I cannot believe it has taken me this long to write a review of the Klipsch Image One headphones. It was last November that I first posted about these over ear headphones, the first on-ear headphones made by Klipsch. And yes, one of these days, I will write a review that doesn’t take an hour to read. Brevity is not my strength.
I’ve decided to edit the introduction to this review with a summary of my thoughts. The full review is posted below, but if you’re in a rush, digest the following.
These headphones sound great. Their sound quality and output with even low-powered sources is impressive. From the moment you pick up the box, you know these headphones are made for the discerning Apple product lover. Klipsch’s attention to detail is evident from the start with high quality packaging, premium leather-lined memory-foam ear cups and superb remote control and microphone optimized for use with iDevices.
You won’t find the transparency expected of high-end headphones like the Sennheiser HD600 or Grado 325i, but who expected that at this price? That being said, you won’t be disappointed. Punchy bass that isn’t overly-boosted that cleanly transitions to midrange and treble. The relative flatness (see full review) from these headphones allows you to listen to them for hours without fatigue.
The headphones that you’ll see sitting next to these at an Apple Store:
- Monster Cable Beats by Dre – $300
- Monster Cable Beats by Dre Solo – $200
- Skullcandy Roc Nation Aviator – $150
- V-MODA Crossfade LP – $200
The headphones that you’ll see sitting next to these at an Apple Store that are better:
- N/A
Expect great audio quality, comfort fit and best-in-class remote control all for under $150 with the Klipsch Image One headphones, beating out headphones twice as expensive.
| Physical | Sound |
| Comfort: 10/10 | Bass: 9/10 |
| Build: 8/10 | Mids: 8/10 |
| Remote: 10/10 | Treble: 9/10 |
| Mic: 8/10 | Soundstage: 8/10 |
| Overall: 9.0 | Overall: 8.5 |
If you want to know more, and in deadly detail, continue reading. Oh and there is a bonus Monster Cable Beats by Dr. Dre rant, no purchase necessary!
Let’s go through each of these one by one.
- Yes, after months of thinking about it, the packaging is still worth of an Apple product. (This didn’t really require a month of thought)
- The carrying case might not be exactly perfect. While it is sturdy, well made and looks great, check out the cables coming out of the bottom of the headphones. The tight turn they have to make to fit inside of the case can cause unnecessary stress on the cables. The stress relief rubber sleeves (the piece of rubber around the first 1/4″ of wire coming out of the bottom of the headphones) has already torn from this stress. Every time you close the case, the zipper hits these. A simple case modification would solve this. Still, a solid case with that one caveat.
- I can wear these headphones for hours. They just disappear, almost as good as the high end Sennheiser HD600 headphones I have. The soft cushions around the ear cups do a great job of isolating a bit of the noise around you without heating up your ears so much.
- They do feel light and you might think they are cheaply design based on this alone but you would be wrong. The swinging ear-cups are perfectly engineered. They swing our from your ears for storage which means when they are on your head, the are naturally encouraged to swing close on your ears for a nice seal.
- Yep, they still sound great. Robust sound, much more like the Klipsch S4i, Koss Porta Pro or a full-size Sennheiser headphone than a Grado so if you’re looking for the really light sound of the Grado’s, hit up the SR80 instead. Otherwise, these are probably right up your alley.
- You can’t expect an on-ear headphone to compete with an in-ear headphone for sound isolation. That being said, on the 20,000+ miles of flights I’ve traveled since getting these headphones, I have zero complaints. They blocked out the neighboring crying babies and engine roar just fine, especially when listening to music.
- Unlike most Klipsch headphones which are of the in-ear variety and thus need tiny cables to be as small as possible, the Image One headphones have thick, well insulated and robust cables. These is plenty of air space around the wire and the insulation to keep them flexible, tangle free and less prone to wear.
