Pushing the remit to include gadgety accessories? I don’t see why not!

I found out about Urbanears ‘Plattan’ Headphones last year, via a fab site called The Hairpin, a New York-based, female-oriented, blog-of-excellence. I hit the google, found the UK-based public relations company, and after some to-ing and fro-ing {mostly about colour} I had these in my hot little hands.

Now, I am an ear bud sort of person. They are easy to wind up and stick in a pocket, they are lightweight, and they sound perfectly great. I’ve tried & tested my fair share, from Philips to Sony Ericsson to Denon, and they all had their plusses and minuses. Most importantly, they all had control panels with which I could answer phone calls, skip songs, and rewind when I wanted to hear the same song over and over. You’d be surprised that there are still ‘buds out there that don’t have control panels, but it is true.

As much as I wanted to test these, I wasn’t all that sure that I actually wanted to have to use them. The band! My hair! The band and sunglasses! The band and earrings? Dubiousness reigned.

I legged it to the post office to collect them, and didn’t make it two streets before I was eagerly prying the box open to get a look at their Raspberry fabulousness. Since I had them out, sure, it couldn’t have been a better time than then to plug them in. It’s not like I walked around my house wearing listening devices attached to music/communications providers.

I plugged, and played, and said, aloud, ‘Ooh!’

Remember bass? I had forgotten about bass. I know how flat music is these days, because of the digital sandwiching thing, but I didn’t realise that all of those ‘buds that I had tried were woefully lacking in bass.

Bass is pretty damn awesome. Bass makes you want to bop your head to the beat, even you are walking through a homey, residential section in Fairview; even with only the outdoor cats to catch one doing this, it feels a bit ridic, but ultimately, one doesn’t care, and the hell with those judgey cats, because of bass.

They are comfortable, and colourful {OMG: the colours!} They fold up so that the cups end up flush against the inside of the band, and you can wind the tangle-free cord around those clippy bits on the outside of the band, and lash them into your bag without worry. And! There’s a thing called a ZoundPlug, which is a jack below the right cup, which means someone else can plug into you playlist. Can’t imagine anything better for a long train journey with a pal, unless you are me and your taste in music is eclectic, which is a fancy code word for desperately embarrassing.

Not matter what your guilty pleasures are, the music sounds amazing. But the talking-on-the-phone bit? Slightly weird. With ‘buds, you get enough outside noise so you can hear your voice in the world. These do a mighty job of minimising outside noise, but they also made me feel like I didn’t know if I was talking really loudly because I couldn’t hear myself. The control panel is just ‘okay’, with only the one button to turn on the tunes, turn them off, double click to FF and treble click to rewind.

And the band aspect? Eh. Pesky whilst wearing shades, slightly annoying to have to slip them on and off when doing errands and entering into transactions, and even if I wanted to wear earrings, I wouldn’t be arsed: far too many things on and around my head to be handled with aplomb.

All in all, though: BASS. The sound that these give out is super impressive for the price, and seriously, the colours. I had taken great care in choosing Raspberry, but the Mocca! Indigo! Well, I may go for one or the other, since I had to give these back.*

If you like pretty things that do justice to your tunes, well, here you are!

£50/€66**/$60

* {…}
**At Urban Outfitters, but €59 as per harveynorman.ie, or €60 on raidiar.ie. Whatevs…