I have to be honest here, before even given these headphones, me and Coby are NOT electronic friends. Whether it be mono radios, DVD players and CD players that last 2 months, bad sounding and poorly designed headphones, and bi-polar customer service, and so on, I'm not really going to be smiling if someone mentions a Coby product. And this one so on explains my dislike of the COBY brand.

Like I said, I was given these headphones, I would never buy them. They were given to me by someone who barely listens to music and who is 40 something years old. I should have already sensed if my mom gave these to me, that was already a bad sign. She has a $5 Koss pair at Wal-Mart and thinks they sound amazing. Therefore, her passing up headphones because of sound quality is a rarity, they'd have to be from the dollar store or something, yet in bold letters they read COBY. I thought, "ah, whatever, she must not like bass or something", but, no, sadly, these are some terrible headphones.

Design
Before I get into sound, which is probably what you all want to read, let me talk about the design of these, which at first glance and afterwards is poor. Yes, these are the ear-cup design, the ones with the foam padding that goes around your ear. They look slightly appealing with their gray/black scheme but don't let it fool you, these 'phones suck, both sound and design. The headband feels very weak, as if it is about to snap in half [I'm talking about the top as well]. The adjustable headband slider is very directional and slips way too easy, and moves up and down even when you're doing something as simple as taking them off. Another thing I find a bit of a problem is the cord length, which looks about 2.5 feet long. If Coby is marketing these as studio headphones, at least make a cord that's 8 feet long, yes it's annoying to portable users but studio users want that long cord. The only good thing about design is that the earpads are well on the headphones and they are very comfortable for long usage.

Sound Quality
I tested these on three different audio outputs, and these headphones gave out poor sound quality on all tests.

Bass: Probably the only good part on these headphones. The low end bass was somewhat weak, but it can handle a lot of punch and volume, therefore using these with the CD player on loud volume and bass boost wasn't much of a problem at all. The upper bass (100-300) was actually pretty flat and sounded natural enough for me. If only the mids and highs sounded like this *sigh*. Bass on rap and hip-hop sounded very good and rich, without a tight shrill but more of a laid-back true bass sound.

Mids: Yuck, how can I possibly explain the mids of this pair of headphones. The mids sounded way too emphasized, the lower mids (400-1000) sounded like I was listening to AM radio, they weren't terrible, but very badly overpowered. The upper mids (1000-4000) were almost the opposite, as if that's were it cuts off on the high end. They were overly recessed.

Highs: Unacceptable. Highs would best be described as completely absent, especially on the CD player where there was no way to fix it. They sounded like those stereos in the 60's where you couldn't hear half of what was supposed to be there.

Portability
While they look pretty small in the picture, they are actually very big, the size of typical full-sized headphones.

Pricing
I had to look this one up because they were just given to me. They are typically priced between $7-$10 online. I don't know abotu you, but I'd rather spend an extra $10 to get a decent Sony pair.

The Bottom Line
I doubt I'll be using these at all. Although they are pretty comfortable, that's the only positive I can say about it. The sound is extremely unbalanced, the design is poor and they don't seem like they could handle a whole lot. Are these the worst on the market? Possibly. They sound honestly that bad. I've purchased some from the dollar store [I'm talking about the 99 cents only store] that have sounded more up to par than these. Not recommended in the slightest.

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Recommended: No