Zorloo Aero Review
First
Impressions: I hear have a pre production package, lol so the initial
“new toy” tweet photo would have given recipients absolutely no idea
what was inside. But hey I like that, it adds a little mystery. So
inside the buds and the first thing I not is that everything is big.
The buds are physically large and the controls are huge. Well huge by
controls standards anyway, really huge. It’s also weird to see a
controller that isn’t up by the side of your face, you see these have no
mic in them so it doesn’t need to be near your mouth. Ahhhhh it must
be there they hide the DAC and digital bits and bobs. Hmm it’s also the
Y splitter, sensible but it seems very, very far away from your face.
It’s nearer my navel than it is my face, why so long? (Note, Zorloo
have said this will be not the case in production models.)
So
in the ears and while the buds are if they fit me perfectly. Grabbing
the nearby Moto G 4G and plugging them into the bottom, the micro USB
socket and a dozen or so seconds later the headset icon appears in the
notifications bar at the top. I hit the play/pause/skip button and
music appears. Ooof these are bassy buggers aren’t they. Fun for sure,
lively, bouncy fun beasts. Hmm I can see maybe long term the bass
being a bit much but right now I’m smiling. I may also slightly be
singing along to Karma Chameleon and dancing about in my chair.
Source:
Well there are their own source as it were. So they should therefore
be identical sounding plugged into your computer, or whichever phone you
might have, bypassing entirely the likely piece of crap DAC /amp they
have inside them.
Lows:
Big, a great big thumping hearty bass. I know that it’s too big,
strictly speaking its really very boosted but it’s really entertaining.
It doesn’t bleed up the range much so vocals are unimpinged. The bass
can thump its little heart out. They are not peeked at the mid/bass
cusp rather a bit lower so the bass is entirely own its own. The depth
is good, it’s a big rounded hump for sure so the depth does trail away
as you’d expect but nicely so. Odd given their closedness I’d have
expected a little more linearity but I’m confident its intentional.
These are not trying to be flat, acoustically balanced, neutral /
natural whatever’s. They are fun time party beasts. However slapping
on Tracy Chapman and the bass was quite happy to sit on its hands and
chill. Its exceeding dynamic over all, as Eric Hutchinson’s “All Over
Now” came on next, the bass come barrelling out like a runaway freight
train. Bouncy bouncy bouncy. God the layering is really very nice.
Okay
in quantity terms it’s too much, I know that but given this is really
aimed at those poor suckers who insist on using their mobile phones to
provide them with music. Even decently good phones still suck next to
proper DAP’s so Zorloo are trying to work around that. It also means
they can pair and match the DAC/amp internals exactly to the earphone as
they control the whole acoustic chain. That alone given them a massive
leg up on everyone else.
Mids:
WOO HOOO, “I have nothing, nothing, nothing If I don't have you, you,
you, you, you!!!!” Oh ****, was that out loud???? Note to self no
matter how much I might like Whitney I cannot and any way shape or form
go there vocally. These have such enthusiasm and joie de vivre that
it’s disturbingly infectious. I recognise mentally that these are very
capable but you know they aren’t as nuanced and well-articulated as the
best mids at the price but that’s not important. These are so full of
joy and soul it’s aurally captivating, its alike an acoustic wind that
just sweeps you up off your feet. You want to just go with the flow and
let it sing out want all the mirth and jollity you can muster.
They
are so much fun to listen to. The dynamics are so lively and
entertaining I’m finding myself getting very little done productively.
I’m also noticing that the more I listen to them the more I find them
tiring.
Highs:
They are relatively tame. That is bang on for me, I could happily and
exuberantly throw on some old school Skunk Anansi “We Love Your Apathy”
“Infidelity” and “Brazen” all great songs that are very much let down
by their god awful mastering. The treble on them is brittle, broken up
and scratchy as all get out. The Aero slaps a fine layer of plaster
over all that mess shielding your ears from it. Sure the bass is VERY
dominant, to the point of ear tiring but its treble reproduction. Okay
so in absolute terms the treble is a little dialled down in comparison
to the rest especially that whopper bass. The detail retrieval is
reasonable, it just not highly aggressive about presenting it to you.
It hasn’t really much in the way of edge either. It’s going to be a
little muted and little lacking presence for some. It can get a little
bit obscured in the melee, what with the bass is tearing up the place
and the mids fighting to be heard, the treble is the 3rd
newly hatched chick. The chick that may or may well not survive because
it hasn’t the strength to sing loud enough to get its parents
attention.
Soundstage:
Distance is pretty good, scale is whoa!!!! Big stuff, big power, big
abundance, big wahhh!!! It’s fun. It’s a little bit inappropriate at
times as intimate closed in tracks just aren’t. You would think that
given their bassy warmness things would be much more drawn in. However
they throw such an abundance of power at you they sound very largely
scaled.
