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The Forte Impact Bass are a fairly standard looking in-ear headphone. They have a white earpliece with a silver accent, though strangely they have no L/R indication that I could find. The cord is a wider than average rubber cord, more prone to microphonics than tradition cords. They have an inline control which I can't test with my test rig, and they apparently have a built in microphone, though I can't see where it is.

Microphonics are a problem with this type of cord. When moving around or even moving your head you get a fair bit of cord noise, often very strange noises that would be appropriate in electronic music. It's not the worst I've seen but it's quite distracting, especially on the move. This is a fairly common problem with the fancier looking cords - sound quality is sacrificed for looks. Manufactuers seem to be favouring form over function, which seems to have happened in this case. Including a shirt clip would've been a good idea and would've helped a bit, but even holding the cord close to my shirt moving my head there's still some cord noise, but it's much reduced.

There's a slight hiss when these headphones are plugged in. That's not uncommon in in-ear headphones, probably due to the sensitivity. I'd say it's slightly quieter than average, but you can hear it in the quiet parts of the music.

Sonically they're a better than average in-ear headphone. By the name it's obvious that they've optimised for treble response more than bass, but they're actually pretty well balanced. The bass is as low as the classic model, and almost as strong. The mids are slightly more present, and the highs slightly less rolled off. The detail is good for this class of headphone.

This model obviously emphasizes bass, and it does have very low, very strong bass. With smaller in-ear headphones this is usually a trade-off with the highs, but these don't suffer from this too much. The midrange is slightly recessed but is pleasing, and reasonably clear. Highs are slightly rolled off, but this is really the norm for bass heavy headphones. The clarity is detail is good for this class of headphone, though the detail in the highs has been sacrificed a little.

The main thing I notice from this headphone is that with a lot of music the bass overshadows the rest of the music. If the music has a lot of bass then it overwhelms the rest of the music. On music that doesn't have excessive bass it's not so obvious, but this makes the rolled off highs and lack of clarity in the highs more obvious. All in all the music sounds quite bass heavy, slightly recessed in the highs, slightly recessed midrange, but it's not bad at all for people who love bass.

Here's the results of listening to some of my standard test tracks:
- Diana Krall, I love being here with you live. Things sound quite well balanced. Bass, treble, cymbals, they're all there in good proportions. Detail / clarity is good for this price point/
- Joss Stone, I Believe It To My Soul Live. Same as Diana Krall.
- Electronic dance music. It's quite well balanced. The bass goes low and is stronger than average, but it doesn't overwhelm. The highs such as cymbals are rolled off, but not as badly as the classic model. Vocals sound good. These are pretty good in-ears for this type of music.
- Eminim Cinderlla Man, my bass test track. Bass is very strong and goes low. This track doesn't have a lot of highs, and it works well with the mids and vocals. A good headphone for this type of music.
- Sara Bareilles - Little Voice. The rolled off treble is obvious in this track, with a slightly harsh treble. Everything is present in good proportions. Not a bad headphone for this type of music.

Overall they're a quite well balanced headphone, tuned more for bass than treble, but treble is there and would probably respond well to equalisation. The biggest problem is the cord - cord noise is a problem when moving around, which is the primary time that in-ear headphones are used. So while I rate the sound quality good, I rate the headphones below average because of the poor choice of cord. I've marked them down on portability because of this.

Test setup: 256kbps mp3 files, Cyberdrive Clarity DAC feeding into a custom made PPA DAC, comparison headphones Audeze LCD2 headphones.

Disclosure: free review samples were sent to HeadphoneReviews for review.