Klipsch Image S4 - Logo fading?

[Polite]

It is a subjective thing. I think if these were my first inner ear headphones i might think they sounded pretty good. I have to admit after burning them in overnight they certainly sound more acceptable, except for the fact that I have to set the balance almost completely to the right side to compensate. I think someone was correct in saying these are more likely to be smuggled factory rejects. The replication of the design just seems a little too perfect for it to be a knockoff.

In other news, I received a reply from my ebay seller saying that the other three pairs he's sold have had similar reports, so he's expecting they are fake though he was under the impression they were genuine. I've had my money refunded so I guess I've made out of this pretty well, considering.

Can someone recommend an authorised seller for Australia with reasonable prices? I'd like to give a proper pair a go for comparisons sake if nothing else.

[Rodher89]

I think it's very difficult to talk in terms of ' if it sounds bad,it's fake'. SQ is a subjective thing, what someone considers bad,for someone else is great. For example,60 ppl bought the earphones from my seller,and they all think they're great. And there was someone in this thread who said that although the logo faded away also, they sound great for him and he doesn't think they're fakes. And there are many reviews of S4s that say they sound muddy. Exact words I would describe the sound of the S4s I got. And there's an e-mail from Klipsch saying that, at least from the serial # on the box, my earphones were not fake. I have doubts about comparing them to the new model also, because ebay lot seems to be an older model,with different packaging, connector and who knows what else. Untill Amy gives us a definite answer, I think we can't be 100% sure that logo fading away is a sign of fakes.

Exactly. I concur with neron112. I don't think we can determine for sure if a pair of S4's is a fake or not depending on the SQ. I do think this approach is very subjective, since people have different perceptions about it, even if the source of the sound is the same. And this, without considering the different inclinations or tastes (some may like classical music, while some one else may prefer pop or hard rock, and others may like techno above all; each one of which requires specific sound features). And I don't want to get into hearing capabilities, which obviously are also different from one person to another. What we are missing here is an official stand from KLIPSCH itself, laying out all the physical differences between an authentic item and another that is not. That way everybody will know for sure what to look (not hear) for.

[theXact]

Hello everyone,

I've been monitoring this thread for a few days now and I thought I would give my input now that I've got everything sorted out. I bought a pair of S4's of of ebay last week and they came in the mail on Monday. Literally everything that has been described in this I have experienced... the fading logo, really crummy SQ (by my standards) etc. etc. So I contacted my seller, she seems to not have realized they were fake and offered me a refund in exchange for their return. Before I sent them back I decided to do some testing, I ran off to a local store that was having a sale and grabbed a pair of new S4i's. When I got home I did some comparisons and the two main things I found were...

• the logo did not fade, even after rubbing it for a very long time.
• the sound quality was significantly better - these really are very good headphones

I know all of this has been said before but I just thought I would put in some confirmation.

Good luck everyone - happy listening!

[intellifent]

Hello guys and/or gals,

Just thought I'd let people know I too was duped into purchasing a pair of, what I can almost certainly confirm, are fake S4s from eBay last week (around the £40 mark). The quality of the packaging and indeed the product itself are very good for a pair of fakes. Nothing immediately suggested they were fake, except for two aspects: firstly, the Klipsch logo on the side of the headphones faded almost immediately and secondly, the sound quality was poor. Obviously the latter is subjective, but I was almost certain they were fake. They sounded just like someone here described earlier, as if you were stood outside a nightclub: a bit of thumping bass with a lack of defined, dull mids/highs and flat vocals. There was little sharpness to any of the sound. I let them burn overnight and they sounded perhaps a little bit better (placebo anyone??), if I'm being generous.

After reading this thread, I purchased a pair of S4's from a authorised dealer (http://www.homeavdirect.co.uk) and the difference in sound quality was immediately obvious. Everything sounds so beautiful. I'm by no means an audiophile, so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but they are the best headphones I've purchased at the sub £100 mark (not that I've ever purchased headphones for more, mind you!); the bass has punch, but isn't overpowering, and the mids/highs are nice and sharp. Yummy.

