Beyond simple classifications (over-ear, on-ear, in-ear) one tends to either really care about in-the-weed-level details, or generally be okay with what’s easily available. As a brand, Brainwavz Audio clearly falls into the former category as you can get lost in the specifications of their products. Let’s pull back the veil a bit and wade through some tech.

What is it?

The B200 model from Brainwavz Audio are in-ear monitors or earphones that use a dual balanced armature design to maximize performance and comfort. “Dual balanced armature”? Read on…

Hardware specs

• Drivers : Dynamic, 8 mm
• Rated Impedance : 16Ω
• Frequency Range : 20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
• Sensitivity : 100 dB at 1 mW
• Rated Input Power : 20 mW
• Cable : 1.3 m Y-Cord, Copper
• Plug : 3.5 mm, Gold plated

What’s in the box?

• Earphone Hard case
• 3x Sets of Silicone Ear Tips (S M L)
• Set of Comply Foam Tips T-100
• Shirt Clip
• Velcro Cable Tie
• Instruction Manual
• Warranty Card (24 month warranty)
  ** Brainwavz includes a 3-button mic and remote as the standard cable. Our review unit came with the optional 3.5mm stereo cable and an extra set of silicone tips as well as a third comply tip. Non-remote cables are available optionally from Brainwavz.

Design and features

The B200 earphones are visually stealthy and nondescript at the same time. From a color standpoint, they’re black, clear with a small hint of gold on the 3 connectors. The two features that stand out most are the clear monitor enclosures and the matte twisted MMCX cable which actually refers to the gold micro-miniature coaxial connectors that attach to the monitors.

The cable on these earphones is removable, which is relatively common on high quality in-ear monitors. The MMCX connector is tiny and one of the reasons it’s such a good fit for in-ear audio. Another is that there’s a very positive snap when you connect and then the connector is able to rotate 360º radially.

Now, let’s talk about the monitor enclosures. They’re a slightly frosted clear material and each one has subtle differences from the other. Brainwavz actually uses a liquid-resin 3D printer to print every pair. Very cool. Because of the process, each enclosure has small visual differences due to flow of material while having the same dimensions and profile. Alas, they didn’t send the printer along for review so here’s a picture from their site.

The cable uses the up-and-over ear wrap. Kind of a secret service look, but it serves an important function. Any pull or tug on the cable pulls on the top of your ear, not a direct stress on the connector. That section has a small bendable wire inside so you can form them to your ear shape easily.

The 3 button mic/remote, yoke and the 3.5 connector both use a smooth sturdy aluminum body.

Balanced armature drivers are tuned to sound good in a specific frequency range. Brainwavz uses a dual balanced armature design separating out two different frequency ranges for the highs and lows effectively increasing their ability to work with more types of music.

Lastly, there’s the extras. S, M. L silicone tips as well as red Comply tips, a shirt clip, velcro tie and a durable, zip-close hard case.

Setup

Ears are not a one-size-fits-all affair as much as some companies may ignore that fact. Thankfully Brainwavz understands this. They provide different sized tips that are easy to press on and remove so try them all until you find a fit that feels good to you. You’re looking for easy to insert into your ears, a good seal in your ear canal and then comfort over time.

You may need to play some audio to really be able to tell. Pick something with some strong bass and you’ll hear the difference between a good and not-good seal. Try the Comply tips if the silicone ones aren’t working, or if they want to work their way out on you during wear. They’re a bit trickier to push on as the inner core is pretty firm. Comply uses a memory foam, so just squish them small in diameter, insert into your ears and then give them a moment to rebound and seal. On to performance.

Performance

To start, the B200 drivers are tuned to produce a balanced, accurate sound signature. Brainwavz states that this provides little-to-no coloring on the music so you can hear it the way the Artist intended. This is great in theory, but in the end, you’re the one listening. If you start to research how to test earphones you’ll get a lot of conflicting information.

