Now that I’ve had a couple days with the Turbines, I think it’s time for a full review.

I’m sad to say that my initial praise may have been premature having listened to a few CDs (I had to open up moving boxes in my apt to find one) and comparing these against my Shure SCL3s and Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pros. I also brought in my secret weapon Dave R. to consult. He’s a professional sound engineer who specializes in monitors and has toured with The Cure, The Used, Linda Ronstadt, Interpol, Yellowcard and Fall Out Boy, so he knows this stuff inside and out.

With any in-ear monitor the biggest challenge is to find a tip that actually isolates and blocks everything out. I’ve found that foam tips work best, but the Turbines come with two types (trees and mushrooms) each having three sizes. You might as well skip the mushrooms because they don’t block anything out.

The Turbines impressed me because the highs snapped hard without any distortion, but the low-end just drops out. I found one track where the low-end could be felt, but couldn’t replicate that feeling or experience with any other track that I know has lots of low-end bass. Dave’s first response was just that, so we went through a number of tracks before concluding that the Turbines missed the mark there. I will, however, continue to try and replicate the thump I felt from Akon’s “I Wanna Love You.” But, as I said before, the highs snap and kick much ass.

Monster’s first effort into the in-ear monitor is a good start, but they’ve got some work to do. Compared to my Shures (these aren’t perfect, but they sound great from low to high) and UEs (these are amazing) the Turbines lack the full body experience. If Monster is as passionate about the true audiophile experience as Kevin Lee says they are, then I’m sure they can scale the experience down to an in-ear monitor. But for now, the Turbines are not it. Monster really needs to start making custom ear moldings for their monitors to take advantage of the drivers that are powering the Turbines. It’s the only way to get a proper seal. The Beats by Dr. Dre, on the other hand, are fantastic.

It’s become apparent that Monster is getting into the high-end audiophile game with the launch of the Beats earlier in the year and now the in-ear Turbine ‘speakers’. I’ve only had an hour or two to check them out, but I can honestly say that I’m pleasantly surprised at the performance of the Turbines thus far.

I’ve always been a proponent that you shouldn’t be doing something you’re not passionate about and Kevin Lee, Noel Lee’s son, is obviously passionate about what he does and I have the utmost respect for that.

“My father and I have always wanted to make a headphone that didn’t sound like a “headphone”. We have the up most respect for all the headphone companies that are in business, because we now know it is not easy. That said, we are humbly proud of what we’ve achieve in Monster Turbines. We only hope everyone else agrees”

You can really tell the difference between these and the shitty earbuds you get pre-packaged with all the MP3 players on the market like Apple and Microsoft’s earbuds. The Turbines really are high-end-like audiophile buds at a price point that’s not outrageous at $150.

The mid-range is crisp, but I’ve mainly been paying attention to the lows and highs. It really thumps on the low-end bass and reminds me of my high school days when I had a high-end stereo system in my car. The highs don’t get distorted when you crank up the volume like they do on other earbuds.

However, the Turbines aren’t going to replace your super high-end Shures or Etymotics with custom molded tips, but they do a very good job of isolating outside noise with the tips that are provided. Like I said before, you’ll notice the difference when playing higher bit rate tracks.

We’ll have a full review when I get a chance to use them on some more high-end tracks than what I have on my iPhone or laptop. But I like them so far and I’m used to high-end in-ears if that tells you anything.

Brisbane, CA, November 11, 2008 – Monster, well known for working with legendary
musicians on countless productions recorded with Monster Cable and Monster Power
products, is proud to announce the introduction of its new “Turbine In-Ear Speakers,” the
world’s first high-performance in-ear headphones with specially engineered drivers that deliver
impeccable audiophile-quality sound.

With the ever-increasing popularity of portable media devices, more and more people are using
headphones for music listening, making them the most important connection between people and
their music. Monster’s new Turbine In-Ear Speakers were personally designed by the Head
Monster Noel Lee, undergoing three years of rigorous research, development, and refinement.
The advanced design and engineering of Monster Turbines offer music lovers a new way to
enjoy big speaker sound in a compact in-ear headphone design.

Sound So Big We Had To Call Them Speakers
Monster Turbine In-Ear Speakers feature 8mm drivers precision-engineered for superb sonic
detail that delivers the big sound, deep bass, and clarity that you’d expect from full size high-end
speakers. To further enhance the listening experience, a selection of sound isolating eartips in
multiple sizes offer a secure custom fit to seal out unwanted external noise. In addition, the
advanced metal housing design minimizes unwanted vibration for even clearer sound.
Monster’s advanced cable technologies also enable Turbines to deliver superior performance.
Patented FluxTube delivers more accurate audio, while MicroStrand conductors ensure
maximum cable flexibility and better signal transfer.

Noel Lee, Head Monster, noted: “Life is too short to listen to bad headphones. Unfortunately,
ordinary headphones simply can’t reproduce the deep bass and rich highs of full-size speaker
systems. Monster is on a mission to make headphones sound better, and our new Turbine In-Ear
Speakers allow people to hear truly remarkable sound from in-ear headphones. Hearing is
believing. After all, the human ear can discern much more than any technical measuring device,
and the performance of Monster Turbines needs to be heard to be believed.”

Monster Turbine In-Ear Speakers will be rolled out in limited production beginning in
November, for a suggested retail price of $149.95 per pair. The debut of Turbine In-Ear Speakers
is part of Monster’s commitment to improve the quality of the portable audio experience,
complementing the company’s recent introduction of Beats™ by Dr. Dre™ , a brand new line
of headphones co-developed with legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre.

Still, it’s impressive: for less than $200 all-inclusive, the guy has built a fully-functional wind turbine with enough juice to power his laptop. You could probably pay about five times that to have one built and installed, or perhaps not make every single piece from scratch if you wanted to spend a little more, but my hero here has shown us how to do it from the ground up. I can make nachos from the ground up!

If it seems like everybody is starting their own virtual world, it is because they are. A report put out today by Virtual Worlds Management tracks $161 million put into 14 virtual-world investments during the second quarter of 2008. In the first quarter there was even more activity, with $184 million put into 23 virtual worlds and supporting technology companies. That brings the total this year alone to $345 million across 37 deals. Some notable deals (you can see the full lists by clicking on the last two links above):

Second Quarter 2008

Grockit——————-MMO Learning Game——-$8 million——-Integral Capital and Benchmark

Nurien Software——–3D social networking——-$15 million——-Northern Light, Globespan, NEA

PrimeSense————-Gestural Interface———-$20.4 million—–Led by Canaan Partners

Realtime Worlds———-MMOG Developer———$50 million——–Maverick Capital, NEA

Stanford Parallel —-Parallel Processing————–$6 million——-Sun Microsystems, AMD, Nvidia, IBM,
Processing Lab for Virtual Worlds HP, and Intel

Turbine———————-MMOG——————-$40 million————–Time Warner and GGV Capital

First Quarter 2008

9You———–Virtual World/Casual Games——$100 million——–Temasek Holdings

Dizzywood —————Youth World————— $1 million——-Shelby Bonnie, Charles River Ventures

EveryScape————— Mirror World————–$7 million——–Dace, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Fix8 ———————- Avatar Content————$2 million ——–SK Telecom

Gizmoz ——————- Avatar Creation ———- $6.5 million——-DoCoMo Capital, ngi group

iOpener ——————–Mixed Reality ————-$6 million———Triangle Venture Capital

Sparkplay Media——Casual MMO with Games—–$4.25 million—–Redpoint, Prism Ventureworks

Unisfair ——————–Virtual Events Platform—–$10 million——-Norwest, Sequoia Capital