The earphone world is full of mysterious mysteries. Luckily, one of the puzzles that I was able to solve is the significance of the colors of earbud shells. As an example, we'll tackle the colors of Venture Electronics' earbuds, specifically, the VE Monk+s.
Does the light spectrum of an earbud shell affect its sound signature? Does red imply bright? Does darth black imply dark/muddy? Does transparent imply neutral? Let's dig deeper.
According to my extensive research, it shows that the lower the frequency, the lower the sound signature.
Monk+ Massdrop Exclusive Red Edition - dark/muddy sound; bass monster.
Royal Purple Monk+ Limited Edition - bright sound; treble monster.
Darth Piano Black Monk+ - very dark/muddy sound; brainquake bass.
Standard Gray Transparent/Smoke Monk+ - neutral sound.
Monk+ Candy Edition - neutral sound; cable doesn't matter, only earbud shell color.
Possible colors from the Massdrop Poll:
Monk+ Massdrop Exclusive Translucent Blue Edition - confused neutral leaning to the bright side.
Monk+ Massdrop Exclusive Translucent Clear Edition - extremely neutral you can hear the hands of music producers mixing records.
Monk+ Massdrop Exclusive Forest Green Edition - mids-focused; mids monster.
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Update: Monk+ Massdrop Exclusive Translucent Blue Edition won the Massdrop poll.
Update 2: New Monk Plus editions:
Monk+ Blood Orange (Makka Limited Edition) - quite bassy and citrusy sound.
Monk+ Coffee Gold Edition - very muddy yet energetic sound; mud splashes in tracks.
Monk+ Espresso Edition - very muddy yet very energetic sound; more mud splashes in tracks.
Closing words:
I'm delighted to conduct this research to educate the masses, as this doesn't only apply to VE Monk+s, but to all earphones with earphone shells/housing. Next time, when picking a color for your next earphone, think of your preferred sound signature. Granted, light spectrum = sound signature becomes complicated when different colors are mixed. But such dilemma is easy to fix when an earbud shell has a more dominant color in its sea of colors; the more dominant the color, the more dominant the sound. Overall, to avoid color and sound confusion, it's advised to buy an earphone without a shell/housing; DD or BA drivers should be stashed directly into your ears. Driver color differences, however, is a different story.
Image credit: Massdrop, Veclan, AliExpress, Boismenu, Venture Electronics' Official Club