- I have had an under-reported issue with the Klipsch remotes on my S4i and X10i headphones. Warranty service fixed the problem of the microphone picking up too much background noise on those. However, the Image One headphones have had no problems like that. The larger remote control makes controlling my iDevices even easier. The only problem I have with the remote control/mic is how far down it is. The microphone is much closer to your mouth on their other headphones. I find I have to lift it up to have a conversation over the phone.
- Better than when I first got them where I thought they were a little light on the bass for my taste. Now, I don’t feel that at all.
- Yep! See #5
In the above photo you get a close look at the ear cups. I wanted to use this to point out a few things.
Each side is marked L or R for left or right ear. Sounds like a simple thing but there are a lot of headphones that don’t do this, are aren’t clear about it. Put these on the wrong way and you will immediately notice a difference in comfort and sound.
The fabric covering is super soft, pliable and a bit stretchy. Some headphone makers put foam material here. That’s ok for headphones like the Koss Porta Pro which site on your ears but for supra-aural (headphones that sit around your ear) this is normally to compensate for poor driver design. The foam softens the tinny sound of an undersized or unbalanced driver. Klipsch, on the other hand, uses this great fabric which doesn’t impede the sound coming from the drivers at all. It’s pliability and loose stitching prevents any drop in bass performance while still protecting the drivers and not compromising high frequency reproduction.
The ear cups feature real leather wrapping high-density memory foam. It is obvious right away that this isn’t the same density as the memory foam you are probably used to. If you were to put a Tempur-Pedic style memory foam, your ears would heat up and it would take a much tighter grip on your head to get a good seal. It would be an amazing seal but your ears would be sweating!
A combination of lighter density foam and thin leather keeps the heat to a minimum, keeps the grip on your head equally as light and provides a decent enough seal. As I write this, in a coffee shop, the only things I really hear at the blender and a low rumble of voices. The leather continues as a trim around the ear cups and on the outside edges. The top of the headband also has padded leather for a comfortable first for extended listening period and unlike some headphones, there is no hair pulling! I’m looking at you Porta Pro.
These are some really classy looking headphones.
There really isn’t anything I haven’t listened to on these headphones. Movies, TV shows, music of the classical, hip hop, blues, pop and instrumental varieties all shine. Most headphones in the class of the Klipsch Image One advertise their bass qualities, as if they are a feature when it’s really more of a defect. Dr. Dre, listen up.
Just because you have a larger-sized headphone driver and a bigger price tag, doesn’t mean you need to use them to blast booming bass. I find it almost hilarious how Dr. Dre’s headphones are advertised as headphones that recreate the sound heard in the studio. They do the opposite. Studio monitors are incredibly expensive speakers and for good reason. It takes a lot of work to create a balanced driver and amplifier.
I will point you to this great description from the Wikipedia, emphases are mine:
Studio monitors, also called reference monitors, are loudspeakers specifically designed for audio production applications such as recording, film, television and radio studios where accurate audio reproduction is crucial.
Among audio engineers, the term monitor usually implies that the speaker is designed to produce relatively flat (linear) phase and frequency responses. In other words, it exhibits minimal emphasis or de-emphasis of particular frequencies and the loudspeaker gives an accurate reproduction of the tonal qualities of the source audio (“uncolored” or “transparent” are synonyms), and there will be no relative phase shift of particular frequencies meaning no distortion in sound stage perspective for stereo recordings.
Considering this is what Monster Cable and Dr. Dre say their headphones are built to emulate, studio monitors, I can say with confidence that they have failed. Their sound is more colored than a first grader’s paint-by-numbers book.
Let’s compare what Monster Cable claims their headphones to be compared to how they really perform. Thanks to Headphone.com for the data, which I recompiled into a graph.
Beyerdynamic headphones are known for their balance audio performance which is why I use them in this example. If you’ve never read a graph like this, let me help you. Actually, let me let Headphone.com help you.
