Functional but problematic

I wasn't all that impressed with these Klipsch Image S2m Headphones, due to both personal preferences when it comes to MP3 headphones, and what I saw as flaws in the product.

This was my first experience with in-ear headphones and I found that I didn't like the way they virtually cut off all outside sound. This will, of course, appeal to many, and I realize it's an actual selling point of the product. But all I could think of is that they would prevent me from hearing a runaway car barreling toward me, or a flash mob coming from around the corner.

I also wasn't crazy about having hard pieces of plastic jammed into my ear canals. And you have to really push them in deep, or else they're prone to fall out.

Finally, a more pointed criticism that's less about preference and more about the qualities of the product itself: I'm the first to admit that I'm not a sound engineer, but to me audiobooks and music sounded a bit compressed and tinny on the product. Not horrendously bad, to be sure, but not that great.

So, though it was interesting to give these a try, I think I'm going to go back to those round, spongey earbuds that sit just outside of one's ear canals. For example, I find that my Sony earbuds let enough of the outside world in, keeping me from being totally isolated from the world around me, while providing sharp yet spacious sound.

Anyway, I'll keep these around as an emergency back-up for my various other headphones, and for those times when the outside noise around me is especially loud and distracting. But otherwise, I'm afraid these headphones didn't convert me.