BeSerious posted a list of differences between the fakes and reals (page 4 of this thread) and I'd just like to corroborate/contradict certain aspects.

Let me just preface this by saying it would appear that the pair I bought from homeavdirect were, I suspect, old stock:

- The colour of BOTH the fake and real boxes was the old grey colour and were almost identical, except the former was a slightly faded grey (but would be impossible to tell without the real box to compare).

-The case is indeed shinnier for the real headphones, it is also slightly shallower (I'll try and get measurements when I get my hands on some callipers or a ruler!). Also, I noticed that the lid of the fakes was a lot stiffer. For instance, if the lid of the real case is opened to approximately 95 degrees it will fall open, while the fake lid stayed in place at this angle. This does sound rather unreliable though, so can anyone confirm the same??

- BOTH the real and fakes DID come with an earwax pick.

- The fake and real headphones had medium sized tips attached. The fakes had a further three pairs in a plastic bag (there were also little bits of plastic left over, presumably from where the holes were punched through) while the real ones came with two pairs that were loose.

- With respect to translucancy of the tips, I'll have to check when I'm home.

- The connection on BOTH was a 3.5mm L-SHAPED jack.

- The Klipsch insignia ('v' thing on the back of the headphones)

- The Klipsch logo on the side of the headphones rubbed off after 5 minutes on the fakes while wrt to the real ones, it remained even after (light) scratching.

I noticed three other aspects which I don't think have been described:

- Firstly, the L and R on either headphone was thicker on the fakes.

- The actual cardboard of the real packaging seems of a better quality, and it was conspicuously harder to open than the fake box. The latter opened really easily down the perforated edge.

- Finally, the instructions manual was printed on a shinnier type of paper. While there was some sheen on the fake instructions it was more notable on the real ones, particularly when held up to light. I'll try and capture this on camera in the sun, when I'm not busy and post the pics (assuming I can get a decent shot).

So I hope this helps? It would appear the only recurring giveaways of fakes is the fading of the logo and the sound quality.

One final thought, I don't know where it was posted, but somebody posted images showing the proportions of the klipsch insignia on the case was different between the real and fakes. On the fakes, the insignia overlaps with the the last part of the 'h' in Klipsch, but this isn't the case in the real ones. I'll try and find the images again later. I can confirm this was the same for my cases.

[bettinadifiore]

After reading all the amazing reviews on the S4s and deciding to buy, I too jumped on the too-good-to-be-true ~$45 eBay bargain bandwagon, and was painfully disappointed by all the same stuff everyone else here has described - muddy bass quality, lack of mid- and upper-range tones, and my logo rubbed off almost immediately as well. It was mainly the sound quality that put a frown on my mug - I just couldn't understand what had prompted all the glowing reviews. I never once suspected forgery - color me naive. Then this morning I received an email from eBay stating that the copyright holder had reported the listing from which I had purchased my earphones as potentially counterfeit merchandise, and that I should seek a refund. It was after receiving that email that I found this thread, which was most enlightening.

I just wanted to let everyone know that eBay is taking action against the counterfeit sellers, at the prompting of Klipsch, which means that Amy's investigation must indeed be producing results.

As for me, I'm off to Best Buy to get the Real McCoy . . . can't wait to hear how they sound!

[Dallas_TX]

If you find time, please post your opinion of the real-deals after you get them.

[bettinadifiore]

Will do!

[bettinadifiore]

It took me a while to find a store that had the S4s in stock, but I finally laid my paws upon a pair about an hour ago, and WOW - the difference between these babies and the ones I got off of eBay is like night and day! I am tickled pink! These are phenomenal - crystal-clear in all pitch ranges, gorgeous balance, just amazing in every way - nothing like the muddy, soupy sound of the ones I must assume are counterfeit. Another difference I noticed (in addition to the ones pointed out by others further up this thread), is the relative texture and thickness of the two cords - the phonies have a very thin, smooth cord, whereas the McCoys have a more matte-textured, thicker cord that strikes me as likely being of higher quality. Hope this helps anyone who is trying to determine whether or not theirs are the real deal - if they aren't, do yourself a favor and go dish out the extra dough for the true-blues; you'll be oh-so-glad you did!

