Monster Turbines

Summary

The Monster Turbines are a set of in-ears from the popular cabling company. The Turbines feature an interesting design, which is hard to pull off on such a small piece of plastic. We thought that the Turbines were comfortable, but they tended to come loose very easily. Also, since there isn’t a cord guard at the plug, if you’re planning to use the Turbines with a media player in your pocket, you should tape up the end of the end of the plug to stave off premature wear and tear.

Frequency Response (6.59)

The Turbines did well here for the most part. They emphasize bass like crazy, and therefore might sound a bit boomy to some. Fortunately, they reel it back a bit and fall within the limits until just before the 10kHz mark. At this point the right channel takes a 10dB drop for a short stretch. This means that any instrument using this frequency will likely sound a bit dull, more so in the right ear than the left. After the scoring limit ends, the graph generally trends downwards, meaning the brilliance of some instruments might be a bit understated.

Other than the downward spike near 10kHz, the Turbines did well on this test. Fans of booming bass should pay particular attention to these things.

The Turbines had the best frequency response out of all our comparison headphones. Typically in-ears don’t do well on this test compared to full-size headphones. There are many reasons why this is the case, including tiny drivers and being particularly finicky with regards to positioning – all we know is there’s a trend towards poor frequency response. The Turbines prove to be an exception to the rule, with a score that’s better than most on-ear or over-ear headphones. The only comparison headphones below that came close to the Turbines were the MM 50 iPs, which are currently our highest rated in-ear headphones.

Headphones	Score	Frequency Response
Monster Turbines	6.59
Sennheiser CX 95	4.72
Shure SE420	4.02
V-MODA Vibe Duo	4.31
Denon AH-C351	2.8

Distortion (4.46)

The Turbines had okay distortion control. Throughout, the levels of distortion never rose far above 1%, and mainly stayed below 0.5%. If you listen to a lot of vocals, you might notice something a bit funny on a track you know particularly well. Differences would also be apparent if you switched between these headphones and headphones with lower distortion. The average consumer might not notice the difference, but chances are, if you’re actually reading this section, you aren’t the average consumer.

Unlike frequency response, there’s no real trend towards high or low levels of distortion on in-ear headphones. As you can see from the chart below, the range is quite large.

In a group of its peers, the Turbines fall on the below average side, and not just because the two Sennheiser in-ears received outstanding scores. The current average score for this section is a bit over 5, so while the Turbines didn’t perform horribly, they could do with some improvement.

Headphones	Score	Distortion
Monster Turbines	4.46
Sennheiser CX 95	11.1
Shure SE420	3.82
V-MODA Vibe Duo	1.99
Denon AH-C351	5.52

Tracking (7.35)

The Turbines didn’t do a bad job here. The right channel seems to be slightly louder than the left during the low and middle frequencies, with the left channel growing louder a little before the 1000Hz mark. These skews towards the left and right channels are slight, however, staying within a 4dB range. The sudden hump just after 100Hz is the sharpest incline and decline up until 10kHz, and it’s not a particularly big swing.

Towards the 10kHz mark the graph goes a bit funny, but that’s normal and not particularly accurate. Really, the most significant bump here is after 100Hz. While it moseys a little afterwards, the changes aren’t particularly sudden or stark.

The Turbines’ peers had slightly better tracking on average. Note how flat their lines are in comparison. The only one with a similar jump is the AH-C351s, but it was a bit smaller. Despite only beating the V-MODAs on the list of headphones below, the average score for this section is a bit under 7, so the Turbines are still slightly over average. Unless you’re particular about your headphones, the Turbines’ tracking won’t bother you.

Headphones	Score	Tracking
Monster Turbines	7.35
Sennheiser CX 95	9.52
Shure SE420	10.1
V-MODA Vibe Duo	5.81
Denon AH-C351	8.26

Maximum Usable Volume (9.73)

The Turbines were capable of outputting 118.87 decibels, which is a good amount. We award max points for 120dB: anything over that is downright harmful, regardless of how distortion-free it is. This is actually a bit quieter than many in-ear headphones, which typically output over 120dB, but a difference of one decibel and change isn’t a particularly large gap.

Isolation (6.72)

The Turbines do an ok job of isolating for a pair of in-ears. Like all other in-ears, they do a great job above 1kHz and a significantly less great job below it.

In-ear headphones, which are essentially ear plugs, have a tendency to isolate better than all other headphones, including those with active noise cancellation. This being said, active noise cancelling headphones excel at blocking out low-end noise. Active cancellers also block out far less middle or high frequency noise and block out less noise overall.

In-ears have the potential to block out a lot more noise than the Turbines did, but they still didn’t compare badly to their peers. The only headphones that blocked out significantly more noise were the SE420s and their foam ear buds (if the sleeve looks like an actual ear plug, chances are it’ll perform like an actual ear plug). The Turbines ended up coming out on the top half of the comparison headphones below, but just barely. Compared to all headphones, the Turbines are way above average, but compared to other in-ears, they had solidly average isolation.

Headphones	Score	Isolation
Monster Turbines	6.72
Sennheiser CX 95	5.97
Shure SE420	10.12
V-MODA Vibe Duo	7.79
Denon AH-C351	5.43

Leakage (7.67)

The Turbines performed well enough here, although they were below average for a set of in-ears. Typically in-ears score closer to our max score of 10. Chances are the Turbines would be fine to listen to at a moderate level in just about any public setting, although if you’re in a silent library those around you7 might hear a whisper of your music. If you listen at a louder level, you’ll only annoy everyone further.