I’m sure my approach will also draw some ire, but here goes…

Start by playing a few songs you know well. It’s the best way to tell if something is missing from the audio response or if you’re suddenly hearing things you never knew were in the recording. Here’s a Spotify link to the songs I mention if you’re interested.

My go-to is “Lingus” by Snarky Puppy. It’s epic in length with amazing musicians, clean sound, insane solos and grins that I think I can hear. I’ve watched their video so many times it pretty much plays in my head while I’m listening.

Next is something like “Ground On Down” by Ben Harper. About 25 seconds in the guitar dives into reverb, low feedback and then some distortion. The rest of the song puts any earphones to test for me.

I then like to listen to something new by an artist I know, followed by something by an artist I’ve never heard before. I’m sure it sounds weird, but it forces me to consciously listen to the music trying to figure it out instead of letting my memory fill in for me. For these earphones I listened to “Eat the Elephant” by A Perfect Circle, “Blood Thinner” by Royal Coda and then “Bellbottoms” (Soooo good!) by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

In the course of testing, I put these through their paces in some different locations. A crowded, very loud BART ride from Oakland into SF, a United flight to Shanghai, the Metro in Shenzhen and in the hotel room writing this review.

As far as overall fit, the driver enclosures tucked into my ears really well, even to the point where I could place a flat palm against my ear and not feel pressure on my ear canal. (Please excuse the hexagonally rotated photo crop)

The fact that the MMCX connector rotates allows for that extra level of adjustment for fit. On the tips, I went back and forth between the small silicone ones which provided a slightly better bass response and the ones from Comply which were more comfortable for longer listening sessions. If Comply works best, you’ll want to pick up some extras as they do show wear and grime faster. If you’ve got a good seal these are great noise-isolation earphones. They don’t actively cancel any outside sounds, but definitely block enough. I do wear glasses sometimes, either prescription, sunglasses and yes, reading glasses now. The cable wrap over the ear is pretty minimal and shouldn’t cause too much trouble.

The cable did a good job of not transmitting too much noise up to my ears. Taking a thumbnail and dragging it down the cable produced a rumble, but general motion on a shirt or jacket was nice and quiet. Might want to use the included shirt clip if you’re wearing something with a big toothy zipper. It also coils well for storage without too much memory when you take them back out again.

You’ll also want to consider your music source. The earphones you choose are only as good as they work where you want them to. Playing music from your mobile phone is quite a bit different than from your computer or stereo with a headphone amplifier. I did both using the stock Apple lightning adapter with my iPhone to listen to downloaded (not streaming) music and through iTunes on my Mac with a FiiO Q1 Portable USB DAC Amplifier I’ve had for a couple years. The B200s sounded great on both. The good news is that balanced armature drivers don’t take as much power to drive as they aren’t pushing volumes of air so performance directly from a mobile player is pretty good.

So what’s all this add up to? In my opinion, for my listening needs, the Brainwavz’s B200 is a solidly built pair of earphone that fits into and around my ears comfortably while providing a good acoustic seal. The music I listened to sounded really good with enough bass to keep me happy and mids and highs that still came through clearly. Any subtleties that certain types of music might need, I’ll likely be able to dial in with some EQ settings. The cable remote worked well with buttons that were easy to find without looking and enough tactile feedback to know that they’d been pushed. Overall I only had two small annoyances that were both trivial. First, the ear hooks make wrapping, storing and unwrapping the earphones little tougher as the hooks would get caught on the cable, although the same earhook feature lets them hang on a shirt collar easily. Second is that I’d really like to see an optional cable that was lightning cable specific. Definitely not a dealbreaker, but adapters are annoying and with more phones foregoing the headphone jack it would be a welcome option. Ok, let’s wrap this up.