Fit:
For me great. I’ll confess their size concerned me and must surely be a
problem for someone somewhere. Me though, perfect.
Comfort: See Fit. I was concerned but they worked perfectly for my ears.
Cable:
Hmm it’s a flat cable, I don’t love those. Also what’s with the
Y-splitter being so very, very far down? Otherwise it’s fine, nothing
actually wrong with it but like I say I don’t love flat cables and I
don’t get why the Y-splitter is miles away. (Note, again Zorloo have
told me the Y-splitter will be more reasonably located in production
models.)
Isolation:
For a dynamic these actually isolate really well. Comply’s on them I’m
sure assisted, however I was pleasantly surprised. Though keep in mind
they are still dynamics so while they are creeping in the direction of a
BA they still aren’t BA’s. Absolutely fine for on a bus and out and
about, maybe even for the odd flight. Not for regular flights nor a
Tube commute but hey. Oh and naturally more than enough to make you a
road stain if you don’t use your eyes while out in traffic.
Phone
Use: While these get plugged into your phone, they cannot be used for
making or taking calls. While I absolutely understand why this is the
case it still seems odd. I mean who actually uses their phones to make
calls anyway right?
Amped/Unamped:
So why is this section in here you may ask? Well to give me space to
clarify what makes the Aero special. It is its own DAC and its own
amp. It bypasses the internals in your phone, now I do realise that
phones are getting better. They are, they really are but let’s face it,
a phone is a convergence device and they are never going to put audio
as a major priority. They know that their customers on the whole don’t
care and even if they did most use such terrible ear/headphones that it
wouldn’t matter anyway. The additional bonus in all of that being
bypassed as that Zorloo effectively control the entire audio output
chain. The DAC, the amp and the earphones themselves an so they can
tune them to perfectly pair up. Any other earphone, no matter how good,
may pair particularly badly with a particular mobile, there is no way
for anyone to really know how it will sound with different pairings.
The Aero however will sound exactly the same no matter what its
connected to. There is a certainty, no hit and miss synergy pairings.
You can use these on any device and know exactly what you will be
getting audio wise.
Accessories: Well I have a pre-production so I don’t know what it’ll be you get.
Value:
As best I know the RRP will be US$120 which is about £86. Woo hoo!!!
You’ll be hard pressed to find anything more fun and you get the added
plus of not having to already have a good sounding phone. I mean
especially if you have say, an Iphone, you get to skip its
inadequacies. So yes I’d say bargain, big bassy bargain that’s oodles
of fun.
N.B.
If you however get in early, they will be offered as a perk for just
US$70 on their forthcoming Indegogo campaign. That’s just £50, even
with the horrible exchange rate just now that’s a bit of a steel.
Conclusion:
The Aero’s are a bit of a queer duck as they say. It’s not like a
normal earphone you see, usually an earphone is a link, the last link in
the audio chain, its output is a factor of each of those links.
However the Aero is the whole shebang. There is a few negatives to
this, most notably that everything uses a 3.5mm jack but these don’t.
These therefore will be more limited in how you can use them. They
come in 3 cabled versions, a lightning cable, a micro USB cable and
lastly a micro USB 3 cable. So right there, there is a limitation. So
most people have one phone this isn’t a huge issue and the fact you can
change the cable helps but they just won’t ever have the ubiquity of the
universal 3.5mm jack. However what you give up you gain total control
over the audio chain in way you cannot otherwise. Swings verses
roundabouts.
Overall
I’m very pleased with the outcome here. Back when I used their
siblings, the Z:ero I was a bit of a fan of the idea but I felt they
were coming in a price level where they simply didn’t have drivers that
could make the best use of the DAC and amp. The Aero however is. They
are really lively, fun and bouncy beasts and they will always be that no
what phone you use. Using these means you don’t have to care about
good synergy because it’s all good and it is, all good.
So
should you buy one? Well if you are wedded to the idea of using your
phone for audio, especially if you’re an Iphone user, then using these
gets you good audio quality with a highly crowd pleasing sound. The
caveat is it won’t work for all phones (like they wouldn’t work with my
P8.) So that’s clearly a massive issue and its one that Zorloo have no
control over. Granted it’s a show stopper for some but it’s the
incompetence of the phone makers (Huawei / Honor I’m looking at you
here) so I won’t blame Zorloo any more than you’d blame Ford for the
roads being full of potholes. As it stands the Aero is a great product,
its exactly what I said wanted to see when I looked at the Z:ero. So
congrats to Zorloo and I shall be eagerly awaiting getting to hear the
two other variant and what they can do too!
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