Let’s start with the purchase. I primarily plan to use the plugs together with my MP3 player. I found the OEM round-heads awful; it lacked bass, while the treble course and lacked clarity. And before I knew it, the left side stopped working.
Personally, I prefer headsets with high clarity, thus my criticism on the OEM headsets. Because the player didn’t come with a screen and equalizer, I was left with no choice, but to test the headsets on the spot during the PC Fair. I’ve pitted the Unox with 5 other headset, and it was the Unox which sounded the most balanced and detailed. I’ve gone for glossy black, so that it wouldn’t stain easily. The other colour available was glossy white.
I’d split my test results to 2 sections and their subsections. One main section is the real life test, which delves into its build quality, usability and practicality. The other main section involves putting the sound quality to the test. This said, I had put the most listening time with the plugs paired to the MP3 player, but tests using the hi-fi and the PC had been conducted as well. The listening test involves 3 genres to test the individual sound qualities of the earplugs: accapella music, to expose clarity issues; unplugged, acoustic songs to test out the bass and lower frequencies; live stage music to determine the richness and wideness of the sound produced; and finally, a run-through over some pop songs that I’m really familiar with to spot any minute flaws. Most of the songs tested in digital format are MP3s playing between 256 and 320kbps bit rate, while HDCDs of the same songs were played in the Panasonic hi-fi for comparison. On the PC, its both digital format and HDCDs, played through Creative SoundBlaster 5.1 soundcard. I did a simplified version of this test at the PC Fair with the MP3 player and the headsets blew me away, even with the noisy surrounding.
The Unox box contained the headsets themselves, 2 extra pairs of silicon ear gel for the plugs (Yes, the silicon plugs are replaceable), and a “high quality soft leather pouch”. Construction-wise, the head set seems sturdy, and the wires connected into the headset feel solid. Overall, I must say it’s built to last, as my 2-week test proves. As for the jack, it’s gold-plated to reduce signal loss, and the wires are 1.2 metres long. In addition to that, the earplugs come with a one-year warranty.
In the real world test, there’s little to fault the headsets. The sturdy build meant I can pull the wires out of my pocket without worrying that the plugs will be disconnected and be left in my pocket. The length is typical of any 3rd party headsets, and is long enough for me to listen to songs while leaving the player in my bag pack. The silicon gel is a bit soft, and since it isn’t made for noise cancellation, I must say it’s pretty impressive in filtering out the noise from outside, but lets a bit of sound in, allowing me to hear incoming cars or someone calling out for me. The silicon attracts a lot of dust though, but that’s because I leave them everywhere, so with careful treatment, it wouldn’t be a problem at all.
As for the sound test, it works well with the MP3 player. The absence of the equalizer meant that a bit of detail will be lost while playing accapella, because I can’t tune the higher frequencies. But the Unox tried hard, squeezing every last bit of detail out of the tiny player. With acoustic music, the Unox performed well, the bass feeling solid as ever, but not intrusive at all to hurt my ears over long listening hours. It didn’t do too badly with concerts either, as I managed to hear the background screaming clearly while the band plays. The pop songs sounded reasonable, with little to fault, except with higher frequency sounds and possible bit-rate issues on the player.
It was a different story in the hi-fi test, the bass being much louder that treble, causing unevenness in the music played. Don’t get me wrong, the hi-fi output was good, and the sound produced had much clarity, but the disproportionate volume of the bass gave me great difficulty to listen out for the treble. It barely managed the accapella, the deep voices sounded excellent at high pitch, but ear numbing bass kicked in at lower frequencies. It excelled with concerts, producing an even wider sound and volume, and it performed great with solo sections of the guitar. Disappointingly, it flunked the acoustic and pop song tests; the bass was heavy and treble was on the soft side. Clearly, the hi-fi wasn’t made for earplugs output.
On the other hand, the Unox felt right at home when connected to the PC. Bass and treble were well balanced in all genres; it did particular well with acoustic songs, clearly differentiating the wooden bass guitar from the electric ones, as well as the different drum beats. With the volume pumped up, it sounded even more detailed, but only with high bit rate songs and the CDs, as 256kbps ones had lost some treble quality and eventually sounded coarse. Also, the concert songs didn’t sound as voluminous as the hi-fi. It could have been the soundcard pushing the sound quality to the next level, and confusing its 5.1 engine in the process, but I will run the test on a laptop with built in soundcards and keep you informed on that soon.
To end this report, the Unox cost me RM25 during PC Fair, and I’m pretty sure it’ll go even lower over time. Yes, it wont sound as good as the Sennheiser and Bose ones, but if you are looking for a pair of headsets that wont break the bank and costs more than your player, while producing reasonable sound quality, the SonicGear Spark Plug Unox gets my thumbs up.
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