[jevans]

I too was disappointed with the sound quality of my S4s - boomy bass and muffled highs but figured they just needed to be burned in for a while. However, I've now noticed that the Klipsch logo on both headphones has almost completely rubbed off within my first week of use like many of you have mentioned. When I saw the sub-retail price on a Pricegrabber Storefront store I jumped on the offer, but now I'm pretty sure my S4s are counterfeit. Comparing the S4s to my Koss PortaPro headphones the difference in clarity and sound quality is astounding, and based on all the rave reviews of the S4s I would expect that their sound quality would be comparable to that of the PortaPro.

I emailed the seller and within an hour I received the following reply in pretty poor and unprofessional English. I have a strong feeling the seller already knew these were fakes but at least he claims that he'll give me a refund. Now I'm looking forward to hearing what a real S4 sounds like from an authorized dealer!

"Hey im so sorry about that.

Things is we mixed up 2 different lots of s4.

2nd lot we got from different buyer for much cheaper and that was worst deal ever after all.

U can send it back to

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

We would offer u replacement but we not gonna have good s4 till Next week. Unless u want to wait.

Other way u will get Full Refund"

[AudioBill]

I wish to chime in on this topic on Klipsch Image S4 earphones by saying that I also decided to buy a pair of S4 earphones after researching and reading all the rave reviews about them. I had placed my order to buy them at $79.99 with free shipping from newegg.com and then after that I saw them listed on ebay for $49.00. I felt cheated at that point and was wishing I would have just waited and done more price searching. But now after stumbling upon this forum thread about conterfeit fakes being sold out on the market, I feel a better. However, I am wondering based on comments from a few users of the alledged counterfeit fakes about way mushy boomy bass and muddy mids and no highs, if they might not have their earphones properly inserted into their ears. Why do I say this? Because I just received my S4 earphones from newegg and when I first plugged them in, I experienced the same exact mushy boomy loose sounding bass and muddy mids and highs. I was concerned about the sound I was hearing. I let it burn in for a few hours to see if it would improve, but it did not improve one bit. Then I opened the instructions booklet that came with it and saw the pictorials showing that you should plug in the arphones into your ear hole, then it shows that you should rotate (twist) the earphone while it is plugged into your ear upward about a quarter of a turn. This it seems to depict is so that it better positions the wire to wrap over the top of your ears for a more secure mounting (they say its for sports mode).

While I tried this technique, I stuck each earphone into each ear and then rotated them as shown in the pictorial. Wala! all of a sudden I heard and felt each earphone seem to "click" into place and the sound became much brighter and clear (as in normal) and the mushy booming bass disappeared. The earphones seem to have a rotating notch switch built into them somehow where you have to plug it in ear and then rotate or twist or pivot them in place until you hear them click into that notch and the sound all of a sudden opens up bright and clear and the bass settled down.

With that said, I think I do have legitimate Klipsch S4's from newegg at full price of $79.99 paid. So if I heard such lousy mushy boomy loose bass and no mids and highs with this legitimate set at first try, then maybe all of you who heard this with your alledged S4 fakes can see if that "stick in ear, rotate upwards trick" works on the fakes too? If so, then maybe they are not fakes after all but rather Klipsch using different suppliers manufacturing the S4's?

Anyway, I just wanted to ask Amy (or Klipsch representative) about this insert and twist earphone instruction to see if it is valid or not. I definitely notice and hear a drastic change in the sound of the S4's when I use this technique. I must also say that if this is the proper intended way to mount them in users ears, it is not too clear and not well documented in the instructions. It should say so in print that you must do that twist when inserted in your ears to get proper sound quality. But again, I don't even know if this is the way Klipsch intended the design to work or its just some fluke quirk that I stumbled upon. All I can say is it makes a big difference in the sound of the S4 earphones that I have.

