Venture Electronics VE MONK Plus earbud earphone

Ok... The pros.I have a lot of head/earphones but regularly use: koss portapro(mod treble and yaxi pads), sennheiser ie80s (by+wired), sennheiser hd599 and 560s. Audeze sine's, Shure aonic 50's, lots of kz's, akg k702, master and dynamics MW07... Etc!!!! All played with ak70, fiio x7, shanling UA1Pros:Very old school sound! Massive smile listening to ratm! I have not listened to old rock for a long time as newer headphones just don't sound right. However, these are so familiar, I can't help but smile...The sound is rich, not deep bass unless you press them into your ear or have bigger ears that I do. However the bass is nice and hollow! Yes, not very tight and these can experience clipping at higher levels, but the sound is fun, exciting, dynamic and incredibly open. I really like these for rock.If you are younger, I'm not sure these will make any sense, but for me at 45 these just take me back to my old sennheisers in the 90s (I believe these are old sennheisers! The design has obviously been bought by venture and rebranded. Even to logo looks like sennheiser but edited slightly. These in the 90s represented some of the best buds and it's still true now. (In terms of the retrospective sq)Soundstage is great!!!! Very relaxed but with some hollow punch. Definately offer an out of the ear experience with clear, if not the richest treble, but with the right music just sound right!Cons.The fit isn't great. Very comfortable as long as you can deal with the nice hollow sq. However, if you want banging, tight, dynamic bass then these will drive you crazy! You will be constantly be trying to push them into your ear canal.The bass is also quite slow so drub and bass, electronica sounds quite muddy and washy. At lower volumn the headphones do better.Conclusion.I would recommend these for rock and acoustic (they do work with everything else, but due to the hollow bass and open soundstage offer more gratification for certain genres)You should buy, let them burn in for an hour and then wack rage on and let yourself drift away to the 90s...I am reviewing with the price in mind and treating these as something fun and different, not something to replace my other phones.

I ended up getting these because my usual brand had stopped making non-noise cancelling earphones. I have sensory issues that make it extremely uncomfortable for me to use noise cancelling ones, and I'm terrified of losing expensive wireless earbuds, so it's really good to see some sellers are still making the old kind.I've been using these earphones for two days now. Sound quality is pretty good. I was expecting them to be a bit uncomfortable as they are hard plastic, but I've been wearing them for several hours at a time with no pain or discomfort. They even came with a bag of optional foam caps, but I haven't needed them so far.If I had any improvements, I would suggest maybe some silicone caps for the earphones instead of foam - they're much easier to keep clean. Other than that, these are some really good headphones and great value for money.

Very detailed sound - some say lacking in bass, but the bass has detail and nuance that bassier earphones don't have.Not ideal for walking about as they are not "in-ear monitors", but I actually prefer this now, I miss my old MX500s!!Fantastic for listening to music at home, they are my favourite for critical listening (I actually don't own any better headphones now, from experience I think I'd need to spend over £50 to match these).I had other pricier IEMs (CCA) that sounded so muddy in comparison that I sent them back.No DAC needed for these to sound fantastic if you have a 3.5mm jack on pretty much any modern multimedia device (sound great from my cheap Cubot phone, and PC). I did try them with a cheap 32bit USB C DAC but the noise floor was higher and the only advantage was increased volume. The volume control needs to be set higher on these than with other earphones, but they could still damaged your ears at full volume so really a DAC should not be needed.

As someone who enjoys hi-fi but can't justify spending £200 on a pair of earphones, I was looking for a new set as a reward for finishing some exams. I saw a review of the MONK on Head-fi, and thought it was worth a go, given the low price. I was very, very impressed with them. As soon as I starting listening, I couldn't help smiling. The sound clarity is detailed and better than any earphones I've used before, the soundstage and immersion is fantastic, the balance is slightly warm but not too bass-heavy (unlike many other earphones). To hear that sound coming out of a very ordinary-looking earbud was a very pleasant surprise. While it looks cheap, the build quality is actually decent, and they look like they'll last for a while. I would happily buy three other pairs to last me the next ten years. If you care about musicality rather than head-pounding bass, these are a great choice and incredible value for money.