Great Sound Can Be Affordable – Review Geek

Are these the most impressive headphones you can buy? No, but they’re affordable, sound pretty good, and offer plenty of active noise cancellation for flight.

If you’re looking for headphones with ANC or Active Noise Cancellation technology, you’ll be presented with a number of expensive options. So with OneOdio’s refreshing $80 price tag attached to the A10 Hybrid ANC headphones, you might be wondering: Is this too good to be true? .

I’m not going to lie, if you drop a premium pair of ANC headphones for $200-$500 or more depending on the brand, you’ll be disappointed. Spending more money generally means better drivers and noise-cancelling microphones, and thus a better overall listening experience. But it’s possible to invest in a pair of budget ANC headphones that deliver on that promise and sound very good. OneOdio’s A10 Hybrid ANC headphones are proof of this.

specification

design and build

Like many modern headphones, OneOdio’s A10 Hybrid ANC headphones fold compactly into a case. Where the earcups fold down, the joints are reinforced metal, which is always the first part where the joints break on a pair of headphones, so they’re good for longevity.

Second, the headband is adjustable, but unfortunately it’s a bit too big for my head and there’s no way to adjust the size. When I shook my head lightly for testing, it shifted. It might fit a little better with thicker commercial ear cushions, but the looseness feels like it’s coming from the headband, so I’m holding out hope.

Whether or not the thicker ear cushions help keep the headphones on my head, I’m going to replace them anyway. It feels too thin. Additionally, when her husband tried it, the ear cushions touched the tips of his ears. It seems that the head is small, so the ears are also small, and I think that the ears fit perfectly in the cushion.

The left ear has a USB-C charging port and an ANC button that toggles between ANC on, ANC off and transparency mode. Next, the right ear has a 3.5mm AUX jack, a volume up button, a volume down button, and a raised textured button between the volume buttons. This textured button is a multi-purpose button that allows you to play or pause a song, answer or reject a call, double press for Assistant help him, long press to pair with your smartphone, and more.

sound quality

For $80 headphones, I was impressed with how well they sounded for all the songs I chose to test. As a double check inside, we have a 40 mm dynamic driver with Hi-Res audio and a frequency range of 20 Hz to 40 kHz.

My current go-to song when testing audio products is wasted time by The Weeknd nothing is safe by clipping and time By Hans Zimmer. Yes this is from Inception. The first two of his songs played at about 40% volume and the last one at 50% of his volume. For the most part, the headphones picked up every little niche element in each song, but not everything was always as balanced as I’d hoped.

wasted time We were able to capture his voice and most of the low-mid to highs, but the low end sounded a little muddy, especially with so much high and mids that the headphones concentrate. nothing is safe, the high-pitched piano sound sounds crisp with a nice reverb at first, but it lacks something in the bass.when highs and lows nothing is safe That is, in great speakers, the low frequencies virtually disappear and the high frequencies take over.

at the beginning of time According to Hans Zimmer, there are some fairly low tones that are barely audible or not audible with bad headphones. Luckily, OneOdio’s A10 Hybrid ANC headphones are able to create an atmospheric experience at the beginning of a song, letting you hear the beat and melody clearly. Low frequencies are completely lost as soon as a register or crescendo is reached.

So if you want headphones that can handle the deepest sounds, and you like listening to music with deep bass, the A10 Hybrid ANC headphones may not be the right choice for you. I think most people who listen to music with the right combination of sounds will be happy with these headphones.

active noise canceling

OneOdio’s A10 hybrid headphones are equipped with 2 feedforward and 2 feedback ANC mics that filter out low and mid-frequency backgrounds up to 95%, such as those heard in traffic, airplanes, or your home’s AC system. % can be blocked. That said, these are affordable ANC headphones that don’t block out as much noise as premium ANC headphones, especially if you’re not playing music while wearing them.

I tested how well these headphones cut out by playing a movie loudly on the TV in front of me and then having my husband speak to them at normal and slightly increased volume. It’s important to note that physically holding the headphones to your ears gives you an element of noise blocking. This is basically what I experience when the ANC mode is off, I toggled ANC on with no music playing, then her ANC off, but the slight difference between the two I noticedIn transparent mode, both the TV dialogue and my husband’s dialogue were crystal clear

We tested the situation above, and ANC headphones are known to be great at blocking out low and mid frequencies. Husbands talking, movies playing in the background, music playing through speakers, etc. These are all generally high frequency sounds, and headphones don’t do a good job of canceling out these sounds. .

With this in mind, I wanted to give the headphones some shine and test how well they work on an airplane. did. A pink noise video on his laptop, which he only played at 30% volume, felt much louder. After switching between the three modes, I could clearly see the difference between ANC on and the other modes.

Transparency mode lets the high crackle of pink noise video through. ANC off, on the other hand, blocks out what the headphones physically block out and lets the low, drone sounds through. ANC on then blocks out that low drone sound, letting only static sounds that might move between mid and high frequencies through. I played a song while in ANC on mode and barely heard any pink noise. Pink noise was noticeable in ANC off mode, but was definitely muted by music playback and physical ear cushions.

battery life

The ANC technology isn’t as strong as that of more premium over-ear headphones, so OneOdio’s A10 headphones can hold a charge for quite some time. Up to 45 hours with only Bluetooth on. Alternatively, enable ANC only for up to 50 hours of use. With both Bluetooth and ANC on, the battery life drops to 35 hours, but it’s still quite a long time!

If your headphones are connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth, you can access your Bluetooth device to check the battery life of your A10 Hybrid. After playing music for over an hour while trying out all the features of the headphones, the battery remained at 90%. If you’re pressed for time and your OneOdio’s A10 headphones run out of battery, a 5-minute charge will give you about 2 hours of playback.

Verdict: A solid pair of budget ANC headphones

If you want the very best in ANC technology, you won’t find it in the A10 Hybrid ANC Headphones from OneOdio. I think most people will be happy with this purchase if you know that and you may need to look for thicker ear cushions for replacement. are crisp, and the battery life is insane. Overall, I’m thoroughly impressed with this unpretentious pair of budget ANC headphones.