H.ear the DIFFERENCE

A BEAUTIFULLY designed pair of 100AAP High-Resolution Audio-compatible, over-ear headphones that not only deliver great quality sound but come at an affordable price, Sony’s h.ear headphones are also colour coordinated, coming in viridian blue, cinnabar red, charcoal black, lime yellow and bordeaux pink to match Sony’s new Hi-Res Walkman A series.

The headphones are sleek too, with a shiny finish on both the headband and the ear cups, which are designed with a slight bias to the front, all the better for a perfect fit.

Highly portable thanks to a foldable design, the phones weigh only 220 grammes without the detachable cable, which is 1.2-metre long. The package comes with a carrying pouch. 

The extendable headband has a soft cushion at the spot where it is placed on the head and soft cushions over the ear cups making the phones very comfortable to wear for extended periods.

Sony h.ear on is rated Hi-Resolution Audio compatible due to its ability to reproduce frequency up to 60,000Hz, and it comes with a large 40mm-HD driver to deliver powerful bass audio.The headphones also have an impressive sensitivity rating of 103 dB/mW.

The phones use lightweight CCAW voice coils that deliver a high-linearity response for stable, true-to-source high frequencies. And the headphone’s diaphragms with a titanium-coated dome give a more consistent and precise sound across the entire frequency range while minimising distortions.

Hi-Res Audio is an audio format that is growing in popularity because it reproduces sounds that come close to the original analogue signal. There are several Hi-Res Audio formats, including the popular FLAC 24bit/192 kHz, which boasts five times more definition than the audio CD.

I tested the phones on with Sony's NW-25 Hi-Res Audio Walkman player using a set of Hi-Res audio songs provided by Sony for the test.

The headphones reproduced very good details of musical instruments. Tiny ambient sounds of certain songs could also be heard. And the headphones really delivered a very powerful bass.

This is because the phones use Beat Response Control technology that delivers a tight, deep bass response, making it perfect for low-end focused music styles. 

There’s an air vent on each ear cup to maximise airflow within the low frequency range, thus optimising the efficiency of the diaphragm and enabling more accurate reproduction of bass rhythms.

One of the tracks I listened to was jazz classic “Take Five” by the Dave Brubeck Quartet and I thoroughly enjoyed the drums, double bass, saxophone and piano jam, easily picking out each instrument. 

The double bass delivered a powerful kick, as did the bass drum, while the high hats of the drum set sounded pleasingly high.

The same was true for The Eagle’s “Hotel California” with satisfyingly deep bass and clear percussion and lead guitar. The vocals also sounded outstanding.

The detachable cable comes in the same colour as the headphones and is designed to resist snags and tangles so you can snap on the headphones anytime without having to untangle the cable first.

And best of all, the cable has inline remote and a microphone for making hand-free calls when used with your smartphone. 

The remote has just one button that you press to answer a call or hang up.

 If you’re listening to music, press it once to pause and again to resume the track and twice to skip to the next track. I tested these functions with Asus ZenFone 2 Laser and they worked well.

Sony h.ear on MDR-100AAP phones retail for Bt6,290.

 

Key Specs

 

- Driver Unit: 40 mm, dome type (CCAW Voice Coil)

- Diaphragm: Diaphragms with titanium-coated domes

- Frequency Response (HZ): 5-60000 Hz

- Sensitivities (DB/MW): 103 dB/mW

- Magnet: Neodymium

- Impedance (OHM); 24 ohms at 1 kHz

- Cord Type: Detachable

- Cord Length: Approx. 1.2 m

- Plug: L-shaped gold-plated 4-pole mini plug

- Unit Of Microphone: Electret condenser

- Direction Of In-Line Microphone: Omni directional

- Weight: Approx. 220g |without cable