Tag Archives: headphones

Mo-Fi headphones from Blue: distinctive design delivers excellent sound

I attend several trade shows during the year, and at one of these Blue was showing off its microphones and headphones. These are the world’s best headphones, said one of the representatives. I expressed some scepticism and she promised to send me a pair to try.

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The Mo-Fi, which sells for around £249 or $349, is an unusual set of wired headphones in that it includes its own amplifier, powered by a rechargeable 1020mAh battery. It takes 3-4 hours to charge, which gives you around 12 hours of play, though if the battery runs out it is not fatal as you can also use the headphones in passive mode.

The amplifier can also be used in “On+” mode which boosts the bass slightly. Despite this feature, these headphones are designed for those who like a natural sound rather than one which exaggerates the sonics for instant appeal but later fatigue.

First impressions

When you unpack the Mo-Fi headphones from their solid cuboid box you immediately get an impression of a well-built and high quality product. This is an over the ear design with a metal frame and what I would describe as a modernist, industrial look; opinions on this will vary but personally I am more interested in the sound and the comfort. If you are looking for a svelte and elegant headset though, these will not be for you.

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In order to achieve a good fit whatever the size of your head, Blue has put hinges on the earcups so you can tilt them inwards, reducing their distance from the headband. You can also adjust the tension on the headband to get a looser or tighter grip according to taste. I find the comfort OK though not the best; the problem is that the solidity of the design means greater weight (455g) so you notice them a bit more than a lighter and softer set. That said, I can wear them for an hour or two without strain.

Blue supply two cables, a short 1.2 meter cable for iPad and iPhone which includes volume, pause and microphone, and a 3 meter cable for other sources. There is also an adaptor for headphone amplifiers with a 1/4” jack socket, and another for aeroplane seats with the old dual jack sockets. Finally, you get a well made soft case with a carry strap.

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There is no mention of Android phones in the short manual, but the iPhone cable works fine for microphone and pause/play. The in-cable volume controls only with Apple devices though, because of annoyingly different hardware standards.

Sound quality

The philosophy behind the Mo-Fi seems to be that most of use compromise our listening experience by using headphones or headsets that do not do justice to the music. In part this is because of inferior headphone amplifiers in many mobile devices, which the Mo-Fi’s built-in amplifier mitigates though cannot fix completely (since it is not bypassed).

I tried the Mo-Fi on a variety of devices, including Android phones, an iPad, and an audiophile headphone amplifier (Graham Slee Solo). I compared them to several other headphones and headsets, using music including classical, jazz, rock and pop. I listened to the Mo-Fi mostly with its amplifier on, but not in the on+ position.

The good news: the sound is excellent. It is clean, precise, extended in frequency response, and generally neutral in tone though with slightly recessed high frequencies.

What is the effect of the built-in amplifier? It depends. Using the external headphone amplifier, the built-in amplifier does little more than increase the volume. You can get the same result by turning up the volume in passive mode. On a phone though, the effect is more marked, and you can hear improvement in quality as well as volume. That is what you would expect.

However, while the Mo-Fi sounds good with a phone, I was surprised how much much the sound improved when using the Graham Slee amplifier. Since a Solo costs more than the Mo-Fi, perhaps that is not surprising, but it does illustrate that unfortunately there are still compromises when using a smartphone for music.

What kind of sound do you get from the Mo-FI? Since it is neutral and clean, the Mo-Fi sounds good with all kinds of music, though they are not bright, to the extent that you should avoid them if you like a bright sound. The bass I found particularly tuneful, for example on My Funny Valentine by Miles Davis, which is a rare quality. Listening to the magical Four Seasons by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields I found the Mo-Fi smooth and engaging but not quite as clear or sweet as on high-end Sennheiser headphones.

Playing By Your Side by Sade, which has deep bass that is difficult to reproduce, the Mo-Fi coped well with all the bass energy, though losing the cymbals on this track sounded slightly muted.

Death of a Bachelor by Panic! at the Disco is always an interesting track to play, thanks to its ridiculous bass extension. The Sennheiser HD 600 (about the same price as the Mo-Fi though an open back design) sounds too polite on this track, failing to reproduce the bass thunder, but in compensation sounds tuneful and clean. The Mo-Fi makes more effort to reproduce the bass but on this very demanding track it does tend to blur (a rare failing with these cans) making the tune harder to follow.

On a modern recording of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony (San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas), the Mo-Fi does a fine job reproducing the scale and drama of the opening movement, no trace of blurring here. It is a big sound though again slightly let down by the treble.

No, these are not the best headphones in the world, but they do deliver outstanding quality at what, in audiophile terms, is a moderate cost.

If your preferences veer towards realistic bass and a big, articulate sound you will like the Mo-Fi. If you prefer a sweet, detailed treble with lots of air and space, these might not be for you.

There is one annoyance. One is that the amplifier switch is slightly crackly on my Mo-Fi. I worry that it might get worse over time.

