readers: I've got a pair of black <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ultimateears.com/superfi/superfi-3-studio_black.htm">Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio</a> earphones, courtesy of the fine people at Ultimate Ears, and they're looking for a good home. These are the same type of headphones that I <a target="_blank" href="http://www.twoinchview.com/92-ultimate-ears-superfi-headphones">reviewed last year</a>, and although the bundled headphones with the Zune are surprisingly decent, these blow them away.<br /><br />To win this pair of headphones here's all you have to do: post a message telling me about the <em>worst sounding headphones</em> you've ever used, and what device/product they came with (or if you were unfortunate enough to buy them yourself). Remember I said this a contest for regular Zune Thoughts readers? That's because I'm going to close off this contest at some random point in time later today (don't worry, it will be near the end of the day). If you haven't posted here before, your first post needs to be approve by us, but rest assured I'll approve all the posts before I do the random drawing. Get to it!<br /><br /><strong>UPDATE:</strong> I closed the contest today at 5:52 pm my local time. The winner is <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/member.php?u=493" class="bigusername">yoda16</a>. Congratulations, and thanks for participating everyone. I had a good chuckle reading some of your comments - it really is amazing what a difference earphones can make! If you're looking to buy your own Ultimate Ears headphones, take a browse through our <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/thoughtsmedia-20/103-9581613-5121420?_encoding=UTF8&amp;node=1" target="_blank">Amazon.com affiliate store</a> (your purchases help support Zune Thoughts).

[SuperRR]

Glad I am a regular user (or visitor rather).

But to contribute, The worst pair of headphones I have ever had were those crappy white Apple headphones from an ipod mini that a friend had that i BOUGHT for my mobiBLU back before it died in the washing machine. They were bad, and I suspect the design has not got much better since that pair two years ago.

UE rocks!!

[cjhp]

The worst pair of headphones that I have experienced were some that my wife and I purchased on an Amtrak train ride that we took for the experience from Birmingham, AL to New Orleans about 10 years ago. We shared the pair since they cost $15 or something like that for a couple of the small foam covered earphones that everyone remembers from 1980. You had to have them in order to watch the movie (unless you had your own). The sound quality was very poor. I remember buying a AM/FM Sony radio for running the same year and I think I paid $19 for it because it was really small (it was about the size of the Zune) and the headphones on it were so much better. We still have the Amtrak headphones in a box somewhere.

[Adan Galvan]

The worst pair of headphones I have ever used came with my T-Mobile SDA. The mic was great, but the sound from the headphones was completely flat. Horrible listening experience.

[boxboy]

Ah this brings back memories of myself when I was a young tike. I yearned to gain social status at school, and what better way then your very own am/fm radio walkman complete with a top of the line cassette player. My mother, the kind soul that she was, decided I was unfit for a real walkman, and purchased the absolute cheapest am/fm tape player you could imagine. I cannot recall the name of this abomination, needless to say, it must have had jellopy somewhere in its brand name.

Due to my virginity in the personal electronics field, I was completely oblivious to the levels of quality headphones could potentially have. Once the included headphones wore out from use, my Mom saw fit to change my music listening life forever. I actually got sony branded headphones....and wow, music never sounded so....music-like. The "Macarena" ceased to sound like it was coming from 20 feet away and echoing as if in a closed gymnasium alone. People standing next to me no longer heard my music better then myself.

My life was changed forever......or until two years later when I got a cd player.

-Boxboy

[cr8tv*sYnrGy]

i don't even remember where i got them but i've got a baaaaaaaaaad piar of KOSS headphones that take the cake. where do i begin. head band too tight, sounding like an analog cell-phone with bad reception. the curious thing is that the cord is less than 2 feet long with a 1/4 inch jack. so to use it in my cd walkman i had to get an adapter.... it looked like some bizzare appendage or weapon! my 6-yr-old used it for a while on her flash player because it was the only headband that would stay on her head, but even she complained that she didn't like them... said they sounded 'like i'm on a plane' (how bad a product must you be to be dissed by a 6-yr-old?!)

[kewell]

The worst headphones I must have ever owned that came bundled with something was the black earbuds that came with my old school Nintendo Game Boy. They were awesome back then (when it was the only pair of earbuds I owned), but looking back and compared with today's headphones, they're pretty mediocre.

Although the sound through the headphone jack was in stereo, I enjoyed blasting Game Boy games through the one built in speaker.

[DrMobo]

Worst = bud that came with my (now ebay'd) Creative Zen Jukebox. They were a bit worse than the stock Zune buds. Both are just are not good enough for listening to real music.

