ThinkSound TS02 8mm Passive Noise Isolating Wooden Headphone

I emailed Thinksound to ask which pair of headphones would fit my needs and they pointed me to the ts02, saying the ms01 were really more for home use than mine. They replied in just a few hours!I'm a commuting student and I spend a lot of time in a very noisy library where people gather for lunch to chat or play on their laptops (wear headphones, would ya!). I was considering some other brands, specifically the similarly priced Shure's, but I had been gazing longingly at Thinksound since I read a Stereophile article on the ts01 a few months ago. Between the environmentally friendly ethos, rave reviews and repeated celebration of their customer service, it was a pretty easy choice.WOW! Honestly, I am not an expert on music or headphones. I have a $60 pair of Shure over-the-ear headphones and that's pretty much all I've ever used besides a plethora of cheap earbuds that enjoy self destructing. I enjoy listening to music but I'm not a musician or a producer or anything. I'm not even an amateur reviewer! But I can tell you that I was getting slightly bored of traveling with my music. NPR in the car replaced my iPod dock and Pimsleur: Mandarin replaced much of my mp3 listening. These ear buds completely changed that.--The packaging is great. All cardboard and easy to work with. I hate the infuriating plastic packages that you need to play with for 10 minutes to get undone, then feel bad about buying the product because that 10 minutes and the paper cut just weren't worth it. Not here. Slide it out, slide the buds on. All that's needed! It comes with the little bag but I'm not sure if there's much of a point in that. I bought a case (the Cosmos Hard EVA http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Black-bluetooth-handsfree-headset/dp/B0057MLBLS/ref=pd_sim_cps_3 ) right away to keep them safe while traveling.--The noise canceling is SUPERB. The number one reason I bought this is that I spend anywhere between 2 and 6 hours a day in a school library that is ridiculously noisy. I didn't want an actual pair of noise canceling head phones as I had heard they made odd sounds so I thought I'd give these in-ear buds a try. I admit that they irritated my ears like crazy for the first few days and I still sometimes have a hard time getting a seal but wow, once you get them on just right, you can sit for 6 hours between classes with a table of fifteen people next to you and never even notice them. Will this work if you're on a loud subway? I'm not sure if they'd be perfect but they would be a great improvement over the typical pair of head phones. I will edit once I wear them while moving - I'm still a little nervous about taking these guys out unless I'm stationary (hey, $80 is a lot of money!).--The sound is unbelievable... Sometimes! I have a pretty odd selection of music on my iPod and these are absolutely perfect for me. Nina Simone? Sounds amazing. Mongolian throat singers? Perfect. Jason Mraz? Hell yeah. Ayaka(JPop)? Pretty good. Yo Yo Ma? Magical(even my mother, who is quite close to being fearful of in-ear buds, was blown away by a violin sonata on these buds). Tokio Hotel(pop) or some hip hop? Bit empty. I'd love to tell you why, like it's the lows or the highs or whatnot, but I'm not really sure. I find that almost anything made prior to the 90s sounds brilliant and modern acoustic-heavy sounds great(such as Mraz) and I have found no issue with bass versus soprano but some music just sounds a little bland on these. I am adding a MAJOR caveat on that. I don't know if the music sounds bland compared to other headphones or if after listening to Vivaldi on these earbuds, modern pop/hip-hop just doesn't compare. Oh well, well worth the price paid I think. One more small thing. My music is about 50/50 uncompressed/mp3 and I never really cared before(I download or rip FLAC off CDs then convert it to Apple Lossless). I downloaded FLAC for when I had a nice pair of headphones, something I had been intending to buy for the past 2-3 years, but I never heard much of a difference. Well, I'm glad I downloaded those. Uncompressed music sounds insanely better on these than their mp3 counterparts. I thought maybe I was just imagining it, hoping that the large file sizes weren't just a waste of space, but put to a blind listen of songs (800-1000 versus 128-320 kbps) two of my friends instantly picked out the uncompressed. MP3s don't sound BAD on these, they just sound worse than their higher bit rate alternatives. (Just to note: I know virtually nothing about the technical aspects or what not of this kind of thing - I just use my amateur ear to try and hear the difference!)--These also look quite snazzy, I think. I didn't want bullets coming out of my ears or anything and these blend in well with my hair so I can wear them and nobody says anything. If you want to use these as an accessory to your studded leather outfit or hip hop gear, these probably aren't for you.Overall, a great pair of buds. I will update with durability as time goes on but for now, I am ecstatic with the purchase. I was firmly scolded by my mother(yeah, I still get scolded despite being in university...) for buying a pair of earbuds that cost more than $20 but even she forgave me once giving them a listen and considered buying a pair for a second. If you are just a regular music listener, I can't imagine much better than this.

