The iHarmonix Platinum i-Series stereo earphones for the iPhone [$59.95 - Store Link] are sleek, lightweight, and stylish with great sound quality. To find out more, follow us after the break!

The earphones comes with a right and left specific earbuds, three different sized ear gels, and a small velvet carrying pouch. The plug is 3.5 mm and fits easily and securely into my iPod touch, old-school iPod and iPhone. The three different sized gels -- small, medium, and large -- allows everyone to customize the fit for to suit their own ear size. I have a lot of discomfort with large earbuds so I choose to use the smallest sized gel. It fit comfortably and did not feel like it was going to dislodge even when I was dancing (I can't dance so no video but for the curious, it looks something like this). The carrying pouch is a wonderful addition, though I usually let them run wild in my purse or put them in the side zipper of my Golla bag.

The microphone hangs off of the wire where the two earphones converge, which is well positioned for talking on the phone or recording sound. Its position on the earphone wire also makes it easy to find even when you are wearing bulky clothing. Its rounded form also makes it less likely to get caught on your clothing and dislodge the earbuds, something I find endlessly annoying. The microphone is also a multi-function button that's able to send your phone calls, hang up and pause your music. It has a nice click to it, so you are well aware when it has been pressed and won't mistakenly double-click and end a call after it has been just sent. Every now and then I do mistakenly press the decorative nameplate which hangs further down the earphone wire. This could have been easily fixed by having the nameplate be a different shape or placing the logo on the actual microphone button.

The most important aspect, of course, is sound quality. These earphones pack a punch in the sound department and are small enough to keep with your iPhone at all times. The base is surprisingly strong for earphones of this size and sounded clearer than many earphones I have tried which were much more costly. The microphone picks up sound with incredible accuracy and when I used it for phone calls people were unable to tell I was using a mic.

All in all if you are looking for a good set of earphones that are portable and do not skimp on the sound department then iHarmonix Platinum i-Series stereo earphones are the ones to get. They sound great and look stylish while doing it. They make a great gift for that special someone in your life, and the brushed stainless steel matches any case or accessory.

The iHarmonix Platinum i-Series stereo earphones are in stock and available now from the TiPb iPhone accessory store.

Disclaimer: the earphones were provided for review by TiPb’s iPhone accessory store.

Slacker's music catalog has reached well over 2 million tracks. If you've been living with your ears in the offline sand, here's the skinny:

Slacker is an Internet radio service allowing users to create their own customized music stations starting with either Slacker's preset stations or their own custom built stations. Slacker offers many traditional genre, specialty and artist stations pre-made by professional DJs like "Today's Hits", "80's, 90's and Today", "Country", etc. while also letting users build entire stations of specific artists just by typing in their name. Users can continue to evolve any of these stations by rating favorite songs and banning artists or songs. Stations can also be fine tuned to play older or newer music, more hits or more eclectic music all through the intuitive interface at Slacker.com.

To celebrate their achievement, and TiPb's Birthday Bash, we're teaming up together to not only offer 1 FREE YEAR of Slacker Plus service, but a brand new pair of iharmonix Platinum i-Series Stereo Earphones to listen with -- courtesy of the TiPb iPhone Store.

How do you win this one-two-combo punch of prize-ness? Remember our Birdhouse Twitter Notebook give-away from earlier today? This is part two of the same contest. If you entered that, you entered this! If not, what are you waiting for?!

5 chances to win a great app, 1 chance to win a great Slacker Plus radio service AND great set of earphones for FREE! Get to 'em!

• Must have a Slacker Radio account. They're free, so if you don't, go get one.
• Must be able to receive Slacker Radio service, which is US-only.
• Contest is already started! Finishes same time too! Go read them previous rules!

The iPhone and music pretty much go hand and hand. Your music deserves to be played through a more than decent stereo headset, one that can deliver clear, clean, crisp sound at any volume. That said, I jumped at the chance to try out the iharmonix Pro i-Series Stereo Headset and put it through some serious usage. You can purchase this exact headset right in TiPb's very own store, for the low price of $39.95. Honestly, I did not know what to expect while waiting for UPS to drop these babies off but I will admit, I was pleasantly surprised. For a full review, read on after the break!

Design

Lets start out by taking a look at the Pro i-Series design. All in all, I am fairly impressed with its build quality. Is it as fancy as some of the higher priced headsets out there? Not at all, but for a $39 it's not to be scoffed at. The quality is definitely sturdy enough to last for the life of your phone. The headset’s wires are designed fairly well with a thickness and coating that keeps them from getting tangled easily. That would be good news for all of you who are jamming them into your pockets. It is also important to note that they are about 4 inches longer than the stock Apple headset.

Also included is an in-line microphone with an end and send button. You can use the same button to pause, skip tracks, etc., just like you are able to with the headset included with the iPhone.

Iharmonix even tossed in two different earbud sets so that ears of all sizes get the perfect fit. The memory foam earbuds, which you compress with your fingers and put into your ears, were difficult to insert but I did get them to fit. The rubber earbuds on the other hand were way more comfortable for me. Granted this all depends on your ears and what you prefer.

With every aspect of it' design being positive up until this point, I did I manage to find one negative. Compared to the Apple headset, the 3.5 mm headset plug stands out a bit more than I am comfortable with and does not offer any flex or give if it were to be bumped or tugged on. I've always been a bit leary with any headset I've used for the simple fact that, with one good whack or tug, you are bound to end up with a crack in the plastic around your iPhone's 3.5 mm jack. So that is something that should have been taken into consideration. Other than that one minor concern, iharmonix did a really nice job designing this particular headset.

Usability

Now this is where the Pro i-Series shines. Out of all the headsets I have used since getting my first iPhone I can tell you that you will be hard pressed to find one that will outperform this headset, especially in this price range. The sound quality while listening to music is definitely splendid. You get good bass and more importantly it is clear and heavy without getting distorted at higher levels. As is the case with similar headsets, the bass does not take away from the mids or the treble, so the balance is spot-on at low or high volumes. For all you fans of Dieter and Mike, who star in TiPb's Phone Different Podcast, you'll be really pleased to know voices come across superbly.

Color me impressed. You will not get a better bang for the buck than this.

That brings us to call quality. The Pro i-Series is very good. For the most part, the person on the other end of the call sounds very natural and there's very little background noise. Most of the time friends told me I sounded loud and clear. There were a few instances that I was told I sounded distant but overall that was far and few between.

Conclusion

If you have been looking for a modest replacement for headphones that come with the iPhone, I would not hesitate to pick these up. Sure there are other headphones out there that outperform the Pro i-Series but you better be ready to fork over $100 plus. For $39.95, you really can't beat the overall quality of the iharmonix Pro i-Series Stereo Headset.

Pros

• Excellent quality for the price
• It's cheap!

Cons

• Lack of flex in 3.5 mm plug
• Earbuds may not fit comfortably depending on your ears

TiPb Accessory Review Rating