How to interpret the line: A “natural sounding” headphone should be slightly higher in the bass (about 3 or 4 dB) between 40Hz and 500Hz. This compensates for the fact that headphones don’t give you the physical punch or ‘impact’ that the sound waves from a room speaker have; so a slight compensation for increased bass response is needed for natural sound.
Headphones also need to be rolled-off in the highs to compensate for the drivers being so close to the ear; a gently sloping flat line from 1kHz to about 8-10dB down at 20kHz is about right. You’ll notice all headphone measurements have a lot of jagged ups & downs (peaks & valleys) in the high frequencies; this is normal and mostly due to reflection cancellations in the folds and ridges in the outer part of the ear. Ideally however, the ups and downs of the frequency response should be fairly small and average out to a flat line. Large peaks or valleys over 3kHz in width usually indicate poor headphone response, and should be viewed as a coloring of the sound. Some small dips in the highs may actually be desirable and should exist in the 2kHz to 8kHz region.
I don’t have a graph for the Klipsch Image One’s performance but you can expect something similar to the Klipsch Image S4i Performance.
There is an increase in bass performance with the Klipsch, input vs output, but it’s a pretty stable line as opposed to the 40 dB change you get with the Monster Beats by Dre headphones. Generally speaking, every 3 dB of volume increased is twice the measured sound pressure, every 10 dB of volume increased is what your ear hears as twice as loud. Between 10 and 100 Hz the Beats have doubled in volume four times while the Klipsch have decreased in volume by less than a few decibels.
Now do you see why the sound from a Monster Beats headphone sucks?
Klispch’s headphones do a good job of reproducing audio across a great range of frequencies and volumes. They do not do a great job of changing what the engineers who produced the album and the artists who performed their art originally intended for their product to sound like.
I bring up the Dr. Dre headphones in this review of the Klipsch Image One headphones because it is probably the number one thing asked of me on Twitter and in person. Why would I get the Klipsch over the Beats by Dre? My response is almost always, “Why would you ever want the Beats by Dre in the first place?” Monster has created a… monster. These headphones break more than any other headphone I have ever seen and color the sound as much, or more than, a Bose home theater system’s internal DSP.
I talked to a few friends who work at Best Buy and Apple Stores and asked them about the return/echange rate of the Beats by Dre vs the Klipsch Image One. Not a single person could recall a return or exchange of a Klipsch Image One headphone while everyone brought up several instances of Beats being returned. I followed up asking about how often the Beats available for people to try out at Apple Stores break. I was told that at this particular Apple Store, at least one Beats breaks a week. After a month with the Klipsch headphones, not a single one had to be removed from the floor.
So when people ask me why to get the Image One over the Beats I tell them the following. The Beats sound horrible. They are the equivalent of an overly sauced fettuccine alfredo. At first you love it because it is rich and delicious. But midway through you start to tire of the over-production and heaviness. Then there is the lack of build quality. Also, did I mention batteries are required?
The Klipsch Image One headphones sound better than the Beats By Dre. Their bass response is more representative of the original recordings and their vocal reproduction actually exists, as compared to the Monster headphones. They are more comfortable. They are better built. They are better looking with a more professional appearance. The remote control and microphone are superior and their compact size and light weight design make them more commuter friendly.
Phew. Rant off.
Conclusion:
If you need a fully compatible iPhone/iPad/iPod/Mac headphone, get the Klipsch Image One. I haven’t had a better experience with an on-ear headphone (all things considered) than the Image One.
If you decide the Image One is too much money (well worth every penny) or the sound signature isn’t your style, let me know in the comments. I will personally recommend a headphone for you that will fit your needs. Just please, please oh please, do not buy one of the Monster Cable options.
| Physical | Sound |
| Comfort: 10/10 | Bass: 9/10 |
| Build: 8/10 | Mids: 8/10 |
| Remote: 10/10 | Treble: 9/10 |
| Mic: 8/10 | Soundstage: 8/10 |
| Overall: 9.0 | Overall: 8.5 |
Related articles
- Review: Klipsch Image One Headphones (crunchgear.com)
