Archeer AH07 Headphone Review by mark2410
TLDR? Try here http://www.head-fi.org/t/814334/archeer-ah07-headphone-review-by-mark2410#post_12725469
First Impressions: Hmm a reasonable box we have here. Okay its solid but nothing very fancy, inside we have the headphones and hidden in the bottom we have the manual and cables. Ahh, yes they may be Bluetooth but you can cable them up too. I must say picking up the headphones they look rather nice, really quite pretty and nice. The metal looking bits are real metal too which I wouldn’t have taken as a given at the price. Those earpads, hmm while I do admit they look pretty cool, being rectangular but…. you know what’s not rectangular? My ears. I foresee that at some point that may crop up as an issue.
Pairing the thing to a phone and play. They are not bad, bassy as you would expect but not bad. There is a reasonable dash of treble in there too. There is a nice scale and bit of breadth there. Hmm that bass I can see its going to start showing up whether I want it to or not isn’t it. Ah well their tonality is pretty nice and they sound pretty clear, actually not bad for the price I’m thinking.
Source: Predominantly a Lumia 735 and a Nexus 5.
Lows: Gargantuan. It’s hardly a shocker that something that is lower end being super bassy, it’s what the mainstream consumer has been convinced equates to good. Therefore they think the more bass the better something is and these are accordingly massively bass heavy. “Your Father And I” has a bassline that perfectly matches the bass hump of these and is supper massively bassy. Ye gods there is a lot of it. Though its quality is pretty respectable for its size and price tag so I won’t complain too much. Though if I had to hear these everyday I think my skull might cave in. The depth is not bad, it does tend to focus a bid in the more mid/bass region and it’s the middle of the bass range with the lowest falling off and softening as it goes. Therefor they intentionally focus further up and do all they can be punch. Punching with all that gigantic oomph. Bassy bassy bassy. Nimble and agile, well not so much these are about being big and powerfully bassy. While I find its scale to be a bit tiresome I would expect that its target demographic will love its size and weighty impact.
Tonally it’s a bit monotone, it could do with being a little more tuneful but at £40 there is nothing to complain about. Big old fun time party bass.
Mids: Unsurprisingly they are in a bit of a valley, a skewed valley as there is no mistaking for an instant that the bass here is king. Still, the mids aren’t bad, they could do with more detail but again it’s good for the price. They are however a little bit warmed, they have a preference for lower vocals so male usually. They do interject a dash of thickness and warmth but there is still a certain dryness. Despite the thickening and warming there is a still something a little detached about them, they aren’t as creamy as your usually get with warming and thickening. That does let them push open just a tad extra and enhances their clarity. Still there are not detail cans, greatly suited for poppy vocals that aren’t about the most minute detail.
Quantity wise they are coming in third place, only just behind the treble but some way behind that big bass. The mids while quite capable are suited for pop, they just aren’t aiming for a lingering mid nor an openly explicit vocal. They are middling mids that get the job done and try to be as versatile as they can be give anything a fair go. This they do too.
Highs: Good. Actually they are really good. For a 40 quid headphone, that’s Bluetooth too spitting out decent treble is a fair old achievement. There are so many points at which your just asking for the treble to become a scratchy ball of brittleness. However, that warming and thickening I mentioned earlier, well it come back to play and stops the treble from ever getting unruly. Even in rather treble heavy tracks and ones that aren’t the best mastered either, they sound good. The treble stays composed and whips off that had metallic initial impact. The detail levels are rather great to for the price. The only drawback is that those who want a hard, bighting treble will not be so pleased. The bass is where it’s at here and the treble is taking its ques from the bass, a little warmed, a little thickened which all leads to a moderately dark upper. While I like its treble presentation and its quantity level and while it does cut in at a level above the mids, thus it is V shaped the treble hasn’t the power the dominance that the bass has.
However…… if you run these from their cable, slapped into Solo Ultra the treble really boosts itself, quantity and energy became really noticeable. Though I’d expect these will mostly only see Bluetooth use.
Comfort: Despite their cool looking but certainly not ear shaped pads, the rectangle ones, I actually fond them comfortable. Sure after a couple hours the constant pressure on my ears did make want to get them off. However for the most part they were not at all bad for on ears.
Fit: Very easy. Again despite their weird rectangle pads they went on fine, no bother at all getting them to sit and seal on my ears.
