Delta Airlines Earbuds: The true endgame everyone needs to experience
Never before have I appreciated dollar store earbuds as much as I do now.
Build Quality
Delta went above and beyond for its consumers with the build quality. When you unpackage these from their 100% recyclable container and pull them out, you will be in awe with the materials they chose. They went with only the most premium plastic they could find, and went as far as molding a Delta logo into the side of the earbuds so the people around you know that you are using the best. The tips feel as if they are molded out of the finest wet cardboard. The cable is just as good as the rest of this audio masterpiece, the thin wiring is so small that it goes unnoticed and always fashionably gets tangled up in your surroundings.
Delta Quality Control
Hifiman needs to look out for these earbuds. Not only do these earbuds have a channel imbalance (-4db right side) that will leave you in shock but the frequency between the drivers also doesn't match. While 'audiophiles' may dislike this quality, I have to say that this adds some well needed spice to your music as each earbud makes the song sound completely different.
The sound
I had to mentally prepare myself for these earbuds much more than any other piece of audio equipment I have ever tried. These radiate a true audiophile experience and just holding them was almost enough for me to toss my LCD2s in the trash can.
Putting them in my ears and letting my playlist resume... I almost went into shock. It felt like I was listening to music in the finest of wine barrels. Very forward voices sounded like they were echoing off the walls and the occasional shrill guitar strum completely took over the stage and made everything else incomprehensible. These earbuds were only able to produce ~2 other instruments at a time when vocals were involved, but that is all you really need for the maximum audio enjoyment. Notes were smooth and blended together, lacking any sort of texture or cutoff making listening a relatively relaxing experience. One of my favorite descriptions of the LCD2 on this subreddit was something along the lines of "The LCD2 is a headphone that sounds like your a few beers deep". The Delta airlines earbuds, however, sound like you blacked out an hour ago.
Song by song description
- Lay All Your Love On Me - Abba: I have never heard such forward and shrill female vocals. I can't believe Abba didn't master their music in order for it to be played on such expensive gear! The chorus was enough to make me wince and when the synth kicked in at 3:53 suddenly everything behind the vocals became a blurred mess of instruments and the occasional extreme sibilance. The electric piano, (which is very prominent) often got overshadowed by the slightly louder drums and forward vocals.
- I Want You to Want Me - Cheap Trick: I'm not going to sugarcoat this one. Vocals sounded like I was listening to them from the room next to where I was sitting and the only other instrument I could point out was the drums. The electric guitar, which is a huge part of the song, sounds masked to the point where any detail or low notes go unnoticed. The hardest instrument by far for me to find when using these earbuds was the piano. At the time I am writing this, I am listening to these earbuds and trying to listen for the piano is a true challenge.
- Instant Crush - Daft Punk: Ahhhh RAM. One of the best sounding albums I've personally listened to. On my Noires it truly is an experience. These Delta Earbuds give me an experience, albeit a completely different one. Any subbass is negligible if you can hear any at all and the electric guitar is barely noticeable. The synth completely takes over everything - including the vocals - during the chorus. The drums have absolutely zero impact to them and outside of my brain dying from the vocals there isn't any emotion from the music.
Alright I think that's enough playing around...
Here's the kicker: putting tape over the ends and turning them into a closed back improves the sound quality tenfold. It completely fixes the stuck-in-a-barrel sounding vocals and shrillness, improves instrument separation, makes the bass (more) noticeable, and makes the entire experience better. I have zero idea why Delta chose to put cutouts in the shell and make these semi open back, hell its probably cheaper to make them closed back. I don't think that I have (or will ever hear) an audio product as bad as this. I wouldn't even use these to watch movies on a plane which is their intended purpose.
