Hello everyone,
so today I'm taking a look at lightning in a bottle. Some of you might know that
I've been on a mission for the last year to try and find a
set of Bluetooth headphones which don't suck. Now,
you might think that it's actually pretty easy these days because Bluetooth
headphones have
been around for donkeys' years but
in truth the quality of the audio, the quality of the
power consumption,the quality of the headphones and the fit
themselves generally means that I get really annoyed and take
things back. And I've used Bluetooth headphones
from £15-20 right the way up to several hundred pounds
and I've always found there was something with them that just meant they were
unsuitable. Unsuitable to the point where I won't even put them on camera
because I'd just have to sit there and go well yes, they're Bluetooth, you get rid of the
cables but you lose too much else. So imagine my surprise when I
stumbled across these. Now, I'm going to tell you where I got them from at the end
and I'm going to tell you a price at the end. but for now just listen to how
awesome I think they are. Now, unfortunately I can't really
demonstrate as it were easily the sound quality
because you'll be hearing like a copy of a copy of a copy by the time we've finished
so what I'm instead going to do is tell you that the audio quality I had on these
was comparable to a pair of wired headphones
to the point where I couldn't tell the difference. I've got various different wired
headphones lying around on my desk
everything from JCVs to Sonys and
generally speaking I would say the audio quality here is as good
if not comparable, if not a bit better in some cases. There is
one small thing which is common to all Bluetooth headphones I've ever used which
is a certain amount of audio buzz when there's no audio playing
and this is purely caused by the fact that you're dealing with an RF frequency
effectively
and you know, you pick up interference and
things like that. Microwaves for instance have been shown to cause
some interference with Bluetooth but let's take a look at these
headphones first of all. Now, they are very much in the style of,
you know, your cool DJ headphones so you've got
cups, we also have full articulator
on the sides there which allow the cups to sit really snugly
on your head. You'd be surprised how many headphones don't actually include that and
you're dealing with something that's quite fixed. Now the problem there is you're getting pinching. Your ears end up hurting
because you can't quite get an
absolutely perfect fit. And also if you're not getting a perfect fit you're going to get some sound
leaking out of the sides of the headphone cups etcetera. All of this
leads to a poor experience not just for yourself but for the people sat next to you.
So, how do these work? Well, they're Bluetooth like I say, they have a battery inside them
as well and the battery's been rated for 10 hours.
Now normally I would say - yes, right 10 hour battery!
I haven't charged these in a week and I reckon I've used them for at least 8-9 hours
so far
so very very good. It uses a
micro USB for charging so you can plug it into a wall socket
or into your computer and charge it directly off that. Your volume rocker
is here and you simply rock up and down on the rocker to change the volume.
Roll it up to go up, down to go down and
it will give you an audio beep
as it were when it's at the max volume setting and that's pretty loud believe me!
To actually power them on all you need to do press and hold there
and it will flash and that's turned on.
And then on our device all we need to do
is make sure our Bluetooth is turned on here and it's connected.
Now connecting the actual headphones as it were
is very very easy. All you do is you press and hold this button down for two seconds
it will then flash red alternating red off
red off, etcetera and then it is in paired mode. Switch your device into Bluetooth
turn the pairing on, job done. Very very
very quick. I've paired this up with some tablets
three or four smartphones. It just worked first time, every time
unlike a lot of Bluetooth devices where you can be sat there fiddling around for ages before you
somehow coax the smartphone into recognising the device.
Found it to be very very solid.
Now, once you have it paired up with anything
you know, if you're pairing it with your computer, your Bluetooth dongle or
Bluetooth on your computer you can use it with that, you can use it with your smartphone
anything where there's a Bluetooth sender available basically you can pair it up.
Now the actual headphones themselves aren't particularly heavy certainly not for something that
contains a 10 volt battery.
They're very very light. And when you have them on your head you
barely notice them and that is one of the best things with a set of headphones.
You don't want them getting in the way too much, you don't want to feel the pressure on your head.
The band that they've added on to here which you can see is a very soft
like a memory foam of some sort and it springs back near
instantly and the same again on these cups.
Now the cups are really really comfortable
no sort of sweating or pinching on your ears.
It's not like this band is designed to kind of go clunk like that!
What it does is it just sits snugly and nicely and part of that is down to
the shape of the band and the articulation of the cups as well.
It means that you're always getting a really nice fit.
Now the actual headphones themselves are
rated at 320 impedence on both sides,
the driver is at 20milliwatts and the frequency response is between 20 and 20,000hz. Now
that's actually pretty good,
maybe not as good as some of the really high-end headphones
but you're paying £200-£300 for those and honestly you can't
tell the difference, you really can't. You know, Dr Dre, everything
that is kind of going on with Beat Audio and everything like that,
sorry guys you don't need expensive headphones like that.
The vast majority of people simply cannot tell the difference. So
you're looking at a power consumption of 0.11 watts.
That is incredibly low especially for a set of Bluetooth headphones.
It's using Bluetooth profile 3 so you should find that any modern smartphone or
Bluetooth device will be more than capable of talking to these with ease.
They say it's a 10 hour battery. As I say I've been using them for around 8-9 hours now
without a charge.
Not had any problems at all. What I can't quite comment on at this point is how long it
takes to charge the device
from cold but we should expect that on a
0.5 volt, 0.3amp
charge that you're going to be looking at around
the 4-6 hour mark. It's very difficult to tell a lot of it is going to depend on how
much power you really have coming in under those
USBs. As you know some USBs don't deliver a true 5volt.
But I was very very impressed.
So, would you like to know where I got them from and would you like to know the price?
So if I was to say to you these cost £100
I'd be lying. If I said they cost £50
I'd be lying. If I said I bought them in Asda
and they cost £25 your jaws would hit the floor.
Well I did. Asda £25.
For a set of Bluetooth headphones using Bluetooth profile 3, a
10 hour battery and some of the best sound quality I've ever heard
from a set of headphones. Certainly at this price point and certainly
using Bluetooth. So how did Asda do it? Well this isn't a product which is branded
as it were it's very much been made for Asda on behalf of Asda
so it's their own thing. They've probably gone to China found these and gone, look
we'll stick them in a box and sell them in Asda. So what you're looking for
is go into the CD
video DVD games area
whatever you want to call it, and in most Asda stores now what they've done
is
they've got rid of things like the Nintendo Wii and in
its place they've put headphones
mobile phone covers and accessories kind of thing.
Go over to the headphones, have a look on the bottom shelf I found because
these boxes don't seem to hang up
and what you'll find is these and the box you looking for
is this. Just get that into shot.
It's called i-box and that's the headphones
the wireless Bluetooth headphones with built in microphone, that's something I forgot to mention
and as you can see manufactured for Asda Ltd.
So if you're looking for the best Bluetooth headphones
money can buy right now at £25
because we're all skint! Get yourself down to Asda
give these a try and let me know what you think because in my opinion you will not find
better this weekend. In fact, I don't think you'll find better on the market right now.
If you're in the market for a great pair of Bluetooth headphones, give these ones from Asda a try.
Absolutely fantastic.