Monster is synonymous with audio equipment from cables to headphones, and I was very excited to review the new Monster Clarity HD Headphones (there may have been an incident involving a toddler and my previous headphones). The Clarity’s are bud-style wired headphones, and while they look great, we couldn’t find anyone in my house who could comfortably wear them.
Since we really weren’t able to review the headphones well, I am going to simply cover the positives I did find, and then explain why we couldn’t properly test them. The Clarity’s have excellent build quality; the cord seems tough, the various control buttons are firm and clicky, and the buds themselves don’t feel flimsy or cheap. The sound quality seemed good from the small bits I was able to catch, and the cord managed to stay untangled even when shoved in a pocket for a long walk.
Unfortunately, I can’t really review much more than this. The Clarity headphones came with three different earbud sizes, and none of them fit my ears well. The smallest size was too small, and the bigger sizes were uncomfortable and didn’t fit well. I tried rotating the buds around in my ears, adjusting their position, and finally just jamming them in as hard as I could, and nothing kept these buds from falling out. I thought maybe it was because I was trying to test them while walking my dog, and the leash was knocking the cord loose, so I tried using them while out by myself. I made it a block and a half before the buds fell out, which was an improvement over the two to three houses I was making it with the dog in tow. Since ears can vary, I had my wife Sarah try them as well, and while she could fit them in her ears, she immediately complained they were uncomfortable and felt wrong, and she took them out.
I am hesitant to give the Clarity HDs a bad review, because earbud fit is incredibly subjective. Some people have no issues with them, and others can’t stand them. Normally I can get some buds to work (in fact, this weekend I had a random pair of Apple earbuds on and they didn’t fall out once), but no matter what we did, Sarah and I could not get the Clarity HDs to work for us. They’re certainly good-looking headphones, and the sound quality we could catch was great, so if you have better earbud luck than we do, give these a shot.
If you’re a borderline earbud person, well, maybe look at a different Monster product instead, because for $49.99 you’ll want to make sure your headphones fit right!
Source: Manufacturer provided review sample
What I Liked: Bright accents are nice; seem to be well-built
What Needs Improvement: Couldn’t fit any available ear canals
