Music to the ears

Sony’s new XBA-4 in-ear headphones are part of its newly developed Balanced Armature (BA) series and offer audiophiles some seriously impressive sound quality.

Normally, a phone has only one driver for all ranges of audio frequencies but each of the XBA-4 headphones boasts no fewer than four BA driver units: a full range driver, tweeter, woofer and super woofer drivers like full-range speaker.

With the four drivers, XBA-4 headphones really reproduce a balanced spectrum of crisp, radiant highs and deep bass.

Sony manages to put four drivers in one unit because it has cleverly designed each driver in a micro size. They’re tight and snug in a special, high-strength magnesium inner housing that provides the necessary rigidity for smooth frequency response. And the inner housing is put inside an ABS outer housing that suppresses vibrations for clear mid-high frequency sound reproduction.

Although the XBA-4 are in-ear headphones, I felt comfortable wearing them thanks to the ultra-compact design that provides a natural fit inside the ear, resulting in better, long-term comfort. The headphone units weigh about only eight grams and the cord is about 1.2-metre-long.

The comfortable fit also results in significantly lower sound leakage levels both in and out, allowing you to enjoy music without interruption from outside noises. And the XBA-4 package comes with three sizes of noise isolation earbuds to replace hybrid silicone buds to further block noises. The package provides four sizes of hybrid silicone earbuds, which are designed to fit into the ears to maximise sound quality and comfort.

The XBA-4 headphones have very good sensitivity of 108 dB/mW and a wide range of frequency response of 3 to 28,0000 Hz. The high sensitivity and good frequency response allows the XBA-4 to reproduce crisp sounds.

I tested the XBA-4 with Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, Samsung MP3 player YP-F3QB and iPad, and I was very impressed with the quality of sound reproduced by the headphones.

When I tested the headphones by turning off the equalizer setting of the gadgets, the XBA-4 could still reproduce very deep bass sounds. Best of all, the bass sounds also came with instrumental and vocal instruments.

For example, when I listened to the “Best Audiophile Voices V” with XBA-4 headphones using Tab 7.7, I was impressed by the clarity of voices and instrumental sounds and the clarity did not cause the good deep bass sounds to disappear.

The saxophone sound and other backup instruments’ sounds in the “Sax for Sex – Beautiful Night” were also pleasing during the test.

Best of all, I used the XBA-4 headphones to listen to albums of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters because the clarity of sounds let me hear several sound effects that I rarely hear when listening to them on the full audio system or even though ordinary headphones.

For example, listening to the first track of Roger Waters’ “The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking”, I could clearly hear the birds chirping in the background.

A set of XBA-4 headphones retails for Bt8,990. The package includes a carrying case and a cord adjuster.

 

         Key specs

_ Driver Unit: Closed, Quad Balanced Armature 

_ Frequency Response: 3 – 28,000 Hz 

_ Impedance: 8 ohms at 1 kHz 

_ Sensitivity (db): 108 dB/mW

_ Power Handling Capacity: 100 mW (IEC)

_ Cord: 1.2 m, OFC Litz cord neck-chain

_ Weight (Approx.): 8 g without cord

_ In the Box: Carrying Case (1), Hybrid Silicone Earbuds – SS (2), S (2), M (2), L (2), Noise Isolation Earbuds – S (2), M (2), L (2), Cord Adjuster (1)