Monster Turbines Headphones Review - Tour & Design

Note the slits cut into the back of the
Turbines. These are simply for aesthetics.

Beyond that, the ear buds have a metallic finish and the nozzles are topped with a metal mesh.

This is what the Turbines look like without their sleeves
on. The short, fat nozzles will likely not break easily.

The two ear buds merge at a robust neck split.

The neck split itself is robust, but the lack
of cord guards is a durability issue.

After the neck split, the Turbines finish off at a standard 1/8-inch plug.

The plug is thin, which should accommodate recessed jacks.

This is what the headphones look like on HATS, from the side and front views.
 

In the Box
The Turbines come with a pouch, two sizes of triple-flanged sleeves, and three sizes of soft plastic sleeves.

This is about standard for a pair of $150 headphones.

Durability (4.60)
The Monster Turbines have one main seem robust, except for one area: cord guards. Cord guards are the semi-rigid bits of rubber that are located at points where the cable runs into a hard plastic surface. The cord guards serve to stop the cable from bending too sharply at that hard edge, which exacerbates wear and tear. Note that the Turbines only have cord guards after their ear buds, but don't have any at the neck split or plug.

The lack of a cord guard at the plug is especially dangerous, since it'll stick straight out of your device. As we saw on the MM 50 iPs, this could cause issues if you're connecting to a media player in your pocket. Whenever the media player moves around, the top of the plug will be rubbing against the sides of your pocket, pulling on the cable. Taking the media player out of your pocket will also pull at this junction, since you likely have some cord tucked into your pocket that will catch on the fabric and create resistence. Bad cord guards are the #1 killer of in-ear headphones.

Other areas of the Turbines seem durable. The ear buds are solid, the nozzles are thick and stout (unlikely to snap off), and the cable is about as thick as you'll see on a set of in-ears.


Aesthetics (7.00)
The Turbines are a set of nice-looking in-ears. The "turbine" design is attractive, as is the glossy black plastic towards each ear buds' back end. In-ears don't have a lot of surface area to design for, but Monster has done a good job with what was available.