RHA SA950i On-Ear Portable Headphone with Remote, Titanium Speakers

Accidentally purchased these ... but decided to keep them. The amazingly incompetent USPS said they delivered them but they never did. USPS actual words were, "If we say we delivered them, we did!" Thank God we have video cameras because we were able to see they never did. Regardless contacted RHA and the company immediately sent another set to us ... via USPS 2-3 days service. Amazingly, USPS were still just as incompetent and 13 days later FINALLY got some headphones!The sound is very good. The quality is very good. The only con that I can think of after 3 days of using them is that they do not articulate forward and backwards. This makes the soft and comfortable ear piece apply more pressure to the back of your ear than the front. If only they articulated a bit, the pressure would be applied equally. Having a meat head probably doesn't help. I suppose I could buy another set of Bose, but the sound quality of these is almost as good .. just slightly less comfortable.Dec 27, 2014 (up-date)OK so I've used these quite a bit over the past couple of weeks since I got them. I like the sound, not here to debate the frequency range or bass level I will simply say that they meet my needs and sound flawless to my ears ... especially for the price. However ...Now that I've worn them for a while I will say that I am more and more disappointed in the positioning of the earpieces. Hey designers ... did none of you actually try putting these on? I want to wear them ... I really do but after about a half hour the fact that the earpiece don't articulate (or rock) forward and backwards means they don't truly sit on you ear. Rather they clamp down on the back of your ear making your ears hurt. Truly disappointing and I must take a star off. They could be great but instead they're good ... for short periods time or for people that have no actual ears for the muffs to sit on.On a petty doesn't impact the quality, I'm not a fan of the shiny black plastic. Easily scratched and easy to smudge up with finger prints. No stars lost just my personal opinion on looks.

These things fit funny, are small, and need custom manipulating to get them comfortable. They also happen to have a sound that pleases, a beautiful and clear sonic delivery. I forcefully bent my upper head strap so that the phones would cease gripping my head like a vice. Once done, the phones became pleasingly comfortable. Mine fit better left and right reversed, so that I look for the L and place that on my right ear. If I try right on right/left on left, the phones open up slightly forward and away from my ear allowing sound to escape (this was true before I bent them to fit). Left on right makes them conform to my ears perfectly. The ear cups do not swivel on their vertical axis and so must me wrestled with a bit to get the comfort and sound you want. Now I find this all somewhat irritating but then I sit back and listen and I forget where I am, what planet I'm on. Purchase these for the sound and get ready to bend them and fight them for a good comfortable fit. I think these things offer audiophile sound and this justifies the other aspects of the owner experience. Mine are not fully broken in yet and the sound is still awesome. I'll be replacing the 3.5 jack cord as it is also quirky and not completely compatible with devices that readily take my other headphone jacks without complaint. Again, an oddity that in no way diminishes the listening experience. I hope this sheds light on your interest in these headphones. I found the revues intriguing, and I was compelled to purchase them in spite of their strange fit and small stature. You'll find their sound quality unique and enjoyable.UPDATE: April 7, 2014My son is nine and is now using these headphones for his iPad mini. He loves them and enjoys the quality sound. They fit him far better than they fit me. He still has to put the right cup on the left ear, but this is a small issue.

I would have liked to have given these headphones a score of 4 or 5 but, unfortunately, I was not all too happy with how the package arrived. It was nice that it came in a protective air-filled envelope, but the box itself showed that someone along the way tried to pry open the box from the top, instead of at the side where RHA provided an easy open corner for this purpose (it even had an arrow saying "Open" which was hard to miss). Whoever was the idiot who did it pulled too hard and tore the top where the tab pushes under.Honestly, if this happened at the fulfillment center, I wish that they changed my item for a new one at that point. Now, while the headphones functions as it should and seems to sound okay, I'm left with the kind of feeling people get when they think their brand new device is actually used or refurbished. It's a good thing these come with a 3-year warranty, else I'd be sending it back ASAP.Update: I appreciate how RHA customer service is concerned with their product image and is concerned in improving the quality of what they provide. For this, I'm bumping up my review from 2 to 4, trusting that what happened to me was a fluke. Again, the device itself functions as expected and is a pleasure to use.

I'm a bit of a headphone geek and have many pairs in my collection so I have some reference point from which to compare these. I bought them a few years ago, was disappointed and put them away. I had the misfortune to stumble across them again today and decided to give them a second chance.These are probably the worst headphones I have ever used, in every respect bar none. Starting with the cable - it is braided with a material of such poor quality that it frays, causes kinks that cant be removed and rubs on clothing causing microphonic noises that interfere with the music. The earpieces do not sit on the ears correctly and there is an angle between each earpiece and the ear that allows external noise and air to leak through and the design means they cannot be bent into place as they spring back to the same position. The ear cushions are coated in what can only be described as bin-bag material (but thinner) - it flakes off and sticks to your ears and is the thinnest coating I have ever seen. There is a very small amount of cushioning on the earpieces meaning that you can feel the frame of the headphones on your ears. The earpieces are held onto the headband by what looks like a bent clothes hanger, and that is the most premium part of the design! The headband has more cushioning on the outside (facing up into the sky) than on the inside, and the cable is secured to the frame by something similar to an elastic band but of poorer quality.The sound quality is so poor that words cannot be discerned, and that's with podcasts! With music you can hardly tell that there is a vocalist as they are so muffled that it all blends in to form a mushy noise. Bass and treble are mostly absent, and vocals are recessed.RHA should be ashamed to have taken a sub-standard Chinese headphone and rebranded it and claimed its British. What a load of rubbish.

