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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