Blue quotes a “15Hz-20kHz” frequency response for both the amplifier and the drivers, but without any indication of how much frequency drops off at the extremes so these figures are meaningless. Impedance is 42 ohms.

Summary

The sound quality is great, but the downside is that the Mo-Fi is relatively heavy and bulky and so some that will be a considerable disadvantage, especially as it does affect the wearing comfort. I can wear the HD 600 all day, whereas after a couple of hours I wanted to remove the Mo-Fi (it might become more comfortable as it wears). The closed back design means you get good sound isolation, which is good or bad depending on how much you want to be able to hear external sounds while listening to music.

If that doesn’t put you off, the Mo-Fi is well worth a listen. It’s well made, thoughtfully packaged, and sounds better than most of its competition.

Review: Vibe FLI Over headphones with “Extreme bass”

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Can you get true bass from headphones? Arguably not quite, since you can feel real bass in your chest, whereas with headphones the air simply is not moving. You can still get the sound right, and that is the promise of Vibe’s Fli-over headphones with “extreme bass”.

This promise caught my interest, since bass quality (or its lack) is one of the biggest differentiators between live and recorded music. I dislike bloated, mushy bass; but I do want to hear the full frequencies, whether it is the tuneful plucking of a double bass in a jazz group, or the pounding drum sounds in rock or rap. Listening at home you often miss out, partly because of lower volume levels, and partly because most systems do not do bass well.

But do the Fli-overs deliver?

I put on the Fli-overs with some trepidation. Was I going to hear pumped-up bass that wrecks the musical balance? Fortunately I did not. The sound is slightly warm and tilted a little towards the low-end, but it is also sweet and tuneful. Where is the extreme bass though?

The answer is that it depends what you play. I happened to put on “No more I love you’s” by Annie Lennox and heard for the first time the deep bass in the slow beat in the opening part of the song. Hmm, I thought, perhaps there is something in the claims.

I sought out some rap and electronica that shows off bass performance, by artists like Psyph Morrison, The Dream, and Bassotronic. If this kind of music is your bag, and you don’t want your headphones to make the bass toned-down and polite, you will find the Fli-overs do a better job than most.

On the Miles Davis track So What, from Kind of Blue, you can follow the bass line easily, without it being overwhelming.

Overall the sound is above average for headphones at this price level. I find them enjoyable for any kind of music, though better for rock and jazz than for classical, where I find the sound a little closed-in and lacking in clarity and detail compared to the best I have heard, but still decent.

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I am not so sure about the comfort though. The earpads are soft but the earcups rather ungenerous in size for an over-ear design, making it hard to find a comfortable position (of course this kind of thing varies from person to person). The headband is lined with a firm rubbery material that feels somewhat hard. The grip of the headphones is tighter than most, though will likely looosen over time. If you wear glasses as I do, this again makes them less comfortable. They are not the worst I have worn, but if comfort is a priority I would suggest looking elsewhere, or at least trying them out before purchase.

The cable is just over 1.5m (though it says 1.0m on the box), enough for most environments, and is a flat style that is somewhat resistant to tangling. There is a microphone and call/answer button in the cord, so you can use these as a headset for a mobile phone, or for voice over IP calls on a tablet. I found this worked well on a Nexus Android tablet.

The headphones have a closed back and noise isolation is good in both directions. They also fold, though no bag is supplied, and would be quite suitable for use in flight.

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if you want to enjoy music where deep bass is central to the experience, these cans will deliver where most do not.

More information on the Vibe site here.

Review: Velodyne vFree wireless headphones

Last month I took a look at Velodyne’s vLeve headphones. Now it is time to look at the similarly-styled vFree, a wireless model which sits a bit higher in the Velodyne range. The range, incidentally, looks like this, though the prices (taken from the Velodyne site) are the most you can pay and you will likely do quite a bit better.

  • vLeve on-ear headphones $199
  • vFree on-ear Bluetooth headphones $299
  • vQuiet over-ear noise cancelling Headphones $299
  • vBold over-ear Bluetooth headphones $349
  • vTrue Studio over-ear headphones $399

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In the smart glossy box you get the headphones, soft bag, cables for USB charging and for a wired audio connection (no microphone when wired), and a leaflet with a guide to pairing.

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There is no charger; you can use the USB port on a PC or one of the many USB chargers you likely have already.

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The headphones fold for portability and have various ports, LEDs and buttons. Under the left cup, you will find a battery status LED, the USB charging port, and a socket for wired audio.

The right cup sports most of the functions. There is volume up/down on the edge, and an LED function indicator and microphone on the bottom. The back of the cup is split to form three large buttons, one for Next/Previous, one for power and pairing, and one for play/pause/answer/end call.

Controls on on-ear devices always tend to be awkward, because you cannot see what you are doing. I like the generous size of the vFree controls, but finding which button to press is still tricky at first.

