Klipsch IMAGE S4 In-Ear Enhanced Bass Noise-Isolating Headphones
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Tune out the external environment and tune into your own private concert experience anytime, anywhere with the Image S4. These noise-isolating in-ear headphones deliver dynamic sound and unequaled comfort for a price that’s easy on the wallet.
These reasonably priced, high-performance earphones go above and beyond what you’d expect from the stock earbuds that come with your MP3 player or music phone. In fact, you’ll find Klipsch headphones are far superior to other brands-delivering unequaled comfort, noise isolation, musical accuracy and bass. Furthermore, Klipsch has managed to take its decades of research and development experience to value engineer the Image S4, while staying true to its audiophile heritage.
Features
- Exclusive Oval Ear Tips for longterm comfort and excellent seal
- Superior Bass Response from dual magnet microspeaker and oval eartip seal
- Stainless Steel carrying case with headphone organization
- Three sizes of oval eartips (Small, Medium and Large) to achieve the perfect fit
- Piano black finish with chrome accents
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 8 x 10 x 5 inches
- Weight: 0 pounds
Great Pair of Headsets…
I was looking for a new set of headphones to replace the generic ones that come with the iPod. These were even better than I expected. It took me a while to determine which of the rubber pieces fit me best, but now that I have I’m really happy. My only complaint is that these tend to come out of my ears easily, especially when I’m at the gym or doing anything where I sweat.
Best earbuds you can buy. Period!
I purchased these earbuds after spending about $100 on other ones that either broke or sounded like I was listening to music in a steel box. These earbuds sound on par if not better than buds that are 3 times the price. You will not be dissapointed. Worth the $80. I can’t recomend the Klipsch Image S4 enough. Buy these!
Perfect for a professional musician
Only issue I have is the cord is thin. Otherwise, these headsets are just as great as sets costing twice as much. I have has Bose, high end Shure monitor headsets as well as a few others. These are lighter, have a clean and tight response, and the bass is crisp and clear.
Get these, you won’t regret it!
Returned
Very disappointed with these headphones. They looked great on paper, but the sound quality was not acceptable to me. They’ve received great reviews elsewhere, but they were not for me. Thank you Amazon for your amazing return policy. I did find a great pair of earphones for a third of the price. Sound is a personal thing, these weren’t mine.
Good, but not great
First off, my impressions of this headphone are based in comparison to the Etymotic Research ER6i, for which the Klipsch was replacing. (Link here: Etymotic Research ER6i Isolator In-Ear Earphones (Black)) I mistakenly left the ER6i in the seat on a airplane, and needed something for travel.
The positive impressions I have are that the sound was smooth, the bass was solid, and the overall sound was pleasing enough. The quality of the product appears to be good, and my history of using Klipsch products (going back 30+ years) has generally been favorable – so I would describe myself as a Klipsch advocate.
My main complaint with these is that they do not isolate yourself from ambient noise as well as the ER6i. And this was a big issue for me since my primary use is on airplanes. As one example, I ALWAYS had to remove one of the ER6i to hear the flight attendant. I don’t have to for the S4. Well, I do to hear them well, but I can sometimes get by without. It may be that the three-flange earpiece that I used with the ER6i is the reason they performed better at isolation. For the S4, I’m using the large oval eartips for my use. The S4 did also come with a flanged eartip – which I tried, but they were too small and did not fit snugly. Which brings me to my second point.
The S4, despite using the large eartip, do not anchor themselves into my ear for the duration of the flight. I usually have to resecure them periodically. Once the ER6i were in, anything short of skydiving out the plane would keep them securely in place (although I haven’t tried that yet.) Again, the snug three-flange eartip of the ER6i is probably inherently better.
Next on the list of disappointments, but probably still relatively high, is the sound. I must say that the Klipsch have much more established bass than the ER6i. It was pleasant to hear some solid hits. But to me, the midbass made it all the way up to the vocal range, and muddied the sound. The S4s do not have the clarity and detail of the ER6i, which above all, the the aspect of sound that I crave.
