50 Cent launches 'phones at the Gadget Show Live
| 13 April 2012
When you hear that rap don 50 Cent is heading to Brum and the Gadget Show Live to launch a new range of street headphones the temptation is to ask 'Where's Dre?' A hip-hop battle between those two would be the best promotion we could think of. Trouble is that Dre isn't in the room so we'll have to make do with Fiddy.
So, what's the difference between Fiddy's cans and Beats by Dre? 'Well I've had a few of Dre's and I've broken them all' says 50. Assuming he isn't stamping on the competition we can only think that the bendability of the Synch (and you can bend them almost into a knot without breaking them) is a response to the occasional brittleness of Beats By Dre cans.
But the sound is different too. The bass is still there but it's more subtle than Beats beats, with a very wide, open soundstage and nice ringing midtones. This seems to be Fiddy's intention. 'Some of the bass boosters out there are too much. Hip Hop today brings in all kings of music and I wanted headphones you can listen to anything on,' he says. The cans come wireless (the Synch) wired (the Street) and in earbuds too. Flipside took a listen of the Street phones and quickly got into the sound, comfort and feel (they look big but don't feel bit if you know what we mean).
And the 40mm drivers do seem to have been tuned magnificently, something that the head honcho of SMS the company that Fiddy set up to make these cans was keen to stress. '50 spent months and months getting the tone and the sound that he wanted.'
All that work seems to have paid off but at a price. The wireless Synch headphones use lossless technology to send sounds uncompressed to your ears (unlike Bluetooth which is pants for this) but retails at £299. Ouch. The wired phones look like a better bet at £199 while the buds are still £99. Flipside's guessing that these prices might come after a few months of being on sale and we promise to keep you posted...
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