What I like

• The sound. Accurate and clear
• Comfort, especially with Comply tips
• Secret service up-and-over ear wrap
• Replaceable cable
• The price. This is a lot of earphone for the dollars

What needs to be improved

• Would like to see a lightning connector cable (just say no to adapters)
• Wrapping for storage is an annoyance with the SecretService wrap

Final thoughts

Earphones/headphones are intensely personal. It’s hard to know if you really like a pair until you’ve tried enough varieties to know what you’re looking for. They should work for the music, movies, and content you like, your daily environments and above all they should be comfortable. The B200 earphones work very well for me across all of those metrics and it really is a great price for what you get. The ear hook is a bit more of a commitment over a simple earbud, so they’re best suited when you can plan for uninterrupted listening which I’d encourage anyone to find more time for.

Price: $119.50
Where to buy: Brainwaves Audio and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Brainwavz Audio

The post Brainwavz Audio B200 dual balanced armature earphones review appeared first on The Gadgeteer.

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Tagged: Earphones

Brainwavz Audio B200 dual balanced armature earphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 14, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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I’ve reviewed enough Master & Dynamic products to know how well they are made and also how great they sound. Surprisingly, I have not been familiar with their earphones. That’s now changed. Here is my review of the Master & Dynamic ME05 earphones.

What is it?

The Master & Dynamic ME05 earphones are made from hand-finished brass and are made much like their headphones with an attention to detail missing from many other brands.

Specs

• Dimensions: 21.5 mm X 11.8 mm
• Drivers: 8 mm Titanium
• Impedance: 16 ohms
• Weight: 21 grams
• Materials: Brass, rubber, silicone
• Cable: 47 in.
• 3.5mm standard plug
• Microphone Type: Omni-directional
• Apple Compatibility: The remote and mic are supported only by iPhone 3GS or later, iPad, iPod touch (2nd generation or later), iPod classic (120GB, 160GB), and iPod nano (4th generation or later). The remote is supported by iPod shuffle (3rd generation or later).

Design and features

The ME05 Earphones are made of brass and they look it. So, no surprises there. There’s even a polishing cloth included. The earphones have some weight to them and I was initially worried that this weight would make the earphones more difficult to stay in my ear. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t know how they did it but the weightiness is perfectly balanced, so any fears of falling out were alleviated within the first 30 minutes of wearing. I could even jump up and down without dislodging them, although I wouldn’t recommend exercising while wearing—especially since they are not water or sweat resistant.

Another welcome surprise are ear tips that fit! With my ears, this is a big deal. I didn’t have to revert to my saved stash of ear tips to achieve that important, proper seal. 

The earphones themselves are rather bulbous, but that allows the large dynamic speaker to sit outside the ear—and it helps with the balance I mentioned earlier. The brass is tastefully paired with black accents from the flat, tangle-resistant cords to the reinforced posts where the cord meets the earphone housing. The cord is a bit short for desktop use, but perfect for smartphone use. The overall effect of black and gold is that the ME05 earphones look more expensive than they are. Although made from brass, there are also two other color options: Black Chrome and Palladium. Master & Dynamic have a habit of matching style with substance and it shows here, also.

There is the usual assortment of accessories included. Four pairs of silicone ear tips along with an extra pair of “tuning filters.” These are not like the changeable filters you see on other brands of earphones that provide more bass, treble, whatever. No, these are identical to the already attached pair. However, unless you have gross ears, I can’t imagine why you would need to swap out the filters. Also, the filters are SMALL and yes, I dropped one and had trouble finding it. You’ve been warned. 

The accessories are housed in a nice leather-covered circular case that originally housed the earphones themselves when first opened. Once you pry out the insert that holds the tips, what’s left is a nice, hard case for protecting the earphones. Or you can opt for the included soft, cloth bag for easier packing in a backpack. It’s nice to have a choice. There’s also a shirt clip—which I have never used. 

On the cord, Master & Dynamic separated the mic from the controls, so the mic is closer to the mouth while the Play/Pause controls sit where the cord splits into left and right. Master & Dynamic claims that this reduces noise, but I’ve never noticed that problem with other earphones. But having the controls separate from the mic does reduce weight drag on the right cord since the mic weighs almost nothing.

