It boasts 15 hours of battery life and costs 15% less than the Pill, at $170. The Level Box is about the size of Beats Pill 2.0 and is clearly positioned to compete with it.
I did not like wearing them.Īt $150, the Level Ins are an obvious "no buy" from an informed consumer standpoint - you're simply throwing your money away. These are among the least comfortable earbuds I've ever worn, and probably the most difficult to get a seal on. If the sound doesn't turn you off, by the way, the fit will. So, we're looking at two polar opposites of the on-ear spectrum here. The Grados also have a really, really long and thick non-detachable cable, don't fold up, and aren't especially rugged. For those unfamiliar, Grado makes open-back on-ear headphones, meaning that there's no noise isolation in them, so not only does sound from the outside world get in while you're wearing them, people can actually hear the music you're playing in quieter environments pretty easily. I compared the Level On to my Grado SR80is.
#Separation studio 4 $380 full#
Cable with full inline controls (functionality only guaranteed on Samsung devices) and microphone.Modular cord setup (cable can detach from headphone).
#Separation studio 4 $380 portable#
Their folding mechanism and fashion-forward looks (basically a shameless copy of the Beats Solo 2) make them a totally practical portable solution, and while the sound isn't going to win Samsung any awards, it's not bad at all. The Level Ons are, surprisingly, a perfectly respectable on-ear headphone for the style-conscious consumer. They did sometimes feel like they'd slide off the back of my head when I'd lean back, though they never actually did, and you probably just get used to this feeling eventually. I had virtually zero fatigue wearing them for hours at a time, these are truly nice headphones to wear from an ergonomic perspective. Sitting idle with ANC off probably isn't going to drain much, but people tend to use ANC on these kinds of headphones most of the time.Īs for comfort - one of the key points to address on any over-ear headphone - the Level Overs are exceptional. Because they're ANC headphones, the Overs will stay on in ANC mode if you forget to turn them off via the power switch, and that uses up the battery. Even better would be a similar technology that knows to turn the headphones off if they've been off your ears for more than a few minutes. Parrot's Zik headphones are able to detect when they're not on your ears, and pause playback when you take them off. If I were to change any one thing about the Overs, it would be the addition of a smart on-off technology. If you're using the ANC, definitely only do so in combination with Bluetooth.
I will say that using ANC while listening to audio over the wired connection is a bad idea - things get very distorted and the loudness and line noise get cranked way up. It's not a problem because this is true of literally any ANC headphone in existence. For people who want ANC headphones, this isn't a problem - music is still perfectly listenable and fairly detailed with the ANC activated, it just isn't quite as good.
ANC by its nature distorts sound, and soundstage on complex tracks gets kind of nuked when you flip that switch. Once you turn on ANC, generally all bets are off in regard to sound quality. It is scary good, and the amount of ANC hiss is very low. I actually took these on a flight last week, and while the noise of the plane wasn't completely muted, it was so quiet and inoffensive that was I legitimately befuddled by Samsung's apparent sound-killing witchcraft. Samsung's hybrid noise-cancellation system utilizes a microphone inside the headphones along with one outside, and then generates the noise-cancelling.
The ANC on these headphones, though, is simply outstanding. Like the Studio Wireless, the Level Overs feature active noise cancellation, activated via a somewhat annoyingly small button below the power switch (on the Studio Wireless, ANC is always on, so the Over's toggle is a definite upgrade). I love them, and though the next / previous track gesture sometimes activated accidentally when I went to shift the headphones or take them off, it's something I got used to and was able to avoid after using them for a week. How well do the gestures work? Surprisingly well, actually.
0 kommentar(er)
