Introducing Cord Cruncher. This this is pretty sweet! The Cord Cruncher is about a foot long, and houses a pair of headphones that can retract into a tangle free rubber tube with one pull. The idea is very simple, but it’s very elegantly implemented.
One stock pair of headphones (in my case a pair of Skull Candy earbuds) is encased in a tube which uses friction to keep the cable from sliding out without an intentional pull. The cord is about 3 1/2 feet long but is reduced to just about one foot when it’s housed. The plastic neck of the Cord Cruncher is the same size as your headphone plug, so you can plug it into itself and make a necklace or a wristband. I rocked mine for a few days before realizing that it doesn’t kink or tangle just kicking around in my messenger bag.
The Design
Because they use Skull Candy buds, I know the sound is great and reliable (I own at least 3 pair of Skull Candy headphones already, they are my brand of choice!). The rubber portion is high grade, and I doubt it will rip or tear for a long time, even under stressful use. One point of concern I have is plugging the headphones in at the neck of the Cord Cruncher. There seems to be a slight bend in the headphone’s wire casing and repeatedly plugging them in to wear this as a bracelet could damage the cord. I’d like to see future revisions with a different way of circling back that doesn’t rely on tension from the cord of the earbuds themselves.
The other thing I found myself missing was the iPhone microphone and on-cord volume controls that are featured on many pairs of earbud headphones. Given the engineering of the current Cord Cruncher I’m not really sure how I could suggest to implement this feature, but it would really be handy as I use my headphones the majority of the time to make and receive phone calls (I hate putting a hot phone next to my face).
The Final Say
These are cool! I’d definitely recommend them to audiophiles everywhere as a great solution to dealing with tangled headphones. The price is low, the quality is high and they have a cool factor that will have people jealous of your gear. Pick up a pair soon from the manufacturer’s website here.