Tuesday 6 December 2016

Libratone Q Adapt Lightning IEM


Rating: 4/5

Review:
Good quality but very overpriced



These are stylish IEMs with good Active Noise Cancellation and decent sound, but I think they are very expensive by comparison with others of similar quality.

The first thing to say is that these are for Apple products only, presumably produced as a response to Apple's decision not to have a headphone socket on the iPhone 7.  They do not have a standard connection jack; they connect and are powered via a lightning connector only, so they won't work on non-Apple phones.

The earphones are very nicely made: they look very stylish and seem good and solid so they should last well.  The controls are simple and work well, allowing control of calls, music and the Noise Cancelling system.  This is good and genuinely does reduce external noise very significantly, although with in-ear phones there's always a limit to how much they can keep out.  The range of silicone tips means that they should fit most ears comfortably and there's a nice little carry-pouch supplied.

The sound is good.  I test all audio devices using a standard list of Test Tracks from 16th Century choral music to London Grammar and everything sounds fine through these; tops are pretty sharp, middles sound very nice and there's a decent bass which gives a pretty good sound on really testing things like a theorbo, a viola da gamba or London Grammar's Hey Now.  I'd be very happy with these at around sixty quid, but at well over a hundred and fifty I'd expect something more special than this with really crisp definition and a deeper, better balanced bass.  There are some extremely good in-ear buds, some with ANC, for a fraction the price which match these on sound, I think – but, of course, they won't work with newer Apple products, which may allow Libratone to get away with charging this much.

So, overall these are decent quality earphones which will probably serve you well, but I do think they're very expensive for the quality of sound.  

Amazon page HERE

A couple of other in-ear buds with ANC which are very good at under 40 pounds are:
233621 H610 earphones HERE
August EP720  HERE

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