If you paid attention to my review of the Even Earprint earphones last month and were interested in an over-ear pair of headphones by the company, you are in luck!
Even announced their over-ear Even H1 headphones today, featuring their patent-pending Even Earprint, and sent Gear Diary a pair to check out. Although I have an iPhone 7 Plus now, which is lacking an adequate headphone jack, I will say I am glad I had the opportunity to try out using a 3.5mm headphone jack set of headphones (with adapter) and the audio quality is amazing.
The state of the art Even Over-ear Headphones continue down the path that the Even in-ear’s did, by allowing you to truly tune the sound according to the user, personalizing the sound using a mobile browser to tweak each setting going by the sound you hear in the headphones.
The headphones themselves are actually pretty fancy to look at, but even more comfortable to have on your ear. This is my first pair of headphones ever to feature wood cans, and although it may be my last with a 3.5mm headphone jack, they certainly are great. The walnut-wood housing that sits on each ear cup is pretty cool, although I wouldn’t advise sweating in these or rocking them in the gym. You can, but I wouldn’t risk ruining these, but not just from their outer cosmetics. The best thing about the Even Over-Ear headphones is all in the internals.
“This is our second product launch in the personal audio space in less than 120 days. We have a tremendous sense of urgency because we have created a capability, the Even EarPrint, that we know provides tremendous benefit to each and every listener,” said Danny Aronson, cofounder and CEO of Even.
“The new Even H1 headphones offers an outstandingly comfortable and immersive personalized listening experience along with great value.”
Featuring beryllium drivers, each individual track sounds not only personalized, but as you would expect to hear it if you were listening in the studio as it was being recorded. Just like the Even in-ears, they do pick up heavy bass if you do decide you’re into that kind of thing. Listening to “The Real is Back” by Dave East from the “Kairi Chanel” album, even though its pretty bass heavy, Dave East’s rhythmic pattern isn’t compromised by the sounds of snares and base lines within the track. However, on tracks such as Solange’s “F.U.B.U.” from “A Seat at the Table”, Solange’s voice sounds crisps with mid-instruments in the background, to the point you can hear ad-libs perfectly, as well as each individual instrument within the track.
I typically listen to about 5-6 hours of either podcasts or music on any given day, beginning first thing in the morning on the commute to work. Most headphones, more specifically over-ears last about 45 minutes with me before I grow tired of them sitting on my head, but the Even H1 headphones feature a plush faux leather that were comfortable for about three-plus hours of podcast listening to “The Black Guy Who Tips” and “Straight Outta Lo Cash” before I felt like my ears needed a break. I could’ve gone longer, but one feature missing from the headphones is bluetooth connectivity, which kind of defeats the purpose of the Even Earprint technology since it requires connection to the app.
Once thing that I think is rather annoying about the Even headphones, but is there for obvious reasons, is the black and white distinguishing tangle-resistant nylons cords. As someone who likes things uniform, and this could just be me being picky, but I would rather have the cable, or the headset itself distinguish left from right instead of the entire cable. This isn’t a major deal, but as someone who also has used the earphones, if you’re walking down the street, it looks as though you have two sets of headphones in your ear. This isn’t the same with the headphones since they are connected obviously.
If you can get past the cables aesthetics, there is a lot to love about the Even H1 headphones, as well as the cables. The cable features a rechargeable battery which gives you up to ten hours roughly of listening time. Obviously that is with the “Earprint” settings and after that, they will perform as normal headphones until you connect them again. So if you don’t mind your headphones sounding like standard over ear headphones, you should be fine. And if your Even headphones are fully charged but you hate the way you customized your sound, all it takes to reset it a double-tap of your Earprint button on the in-line button control to reset.
Overall, I do enjoy the Even H1 headphones, minus the few quirks I mentioned, and the fact that I now have to get used to using the 3.5mm adapter. Obviously if you do not have the latest iPhone this isn’t a problem for you at all.
For more information on the Even H1 Headphones, you can head over to https://www.weareeven.com/
Source: Manufacturer supplied review unit
What I Like: Very comfortable to wear, stylish wood ear cups.
What Needs Improvement: Needs bluetooth, and to do away with the ridiculous black and white cables.