The sound coming out of the ME05 earphones is as rich as the way they look. It’s a bit on the warm side but not overly so, which is a good thing. Warm just means that bass is accentuated just enough without crowding out the mids and higher frequencies. I can almost feel the bass thump in songs. Of course, that’s impossible with earphones, but the effect is there (depending on the song, of course). 

Brian Eno’s “Written, Forgotten” from the album “Small Craft on a Milk Sea” is a real bass tester. With the ME05 earphones, the deep bass notes sounded much like a subwoofer, but I could still hear faint, subtle whispering in the background giving the song an ethereal quality. I can’t hear that whispering with regular speakers or many headphones. It’s always a treat when you discover new things about songs you thought you knew very well.

Ladytron’s musical hooks are evident in many of their songs, but “Ghosts” is particularly infectious. When turned up, this song is a sonic kick in the teeth. Guitars are blurred with synth chords and distorted percussion giving the song a Phil Spector-like wall of sound. Despite this, you can still hear what you need to in order to make out specific instruments. 

Then there’s “Red Rain” from Peter Gabriel’s classic “So” album. I have a high res version on this album and the sonic improvements are evident throughout the song and album. Bass is tight and distinct from Gabriel’s vocals while there are higher frequency things happening in the background. However, the highs are tamed so there is no harshness at all. This is a well recorded album and the ME05s show that off.

What I like

They are extremely comfortable over long periods of listening, plus the ME05s have ear tips that fit me! The audio feels and sounds just right—not to bassy or bright. 

What needs to be improved

Nothing of note except the lack of water resistance. The ME05s are not cheap, but these brass earphones should last a long time if taken care of.

Final Thoughts

The Master & Dynamic ME05 earphones stick closely to the middle of the audio road without veering either too low or too high. This may disappoint some bass heads or people who like a brighter sound, but those people are not M&D’s target. M&D wants to please as many people as possible with something that sounds good to great and be comfortable doing it. And in that, they succeed.

One more thing. Before you say that $199 is a lot of money for earphones—brass or not—consider this: HifiMan makes brass earphones and those sell for $800. So by comparison, the M&D ME05 earphones are a bargain—especially since they sound so good.

Price: $199 US
Where to buy: Master & Dynamic
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Master & Dynamic.

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Tagged: Earphones

Master & Dynamic ME05 earphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 12, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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When you travel as much as I do, the ability to shut off the outside world and immerse yourself in music or a movie is not just important, it is a necessity.  And when hear about a small, lightweight product which claims up to 60 hours of battery life, active noise cancelling, and all in an affordable package, you have to investigate.  Today I am doing just that with the OVC Noise Cancelling Earphones.  How well does the real-world performance stack up against the claims?  Read on to find out…

OVC packs a lot of stuff in the box.  You get a small carry pouch, two sets of earbuds (one white, one black with small, medium and large sizes in each color), a charging cable (micro USB but no wall plug so plan on using your computer to charge these), an increasingly unnecessary dual airplane plug, and a cord manager.  Pretty complete setup for such a low price point.  You can see what you get in the picture below.

So how do they stack up in the real world?  I started this journey just listening to music on my phone while at my home office desk.  The H15’s sport a bass boost mode that is activated via a switch on the volume/microphone inline control.  When turned off, the H15’s sound like the cheapest earbuds you can buy – tinny, muddied and the volume (even at maximum) feels low.  Turn on the bass boost, however, and the sound is great.  You get the bass (not Beats-level, chest-thumping style but enough to let you feel the music) plus the music clears up – you can hear the highs, vocals are clear and crisp, and the volume is much louder.

