Sound is one of my all time favorites of the five senses. A song has the power to instantly change the way you feel about a picture, video, and environment. Being that we are in the age of booming technology, a set of headphones is the most second most important mate to my laptop next to its charger. I usually own three sets of earphones at any given time. I own two decent quality earbuds usually with durable rope wiring, one for the gym and one to leave in the car for the days I forget to pack my good one. These ear buds are durable but will one day fall into planned obsolescence therefore replacing them in a matter to 6 months or a year is a given.

My third pair of earphones however, is the pair I consider an investment. This is the pair that I spend a little more time researching before purchasing and cost significantly more than my other two pairs. It is the pair that I look forward to using when working out of the house. Within the past several years I’ve been on a mission shuffling from different brands searching for the perfect pair. Many I’ve had were great but uncomfortable after several hours of use. Some had great build quality but lacks sound quality. Some had really great marketing and endorsement deals but lacks overall quality and can be considered a sham. I haven’t ran into a brand that I would consider buying over and over again until I got my hands on these earphones from Master & Dynamic, specifically the ME05.

Whenever I’m introduced to a new brand, I pay close attention to how it’s packaged. As a fan of design, I’m a sucker for great packaging because in most cases, the way an item is packaged is a preview to how much care and quality was focused in building the product. Now I understand that is not always the case because there are plenty of shitty items that come in great packaging but in this case, the ME05 Master & Dynamic is not here to fool you.

At first you pull the tab to slide the product out, you get a black felt box that holds a dusting cloth, wire clip, and a leather circular case that holds the earbuds. Underneath is another carrying bag, and user pamphlet. As you lift up the leather circular case, the earphones are coiled up in a convenient package that includes various sizes of silicon earpieces and a replacement acoustic filter. When a product provides these extra accessories, you know it’s been built to last.

My favorite part about getting a new set of earphones is plugging them into my laptop and listening to an album that I currently have on repeat to see if it can pack up any sounds or instruments that didn’t make its way out of my MacBook speakers. In this case, Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book. The earphones picked up all the highs and lows and indeed unveiled some sounds that were hidden behind my laptop speakers. Now when it comes to earphones, it is a given that the bass and treble will never be as great as studio speakers but in areas where most earphones lack, Master & Dynamic excel. Somehow Master & Dynamic manages to capture the bass and treble quality even without ear bleeding volume levels and it does not stop excelling from there either. I wore these earphones for about three hours straight and not once did it feel uncomfortable. In conclusion you can bet that I will be looking into more Master & Dynamic products in the future but most importantly, these set of earphones helped me fall in love with the Coloring Book mixtape all over again, and for that I thank you.

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I decided to replace them with the Skullcandy Smokin Buds 2, thinking they would be a better choice for exercising, capable of being stuffed into gym shorts, jackets, and drawstring bags – the bulkiness was the only shortcoming my Heshs had. The sound quality was quite good, and I was quite pleased with how well they isolated outside noise, even though they aren’t “noise isolating.” Unfortunately, my listening pleasure was abruptly cut short the first day into their deployment as I was cruising down campus on my long board. Initially, I believed I had inadvertently disconnected the Buds. Upon further observation, I couldn’t find anything wrong with them, other than I could get audio through one ear. Miffed that I couldn’t jam out to B.B. King as anticipated, I continued my ride but couldn’t help but miss my Hesh headphones, which had put up with significantly more abuse. Upon arriving home, I goog’d around a bit, and found familiar frustrations and complaints from others, all of whom had Buds that had also failed.

I had total confidence in my Skullcandy earbuds due to my positive experiences with their products in the past, but my intuition told me to purchase the extended warranty – luckily. After navigating the extensive warranty claim process I received another pair the following week. To my frustration, these too did not last more than a week before they lost exactly half their value, and one bud was no longer functional.

Although the Skullcandy Smokin Buds are a budget earpiece, even when they’re not broken they simply do not allow for the escape I had come to enjoy and expect from my other Skullcandy products. The Smokin’ Buds are an excellent choice for anyone who is deaf in one ear.

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