I imagine that there are a lot of people that would prefer the sound of the S4’s, and would find the ER6i’s as being too thin and weak at the low end. I suppose it would be a bad match for them. I do listen to rock and alternative music, and so I enjoy a solid bass. But to me, what makes music exquisite is the detail and subtlety in music, and the S4’s did not bring me that. That was surprising to me, because Klipsch products in general have bright and detailed high ends – sometimes too much so.
For the same dollars, and based on *slightly* higher reviews, I thought I’d switch to the Klipsch from the Etymotic. But if I had to do it over again, I would have stayed with the Etymotic.
Make sure you break them in…
The biggest tip I can give about these earphones is to break them in. I was initially very disappointed with the quality of sound, despite extremely favorable online ratings. The sound isolation was unimpressive and the mids and highs were far too prominent vs. lower frequency sounds.
Turns out the first was user error (I was using the wrong sized ear tips so the sound isolation wasn’t as good as it needed to be).
As for the poor bass, I read user forums that suggested letting my mp3 player running for a dozen hours or so. And I did, to find remarkably improved performance. So for any others who aren’t privy to what audiophiles probably know about, give these guys a chance to break-in.
Nice product, but not for everyone
I am no headphone aficionado, but these sound pretty good to me. However, some of the overwhelmingly positive reviews are wrong about a few things. In particular, the Cnet review is way off. I’ll just list the flaws, and you can look at the other reviews for the good stuff. The bass is purposely over the top. Whatever “enhancing” this does turns the bass noise into a muted “Brrrr” sound instead of the sound of a string being hit. As a side effect the notes swirl together. The loudness of the bass also renders some songs unlistenable on my ipod no matter what EQ setting I use (the luckiest guy on the lower by the magnetic fields – almost anything flaming lips). Voices and guitars sound tinny and flat. If voice or a voice equivalent gets loud enough, the sound crackles gently (Fiona Apple, Okkervil River, bell-sounding-things on some Air songs). Finally, sound isolation works for voices, but not for low rumbles or cars, and it works very poorly without music on. In addition, these bleed noise.
Everything else in the positive reviews is pretty much spot on.
Very good but somewhat fragile
These are good earphones. They have a good frequency response (seem true to specifications). They have good realistic bass and don’t seem too bass-heavy. I won’t say much about the sound quality – it is good, as is expected. They are very comfortable to wear. The manufacturer’s website has tips for wearing them properly and when followed to achieve a good seal, they block external noise very well. However all the sounds produced by your insides vibrating appear to be much louder – if you hum even in a low voice, you will hear sounds that will interfere with the music. Same with running – you can hear yourself while running. But don’t get me wrong – the noise blocking does really work well, well enough to block out the loudest honking and sirens and all other noise on the streets.
One real problem with them is if you wear them when it is windy, the sound quality is affected adversely. This is to be expected because of their back vented design and I don’t see an easy workaround. The flaw is not noticeable indoors or even outdoors in most cases, but it becomes apparent while, say, walking across a bridge on a windy day.
Another negative aspect is that they seem very fragile. The wires have thin rubber / plastic insulation with no reinforcement whatsoever and feel like they could break / come undone from the buds easily. Six months after purchase, mine are still working well, but I expected better build quality at this price point.
On the whole, I’d recommend them for purchase to a careful user and they are definitely good while they last. However if you are not good with fragile things and tend to break them easily, a sturdier pair of earphones might prove to be a better purchase.
Only lasted for a short while
simply stated that within two months of purchase the ear piece came dislodged and therefore unusable.
Better than BOSE In-Ear
I got these headphone after doing a lot of online research to try and find which headphones would be a good replacement for the Bose in-ear ones. I didnt think the Bose were mad I just wasnt a big fan of the design and thought the bass wasnt that great. The Klipsch Image S4 were $10 less but performed much more expensively. The bass is great and the noise cancellation is the real deal. It may me a little unsafe to be jogging on the roads with the music loud, but if you want to zone out in the car/plane or even at your home they do a great job of just letting your ears experience the music. The sound quality is also very good and (without the burn-in which Ive found to be nonsense) the bass was great, especially since I listen to alot of bass-heavy music. The comfort was above and beyond the best feature, with the three different sized buds fitting easily and deeply into your ear so that there was no looseness (but you got the music at full quality). I would definitely recommend anyone trying to branch out from Bose, and certainly if they arent happy with the apple ones to try these Klipsch. You wont regret your decision.
