Apple iPhone 3G S Headphones

Isolation (0.23)

Yowza. This result isn’t really unexpected, but it’s still a pretty dismal sight. If you’re looking for isolation, you should maybe check out headphones that either cover your ears or fit inside them. These just kinda chill on the outside.

The only way you’re going to block out external noise with these things is by brute force: pumping the volume up to ridiculous levels.

Comparisons

See how the Apple iPhone 3G S Headphones compares:

Apple In-ear Headphones with Remote & Mic Compare

Sennheiser MM50 iP Compare

Denon AH-C351 Compare

Shure SE115 Compare

Click here for more information on our isolation test.

Leakage (7.67)

Although the headphones did well here, this test is conducted in a silent room with moderate playback. If you’re wearing these things on a bus or train, you’re going to have to increase the volume like crazy in order to overpower it. If you do this, the headphones will leak.

If you’ve ever heard someone in the subway listening to their music and thought, ‘Jeepers, that youth is likely harming his hearing with such loud playback!’ keep this in mind. Chances are that chap doesn’t notice, and is just trying to drown out the ambient squeals.

Of course, this leads to potentially embarrassing situations. Say the one Gloria Estefan song in your playlist comes on. Now, since you’re on a bus or train, the vehicle’s locomotion is creating so much racket that it’s drowning out Gloria’s smooth alto voice. So you turn up the volume. Now everyone around you thinks you’re such a devoted Este-fan that you are actually trying to use sheer decibel force to shake your body when you do that conga, at the risk of deafening yourself. For most people, this will be a suboptimal outcome.

Click here for more information on our leakage test.

Maximum Usable Volume (8.29)

The iPhone 3G S headphones were capable of outputting 112.82dB before they hit a bad overall distortion level. This might seem like a bit of an inconsistency given our distortion test result, but we’re looking at overall distortion in this instance, and the headphones were pretty distortion free after 1kHz. It looks like they will hold up pretty well.

While we were testing particularly loud sounds, the headphones started rattling around. To use an accurate, but not particularly witty simile, it sounded like someone shaking a ball bearing around in a plastic cup. We would not recommend playing back music at a loud volume if you wish to protect your $0 investment.