We had a pretty good experience with the MEElectronics M9P in-ear headphones. After a long hiatus we have got another interesting headphone from MEElectronics i.e. the SP51 in-ear headphone.
We have seen a lot of earphones but this one promises to be different from all of them. Well to start of things and unravel the SP51, let’s take a look at what’s in the box.
In the box:
- A clamshell zipper case
- Three pairs of silicon eartips (Medium, large and a bi-flange…Oops! The fourth one is on the earphones and it’s a smaller one)
- Three pairs of tuning ports
- And finally the earphones which come with dark transparent 130 cm cable, quite similar to the M9.
Design and Features:
Now let’s talk about the earphones. The SP51 has in-ear monitors. (I’d actually prefer the earbuds, somehow the in-ear don’t fit my ears conveniently). The earphone is sufficiently 130 cm long and comes with a 3.5mm gold plated (helps prevent corrosion better than nickel ones) L-shaped jack plug(I find these convenient to keep in the pockets, for the straight jacks bend and get spoiled easily in pockets).
Okay time for some specs on the SP51 for the geeky audiophiles:
- Driver: 10.0 mm dynamic drivers
- Frequency Response: 15Hz – 20KHz
- Sensitivity: 100 dB
- Impedance: 16 ohms
We tested the SP51 earphones on an iPhone 4 and a Nokia E7.
Performance:
Well, lets understand what the three tuning ports are for;
- Silver one is the neutral bass mode
- Metallic is for enhanced bass
- And finally the Black ones are for extreme bass
We started off with the silver one and before I speak anything about the bass I must admit that the SP51 is considerably loud and also the in-ear headphones with the bi-flange help block outside noises hence eliminating the need to tune up the volume to ear damaging high levels.
Now coming back to the bass with the silver port; the music was decent enough and had sufficient bass for soft songs, though the sounds were not detailed but clear and loud enough.
With the metallic ports on the bass became more distinct’ ideal for listening to pop or hip-hop songs and it works well beyond 75% volume and the sound doesn’t distort as well.
Putting on the Black ports actually takes the sound quality to ‘Extreme bass’ level and your ears will go all boom boom. This one is essentially for audiophiles who love bass. What I noticed was that the quality of the sound faded with the black port and it distorted as well beyond 75% volume with the vocals getting shrilly in the ears.
Personally speaking I would avoid the extreme bass option on this and would preferably be using the metallic port / enhanced bass most of the time as it gives you good bass without losing much detail as well.
Though the vocals were clear I somehow felt that the instruments sounded dull and were not crisp.
Conclusion:
First I would like to lay down some pluses and minuses;
Pluses:
- Volume doesn’t distort even at volumes beyond 75% (with the exception of extreme bass)
- The music doesn’t overflow out of the earphones (Very important feature for me)
- The bass settings work perfectly with the change of ports as mentioned
- Comes in a very handy little portable package to carry around
- 1 year warranty
Minuses:
- Removing and changing ports while on the move is highly inconvenient for me
- I found the sound losing its detailing as the bass is increased by changing ports
- Sounds are not very natural with the enhanced and extreme ports
The SP51 is priced at $60 (Rs. 2675), slightly on the expensive side. For the purists, the lack of details in the instrumentation will not impress them and is not recommended. But they are a very good deal for audiophiles with love for bass and loud music and is full value for their money.