Klipsch s4 vs. Sennheiser CX 300 II vs. Skullcandy Titan
you want a review, you can’t handle a review.
i’ll try to make this short and sweet. if i could i woulda gave these 3 1/2 stars
i went to best buy to buy the sennheiser cx300II’s and when i got their i saw the klipsch s4’s and skullcandy titan’s, which i read lots of great reviews on all of em. anyways i went to get the cx300’s from best buy cause they sell the real ones, their an authorized dealer, before you get anything from sennheiser call them and ask if the place you’re thinking about buying them from is an authorized dealer. their’s lots of fakes unfortunately. when i was at best buy i saw the s4 and titan’s and wanted to hear them all so i bought them all.
well to get this out of the way the titans sound good (crazy bass, ridiculous) but the s4’s and cx 300II’s are simply better, one thing the titans get kudos on is the cord, its like a thin strong shoe lace feel.
anyways i burned em both in for a couple weeks before really comparing, i really couldnt tell any difference, i wanted to like the cx300II’s better cause their 20 bucks cheaper and more comfortable (way more) and flush with your ears, they dont stick out at all and i really like the around the neck cord, it frickin works, ok, its genius actually, they’ll never fall out no matter what you do, it stays outta the way better and doesnt get pulled on, way less cord noise too, like none. the cord is a lot nicer too, a little thicker and rubber not vinyl. but those s4’s just look so nice man, the design is pretty sweet. i think after that reason, the reviews (cnet too,whatever, that chick should do the comparison i did) the fact that their more $$, my mind was fooling me into thinking they are better.
so i got sick of trying to compare by pausing the music unplugging one plugging in the others and then puttin em in my ears, it just takes too long and by the time i hear the next set i cant tell a difference. so i broke out the splitter (male into 2 females) plugged in both sets turned the volume up a little cause you lose a little power with both plugged in. then the trick is to switch phones as fast as possible with the music still playing, like hold the set you’re gonna switch with your thumb and pointer and pull out the others with pinky and ring fingers then pop the others in real fast but still making sure you get a good seal(sounds crazy but wow its the only way to really hear a difference) i was switchin in like 2-3 seconds. when you have a instant change then you can hear differences.
anyways to wrap this up the difference was quite remarkable. the bass on both seems to be pretty equal, but the mids and highs on the cx 300II’s are clearly clearer louder and crisper and richer, whatever you wanna call it, its just clearly, better. do this comparison for yourself if your trying to pick and having a tough time (just make sure you buy the real sennheisers, i dont know what the fake ones sound like and i dont care). so the winner of this battle is obviously the cx300II’s.
ps both of these are better than the jlab j3’s too, i have em and still like em, but both these are all around better.
sorry one more thing i’d like to say. i now have the sennheiser IE7’s, which, if crap was holy, holy crap these are amazing. leaps and bounds over s4’s and cx300’s, which of course they should seeing as how they are so much more money. butfor me i was ok with spending the extra money cause i listen to music all day at work and wear em everytime i ride my motorcycle, which is all the time. by the way the cx300’s are way better (than the s4’s)for riding less wind noise and the ie7’s are the best, best noise isolation and least wind sound, im talkin bout wearin a half helmet of course (which helmet straps have a big part to play on wind sound too). cx300 is best for full face as the helmet goes on easiest, then ie7 then s4, although its not too difficult to get a full face over the 7’s or s4’s just requires a little more work. i did try the ie6’s too but the 7’s sound better and are way better for riding. bikers will appreciate this. by the way if you have ears on the bigger side which most males do, the s4’s might tick you off a little with their small tips and stupid oval design, c’mon, oval design.
the ie7’s retail for like 389 but i found them for 170 new from an authorized dealer. they are built like a frickin army tank, very comfortable, lots of tips, double flanged baby, sweet box (no big deal), an amazing case, amazing! and the sound is just phenomonal, blows cx and s4 outta the way, all around, and i do believe they require a lot of burn in time( like 100+ hours) before they reach their full potential, i didnt believe this but now that i’ve reached this point they sound beter than ever. if your like me and listen to music a lot every day you might be interested in this. oh yeah they look sick too.
one more thing, you can get the ie6’s for like 20 bucks more than the s4’s on here, which are way better! big review i know, had a lot of stuff, hope you could handle it.