[thex]

The very worse headphones I listened too where 900 Mhz cordeless headphones. I could never get rid of the static. If I pressed the headphones tight to my ears - I could actually understand the words through the static.

What makes this even worse is that I attempted to use them again 6 months later (I never returned them) thinking that sitting in the drawer would repair themselves or that the techno gremlins came and repaired them.

They have been filed in File 13!

[Sage]

In terms of value-for-money it has to be my old Sony EX-71s. They broke very quickly and the sound wasn't all that great for $50.

The out-right worst I've used are the ones that come with the older iPods. They don't sit in my ears very well at all and that has a dramatic effect on the quality of the sound.

[Caracarn]

The worst pair of headphones that I've used were the pair that came with my Archos Jukebox Recoder 20. Not only did they have poor sound, but they hurt like hell to wear.

[nook]

Had to be the ones that came with my 60gig iPod Video. They had ZERO bass response. And I listen to a lot of bass heavy music, mainly Drum'n'Bass, and everytime there was any type of bass, I got this horrible crunching sound. And the treble was way too high and was usually kind of painful when I listened to it at any descent volume. Right now I am loving my Zune premium headphones, but I would LOVE to have these Ultimate Ears headphones!!!!

[williamc]

A few years ago I bought a lower end (or earlier model) of some Philips Earbuds (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7444571&st=philips+earbuds&lp=7&type=product&cp=2&id=1124432966251) for an iPod and was really disappointed in how canned the sound seemed. The trouble is, though, I don't know if it was a necessarily a problem with the Buds: they were definitely better than the default headphones, but they were also great at pointing out how, regardless of which EQ setting I used, I was still listening to music that sounded somehow submerged, artificial, and tinny. Now, of course, I blame AAC encoding -- but it points out the need for earbuds to really make a difference in how encoded music sounds versus how a CD might sound. I would love to try out something new for the Zune! :)

[Kevin Jackson]

Worst pair ever? Hmm . . . it would have to be ones that I got with an old portable cassette player; you know the old foam-covered, over-the-ear type? They had no bass, the upper sounds were tinny and hollow, they were uncomfortable (the foam wasn't very thick so the edges of the plastic scratched and poked my ears) and the foam covers were torn and falling off within a week. Ever since then I have been an avowed in-ear headphone user and I don't regret it for a minute.

[David Tucker]

Those look like the sweetness. By far the worst headphones I've ever had were (and still are) a pair of Koss UR-19s. Total crap. (I love my Sennheiser PMX 200s though!)

[kalis104]

The absolute worst ones i have used are form a AM/FM Radio Shack radio. They distorted horribly on AM or FM at any audible volume. With any other headphones the radio sounder pretty good(for radio). I tossed the buds away as soon as I could, absolutely awful.

[smegmanufo]

Unfortunately my worst headphones were the most expensive I ever bought. They were the Turtle-Beach Ear Force X-51. I paid over $100 for them and they were a dud right out of the box. The surround sound was poor at best, and they were never quite comfortable. The worst part was that they were made to fold up when not in use, except they always found a way to do it while I was using them.

I ended up giving them to a guy I didn't really like. He loved them. Oh well.

[Ron Hostetter]

Several... I was using the earphones that came with my iPod several years ago, but my dog chewed them up. I was so upset! I went out and bought a pair of Sony in-ear headphones and I couldn't believe the difference!!! It turns out those iPod earphones were CRAP!!!!
I also recall paying $2 for the head phones provided by United Airlines on a flight. Those sounded like a 1920's-era AM radio. Awful!!!!
And finally, the earphones that came with my MDA phone as well as the earphones that came with my wife's DASH phone. Not only are they way too big to fit in anybody's ear, they sound just awful!!!
Yep, I've got a long history of bad headphones!
Ron

[Ranma13]

The absolute worst pair of earphones I have ever used were a pair of cheap KOSE earphones that I bought from Walmart. My previous earphones had just broken and I was desperate for some earphones, ANY earphones, so I went to Walmart and picked up the KOSE earphones, which looked pretty nice in the packaging. The many 'used and returned' packages for the same said earphones strewn about the counter should have been a blatant hint that I shouldn't have bought them, but I blindly ignored them and plunked down my $10. No sooner than I walked out the store did I realize just how horrible the earbuds were. The darned things just wouldn't stay in my ear! As much as I tried, they were just too loose, too slippery to stay inside my ears, and when I did manage to get them to stay in there, they started to hurt big time. Needless to say, I was pretty dismayed at my purchase, and instead of returning it for some other poor sap to experience my misery, I trashed it barely 10 minutes after purchasing it.

[tomeppy]

The worst headphones that I ever used was a pair of Sony earbuds that I picked up in an airport gift shop. This was because I lost my almost equally bad iPod earbuds while getting off of a plane in Chicago.