Can all you owners try this out and see if your S4 earphones behave the same way and report back here?

Thanks!

[bettinadifiore]

Hi there! You have a good point about positioning, as it does indeed make a big difference in the sound quality. However, the fakes sound crummy and muddy even when they are "twisted" upward in the correct position. I too had to fidget with mine to find the right fit, but even doing that does not make the phonies sound like the real ones do (I have owned both a counterfeit set and a legit set and have compared them side by-side at this point).

[AudioBill]

Hi! Thanks for the confirmation between your fake and real set of S4's. I guess it is just my ears and the way the medium sized silicone earbud meshes with my ears then. But its odd that I can put these S4's into my ears and get a great air tight seal and they sound less bright that way. But when I do that insert and twist trick something just clicks and the sound seems to loose the bass and brighten up (meaning the sound becomes more balanced). odd. Must just be my particular situation and fit.

I just want to say that I do find these earphones a bit on the bassy side and they don't sound quite as open and 3 dimensional as my other earphones. they remind me of a set of old Koss earphones that I bought about 10 years ago. Very bassy.

That insert and twist trick for me only works with the medium silicone earbuds. I tried the skinny set now and they don't click like the medium set in my ears. Although they do insert deeper into my ear canal when I perform that up twist and then the seal gets stronger and the deep bass kicks in again.

At their most balanced setting in my ears though, as an avid audiophile, the sound of these earphones is not the best and I do not think they are worth $80 really. Sorry to say that. I own many many sets of high end headphones also to compare them to (Grado RS-1, Sennheiser 600, AKG 701's, yes even Bose "On-Ear", Bose Tri-Ports, Grado SR-60, SR80, Koss porta-pro, Koss clip on's) They all have a more balanced and open sound than I am hearing from these Klpsch S4's. I will let them break in for a 100 hours and see what I think of them then.

Update_2: I just tried the S4's with the large silicone earbuds and now the sound is much more improved. I guess the fit to my ear is better with these large plugs! So the earphones do sound better now that I've listened to them again. They still do have what I perceive as an elevated bass emphasis but overall the upper midrange and highs are coming through better with the large plugs for me. So I will rate them excellent sounding now. I guess it is all in how you get them to fit and mesh with your ear canal without blocking out the sound hole. Okay, they are worth the $80 I spent on them. :-)

[Chris K.]

I also sprung on one of those "too good to be true" $50 deals on amazon AN AUTHORIZED RETAILER. Yet the ones that I purchased were fake. I today went and purchased a real pair from best buy (full price, ugh). The sound is ,as you said, night and day difference.

The big question. HOW DO I TELL IF THEY ARE FAKE? (mine came in a blue box)

1. Do they have incredible lows but low quality mids and highs? FAKE

2. Is the headphone connector L shaped as opposed to straight? FAKE

3. Do you have 4 sets of tips total (1 on the headphones 3 in a plastic bag)? FAKE

4. NO PROOF ON THIS ONE. The aluminum on my fakes was brushed vertically but on my real ones it was horizontal.

5. NO PROOF (manufacturing could have changed) the instructions are a small square on my fake ones and tall vertical on my real ones.

6. Do they cost less then $50? most likely FAKE

I thought that this whole thing was just people making something of nothing, but I was victimized to, to my surprise though the logo didn't show any sign of wearing.

If you get you new S4s and aren't impressed then there is something wrong.

I hope that I can help people with this

[bettinadifiore]

Hi again - just to clarify, the insert-and-twist trick does "work" with the counterfeits, in that they do sound better when you employ that method than when one does not, and the "sealing" effect does occur. However, they still sound muddy and crummy, even after one has twisted them in and found the proper fit, especially when compared to the McCoys.

I'm glad to hear that you feel you got your money's worth with the right size earbuds! I have been so happy with mine, I would be super bummed-out to find out someone else had had a lesser experience with them than I have.

[niko5519]

Hello everyone,

I think everyone will agree with me that all S4s purchased at a price lower than $ 79 are fake. That's all that was clear from this forum.

