On my birthday, in what I hope is not a metaphor for my turning fifty-one, my wireless LG Tone HBS 700 Bluetooth headphones finally fell apart.
These headphones have been with me since 2012. I listened to Vangelis’ Antartica on them while rounding the southern tip of South America. I listened to the Avett Brothers’ The Once and Future Carpenter on them while sipping milky tea in a coffee shop in Bangkok. I listened to Four Tet’s Morning/Evening on them during last week’s walk to work.
They’ve been thrown in backseats, stuffed in my messenger bag (which my co-workers gleefully call my “man-purse”), and dropped more times than I can count. They charge in two hours and retain that charge for what seems like thousand years. And while I still turn to my Parrot Ziks for luxury listening and noise cancellation, the lightness and portability of the LG Tone earbuds made them my go-to headphones for daily use.
So when they finally fell apart, we held a little ceremony for them, placing them in a cotton-lined cigar box and burying them out back alongside our first Tivo and our wheezing but beloved first Senseo coffeemaker. And then I hit Amazon.com, planning to order an identical pair. And I could have — people still love the 700s, noting that they sound better than the 750s — but then the LG Tone Infinim earbuds caught my eye.
Someone at LG’s been listening to customers, because the Infinim earbuds correct every little issue that bedeviled my faithful old 700s. That annoying flashing phone button? Gone — replaced by a more subtle LED that’s invisible when the headphones are worn. Controls have been miniaturized, but shaped and structured to feel more instantly recognizable to the fingertips that operate them. And — best of all — the little black wires connecting the earbuds to the wrap-around collar have been made retractable. Now, instead of having those dangle around my neck all day like high-tech pigtails, I can push a button and — zing! — the wires retract.
I took advantage of Amazon’s Same-Day Prime delivery (free!) and had them by 6:00 PM last night. And while I feel a little guilty about it (after all, my 700s have only been in that cigar box out back for less than 24 hours), I’ve fallen in love all over again with the Infinim earbuds.
They sounded a bit tinny at first, but fiddling with the built-in equalizer, switching on my iPhone’s bass boost, and swapping out the black rubber ear nubbins for a larger size took care of that. They’re light as ever. And I’m happy to report that the phone features are better than the 700s. Siri gets along with the Infinim earbuds just fine … and when I made a test call to Clyde, he couldn’t tell I was on headphones at all. (Of course, he knew I wasn’t on my iPhone, because we were sitting on opposite sides of the couch at the time.)
Only time will tell if this set will be as durable and faithful as my old 700s. But for now, it’s love at first sight (or, at first sound, I guess) — and I’m happy to recommend the LG Tone Infinim as your new “best buy” in Bluetooth earbuds.
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