[ale_ers]

I once bought a pair of Sony buds that have kind of a plastic hook to go over your ear. I bought them to run with, thinking the hook would keep them attached.

I have no idea how they sound because they fell out with such frequency that I just ran with them bouncing from my neck. They are still in my desk drawer.

[DesertLarry]

The worst headphones I purchased were sony earbuds that would shock me at random intervals. I keep them in my desk to be used as a strangling cord in case I meet any sony execs.

[manywhere]

The worst sounding headphone I have ever bought is/was a Philips SBC HP200 "HiFi" headphones on sale.

Whatever the source is, you need to ramp the volume up high, and depending on the device, sometimes to the max, to get to hear anything! That's not all, the sound is unequal, midtones are washed out, low tones are low in volume, and high tones seem to make it through just fine.

When watching movies, the lower frequencies sometimes cause an alias frequency to form and an additional vibration becomes evident in the headphones which lessens the enjoyment of the movie in question. :mad: It has got two cables (left and right, really old skool) from both speakers, so that I can get entangeled well enough and the cable is unneccesarily long (think jumprope long).

The good thing with this headphone is that they are comfy to wear. That's just about it with the pros of that pair of headphones. :)

[MarxMarvelous]

Gotta be the ones that came with the T-Mobile SDA (HTC Tornado). They don't stay in the ear and sound terrible. Their only upside was that they actually worked with the 2.5mm jack in the phone.

[NPrtmn4evr]

The worst headphones that I bought were those cheap headphones you buy on a long flight these days just so you can watch a lame movie that you would never have watched otherwise. They say you can take the headphones with you after the flight and use them again. Well I think they must have some sort of self-destruct feature as they don't work much past 2 days.

Anyways, here's to hoping I win these. I've been looking for a nice pair of headphones, and these might just do the trick. ;)

[Ricardo Dawkins]

Maxell earphoneas and headphones. Hands down !!

These buds and cans are crap even with my absolutely bad and deaf ears. Yeah, I'm deaf and know what is crappy.

Tested this with a iriver H320 since my Zune haven't arrived to Colon City here in Central America, Panama.

[robshobs]

I bought a nice pair of Sanyo buds for use at home, about $20. Not wanting to lose them when I travel, I bought a cheap no-name brand for two bucks to throw in my travel bag. The two dollar set was better than the others.

Rob

[SohCahToa]

When I was like ten, I bought a five dollar pair of headphones somewhere (kmart I think), and the sounded like terrible. First, even with the volume maxed you could barely hear them, and what you could hear sounded like poo. That was when I learned that cheap headphones just aren't worth it.

[ManMythLegend]

Dang, easily the worst pair ever happen to be the first pair I bought on my own and they were from the dollar store. No brand, just dollar store. They had a little red and blue pieces on them so you could know the left from the right and they had a little wind-able plastic case. I loved them so much case i bought them on my own; BUT THEY SUCKED BALLS!!!

Possibly the reason that i like to spend money on my headphones know, but i'm stuck with the free zune ones till money gets right.

[yoda16]

The ones that came with my cingular 8125 are pretty bad.

[gasusan2006]

The worst pair of headphones I got came with an old am/fm radio about 20 years ago. Perhaps it wasn't the headphones....but that I was using them in church instead of listening to the sermon..... :)
Susan

[Adam Krebs]

After getting my Sennheiser CX 300's stolen, I knew that, above all, I wanted ones exactly like that. I thought I was going to be thrifty by purchasing a pair through eBay (yeah, I know, but I was still kinda broke from the real pair). They arrived in a vacuum pouch, and reeked of awfulness. Turns out I was right; the things not only sounded terrible, but fell apart after three uses. I vow to never trust obviously fake Chinese knockoffs again!

[Jason Dunn]

Ok, contest over, drawing the name now...(it sure is easy with only one prize).

The winner is yoda16 (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/member.php?u=493)!

[NPrtmn4evr]

Congratulations yoda16!

Maybe one day I'll win a contest... :cool:

[cr8tv*sYnrGy]

was this a random drawing or the winner chosen on the content of their submission? :confused: really not being a sore loser but i read some stories that were far more interesting, humorous, and worthy of selection.

[Jason Dunn]

was this a random drawing or the winner chosen on the content of their submission?

From my original post:

"I'll approve all the posts before I do the random drawing."

It was completely random. ;)

[ale_ers]

Congrats, I think I am going to pick up some of these for myself soon. By the way, I noticed that these have the metal case. The Super fi 3's have come with a leather case and the 5's were the only one with metal...so bonus.