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

[Jason Dunn]

Here's a contest for regular Zune Thoughts readers: I've got a pair of black Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio 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 reviewed last year, and although the bundled headphones with the Zune are surprisingly decent, these blow them away.

To win this pair of headphones here's all you have to do: post a message telling me about the worst sounding headphones 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!

UPDATE: I closed the contest today at 5:52 pm my local time. The winner is yoda16. 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 Amazon.com affiliate store (your purchases help support Zune Thoughts).

[Jason Dunn]

Here's a contest for regular Zune Thoughts readers: I've got a pair of black Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio 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 reviewed last year, and although the bundled headphones with the Zune are surprisingly decent, these blow them away.

To win this pair of headphones here's all you have to do: post a message telling me about the worst sounding headphones 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!

UPDATE: I closed the contest today at 5:52 pm my local time. The winner is yoda16. 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 Amazon.com affiliate store (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.

[agalvan]

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.