Cable: Well the supplied cable is fine, nothing special. Where the special comes in is that they can be run by a cable or they can use Bluetooth. Let’s face it if you’re buying these it’s probably to use with Bluetooth. Using it was, great, no dropout at all and I could get a good 20 feet maybe before it started to loose the signal. Additionally there was no noticeable degradation of audio in using it from using a cable. They were easy to drive and their own little internal amp works just dandy.
Battery Life: They are quoted at 14 hours and as best I could tell that seemed fair. I wasn’t going to sit for 14 hours to time them but I got several days of use and they were still going strong. That is good enough for me to say the battery was good enough. I did however think that wouldn’t it be nice if wireless ear and headphones maybe had a little battery indicator light or something.
Isolation: It is as ever dependent on how well you get a seal and with their rectangular shape I clearly wasn’t getting a perfect seal. Thus the isolation was a bit so so. Okay to use walking out and about but I’d think a little too little for on a bus, you’ll annoy everyone around you. Naturally that means not really one for flights nor Tube commutes. Still it’s quite sufficient to get you run over if you aren’t using your eyes when near traffic.
Build Quality: Very nice. While the big chrome outer may be for cosmetic reasons I still find that for 40 quid they not only look good, they feel it too. The buttons are bit hard edged but that’s really it. Everything else feels and looks decently put together. All very neat and tidy.
Aesthetics: I like them, I’m a sucker for bare metal and while the big metal band over the ears is entirely cosmetic, I think it looks great. Black with brushed aluminium, what isn’t to like. Mind you again those buttons look a bit like they are made of cheap plastic, which stands out a little given how nice everything else looks and feels. Still their overall appearance I find most aesthetically pleasing.
Phone Use: They worked fine. Calls were great and super Cleary audible from my end. I was told I was a touch quiet at the other end but that otherwise it was fine. The buttons, well the volume worked fine the play/pause button would not track skip. However….. if you long press the volume buttons you track skip. So long press up for the next track and long press down for back. Shouldn’t that be a function of the phone rather than the button? I really have no idea why, but hey they worked fine so you just have to get you used to its arrangement.
Amped/Unamped: They are designed to be run off their own power and so are sensitive. Basically these aren’t after a powerful source and thusly using one, well I wouldn’t bother. Given their Bluetooth, mic’ed for a phone and they’re cheap I doubt they’ll ever see an amp anyway but just saying you don’t really gain from using one anyway.
Accessories: As bundles go you don’t get a heap of things. There is a micro USB cable to charge it, a 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable for running them like a normal wired pair of headphones and that’s your lot. A little case might have been nice but as is the case with things, the price, you can’t really complain that something this cheap doesn’t come with one and if you want one then just buy one. Why should everyone else be forced to pay more for these for you to get a case. The only other thing I wonder about is the pads, will you be able to get replacement ones given their uncommon shape?
Value: So acoustically I can be a little wishy washy about these because while they are not bad, they are nothing super special either. However…… they are really cheap, not just really cheap but Bluetooth too and it doesn’t stop their either, they are really nice looking as well. For the price you’re getting quite the little bargain I think. It’s a very populist sound signature, seriously serious bass and that it looks great, what down side is there to them?
Conclusion: Okay so these a big old bass cannons. No ifs no buts, tons and tons of bass. So while I think these maybe aren’t going to take Head-Fi by storm it really does deserve to get some recognition. It’s an acoustically competent little thing and while it’s bass output is somewhat over eager it’s fundamentally a really nice product. I wonder if they might make a version with considerably less bass? I think if they did it could get some serious traction in the more audiophile word. You see the treble and mids are both really quite capable for the price and Bluetooth functionality too. Seriously what’s not to like?
What makes or break these though is the bass and how much of it you want. If you want Titanic quantities then your all set and your just looooooooove these. They are huge air movers, like getting punched by a boxing glove in the side of your head. A hint of softness on the initial impact but loads of power behind it with a ton of follow-through. The question is, is that the sort of bass your after and it’s that the sort of quantity you’re after. It big and seriously powerful stuff.
So would I/ should you get one? Well it’s too much bass for me but I bet my sister would kill to get her hands on these. Huge bass, huge pretty good quality bass, nice quality mids and surprisingly good quality treble make for a pretty nice package. Oh and of course they look great too. So again I find myself looking at them, listening to them and thinking what’s not to like? If you’re after a cheap big old bass cannon that uses Bluetooth, seriously give them a go as they really are most capable and excellent value for money.
No comments:
Post a Comment