After being impressed with the House of Marley’s Redemption Song On-Ear headphones we have now spent some time with their Zion In-Ear head phones. These follow in the same style as the Redemption Song headphones and are made of recycled or renewable materials. They also follow in the trend of being tuned for high quality sound and are designed for use with Apple’s lineup of products (iPad, iPod, iPhone) but will work with just about any media player or smart phone (with a few exceptions). With a price tag of $99.99 we are hoping that these headphones give us the same level of performance that we saw with the Redemption Song. Follow the bouncing ball and sing along as we tell your just how well they perform.
The House of Marley Zion in-ear Headphones -The House of Marley built the Zion In-Ear headphones using the same principles that were used with the Redemption Song headphones. Aluminum, Wood and fabric all help to reduce interference with the audio reproduction while the16 ohm, 9mm moving coil driver and neodymium micro speaker nestled inside a tuned channel makes sure the audio provided has a live quality to it. The frequency response of this combination is an impressive 10 Hz to 22 KHz.Just like the Redemption Song headphones we were surprised by the weight as most in-ear products are very light. The Zion has a little bit more to them, but not enough to make them uncomfortable to use. The Aluminum back also has a nice sculpted shape that makes putting them in your ears easier. We found that they simply twisted into place and stayed there. We did not had to push them into our ears like was have with other headphones before. Although the combination of wood and brushed aluminum is quite nice looking (we had several questions about them) it also serves to reduce unwanted vibrations in the headphones (this reduces the “mud” in the sound as well).The fabric covered cord is designed to help reduce static in the line so that you do not have electronic noise in your music. Along the cord the House of Marley put in a three button control module and microphone. This has options for volume and also to answer calls. Although the volume controls only work on Apple devices, the call button (the center one with the HOM logo) does allow you to connect and disconnect calls on any phone. The call quality is very good (surprisingly) although wind did appear to affect the mic more than we liked. Overall we the Zion in-ear headphones are just as impressive as the Redemption Song are from a design and construction standpoint.
