Thinksound Rain Headphones / Earbuds Review

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Music and multi-media has become an integral part of our lives. Look around some time and I’m sure you’ll see many people out around you with a set of headphones on, jacked in, listening to music. If you look closely though at a lot of those people you’ll notice that they’re using the stock ear buds that came with the player they’re using, and I guess they’re happy with that. Why would you spend hundreds of dollars on a music player and hundreds if not thousands more on your music only to listen to it through an inferior stock set of ear buds. I don’t know about you but I can’t do it, I gave the stock ear buds a try on my Zune, iPod and Sansa but after a few minutes they went back in the box as I just couldn’t stand the uninspiring sound from them.

Today for review I’ve got a very high quality set of ear buds from a relatively new audio company called Thinksound. The ear buds or headphones are just called Rain, and what really sets them apart is not only the relatively low price but the fact that they’re made of wood. Look around, I can guarantee that when you see a set of ear buds or headphones, they’re made of either plastic or metal, not wood. A good set of speakers for your home are made of wood, there’s a reason for that, wood makes things sound better. Read on to learn more about a very good sounding and constructed set of ear buds...

 

 

Product Name: Thinksound Rain Headphones / Earbuds

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: Thinksound


Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

Thinksound Rain Headphones / Earbuds

In-ear 9mm high definition headphone with passive noise isolation. Features crisp highs with balanced bass and mids for the discriminating listener.

Model: Rain 9mm in-ear high definition headphone with passive noise isolation

Colors Available: Black Chocolate or Silver Cherry

Appearance: Wood housing with aluminum baffle

Weight: 9.6g

MSRP: $99.99


Product Features:

  • * Works with iPhone, iPod, MP3, CD, DVD, PSP and computers
  • * Wooden housing for crisp, accurate music reproduction
  • * Available in two beautiful finishes, Black Chocolate and Silver Cherry
  • * Passive noise cancellation minimizes ambient sounds
  • * Ultra lightweight design with PVC-free, tangle-resistant cable
  • * Dynamic driver features 20Hz to 20kHz frequency response
  • * 3.5mm gold plated plug for increased sound clarity
  • * Four sized flexible silicon ear inserts for secure fit (s/m/l/xl)
  • * Cord clip and cotton carrying pouch included
  • * Six month limited warranty


Price: $58.99 (At Amazon at Time of Review)


Unboxing

The packaging for the Thinksound Rain ear buds is minimalistic but attractive, and it’s made of recycled materials.


Inside you’ll find the Rain ear buds attached to a piece of cardboard, a warranty paper and a cloth a bag with the Thinksound logo on it.


The cloth bag is also the carrying case or pouch for the ear buds, but inside you’ll find a clip for attaching to your shirt or jacket and three more sets of different sized ear buds. So you get four sizes of buds to make sure they’ll fit you.


Here are several pictures of the Thinksound Rain headphones. The backs of them have the Thinksound logo on them and they are labeled L and R so you know right from left. They fell solidly made, but yet they are very lightweight.


The cord is nice and long and it ends with a gold plated 3.5mm head phone jack.

Installation, Testing and Comparison:

Installation involves just plugging them into your favorite audio device.

For comparison though I’ve put them up against a couple other high-end pairs of ear buds that I’ve got on hand. The Ultimate Ears Super-Fi 5 and the Future Sonics Atrio M5 pairs of ear buds or headphones, whatever you want to call them.


I use my Zune 120gb for any portable music listening, and I take it with me in my car as well since my Subaru has a 3.5mm audio jack that I can use with it. So I used my Zune for testing.


One thing that annoys me about a lot of ear buds, especially higher priced ones is line noise. What I mean by line noise is the noise that you hear when you move the actual wires of the ear buds while walking, or moving or doing anything really.

With my Ultimate Ears you must loop the wires over your ears to eliminate the line noise, doing that is something I don’t care for too much.

With the Atrio M5 pair you don’t have to do that though, and that same goes for the Thinksound Rain. There is some line noise yes, but it’s not noticeable over the music, you’ll only notice it when there is no music really.

In my personal opinion the Future Sonics Atrio M5s are some of the best ear buds out there today, or at least in the $100-$200 price range. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Ultimate Ears, they sound very good, but I don’t like the fact that you must loop them over your ears to wear them.

The sound quality of the Thinksound Rain is surprisingly good, but you will notice a distinct lack of bass, it’s there but it’s not overpowering at all. This isn’t a bad thing though as they are made to be this way, they are for people, like me, who don’t like overpowering bass in their music. With the Thinksound Rain ear buds you’ll hear everything from highs to mids to lows at all about an even ratio, with the highs being a tad higher, but that’s a good thing as well, at least for me, since I prefer nice crisp highs in my music. The music has a soft tone to it overall, and I believe that has a lot to do with the wood used as opposed to being made of metal.


The Comparison…

There’s really no comparison between the Atrio M5s and the Thinksound Rain ear buds, the Atrio M5 pair is much better, but they also cost a lot more so it’s to be expected.

One thing that truly surprised me is that the Thinksound Rain and the Ultimate Ears Super Fi 5s sound almost exactly the same. The main difference is the volume between them, the Ultimate Ears being louder overall. I set my Zune at the half way point on the volume or 10 out of 20 and switched between the Rain and the Super Fi 5s on the same song, there is a clear difference in the volume level, the Super Fi 5s are quite a bit louder. The sound quality though is basically the same though between them. The real surprise is the cost, the Thinksound Rain ear buds cost about half as much as the Ultimate Ears Super Fi 5s do.


And that leads us to the price…

My Atrio M5s are selling on Amazon right now for about $187, while the Ultimate Ears are selling for about $142.

The Thinksound Rain ear buds have an MSRP or $99.99, but can be had right now at Amazon for $58.99 A price that I think is well worth it for these headphones.


Comfort…

As far as comfort is concerned, the Thinksound Rain ear buds are very comfortable to wear for long periods of time. They’re very lightweight so you won’t even notice them in your ears after a while.

They fit tighlty in your ears once you select the correct size for you. They do a very good job at keeping ambient noises out as well. I use a rather loud clicky keyboard and I couldn’t hear myself typing while listening to music at all.


Summary and Comments:

The Thinksound Rain Ear Buds deliver a nice balanced audio experience that most people will appreciate.

I believe for the price you’re going to have a very hard time finding any pair of ear buds out there in this range that will beat these. You’ll even have a hard time finding pairs that cost twice as much that are better than these truly.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive yet exceptionally sounding and constructed pair of ear buds then I can easily recommend you take a closer look at these. You will not find another pair of ear buds in this price range that sound as good as these do.


Edit: 2-28-10: I’ve just reviewed the Thinksound Thunder Heapdhones over at MobilityDigest. You can find that review HERE.



DragonSteelMods gives the Thinksound Rain a 4.5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.



Pros:

  • +Crisp, clear sound
  • +Lightweight
  • +Nicely made
  • +Long cable
  • +Includes carrying pouch
  • +Inexpensive compared to other brands
  • +Very comfortable


Cons:

  • -Lower overall volume than others
  • -Lack of bass (but they’re made that way)


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Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review, we do not, never have, and never will, accept payment from companies to review their products.

To learn more about our review policy, testing methods and ratings please see this page.