The Noma Strobe Earphones look like most other earphones at first glance, they have the typical 3.5mm stereo jack and built in microphone with volume control. However, that is where the similarities end. You will see what I mean the first time you plug them into your smartphone or MP3 player for the first time. Instead of the same old wires hanging down from your ears, everyone will see a glowing blue light that appears to blink.
Novel Concept
The Strobe Earphones use electroluminescent wires paired with the wires that feed the earpieces. The wires that connect each of the earpieces to the volume controller and those leading to the plug light up, then they blink (strobe) to beat of the music. The luminescent effect creates a soft blue light and is powered by a rechargeable battery in the slightly larger than normal volume controller.
Battery Life
Since the strobing effect relies on the internal battery to power it we wanted to test the claim that Noma states for the battery life. We ran our own test to see how long we were able to use the Strobe Earphones on a single battery and found that we could use them for more than the three hours as claimed by the manufacturer.
Sound
The sound is produced from small, but powerful 10mm speaker in each of the ear pieces and creates a decent level of stereo quality sound. It comes with a set of interchangeable ear cups in different sizes to ensure you can get a snug, comfortable fit for your ears.
Conclusion
Our society has become so fast paced and increasingly mobile, but we still want to be able to enjoy our music. This means we need to earphones to be able to listen to our music without interrupting others. With so many earphones on the market these days companies have to figure out ways to set their product apart from the rest.
The Noma figured out an interesting way to make their new earphones standout in a crowd. Quite literally!
While the sound quality will not impress the audiophiles in the world, the light blue glow that dances to beat of your favorite music is sure to be a conversation starter every time you wear them.