A good set of in ear headphones requires three things in my mind:
- Good fit
- Comfort
- Good Audio
Belkin has a set of in ear headphones that they claim that addresses all three of those points. They’re called the ROCKSTAR Headphones. And the ones that we are testing today are the ones with the Lightning connector which is aimed at iPhone users.
The key features include the fact that they are water-resistant and noise-isolating thanks to the fact that they fit in your ears. Other key features include the fact that it comes with three pairs of ear tips that allows you to tailor the fit to your ear. The cables are flat which makes them more durable and less likely to tangle. The ends are also moulded for durability as well.
The question is how well do they work. To get that answer, I turned them over to my wife and let her have at them. Seeing as she does science for a living, she came up with a way to test them that was scientifically valid to a point. She bought a song and used it to test the audio quality. She then compared it to the following headsets:
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RHA MA450 headsets with the Apple 3.5mm to Lightning dongle
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Jaybird X4 Wireless headsets
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Apple EarPods
Her thoughts are:
- The main selling point of these Belkin ROCKSTAR headphones is that they are going to be more durable. Especially if you have gone through a couple of Apple EarPods. These ROCKSTARS would be a good option once the original headphones wear out. Which they will. This is a win as from a price point as they come in around the same price as the stock apple headphones.
- When compared to the EarPods that your original iPhone, they are tuned slightly different but comparable across the audio range.
- Compared to the RHA MA450 with the Apple dongle & Jaybird X4 it doesn’t do quite as well. If you have headphones that more high end, even with the dongle and accounting for degradation audio resolution (due to the digital to analog conversion) or having the audio being pushed over Bluetooth, your higher end headphones will continue to be superior to these ROCKSTARS. But they are also way more money.
- They don’t tangle in her purse.
- Phone calls sound good.
- They do isolate you from the exterior noise. But it’s not totally isolating as you can still hear some exterior sound. That might be a good thing when jogging for example.
So, given that these headphones are $39.99 USD, I would say that this is a win if you don’t want to get the stock Apple EarPods, but don’t want to spend a lot of money on a pair of replacement headphones. If you’re that person, this is a great option.