[John Walker]

Hi everyone,

I just bought a pair of S4's on the internet and while the price was low ($49 ) it was not that low (Amazon is selling them today for $55). I can't tell if they are fake. They came in a blue box, the tin had the alignment between the logo and the h that elsewhere on this site is taken as indicating a fake, the Klipsch name on the side is resistant to rubbing, they came with 4 rubber buds and a cleaning tool, and to my inexperienced ear they sound OK. I have very little experience with earbuds and so can't tell if they are genuine. I asked Klipsch directly and got the standard "We are looking into it" and "we can't tell you how to tell the genuine S4's from the fake ones, you might be a counterfeiterlooking for hints, so go and pay full price at our friends, the authorised dealers, just to be sure they are real" response. You would think that they could tell us at least what previous rounds of fakes got wrong even if they keep the current errors under their hat. This would be some REAL help to people who are trying to be Klipsch customers rather than keeping the margins up for the authorised sellers. So, a question to ask is, While the alignment of the Klispch logo and the h is found on fake tins, is it also found on real tins? That is, is it simply manufacturing variation that has been copied by the counterfeiters. We have two problems here. Accepting fakes as genuine and rejecting genuine S4's as fakes simply because the deal seems to good, My deal was good ($49 vs Amazon's $55) but was it too good? Am I hearing klispch sound quality or not? Right now, the Klipsch brand is suffering because I, and presumably many others, can't answer the question - Is this really Klipsch sound?

John Walker

[Chris K]

I wouldn't buy them for $55. That was how much mine that were fake cost. The tin I don't think is a proper indication of whether or not you have fake earbuds. My tin from BestBuy looked just like my fake one minus the fact that the fake one's aluminum was brushed vertically and the real one was horizontal. The four rubber earbuds and cleaning tool came in my fake one, my real one had 3 pairs and no cleaning tool.

Question for you "inexperienced ear". Have you ever owned a pair of IEM's? (in ear heaphones). If you haven't, these would sound decent. If you have and they were a decent pair then maybe you just got a steal on these.

I don't want to push my musical taste on you but the song that I used to test mine was "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" by Coldplay. If it sounds like you are listening to bass with a background of vocals then sorry, they are fake. But don't worry, the real ones are worth every penny.

Hi everyone,

I just bought a pair of S4's on the internet and while the price was low ($49 ) it was not that low (Amazon is selling them today for $55). I can't tell if they are fake. They came in a blue box, the tin had the alignment between the logo and the h that elsewhere on this site is taken as indicating a fake, the Klipsch name on the side is resistant to rubbing, they came with 4 rubber buds and a cleaning tool, and to my inexperienced ear they sound OK. I have very little experience with earbuds and so can't tell if they are genuine. I asked Klipsch directly and got the standard "We are looking into it" and "we can't tell you how to tell the genuine S4's from the fake ones, you might be a counterfeiterlooking for hints, so go and pay full price at our friends, the authorised dealers, just to be sure they are real" response. You would think that they could tell us at least what previous rounds of fakes got wrong even if they keep the current errors under their hat. This would be some REAL help to people who are trying to be Klipsch customers rather than keeping the margins up for the authorised sellers. So, a question to ask is, While the alignment of the Klispch logo and the h is found on fake tins, is it also found on real tins? That is, is it simply manufacturing variation that has been copied by the counterfeiters. We have two problems here. Accepting fakes as genuine and rejecting genuine S4's as fakes simply because the deal seems to good, My deal was good ($49 vs Amazon's $55) but was it too good? Am I hearing klispch sound quality or not? Right now, the Klipsch brand is suffering because I, and presumably many others, can't answer the question - Is this really Klipsch sound?

