When it comes to listening to music, watching a movie/tv show or taking calls, a solid set of headphones or ear buds can make all the difference in the world. There are a number of solutions out there that can best showcase your personal style, your personal needs and your satisfy your bank account (your significant other). You need a good mix of sound quality, functionality, style and comfort. At least, that is what I mainly look for. I am not particularly found of in-ear ear buds and tend to lean towards the over-the-ear variety of headphones/headsets. Headphones being the variety that blast sound to your brain, where as headsets can be used for video calls, phone calls and the likes. Taking those things into consideration along with the price point that something is being offered is another factor to consider. Spending $300 on a set of headphones because of a hyped up brand name doesn’t appeal to me much. So lets take a look at a pair that has some great sound with a great price point too. Meet the NoiseHush Freedom BT700′s
What’s in the box
- NoiseHush Freedom BT700 Headphones
- Micro tipped USB cable
- User manual
The NoiseHush Freedom BT700′s are Bluetooth and do not have a physical audio jack.
Spec rundown
- Bluetooth Version: CSR V2.1 +EDR
- Transmission Power: Calss 2
- Frequency: 20Hz – 20kHz
- Speaker Driver: 40mm Neodymium
- Impedance: 32 ohm +/- 15%
- Sesitivity: 104 +/- 3db
- Charge time: 2.5 hours
- Music listening: 20 hours
- Talk time: 20 hours
- Standby time: 300 hours
All the headphones controls are located on what is designated as the left ear cup. You find your multifunction button, which is your power, music and calls control button, located towards the front.
Just above that multifunction button you have a small microphone hole and then your LED light indicator that displays charging information and connectivity.
In the bottom center is where the covered charging port is located to charge these puppies up. It is covered with a simple little rubber flap. Behind that is your music controls. The placement of the music controls is near perfect to reach and adjust with your left hands thumb.
The music controls allow you to quickly change tracks forward, backwards, pause, play and adjust the volume. Once you remember which direction is which. A simple push or pull on the dial changes the track. If you press it in, it pause/plays the track. To change the volume you lung hold the dial and the volume will adjust in increments.
Each ear cup sits on its own part of the steel frame and is threaded through the covers on the sides of the ear cups. As you can see the ear cup is what moves, not the steel frame. Your connection to the right ear cup is run from the the left ear cup up and over the band and is connected via the red, I believe it is nylon, braided cord.
The head band is a soft, almost leather, feeling material. It is actually called PU Leather (polyurethane) It is super soft and is two pieces sewn over the steel frame. It looks really good and feels really nice.
The ear cups are a traditional round variety and offer a soft outer material that rests on your years and a decent about of padding to keep the inner plastic that is under the cloth from sitting directly on your ears. The steel frame offers just enough ‘push’ on your head to keep the headphones from slipping around but not enough to make your head and ears hurt from the pressure of long term wearing.
How do the HoiseHush Freedom BT700′s perform
performance will need to be broken down into a few little sections since these are Bluetooth only, have a battery inside and of course can make calls.
- Battery: NoiseHush claims that the Freedom BT700′s offer 20 hours of music, 20 hours of talk time and 300 hours of stand-by time. I don’t have enough friends, or time, to sit around on the phone for 20 hours to see how well that claim works outs. I do have plenty of time to rock out while I write for you guys. I charged them up fully, ran them at MAX volume and ran them until they died. I didn’t start a timer, but I did make notes when I powered them on and off. I was able to get 15 hours out of them before they died.Mind you, this was straight Google Play Music streaming at max volumes with the EQ enabled and amped up. With regular settings and medium volume I would imagine they would easily hit the “up to 20 hours” claim. Considering that an average person won’t be rocking out for 15 hours straight in a normal day, this is very acceptable. The last 30 minutes or so though are probably the most annoying. Ever 5 seconds or so there is an annoying triple beep to let you know they are almost dead.
- Call Quality: I usually find that with any Bluetooth device that allows for calls, voice or video, that people on the other end tend to either sound funny, or they remark that I sound like I am in a tunnel. My wife is the first, and usually the only person, I talk to on the phone. She is quick to tell me to take it off speaker or what have you. This is always without me even saying that I am testing something out before hand. She was none the wiser this time. She sounded clear and I was able to hear her without issue and she had no issues hearing me. I was in a quiet environment though, so a loud environment might be different.
- Sound Quality: The sound quality of your music or videos is another extremely important aspect of a pair of headphones. You want clear mids and highs that aren’t over powering and clean bass that doesn’t distort or drown out the rest of the music. Often times you will find that headphones lean one way or the other, or just don’t have enough oomph at all. Then there is the worst, the ones that distort your tunes when turned up too loud. With the Freedoms I was pleasantly surprised that the mix of mids and highs were meshed well with the bass. Nothing seems to over power any other element. I do try to make things break, at least a little, when I can. Listening to some Disturbed through Play Music and pushing the EQ up with bass at the max I still wasn’t able to get the Freedoms to pop or distort. I bounced over to some 2Pac and California Love, again, without any distortion or crackle at all at max volume. (Yes, I am going to blow out my ear one day. I am OK with that.)
- Comfort: The comfort question is a tricky one. Mainly because everyone is different. Every ones ears are shaped different and everyone is used to a certain style. For my smaller ears, these cover my whole ears. With my earlobe on the bottom of the cushion and the top of my ear not quite clearing the top. I have sat here doing the things I do, walking around the house and taking walks with these on for the better part of 8 hours and have found myself adjusting them only occasionally. Not so much because my ears hurt, or they felt hot, more so to adjust their position. They are very comfortable for my ear and head size.
What I like about the NoiseHush Freedom BT700′s
The call and sound quality are stellar, especially for the price point. They offer a great mix of mids, highs and bass without drowning each other out. The headband is wrapped in a soft material with a cushion coupled with the soft ear cups makes them very comfortable to wear for long periods of time. (At least for me). The controls for calls and music work as they should with Google Play Music, Spotify and the Sony music player found in the Xperia Z. The battery life is more than adequate to get you easily through more than one day of rocking out.
What I don’t like about the NoiseHush Freedom BT700′s
The dislikes all come down to personal preference. I would like them a bit better if the ear cups were more ‘ear’ shaped and not round. More like their I7 Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones
. I personally prefer the cups cover my ears and over them, rather than on them. It isn’t a huge deal and certainly doesn’t detract from their sound or comfort though. I absolutely hate the triple beep every 5 seconds before the battery dies. It is great to have a reminder/notification that your music is about to stop, but seriously, the final 30 minutes every 5 seconds, that is a bit much. At the same time though, most people won’t push through the beeping until they die completely like I did and it will probably be the last time I ever do.
Overall thoughts
If you need a solid set of Bluetooth headphones that can, most likely, out last your device and your day, the NoiseHush Freedom BT700′s are easily a contender and ones you should take a closer look at. They look great in wither White, that I have here, or in Black. They sound great and give you a well rounded mix of wireless freedom and brain thump. Get this, they are only $45 on Amazon right now. No, that wasn’t a mistype. $45. Well, $44.95 and $44.99 respectively. Even at their listed price on the NoiseHush website for $79.99 they are a great value.
Feel free to pick up a set at your earliest convenience.
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