A large chunk of my music collection has turned into horse manure. It is sad but true, and the culprit is the Monster® Turbine™ Pro Gold Audiophile In-Ear Speakers™. It is as the name suggests not a set of earphones or headphones but rather a set of in ear speakers. That is the feeling I get, and the depth I hear in the music. What happened when I plugged the Turbine into my ears was that my music got lifted to a completely new level.
My music collection and me have had a rollercoaster ride since I started testing headsets and earphones. Some gave me clarity; others gave me depth and some bumped up the base to eleven on the scale. None has managed to do what the Turbine does. It makes my head into a massive boom box, and I love it. The details I can hear in the music expand the experience. What it sadly meant is that overproduced music sounds flat and uninspiring. Metal, rock, pop, hip-hop made for the charts and tweaked in absurdum by producers is as interesting as watching water boil. Using the Turbine I have ventured back into noise music ranging from free form Japanoise to harsh English power electronics. Other out there genres sporting quite poor production also entered my ears through the Turbine. Crust punk that I have had a hard time listening to due to bad production suddenly makes sense, and I can hear lyrics. Classical music recorded on vinyl is a blast to experience. Every hiss, and jump of the needle sends chills of pleasure down my spine. With these earphones I understand why there is a word like Audiophile. And to some extent I want to be one of them. On the other hand I have enjoyed my Metallica, my AC/DC and even my Britney Spears.
The Turbine is sturdy, and is quite heavy despite the sleek look. Once inserted into the ears they feel light, and as a part of my body. The Turbine has got one major flaw though, and it is the eartips. It ships with the same cheap flimsy eartips as the Beats by Dr Dre Tour. I find it hard to get a proper seal with any but the smallest of the eartips. This is only achieved by shoving the Turbine deep into my ear canals. I think that an expensive quality product like the Turbine™ Pro Gold could ship with better eartips. As it is now it feels like an afterthought. Like if the sound engineers at Monster Cable suddenly realized that the Turbine should go in the ear as well as sound great. It is easy to use any of the standard eartips with the design of these earphones, and I tried using the dual layered eartips from Atomic Floyd with great results. Using the largest of the Atomic Floyd eartips I still managed to create a proper seal, and the Turbine sounded even better.
Getting the seal in the ear canal is key to getting proper noise isolation. It can be done, and is quite effective using the Turbine eartips. It is not as easy as when I used other manufacturers eartips with the Turbine. Both eartips from Atomic Floyd and Etymotic worked better at creating a soundproof seal. If you can afford the monster Monster Cable Turbine™ Pro Gold In-Ear Speakers you can probably afford getting proper eartips from somewhere else as well.
The cord is brilliant with no tendency to tangle, and adds no noise at all. It is quite short at only 1.2 meters, and is therefore only really suitable for using with a portable device such as the iPhone or iPod Touch. For me it is hard to use with the iMac as the cord interferes with my keyboard writing this very article. There is no background noise transmitted from the computer at all.
The angled gold connector extends somewhat before the 90-degree angle. This makes it usable even if you have a bulky case for your device. The Turbine also comes with a cable slider that helps the cord from tangling, and you can fasten the cord under your chin when for example running. A strong cable clip is also provided. The Turbine can easily be used when exercising.
The earphones ships with two small cool looking cases. The smaller one for the earphones, and the buttoned one for the extra eartips and 6.3 mm stereo adapter.
The Turbine has got two siblings, and could be considered the golden middle road. The Monster® Turbine™ Pro Copper Professional In-Ear Speakers™ is $100 more expensive, and little brother Monster® Turbine™ High Performance In-Ear Speakers™ lists at $179.95. To me each of these In-Ear Speakers™ seem capable of delivering sound beyond that of the ordinary earphones segment. My contact at the Swedish distributor for Monster Cable called the $179.95 one a budget model. Makes you think, doesn’t it.
Summary
Pros
Audiophile sound quality.
Great representation across the spectra, and deep bass.
Good noise isolation.
Sturdy and durable construction.
Great zero noise cord that is tangle free.
Makes you feel like a million bucks.
A lot of music gets interesting to explore deeper.
Cons
The flimsy eartips.
The price is not for everyone.
A lot of music is made obsolete.
The Monster® Turbine™ Pro Gold Audiophile In-Ear Speakers™gives you exactly what you pay for: brilliant sound. I have not encountered anything like it before; on the other hand these are the first dedicated music earphones at $299.95. If you want audiophile sound on the go, and have the cash to even consider yourself an audiophile definitely consider the Turbine™ Pro Gold In-Ear Speakers™. I will probably go back to my life in ignorance so I can still bang my head to some “Enter Sandman” and sing along to “Run to the hills”. If only the Turbine™ had a microphone I would have stayed enlightened forever.
Final Rating
Monster® Turbine™ Pro Gold Audiophile In-Ear Speakers™ at Monster Cable listprice $299.95