Excelent product
I am a long time user of Klipsch products, and these ear buds are just what I expected from Klipsch.
Klipsch Image S4 Earphones
The sound quality on these earphones is outstanding. I have a pair of Sanheiser CX300’s and they are nice but don’t even compare to these Klipsch earphones. The bass is excellent quality along with all of the mid range sounds. Very little distortion at high volume. These are not the most comfortable ear phones but they get the job done and make a good seal as long as you pick the correct size earphone buds. There are three sizes. I would not use these for exercise because of the thinness of the cable but why use a higher quality pair of ear phones in the gym where there is so much noise anyway. I really cannot comment on the noise reduction since I have not worn them in a noisy environment. That remains to be heard. I would still recommend these earphones to anybody that is looking for better sound quality at a higher price. Like they say, you get what you pay for and you get a lot of sound quality in these ear phones for the higher but not necessarily highest price.
Poor Sound
The sound quality is very poor. Other that that, they’re great. The highs are totally missing. When listening to Rae Spoon “Keep the Engine Running”, it sounds like I have earmuffs on. When I switch over to my Grado iGi earbuds, it sounds like I took the earmuffs off!
Finally, real bass
I’ve tried a lot of fairly expensive earbuds. So far, my favorite were the Bose at 100 dollars. The Bose have pretty good bass response but not really strong. The Bose are not good for air travel because they don’t block out any outside sound. I’ve found that most audiophiles are repelled by strong bass response but I like for my rock and dance music to have pounding bass. These are the first phones I’ve found that have truly pounding deep bass response. The overall sound quality isn’t as smooth and nice as the Bose, otherwise I would have rated these 5 stars instead of 4.
Disappointing and uncomfortable
After reading a great review for the Klipsch earphones on CNet, I decided to get them rather than replace another set of earphones I’d lost while traveling. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in the comfort of the earbuds, the sound quality, and the noise cancellation.
I don’t claim to be an audiophile, but the sound quality of these earphones was a bit muffled and required me to turn the music up louder than usual to adequately hear it. Even then, I could not hear some of the music detail that I could on my previous earphones.
The comfort of the earbuds was also a problem. The earphones come with different sizes of replaceable earbuds, and the standard size fit me best. But even the standard size, after about 15-20 minutes, started to get uncomfortable, almost as if the earbuds were swelling out against the inside of my ears. Despite this apparently tight fit, I noticed that the earbuds were less effective at cancelling out the noise of the train I take to and from work each day.
I have since returned these earphones, but I decided to wait to write this review until receiving the replacement pair of the old earphones I lost–a pair of Jays d-jays. Upon first listen last night, the crisp clarity of the music, even at low volume, was back. And at least for me, the earbuds are far more comfortable. The d-jays are harder to find and $20 more, but for me the additional cost is well worth it.
I Love Klipsch Speakers but not these
Out of the many sets of ear bud type headphones I own, these Klipsch are the least comfortable of all. Because there is the odd angle in which the bud fit in the ear, I am only able to listen to them for about a half hour before going back to my V-Moda’s or Sony ear buds. Also, the bass is not very well defined and lacks punch on music which I know has punchy bass. The mids are stale sounding and the highs are about right for this reviewer’s taste. I’ve owned Klipsch stereo speakers for over thirty years and thought for sure their phones would be great. But they are really not and are, in my opinion, overpriced by about $40
Awesome
Great headphones, the sound is almost perfect, great bass. Recommended for anyone that loves great sound
I liked them
Bought them at Best Buy, sorry Amazon. I tried listening to the same music and switching the ear fittings. The bass increased with the large plugs. The bass is tight, but not real deep, but I don’t know if my ears have that quality of decernment anymore now that I am older. I heard the highs and the lows, and most of all the middle was very clear and detailed. Suprisingly they sounded really good for the price, which I thought was amazing.
