[Gadgets] Urbanears Kransen Headphones

The other weekend I received these Urbanears Krasen in-ear headphones from the Digits Trading Corporation for review purposes and it's only now that I've gotten a chance to write about this little accessory. And in the headphones market. I have to admit that I'll always favor the superior sound experience offered by in-ear solutions versus bulkier external headphones.

And this particular pair of headphones is proving to be quite a lovely addition to the roster and one that I appreciate a lot more in terms of its overall sound quality, even when compared to the Urbanears Humlan headphones. They really did something right here.


The Urbanears Kransen headphones are a pretty robust pair of in-ear headphones that come in a wide variety of colors. The unit you see here is in clover green and other colors include citrus yellow, cobalt blue, and pumpkin orange. It retails for about PHP 1,950.00 and is widely available across Digits Tradings retail partners.

Now I'll be the first to admit that a lot of headphones on the market all seem pretty similar. There's only so much that one can do to innovate the design of headphones and really come up with a way to make it somehow better or at least distinct from the competition.

The Urbanears Kransen headphones contains a number of interesting differences.

First, the headphone cord consists of two styles. The larger section of the headphone cable is composed of the softer nylon material that we're seeing in a lot more headphones and audio devices these days. And I'll admit I'm a fan of this material. But closer to the ear buds (past the ball join where the wires split into two) consists of the more traditional rubbery plastic material. It's an interesting choice and I assume it was done to leverage the superior strength of each of the materials for the different functions.

One simple innovation of these headphones is the fact that the two ear buds can connect to one another to make for more efficient storage when not in use. It means that you won't necessarily have the deal with the two ear buds flapping around like crazy in your bag or wherever you stow it. And yes, they decided to give this feature a name - SnapConstruction.

The bigger innovation is the integration of a cord clip into the design. In this case, the plug consists on a highly reinforced and yet flexible section that can loop back into itself. So you can loop for headphones together, then lock them in place without additional pieces. The Urbanears Monocle had the same locking concept, but only had it as a separate component. This CableLoop design as they call it saves you the hassle of juggle a tiny cord since the solution is already part of the base unit.

Beyond all those bells and whistles, the real question is sound quality. And in this case, the results are pretty good indeed. As far as in-ear headphones go, these are some of the most comfortable ear buds that I've ever had the pleasure of using. Beyond comfort, they sound great with a steady, clean sound that still takes advantage of the ntative Beats Audio enhancements for my HTC One. And yes, there's a distinct difference between keeping the Beats mode on or off.

It still features a built-in microphone and the basic one-button toggle to trigger your mobile device's native music player with one click. A double-click causes your phone to call the last dialed number immediately.

The Urbanears Kransen headphones are a great headphone solution, especially if you like in-ear headphones like I do. This is a pretty superior product and one of the few times that I feel it's actually worth the somewhat lofty retail price. It gets a solid 5 out of 5.