Altec Lansing iM716 Earphones

Reviews: Multimedia

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Mark Korff
Kurtis
Altec Lansing
Apr. 6, 2006

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Testing

To get the most out of listening to the iM716s the first thing you need to do is properly insert them into your ears. As I mentioned earlier, the sound quality is dependent on how well the eartips seal in the ear canal. The manual instructs the user to gently pull the ear up and backwards, thus opening the ear canal, and allowing for the best possible seal. I followed this method and after a few attempts it became second nature and I had a good seal every time. The iM716s can produce ear fatigue if you wear them for hours at a time, but I found the discomfort to be negligible when compared to supra-aural headphones for example.

Listening to the iM716s for the first time was quite enjoyable once I got over the initial shock of how quiet they were. I mean that in two ways. First, these earphones are hungry little power eaters. When listening to music on my computer, I had to really crank up the volume to achieve the same perceivable level as with my other headphones. When listening to music on my MobiBlu mp3 player, I could max out the volume on both the player and the in-line control and still not have problems listening to certain songs for the duration. Secondly, these headphones do block out quite a lot of background noise. I had no way of accurately testing exactly how much, but I can tell you that in all but the noisiest settings, the iM716s will allow you to escape to whatever you choose to listen to.

Music

For music listening I sampled various songs including The Darkness - Hazel Eyes, Bomfunk MC's - Super Electric (Fu-Tourist Remix), U2 - Miracle Drug, and Tupac - Baby Don't Cry. At first I listened to the songs with the in-line selector set to the "HD" setting which gives a flat response and would appeal more to the audiophile purists among us. The HD setting is very clear throughout the acoustic range, while still producing noticeable bass effects that aren't overbearing. Switching over to the "Bass" setting not only enhances the low frequency notes as expected, but increases the volume overall as well. My personal preference was to listen in the "Bass" setting since it added more punch to the low end, and a little more character to the music overall, while still maintaining good accuracy in all ranges.

Gaming

I'm afraid my addiction to World of Warcraft doesn't leave all that much time for other games lately, but thankfully there are a lot of great things to hear in WoW and the iM716s made them all sound extremely clear and pleasant. I was able to tear myself away from WoW long enough to get in some Counter-Strike action, and I was impressed with the clarity and isolation I experienced in that game as well. Gunshots and footsteps were very easy to identify even at long distances due to the excellent reduction in background noise that the iM716s provide. Precisely locating the source of some sounds was a slight issue however. I believe the reason for this was because these earphones are positioned deep in the ear canal thus making it feel as if sound is playing directly inside your head. Normally sounds get to bounce off the contours of the ear, which gives our brains cues as to where exactly a sound source is located. Of course this is impossible for the iM716s to replicate, but in their defense, the lack of background noise helps to compensate for this inevitable (albeit minor) shortcoming.

Movies

I watched several action intensive scenes from "Spider-Man 2" and "Enemy At The Gates" with the iM716s. All the observations from gaming and music tests held true with these DVDs as well. I had to max out my volume in Windows and in Power DVD in order to achieve a reasonable listening level however. If you watch a lot of DVDs on your PC you might want to consider investing in a decent headphone amp if you were to buy the iM716s.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions
Page 3: Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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4 User Comments

1 - Posted by handrail on April 7, 2006 - 7:47 am

great review mark, welcome to TTL.

I can't believe people are suing Apple for earbuds that are too loud! come on. ever since that damn coffee lady and the mcdonalds suit, this country has gone downhill. methinks i smell a newsletter rant topic....

brad.

2 - Posted by Nick on April 10, 2006 - 6:41 pm

Yah, smokers sue the cigarette companies too. Not that I like the cigarette companies, but take some responsibility for yer own dam actions! Next up, cracked out Whitney Houston sues the Colombian drug cartels for her addiction...

3 - Posted by Mark on April 11, 2006 - 11:57 am

Thanks Brad, I'm glad to be aboard.

I agree, most suits like this are really bogus. The one thing I can partly understand with this one though is that concerned parents might be more willing to allow their kids to listen to iPods if they knew they couldn't turn the volume up too loud and damage their hearing. However, Apple has already released a software patch that allows parents to limit the volume and set a password so that the max volume cannot be altered. Of course even if Apple didn't supply such an assurance, parents ultimately have the power to regulate whether or not their children are allowed to have an iPod in the first place if they're that worried about it.

4 - Posted by Rich on April 11, 2006 - 2:23 pm

Aren't young kids supposed to be loud and obnoxious???

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