John Walker

[John Walker]

Actually, there were two offers from Amazon at the same time, both about $55. One was from JTT, not an authorized dealer, and the other was from Amazon, an authorised dealer. Klipsch confirmed that it was the real deal (--If it says sold and shipped by Amazon, it's real--) and so I bought a pair. I'm going to compare the real ones with the fake ones pretty carefully and I'll let you all know the results. Amazon has since returned the price to about $64 (in response to someone saying it was too good a deal? - I don't know ). I doubt Amazon sold them at a loss, so perhaps the price is not a good guide to the fakes after all. Perhaps some sellers are looking for high volume sales of the real deal. We still have the question of how do we know that they are fakes? How many of us have a real pair from low margin sellers that we are returning simply because we think the deal is too good. The cheap ones I bought certainly sound good to me but I have never had a pair of ear buds before IEM or otherwise. This is my first MP3 player. I've always preferred audio via speakers and not headphones. I never had a walkman. So I am quite literally an earphone virgin. I wanted a good set of earphones and relied on a review as to which ones to buy. I'm eager to compare the real S4's with the presumed fakes and both with the earbuds that came with the MP3 player ( I got it yesterday), So far, the "fake" S4's sound a lot better than the buds that came with the player, let's see if the real S4's outperform the presumed fakes. I might have 2 pairs of real S4's.

John

[Polite]

My set from Amazon finally arrived after almost 2 months of waiting. Big difference.

For the record, i think they were an older set of white headphones. They were cheap at ~$50, and come with all the same stuff as my fake ones did so I don't think there is really a way to tell them apart except for the sound quality. The only real difference between them was the box was blue (which i assume is just a revised box style) and the tin has arguably better quality metal. No difference in the logo for me. Those fakes are amazing replicas. If only they could replicate the sound as well as they replicate the appearance.

The fakes really hurt to wear because i had to jam them into my ears pretty far to get any decent sound. These sound perfect after putting them in and giving them a slight twist to set them in place. Really digging the new headphones despite all the hassle it took to get them. Thanks guys.

[skonopa]

Wow! Very interesting indeed. To bad to hear that there are fake/counterfeit copies of these fine headphones out there.

To give perspective on the logo-fading thing. Below is a picture of mine, that I've had going on a good year or so now (bought at a local Best Buy shortly after these first hit the market, as I was in the market to replace a pair of Sony headphones that finaly died on me at the time) and you can see that the logos and the chrome are practically brand-new. There is a very slight wear on right side (the bottom part of the 'c' is somewhat missing. Bear in mind that I've been using these things just about every other day at the gym continuously for the past year, so these things get used and they get used hard! I cannot imagine a pair of the fake ones holding up that long given as hard as I am on these things.

I don't have the original box on hand (although I might still have it around), but I do have the (albeight pretty dented up now) tin and the earwax cleaning tool as well the three pairs of extra eartips (although I've ordered some additional medium sized ones and already replaced one pair). The medium tips seems to fit me the best.

As for the sound quality, I am still amazed at just how good thes things sound, especially for an $80 pair of headphones. When properly fitted, you should get good clean highs and mids. On a good recording, you should have no trouble picking out the detail in the music. The bass should have authority, but not overpowering. It should sound good, tight and clean, with no muddiness/distortion/boominess (again, assuming a good recording being listened to at a reasonable volumn). Don't expect huge bass out of these things (ala some jackass thumping the woofaz in thier car at high volumn). Sounds like those fake ones are using some cheap driver and very heavy on bass to the point of being muddy/distorted.

As was already indicated numerous times, the only sure-fire way of ensuring you are getting a legitimate pair is to buy them from an authorized dealer, preferably a local one. Yeah, you are going to pay more, but at least you know you are getting good product. However, that being said, it is still nice to know if there is a way to tell the fakes from the reals, especially if somebody is looking to buy a pair second hand. Lets face it, everybody would like to save a buck here and there, so I can see how the $40 ones on eBay can seem tempting. Sometimes, when it comes to stuff like this, you are better to error on the side of caution. These things should last quite a while if taken cared of and it is sometimes worth it to just pay the extra money at the authorized dealers and be ensured that you got good, correct, legitimate product. Also, as was also already mentioned, sometimes the authorized dealers will have sales, especially if they need to get rid of extra inventory (typically when a product line is being phased out), so sometimes good deals can be had on legitimate product.