Accessorize Me: Radtech Procable iPhone headphone review

The last time I spoke to you about iPhone (review) headphones was to warn you about the V-Moda Vibe Duo headphones. After that failure I went looking for another solution, in the meantime I went through my fourth pair of Apple's iPhone headphones. I finally settled on Radtech's Procable headphones, which purported to provide noise isolation technology and a microphone and button that allows you to use the headphones just like Apple's headphones. All this at a pretty reasonable price of $24.95.
Despite the fashionable shots on the website when you take the Procable headphones out of the packaging you realize that you've got a fairly cheap pair of headphones on your hand. In actual use, however, they worked rather well. The gel tips, they come with two sizes, did a good job of blocking out ambient noise, even on the subway. As I mentioned in the V-Moda Vibe Duo review I'm no audiophile so take my impression of quality with a grain of salt, but it was good enough for me, certainly no worse than the headphones the iPhone came with. The microphone did a solid job, no complaints from those on the other end of the call like I got with the iPhone's original headphones. The button, which is prone to breakage on the original iPhone headphones, also held up well.

What didn't hold up so well, unfortunately, were the earbuds. After about two weeks of use the tip of one of the earbuds came off. I'm not talking about the replaceable gel, I'm talking about the plastic bit the gel gets stuck to. I was able to glue it back on and it didn't give me any more problems. I did run into a second problem when I went to clean the headphone gels a couple of weeks later. During the simple operation of removing the gel they ripped. Now you can go out and get replacement gels from Radtech for $4.95, but come on, they should hold up for more than a month's use.

Despite the problems I have to say that the headphones are probably a better value than either the original iPhone headphones or the V-Mode Vibe Duo headphones. The problems I encountered are not very difficult or expensive to fix, unlike the broken button on the original iPhone headphones or the faulty cable on the V-Moda Vibe Duos. Basically you get what you pay for here, expect to pay for some replacement gels and perhaps do some gluing, but otherwise anyone whose not an audiophile will probably do just fine with the Radtech Procable headphones.