My RHA SA950i's have lasted 4 years. That actually surprised me when i checked the order date. I use them every day, a lot. They get thrown around and shoved in my bag, worse still dragged back out again. Wind rain and shine.The sound they produce is stunning. The reason i'm writing this is that i've just splashed out on a pair of Bowers and Wilkins PX, and to be honest, they really don't sound much better than the RHA's. Those RHA's are so clear and have such a punch to them. Treble is crystal clear and the bass is beautiful. The pair i own do still work but they really are coming to the end of their life. It's a shame when you find such a good product, only to discover that it's been discontinued. I'm really not a fan of earphones, which is all RHA seem to produce nowadays, they tend to fall out of my ears.Come on RHA, bring these bad boys back!

My introduction to the brand and I've never looked back. Clear and a good amount of bass for music, these still aren't as punchy as ear buds but I'm impressed for this style of headphone when using my iPod Touch. Use an equaliser app to maximise the sound these produce!Light and comfortable to wear, although as a glasses wearer they press them into the sides of your head after a while. Unavoidable for this style of headphone though.Have lasted 5 years and the pads are just starting to deteriorate. Cable is nice and long and detachable at the bottom of the left earphone too.

I received these a few days ago and have had about 4 hours use out of them so far, so they are not fully burned in yet, if the sound changes once they are I will update this review.Thanks to working in Hi-Fi in the past, I've had the chance to play with headphones ranging from throw away £5 pairs to high end £500+ so have a good feel for what you can expect at the various price points. The headphones themselves arrived in excellent packaging, which is an odd thing to highlight first, but I was quite impressed. The box was easy to get into and empty out, and there was no fighting with excess ties, sealed plastic or other assorted hassles. Its not often you get that these days.,The build quality is quite high, they are surprisingly light, but fairly solid. The cups are easy to slide up and down the headband, and the materials used are good for the price level. The cups themselves are a little smaller than I was expecting, but cover my (slightly large) ears well enough. The headband seems a little tight, I'm not sure if this is something that slacken over time, but they are very slightly uncomfortable as a result. I wouldn't say they are painful by any means, but when you first put them on you are aware of the pressure. This isn't uncommon with full cans though as they do need to form a decent seal to your ears, as the cups only rotate vertically however you are aware of a little more pinching at the back of your ears than if they had also gone with a dual rotation.The sound quality is (so far) a bit of a mixed bag. Don't get me wrong, as I said they are not fully burned in yet, and I don't expect miracles out of headphones at this price. The high and mid range are well balanced, vocals and guitars are well presented without being over bright or harsh. the low end however is a little muddier that I would have expected, as a result bass, drums, and piano's tend to fall a little further back in the compositions that I would like. This is the part I expect to change over time though as they see more use. I should point out that these headphones are aimed at a neutral (not monitor however) range so if you are looking for a "Beats" style boom, you should look at something else, if you want a hi-Fi sound this is right in the ballpark.Out and about, I do like that there is little to no cable noise. I know you shouldn't expect there to be with over headphones, quite a few still drop the ball on that side of things. The cable itself is wrapped in a decent braid, and is detachable from the cans, so if it ever develops a weak link it can be swapped out which will certainly extend the life span. The remote is only of limited use for me as I have a Nexus 4 rather than an iPhone, but two of the controls still work. You can pause/play and use voice commands, and they still work as a hands free headset, I haven't tried answering a call with them yet. The volume controls, and forward/rewind don't work, but the remote is intended for iPhones so I didn't expect them to, the fact that I get any functionality is a plus.Its also important to point out that they are a long way off of noise cancelling. You WILL hear the outside world, which depending on what you want will be a plus or minus. They do have a little sound bleed at higher levels, so if you are commuting bear this in mind if you don't want to annoy the people around you.All in all, at the price point (£35 at time of purchase) they are a decent set of headphones. I would have liked a little more clarity to the bass, though this may develop in time, and as a nit pick I would have liked a little rotation, but I certainly cant complain for the price I got them.

I have had these headphone for nearly 3 years now and I can say this has been one of my best purchases in terms of value. What I love most about these headphones is there durability. Yes, the sound is very good and they don't seem to leak noise like other headphones that I have tried. It is there toughness that I am most impressed by. I have had expensive Beats headphones in the past but they would quickly break after daily use on my commute, probably by being manhandled in and out of my bag. However these headphones are tough. I can throw them in my bag, pull them back out and everyday for nearly 3 years and they still work as good as when I first purchased them. Battered, yes, but still working well. The headphone cable is excellent at withstanding knots. Easy to untangle and no lasting damage if the knot is bad. The actual earphones themselves are comfortable to wear, light and compact, perfect to travel around with in my satchel. They can also withstand rough treatment as well and do not fall apart like others that I have owned previously. The headphone jack is also strong and fits securely into multiple mobiles and devices and has no issues fitting with bulky phone/ipad cases. Overall a great set of headphones. Will definitely buy a second pair if my current ones ever break but cannot see that happening anytime soon.