SOL REPUBLIC TRACKS: Review

Sexy right? Keep reading to find out if they're all looks or if if they have what it takes to make your song's sing it loud...

First off I have to give a big thank you to Steve Aioki for introducing me to SOL REPUBLIC, to the SOL REPUBLIC Twitter team for pointing me in the right direction and to Sami Rimo for giving me the opportunity to be enlightened by products he believes in. That being said TRACKS by SOL REPUBLIC are a win all over the place.

First, lets take a look behind the sleek design to see what's actually under the hood:

The Tracks headphones V8 sound engines keep the mid bass punches on point without sacrificing any of the lows we all love to hear.

Also the V10 sound engine inside was specifically engineered to not sound so much like rockstar loudness but more like a "sonic sweet spot". Kevin Lee from SOL REPUBLIC explains it as the music sounding the way a selfish audio engineer hears it, because of his soundboard placement.

Cosmetically, the speaker profile is as slim as possible so the headband can sit as close to your head as possible.

One really interesting feature is the fact that the designers chose to position the mic ad music control on the "Y split" instead of under the ear, making it easier to fund and use. Price wise they run $99.99 and come in black, white and red.

One final note in terms of mechanics are that the speakers were designed left side/right side agnostic in terms of fit.

Ok now that that's out of the way. How do they sound in a singular word? PHENOMENAL. 

I've been spinning vinyl for well over a decade, I'm one of those if it isn't broken; don't fix it kind of guys. That being said I've been perfectly content with my Sony MDR-V700's. Even with the resurgence of headphones by Beats by Dre, Skull candy and other such manufacturers I felt no need to upgrade; thankfully I was wrong. In mid December when I first slipped on TRACKS I was astounded (this is before I even started listening to music) at the comfort and the way these headphones suppressed all outside noises. It took my by surprise in a way that I wasn't ready for (and actually, I didn't even listen to them then, I made my girlfriend put them on so she would understand why I was so surprised).

Afterwards, I opened my MacBook and proceeded to queue up my tracks with the headphones on. I was immediately thrown back by an audio assault the likes I hadn't heard in a long time. One by one I went through my different tracks and genres rediscovering what all of those songs sounded like, I mean really sounded like. From Hip Hop, to Industrial, to Breakbeat, to Goth, to Rock, everything I heard sounded fresh and new (even tracks that were recorded in awful quality, sorry Smothered Hope). Two hours later I emerged from my Laptop realizing that the headphones still felt perfectly comfortable on my ears. Seriously, remember the first time you played a video game on your new HD TV or the first time you watched a BLU-RAY DVD? That's what TRACKS are for your ears. The craftsmanship and audio quality that SOL REPUBLIC has invested in TRACKS is apparent from form to function, both mechanically and visually. I know personally, I won't be using anything else besides the TRACKS as they've replaced my "whatever the hell they where" headphones for life.