I've already lost 2 of the ear fittings off the right headphone. They've fallen off the right headphone even more than that, but I was able to find them most times. I imagine it's a defect since I don't have the same problem on the other side. These do produce great sound though and they look beautiful.Edit: The housing on the left headphone separated. This led to no sound in the left headphone. I contacted the company, which sent me the paperwork to replace the headphones. Apparently the shipping was at my own cost, which, eh, ok. Thing is, they never sent me my replacements! I contacted Amazon and they're sending me a new pair. Amazon is great. Thinksound, in my experience, horrible.Edit 2: My new pair, again, sounded great. Except now I've lost all sound on the left side. Stay away from these. Poor quality all around.

(This is simply unacceptable. I have owned these headphones since mid February and they already broke by the end of march.The left speaker doesn't work anymore. I guess this is the classical problem with every in hear Head phone with this type of cables, but for $90+ headphones this is simply unacceptable.This is especially bad because even though I used the headphones rather intensively, they never went through any kind of abuse. It's a shame for a product that is supposedly realtively high end. By comparison my in Hear senheiser lasted a year and a half before having the same problem, and only costed me half the price.Funniest part being that these are supposedly eco friendly headphones... I'm not sure that having to go through a pair every two months is actually very eco friendly !)EDIT AFTER CUSTOMER CARE:I just received my headphones back, I must say that the customer care was specially fast and friendly. Since I have a new functionning pair, I will also write a short review on the product itself:The note definition on these headphones is really good, the noise isolation is one of the best I've experienced for in-hear headphones (actually if you listen to your music even at reasonable volume, you won't hear somebody calling your name on the street).The only thing I don't like as far as far as the sound goes is that the bass are a little too predominant for my taste. Depending on what musical sound you're into, that might be good, but for me I would have rather had a little more balanced sound... no big deal though, the sound is still pretty good.Another thing that is a little bit of a pain is that the cable seem pretty prone to tangle itself. Again, no big deal, but that can be annoying sometimes.Overall I would have given that product 4 stars, but since my first pair was defective, I deducted a star for reliability.

After using these gems for 8 hr/day for last 7 days I say yes to comfortable light weight fit........yes to dynamic music....defined bass lines with vocal presence upfront...yes to lots of volume and good isolation from outside environment....easy driving monitors using Sansa clip mp3 playervery enjoyable

Based on high reviews in Amazon.com, I purchased Thinksound TS02 earbuds in March 2013. Until recently, I was please with them. Liked the fit and light weigth, the wood appearance is ok. Sound is strong in the bass, but not owerpowering, with a definition suitable for the price level. Highly sensitive so they would sound loud even with low powered devices. Isolation is just ok, nothing special for earphones. Cables a less prone to tangling than most, which is always a plus.All that was nice, until a few days ago, when right earbud started failing, and in a few days it was completely gone. Now I have 70 USD worth of scrap wood. I have used them always in the office to get some decent sounding music isolating me from my chatty coworkers. Always taken good care, stored in drawer, never twisting or pulling the cords, carrying in the pocket or anyway abusing them. Never used more than a couple of hours a day max, with many weeks never using. That makes a total of approx. 500 h of use over 2 years before they failed. That lifespan is totally unacceptable for a 70$ earphones.Very disappointed, will never buy Thinksound again.

Have always bought Sennheiser earphones in the past but I liked the look of these and they had good reviews. Having used them for a couple of months now I can confirm that the hype was justified. They are attractive and well designed and the sound quality is excellent. I was particularly impressed with the range of sound they can handle. Sometimes with earphones, when the volume is too high, the bass or treble gets distorted, but not with these. They also work with my Xbox One through the controller (and, I assume, PS4), which is handy for playing games/watching movies quietly.I did have a problem where the sound in one of the earpieces started cutting out. I think that the wires had become bent in my bag and some internal wire had snapped or something. Anyway, I got in touch with the company and explained my problem, and they sent me a new pair free of charge. The Customer Service was excellent during this process which is invaluable with any company.Highly recommended!

I enthusiastically used the earphones for more than one year. After 18 months I broke them by pulling out by the cord: i wrote to their CS and I got a replacement for free even if the warranty was expired. That's how to do business - and of course how to create amazing products :)

It has been two months now into using these headphones, and it has been a pleasant experience. First things first, I shall put it out there that I am not an audiophile. I'm just a regular guy buying a new set of headphones.Pros:- They definitely sound good. It is a big upgrade from those apple earbuds or what not from other phone manufacturers. I've previously used a xiaomi piston 2 and I got these after breaking them. Although the bass on these earphones are not as strong as the pistons, the mids and highs of these earphones are much clearer compared to the xiaomis. The clarity of the mids is just outstanding.- The packaging that they came with definitely emphasises upon being ecological - cardboard packaging, a small cloth carry pouch etc. I like this company's 'eco' approach to their products.- Good build quality and designCons:- the cables are rather thin so they get tangled easily inside your pocket, which is rather annoying sometimes.- The cables pick up wind noise rather easily- No built it volume rockers :( every time i want to change the song/volume, i have to reach into my pocket for my phoneConclusion:If you're looking for a pair of earphones with good sound quality at a this price point, this is definitely the one to get although there are still inherently some flaws to it.