Over the years I have tested out a wide variety of over the ear headphones. A few have stood out in my mind as being top-notch, while others left me wondering why anyone would pay so much for such garbage. I was impressed with the sound quality of the SOUL by Ludacris, but the built quality was terrible. The UrbanEars met both sound and build quality, in my opinion, especially for the price. I have listened to Beats by Dre, and wasn’t all that excited about them in either respect. I loved the sound and build quality of the V-Moda Crossfade M-80’s, just couldn’t fall in love with the price tag. With the spec’s it rocked and the additions though, I can understand the price. We have been hard at work to dig out some of the latest and greatest headphones that we are sure you will love, or maybe hate, who knows. So let’s take a closer look at a set that meets my expectations of price and both sound quality and build quality.
The Spider PowerForce
Spider PowerForce Spec’s
- 40mm dynamic driver
- Designed for audiophiles by audiophiles
- 10 – 22K Hz frequency response reproduces the lowest lows and highest highs
- Impedance – 32 ohm
- Sensitivity – 105 dB
- Multi-directional design allows single-ear, studio listening.
- Super-soft ear cushions feel comfortable even after hours of wearing
- Premium memory foam helps to block outside ambient noise and provides a quiet environment.
- Cable lock function makes sure the music does not stop while you are active.
- Rugged yet lightweight
- Full, circumaural ear-covering design
- Easily folds into supplied storage bag
- 9 feet and 4 feet cables included
- Professional grade quarter-inch adapter included
That is about it. Just kidding. Those are the official spec’s of the PowerForce. Reading what the company has to say and what a real person has to say are completely different things. Let’s address a few features of the PowerForce headphones in no particular order and expand on them.
Build quality and additional attributes
For starters, I don’t feel like these will break easily. I have pulled them open a number of times without hesitation or fear of cracking or breaking the headband. The top portion is a stitched soft leather, in either black with red stitching or white with gold stitching. The underside that sits against your head is a soft mess of sorts. Spider mixes metals and plastics together to give them a solid look and even better feel. The adjustable sides are on metal sliders, while the actual mechanism is hard plastic. Making adjusting easy, smooth and stiff. Each earcup is attached with a dual pivot connector. Allowing you to rotate the ear cups to the rear and slightly forward. They also fold up towards the head band.  This is where the multi-directional design allows single-ear, studio listening. That, along with the arms that hold each earcup being able to flip 180 degrees and face the opposite direction.
As for the earcups themselves, one of the most important aspects really. The arms that hold the earcups are plastic, but are solid. Again, I don’t feel like I am gong to snap them easily. I am sure it could happen, but not for a normal user. Maybe with a hardcore drop or fall, but that is only a maybe. The outer cup is made from what feels like aluminum. It has a spider clearly visible on the outs side of each earcup. On the black ones that we have, the spider is slightly raised aluminium. Where as the white version looks like it is recessed in aluminium. The housing is made from plastic and has a spider web design on it. It makes it look like the spider is sitting on a web on your ears. Kind of a cool effect.
The earcups are oval shaped versus the traditional round style you get with some other brands. This gives you a better ear covering experience. I am not sure if you have ever looked before but ears aren’t round on almost all people. The cups have an amazingly soft black leatherish covering over them and inside it is filled with premium memory foam.
Comfort and long-term wear
Some headphones will start to pinch your head and hurt your ears. Not from the sound, but physically hurt your ears. The PowerForce fit so well and the memory foam cushion is so comfortable that I have had no issues wearing them for 6 to 8 hours at a time. The only time my ears feel funny is when I take them off, cause they are missing the caress of the earcups.
Sound quality
I don’t claim to be an audio expert or audiophile, but I do know what I think my music should sound like. I listen to a wide variety of music including Rap, Metal, Rock, Punk, Indie, Pop, Country and anything in between. When I listen to any genre of music I want to hear the song. I want to hear the vocals clearly, unless they are screaming and I can’t make them out anyways. I want to hear the hi-hats, the bass drum, the bass guitar, the guitar and be able to hear all aspects of a song. I want the bass to be solid, but not over powering and my musical experience to be exciting. The PowerForce headphone deliver on all fronts. No matter the genre I listened to, no matter the number of hours I clocked listening to them, I found them a delight to have on my head. Nothing seemed to over power the other. Meaning the highs weren’t screeching, the bass didn’t drown out the mids and the vocal weren’t lost or muffled in the rest of the sound.
There are a few more things that we have to mention and talk about before you can go buy a set for yourself. Spider packs in a regular 4 foot straight headphone cable that has a 90 degree headphone plug on one end and the straight headphone plug with lock on the other. When you attach the headphones to the cable you insert it into the hole, push in and turn. Locking it into the headphones. They also include a stretchable curly cable that reaches 9 feet. One one end is a straight locking headphone plug for the use in the headphones. on the other end you have another straight headphone plug with a twist. you can plug it directly into a 3.5 mm jack and rock out, or you can screw on the included 1/4 inch adapter. This is perfect for old school sound systems, guitar or bass amplifiers or anywhere else you need a 1/4 inch plug to listen.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for a solid set of headphones that can deliver great sound that don’t have the hyped up price tags and superstar branding, the Spider PowerForce are an all around win. They sound amazing and fit better than many that I have personally used in the past. They are comfortable for hours on end and cover any listeners genre style or needs.
The  only thing left to tell you guys is what they will set yo back. If you pick up the PowerForce in Black or White directly through Spider, you are looking at spending $129.99. Which by all accounts is priced below what we feel they could or should go for. We have caught them on Amazon for between $79.99 and $116.28, depending on where you click. Amazon themselves appear to have them at the $79.99 price tag. Which is pretty much like robbing Spider.
Head over to Spiderproduct.com to check out the black or white ones. While you are there, check out some of their other products, like the insanely designed in-ear earbuds or Bluetooth speakers. You can also click the links below to head to Amazon and see if you can pick up a deal.
Amazon – Spider International Inc E-HEPH-BK01 PowerForce Audiophile Headphones Black
Amazon – Spider International Inc E-HEPH-WH01 PowerForce Audiophile Headphones White