I also used the H15’s for business meetings via Skype and my computer, and once or twice to make phone calls.  The microphone works well – in both Skype and the phone others could hear me clearly and I could hear them – but, again, only with the bass boost activated.  Without it, while callers could hear me I could hardly hear or understand them.  Pretty clear that the only way you want to use these is with the bass boost on at all times, which does reduce the battery life.  More on that in a minute.

The H15’s also have active noise cancelling.  Pretty unusual to find this in a sub-$50 earbud.  On the outward facing side of each ear bud, you can see a series of small holes on an O shape – these are the microphones used to generate the anti-sound waves that active noise cancelling produces.  The feature is activated via a button on a control close to the end of the cable that plugs into your device.  Press to turn it on or off.  Noise cancelling seems to work OK, but I have a specific problem that prevents me from getting the full benefit.  Each size of the rubber earbuds comes with a “stabilizer” that you can see in the picture below.  I have unusually large ear holes (hmmm…) but small ears.  The stabilizers push the earbud slightly out of my ear canal and breaks the seal.  If I hold the earbuds in place, the intact seal gives me the full effect of both the bass boost and the noise cancelling.  I cut off the stabilizer on the large size black buds and problem solved, although I feel I am not alone in this problem and OVC should include standard earbuds in the box.

With the stabilizers out of the way, I could begin the real test of the noise cancelling feature – 4 cross-country airline flights in 8 days.  Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.  That said, the noise cancelling feature is a partial success.  With a good seal in my ears and the feature activated I could drown out the engine noise from the plane.  Weirdly, though, I could still hear snippets of conversation around me – not a constant thing, mind you, but the occasional word or phrase would come through reasonably clearly, most likely the result of the noise cancelling feature choosing to continue the suppression of the engine noise over a higher-pitched sound like human conversation.  On phone calls and in Skype while in office surroundings, the noise cancelling feature works as advertised.

One thing missing, however, is sidetone.  This is the ability to monitor your speech while listening to an active conversation.  The H15’s seemingly don’t support this, so if you use the noise cancelling while on a phone call your voice sounds like it is coming from two rooms away.  Getting this to work properly is not an easy task, and even headphones like the Logitech H800 – which are made specifically for Skype-type communications – can’t get this to work.  So just be aware that if your use case is primarily communications, these may not be the earphones you want.

Finally the quirks.  There is the standard inline volume and call accept/end control at the place where the earphones split into the separate channels.  The bass boost switch is on the side of this control.  If you look at the picture, though, you will see the noise cancelling box (and, I assume, the larger battery this headphone supports).  The plug for your device is about 4 inches away from this control.  That means if you put this in your pocket along with your phone and are involved in pretty much any sort of activity you are constantly going to press the on-off button for noise cancelling.  Plus, given where my headphone jack on both my laptop and tablet lives this control just sort of dangles there – too close to the plug to lay on the table or desk.  Thankfully the control is not heavy or this could present problems.  A better design choice would be to have incorporated both the inline and noise cancelling controls into one and placed that higher up where the inline control lives.

Also bass boost and noise cancelling are not mutually compatible.  If noise cancelling is on, the bass boost switch does not appear to do anything.  You do get what I would consider 90% of the bass boost in noise cancelling mode, but the bass didn’t feel as deep as without noise cancelling, most likely because of the dampening sounds the earphones produce.

As far as battery life goes, I was never able to get to 60 hours active use no matter which configuration I used (noise cancelling on/off, bass boost on/off).  I was able, however, to get a very respectable 14 hours use with noise cancelling on.  That’s on par with my Bose QC-35’s so good job there.

For what they are – a sub-$50 active noise cancelling earphone – the OVC H15 delivers on most of the promises.  The places where it fails are either easily overcome or a personal choice.  These won’t replace my more expensive noise cancelling headphones, but if I were looking for earbuds for a child or were on a budget, these would be near the top of the consideration list.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by OVC.  Please visit their website for more info or Amazon to purchase.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Earphones

OVC H15 Noise Cancelling Earphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 26, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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