It seems to be the growing trend nowadays for rappers to launch their own headphone range and 50 Cent, the rapper-turned-business tycoon who has his hands in more pots than Alan Titchmarsh was not one to shy away from expanding his empire through audio equipment.
Introducing the Street by 50 Cent over-ear wired headphones, a mouthful as well as an earful! These are perhaps the more traditional pair of the SMS Audio range; consider these the iPod Classics, the Timberland boots, the Aston Martins of the audio world. No fuss and a notable lack of gimmick attached. They do what they’re supposed to do and they do it exceptionally well.
The actual ear cups are perhaps larger than other rival headphones but the design, the colour scheme and the curvaceous structure of the product prevent these from looking like an eye-sore or some sort of contraption protruding from your head. Far from it, these look slick and sexy. More importantly, they’re snug and they’re comfortable for relatively long periods of time. They’re sturdy too as 50 Cent himself has championed in a number of videos, you can twist and bend these headphones with all your might and they’re unlikely to deform or break.
Of course, you might want to take a break from listening to your music, sit them around your neck and you’ll hardly notice them, they look professional and unassuming almost like a fashion accessory.
So what about sound quality?
50 Cent says he wants to be able to hear studio quality music on the go and the claim is that this is what SMS Audio provides. If you know what studio quality sounds like then you’ll be able to appreciate these headphones. The mechanism amplifies the instruments you would not have noticed before and gives the music a more vibrant flavour with a heavy dose of bass. To me, it sounds like the vocals are barely tampered with, apart from giving you that surround sound sort of feel, you’ll still be able to hear your favourite artists belt out their tunes the way they’re supposed to.
If you’re making the transition from earphones to over-ear headphones, I’d say this is the best place to start. It’s easy to follow the crowd and assume that the most talked about headphones are inevitably going to be best for you but my advice would be to test them first. Everybody’s perception of sound and the way they like to hear their music is slightly different, if you have very bass-heavy music in your mp3 player then you might look to a set that specialises in that. However, SMS Audio are great in balancing everything, giving the listener a real studio experience, every instrument is amplified and becomes an individual aspect even in the most hectically created compositions. They’re stylish, they do the job and they encourage philanthropy as every purchase of an SMS Audio headset equals 250 meals donated to the charity Feeding America. This aligns with 50 Cent’s existing efforts to reduce world hunger through his Street King Energy Drink which has received worldwide praise.
While I have only had the opportunity to experience one element of Curtis Jackson’s audio range, it’s really exciting to hear about the other products available such as the wireless headsets which allow users to listen to music from an impressive distance away from the music source. So if you’re after a more technologically tantalizing audio experience with features galore then 50 has just the thing in store for you! These ought to be available in the UK very soon.
Buy Street By 50 Cent Over Ear Headphones fro £199 from argos.co.uk
Words by Riky Bains
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