B+ — I bought these (shocked to be available) at Bestbuy!!!
I purchased these after seeing the overall good reviews from Amazon and the crazy review that Cnet gave it. My opinion is that they ARE worth the $80 (+tax for me) you pay for, but only if you are not a crazy audiophile. I am not one, I dunno how to be one; here is my scoop.
I have an old school 1st gen iPod, 2nd gen iPod shuffle, and a i3-330 toshiba computer (dunno if that has any effect on anything, but it is a recently bought computer), as well as a etymotics er-6i (the $70 ones) and J2 buds ($15).
I gotta say this: out of the package and wearing them right now as I type this out listening to Tik Tok by Ke$ha, they are SUPER comfortable. I mean, they are outta this world comfortable; I thought the J2’s were comfortable, holy cow, they are VERY VERY comfortable. You hardly feel them in your ears (you do a little bit, but I’m still shocked by its comfort). The er-6i is less comfortable than the J2 in my opinion, probably because of the three-flanges tip or whatever you call it. Comfort is 10/10 from the get go (I’m leaving for Boston over the weekend, so I will see if they are good for 4 or so hour flights.
The case pretty much fits the headphones nicely. No qualms about it. Cord length is a little short, which is fine, but the cord seems a little “weak” and looks like you can easily rip it apart if you got it caught on something.
Sound isolation is pretty fantastic as well. Listening to Jimmy Eat World’s Just Tonight, I’m snapping my fingers as loud as possible but still can’t here it (I have my computer at 50% and my iTunes at 50%). I can hear my finger snaps at 50% computer and 30% iTunes volume.
Oh boy, now the sound quality. It cannot compare to my friend’s Shure’s SE530, but those are in a totally different price range ($300+). The S4 has slightly better in clarity than the er-6i in respect to middle and higher ranges. The er-6i is only better in bass; to expound, the bass of the er-6i sounds BETTER. The S4 has plenty of bass (which is complete crap if someone says they don’t), but it doesn’t seem as sharp as the er-6i on some songs. It seems like the S4 bass sometimes overpowers the midrange in some songs. Some songs I am testing it out on (all iTunes bought), like FCPREMIX by The Fall of Troy and Dragonforces’ Heroes of Our Time seem sharp on bass, but other songs like Tik Tok and Empire State of Mind just seem mushy. Everything else seems great, on the same lines with the er-6i (obviously, the J2 can only compare in comfort, not with sound).
I have the exact same songs on my other two iPods. There is no recognizable differences in sound quality between the different audio sources.
Sound flippin’ fantastic (on my computer, iTunes, Flat EQ):
AAR – Another Heart Calls
Taylor Swift – Our Song, Love Story
Red Jumpsuit – Face Down
Ben Folds Five – Rockin’ the Suburbs
Tom Petty – Wildflowers
The whole Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack (He’s a Pirate is awesome, and Swords Crossed at 1:45 onward IS JUST RIDICULOUS)
Mass Effect soundtrack sounds absolutely PHENOMENAL sp? haha
Just listened to Inside the Winter Storm by Dragonforce… I think I “see” something – I think the lower midrange is overpowering. Quite similarly to Paramore’s That’s What You Get.
These are my two cents. Thanks for reading!
Update!!! —– 17Jun10 —– (I went to bestbuy to return them and get a new set, just in case there *might* have been something wrong with them)
I just got back from Boston: THE BEST headphones I have tried for plane flights; it drowned out the crying baby a few rows in front of me quite well, and were VERY VERY comfortable during the flight. The sound quality also holds up with what I typed up before.
I did return them and receive a new pair with the same stance overall with the bass: for some reason, it is still mushy with some songs, particularly hip hop, but is good for other rock songs.
Peace!