Testing Methodology
For todays testing it will be done on my Viewsonic G-Tablet flashed with a custom Honeycomb ROM also while using the default Honeycomb music player. This is done in order to see how they perform on a mobile device instead of a stationary desktop PC. Although, they did sound slightly better on the desktop due to being driven by a sound card.
Before running these tests, the headphones were properly burned-in, in order to bring out the full characteristics of the sound. This is done in order to allow the speakers in the headphones to burn-in since they often sound different out of the box, than when you burn them in for 20-50hrs. After the burn-in period, all tests were conducted.
Music
All music is formatted in FLAC at 256kbs bitrate. Different music albums were used in order to get a feel for how the set would perform on different music genres.
The first album I used was Aly & Fila – Rising sun which is a Trance/ Techno album.Most testing for this album was done at medium volumes since high volumes really felt like the bass was overwhelming. At high volumes the quality starts to go downhill very quickly and a bit of fuzzyness comes out along with lows and highs completely dominating things. The soundstage is actually pretty good, you get a good sense of the music being all around you kind of like a concert. Honestly, ithere are better choices for Trance than the E461-BM’s.
Next up is the Folk album Bring Me your Love by City & Colour. This album is used in order to give a good sense of the mids and highs, as well as some input on the finer details in guitar chords and other sounds. I have to say that this set of earbuds pairs nicely with this particular music style. Everything comes in nice and clear while producing a crisp, yet solid sound. There is a slight lack of detail in faster sections of certain songs, but it is not something you would notice most of the time.
For this review I thought I would switch things up and feature the album 10,000 Days by Tool. This album combines a bit of everything, from various levels of vocals to intense guitar shredding. After testing I couldn’t help but feel like the mids were really lacking. There was a big gap with these buds, lows and highs came in clear but mids just couldn’t perform properly for some reason. Details were crisp on the low end spectrum especially. The soundstage was not quite as good as it was in the previous music types either.
Finally we took a look at the Rap album K.O.D. by Tech N9ne. Over the course of this album I felt like mids once again were being under represented. The bass was solid and very responsive, while highs never once had issues. With that being said, most people would really like these earbuds. The Bass is not overwhelming like it tends to be on many sets. Overall there is a very nice balance but if you want booming beats that rock you this set is not for you unless you ramp up the volume and sacrafice sound quality.
Movies/ Video
Lots of people use their headphones when they watch movies or their favorite TV shows. Testing is done by watching Blue-Ray rips of the following series at 720p or 1080p on the android video player.
Life-
This BBC/ Discovery channel is simply stunning visually and audio-wise. These earbuds leave a bit to be desired. While most things came in crisp and clear I had issues with certain types of high-pitched animal sounds coming in fuzzy. The same thing happened when I tried playing the same episode on my laptop so I had to rule the source out. Other than that, they sounded very good and aside from that singular issue they were solid.
Band of Brothers –
Being quite an amazing series, Band of Brothers was a perfect fit for a war experience. I sadly did not have a great experience with these earbuds and Band of Brothers. After watching a couple of episodes I felt like the experience was not complete. Some sounds were slightly flat, while others were a bit overwhelming. Not exactly the ideal listening experience, but for an airline flight or bus ride they are more than enough.
But lets see how these headphones fare for someone who would like to do some gaming.