Pairing is a matter of holding down power until the device enters pairing mode. Fairly straightforward, though in my experience some devices pair more easily than others, and there is no clarity about whether you can pair to multiple devices. I believe you can, because the Nexus was able to reconnect after I paired to the Surface, but I had trouble the other way around and had to re-pair. The function LED is rather dim and hard to see.

The sound

You could say that the vFree is “like the vLeve but wireless”, but although the looks are similar they do not sound the same. Further, bear in mind that a wireless headset contains its own amplifier whereas with a wired set you are dependent on whatever comes with your device.

Perhaps for this reason, I found that the vFree sounded substantially different in the various configurations I tried. The best sound I got was when wired (there is a wired option using the supplied cable) and using a dedicated headphone amplifier: this gave rich bass, clean, clear and spacious sound.

Yet on the two mobile devices I tried, a Surface tablet and a Google Nexus tablet, the vFree sounded better wireless than wired. In fact, the wired option sounded bad in comparison, thinner and slightly distorted.

There is a logic behind this. Mobile devices often have poor audio amplifiers, and when you listen wired, that is what you get. In addition, I found with both these and with the vLeve that they are more than usually sensitive to amplifier quality. With the wireless option though, you are using the built-in amplifier that is specifically designed for the speakers in the vFree. Against that though, wired is a better electrical connection than Bluetooth, so it is a trade-off. Another factor is whether your mobile device supports the higher quality apt-x codec over Bluetooth; many do not, though the vFree does support it.

All of this makes it hard to state definitively how the vFree sounds; it will depend on your set-up. At their best they sound very good, though I doubt wired use with a dedicated amplifier will form typical usage for most. In the other configurations, I found them decent but not outstanding. The bass is particularly clean and tuneful, as you might expect from a supplier of sub-woofers, and the sound in general is refined, never brash or harsh, but lacking the spaciousness that characterises the very best audio.

Comfort is a personal thing; I found the vFree fine for an hour or two but would not want to wear them for longer; but they are soft and lightweight.

These are high quality headphones, though not good value at the full price listed on the Velodyne site. Fortunately you can get them elsewhere for considerably less, making them worth consideration.

Specifications

  • Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHz
  • Impedance: 32 Ω
  • Range: Up to 10m
  • Sensitivity: 98 dB/1 kHz/1mW
  • Codecs: SBC, AAC, apt-X
  • Battery life: 100 hours standby, 10 hours talk and music, 1.5 hours recharge time

Boom time for audio?

The hi-fi industry is on its knees, or so I had thought. That may be true for traditional home stereos; but at a gadget briefing for UK press yesterday I saw more audio stands and stands highlighting audio products than I can recall. The themes: headgear (both headphones and earbuds) and wireless speakers.

As an example, Cygnett was highlighting its noise cancelling headphones and various earbuds, and told me that this is a fast-growing market.

I enjoyed the exotic things more of course, like the Edifier Spinnaker Bluetooth speakers – that little round thing is a wireless remote.

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Even more striking are the Opalum wall speakers, like this FLOW.4810 model, with an array of 48 1″ drivers in each active speaker.

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You can hang them on your wall like this:

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At the other end of the scale, BoomBotix showed its Boombot2 Bluetooth mini attached to the handlebars of a bike; a good way to make yourself unpopular, perhaps, but fun to see.

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Canadian speaker company PSB was showing its high-end M4U noise cancelling headphones

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I had a quick listen and they sounded good, though it is always hard to tell for sure in a crowded room. Neat feature: a press-button remote on the cable enables an external microphone so you can hear someone talking to you without removing the headphones.

Audyssey was there with its excellent powered speakers and docks; search this site for some reviews.

Another company with striking designs was Libratone, showing its Zipp AirPlay portable wireless speakers.

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One thing I did not see much of: old-style iPhone / iPod speaker docks that charge while you play. One exhibitor told me that users will think twice about buying docks with physical connectors now that Apple has changed the design and made everything incompatible without an adapter. In any case, wireless is more stylish. Bluetooth seems most favoured, since it is widely compatible; Android is making its mark and Apple-specific devices are becoming less attractive.

Also worth a mention is Urbanista, which showed its stylish headphones and earbuds, though the focus seems more on fashion than sound; like the London earbuds designed, I was told, to look like cuff links.

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The home stereo may be dead; but there is still innovation in audio. One factor is that almost any portable device – whether dedicated music player, smartphone or tablet – is capable of producing a high quality signal. Connect to the right headphones or active speakers and the magic begins.

Gadget Writing – iPhone docks, 5.1 headphones, mobile, gaming and more

I have started a new blog over at gadgets.itwriting.com which is for reporting on mobile, audio, gaming and other such enthusiasms. The main reason is to have somewhere to cover these subjects without diluting the focus of itwriting.com itself.

Currently on Gadget Writing:

AVI preparing a successor to the ADM 9.1 – the floorstanding ADM 40

Surround sound 5.1 headphones–why and why not. Roccat Kave reviewed

How to get better sound: higher resolution, or something else?

Review: Audyssey iPhone Audio Dock South of Market Edition

and a few more bits and pieces.