I already have enough in-ear headphones. But when I see a limited time promo of a mid-end Yamaha product for AUD 15 (approx USD 11.76) with free delivery, I just could not resist. Quickly checked out some reviews from Amazon and most people seemed to be reasonably satisfied with this particular product. So I bought it.
Yamaha YER-500 in-ear headphones are nice-looking headphones available in 2 color choices: black-silver and white-gold (I got myself the white-gold version). The product’s official page in Yahama website lists 13.6mm driver unit for dynamic output with strong bass, Smart Cable Holder and 6.3mm stereo adaptor as the main features.
Design
Yamaha YER-500 looks nice, but nothing really special. I like the angled earpieces, making it a bit more comfortable than some other in-ear headphones. The 1.2 m cable does not look tough enough for my liking and gets tangled very easily.
The Smart Cable Holder essentially allow us to plug the 3.5 mm jack to the other end of the headphones, believing it will prevent the cords from getting tangled. I am not even sure if someone at Yahama actually tested this. The 3.5 mm jack is L shaped, so putting it inside the Smart Cable Holder looks a bit silly and does nothing to prevent tangled cord.
Sound
After reading many good reviews on its sound quality, I almost felt immediate disappointment when I tested YER-500 for the first time. The sound was nowhere near good. The high notes were too sharp for my liking; the bass was weak. It was far different from what I read in reviews.
Then I realised that there is a small possibility it might sound better if I changed the size of its earpieces. Just like most other in-ear headphones, YER-500 comes with 3 sizes of earpieces: S, M, L with M size attached as default. So I tried the L earpieces, and this headphones sounded even worse. It got me a little hope. Changing the earpieces do give far different experience. So I tried the S earpieces. Suddenly I got a completely different experience. Finally got to experience the good sound I read previously from many reviews. The highs are detailed, but not to the point of being uncomfortable. The bass is rich, reasonably powerful but not overwhelming. It is the audio quality of many other product in $100+ price range, and this one costs under $12.
In most other products, my ear’s size is always M. Therefore I initially didn’t think about changing the earpieces. Glad that it works out well at the end.
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