Photos: Ears-on with the Klipsch Custom-2 earphones

By Nate Lanxon on 29 July 2008, 1:08pm

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There's been an interesting debate on our forums recently regarding how much earphones and headphones should cost. By our standards, £30 is too little. By most peoples' standards, £500 is too much. How about £90-ish?

That's how much the dual-armature, sound-isolating Klipsch Custom-2 earphones can be found for on the Web, and we've been keen to test these bad boys since we first got wind of them. And even more so after hearing how great their higher-end siblings, the Custom-3s, were.

The entire Custom range are physically almost identical, bar a couple of cosmetic differences to help visually differentiate the three models. Like the Custom-3s, we initially had a hard job fitting them, and we immediately swapped out the bundled silicone tips for the compatible silicone and foam tips from Shure's SE range. (Your ear canals may vary.)

We got a snug fit after doing this and heard the same terrific balanced sound quality heard in the more costly Custom-3s, but as you might expect, with less overall definition.

Certain rock and pop recordings highlight the fact that the Custom-2s can sound a little muddy. Certainly the comparably priced AH-C551 single-driver earphones from Denon don't suffer this -- they have exceptionally deep bass and a bright, detailed high-end, making them far more suitable for rock, pop and metal for most people.

Conversely, the Custom-2s are better suited to vocal-driven music, acoustic performances and to some extent classical work, though the lack of clarity in the very high-end certainly won't please all classical music fans.

But this is all based on early listening, and our full review may highlight other characteristics, so be sure to check back in a week or so for our epic final opinions.

Before then, have a poke at our gallery of hands-on close-ups over the next few pages. If you're desperate already, you can buy a pair now for around £90-£100. -Nate Lanxon

Update: Read our full Klipsch Custom-2 sound-isolating earphones review here.