Monster Cable Debuts Vivienne Tam ‘Butterfly’ Headphones

Monster Cable aimed its second volley in five months at the fashionista market segment, with the unveiling Thursday of the Vivienne Tam ‘Butterfly’ in-ear headphones. The product was unveiled at the Lower Manhattan boutique of the renowned clothing designer.

The $199.95 headphones, available beginning in April, were designed in conjunction with Tam, and sport a butterfly-themed female-oriented cosmetic that evokes her 2010 spring clothing collection. They also carry through on the butterfly cosmetic of the Tam-designed HP Digital Clutch netbook computer, introduced during the fall-held New York Fashion Week.

“Butterflies mean freedom and transformation,” said Tam. “These headphones don’t look geeky and don’t look high-tech,” added Noel Lee, head of Monster Cable, who introduced the new ’phones with Tam, “but they are high performance and offer transparency and an openness and lightness in sound reproduction.”

The introduction was made in the same spirit of the Lady Gaga headphone line debut, with Lee saying that both were a “marriage of technology and lifestyle.” But he said that the target client for Butterfly is a different listener entirely. “Lady Gaga headphones are attuned to pop music, but Butterfly is meant to capture violin concertos with clarity and definition.”  The Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto by Chinese composers Chen Gang and He Zhanhao was cited as an inspiration for the design.

The headphones sport gold-hued accents that complement the butterfly design on the earpieces. They use Monster’s cable management system – an on-cable slider that reduces cord weight, which can pull uncomfortably on the earbuds when they are in listening position – and also will be available with ControlTalk, Monster’s iPhone-compatible on-cable feature that allows users of the 3GS iPhone to access music and answer calls without touching the phone. They are being sold with an aesthetically compatible carrying case.