1MORE is far from new around here as we have come across nearly everything they have ever brought to the market, including one of our favorite wired in-ears on the market. Now, we have taken some time out with a wireless around the neck model, their Dual Driver BT ANC in-ear headphones.
These headphones feature the band style that goes around your neck with the buds connected by wire at the tips. The construction of these headphones are similar to a few similar models within their arsenal. A soft flexible band that feels good around on the neck, and they can be wrapped around to fit into a small space when traveling. A premium look to everything.
The overall design consists of silicone and plastic with a gray and black theme with small red accents on each side. The silicone of the band aims to bring comfort while providing a little grip to help prevent them from sliding around (which works sometimes, unless you are really active).
All of your controls are located on the band itself. There are no in-line controllers or anything on the wires. The left side contains the controls and the microphone (the hole between the volume and the play controls). The volume control is a toggle for up & down, and the play button is a multi-functioning button that plays/pauses music, as well controls incoming phone calls (accept, deny, hang up). You can also skip tracks and go back with a double or triple tap of the button.
Right above those you have a power button. This is held down to turn them on and off, as well as to go into pairing mode. The sliding switch next to it is ANC (active noise canceling). Sliding it upwards will click into place, activating “environmental sound enhancement”, which simply lets in some of the sound around you (in case someone is talking or whatever else you’d like to listen to without having to take the buds out of your ears). Click it downward sends it into a sliding control mode, where each time you slide it down (spring-loaded), it sets a different ANC option. It defaults to off at first. When you slide it down the first time, it turns ANC on. Side it down again and it activates enhanced ANC. A third slide will turn it back off. Active noise canceling will try to cut out some of the sound in your surrounding environment. The tip of the same side of the band contains a small hatch that opens to reveal a USB-C port.
The USB-C port is used for charging the headphones with as usual, but also functions as something extra. The headphones come with an extra cable that adapts the USB-C port to a 3.5mm jack, allowing you to take the headphones wired. Just in case your battery dies or your source device doesn’t support Bluetooth. A neat additional feature you don’t always see.
Performance
They seem to perform a bit similar to their normal wired dual driver model, with some slight noticeable difference. You can tell things change-up when you take it wireless. Bluetooth does compress the signal and creates a tiny bit of latency to pull things off. The latency part is usually minimal and you shouldn’t notice it. The range though has a focus on the mid highs and highs, with an average amount of mids and lightly balanced lows.
Switching the headphones to wired via the USB-C to 3.5mm (aux) cable seems to bring the bass in just a little bit more than wireless, but you can rest assured that wireless is still going to give you most of what these headphones have to offer.
You can tell they are dual driver when comparing to the similar designed wireless triple driver model, but the difference isn’t heavy, leading to a decent performance.
They are pretty comfortable, especially when using the optional silicone hooks to help keep them in your ear with. You don’t have to worry about them falling out and as long as you pick the right size tips, there doesn’t seem to be any discomfort after long periods of use. You of course want to go as large as possible and a step below discomfort so that you can get that proper balance between comfort and trapping in enough bass (lower frequencies).
We do wish they were a tad warmer, but I guess that’s the whole purpose of upgrading to the triple driver option.
They do sound good for taking calls and offer ENC to help create a crisp and clear conversation for both sides.
The ability to bring in sounds around you is also an interesting feature but I can’t seem to get myself to use it vs simply taking a bud out.
As for ANC, this feature is ok, but not perfect. There is a slight compression in your head that takes out some of the frequencies around you. It feels like it mostly falls around some of your mids while highs and lows still make it through in a squashed kind of way. It’s enough to “turn down” your environment a little so you can concentrate on your media better, but it won’t come anywhere close to cutting a significant amount of it out. This is typical for most earbuds packing ANC, as it’s hard to compete with an over-ear solution that really seals your ear in. We have seen better ANC though with a few other models.
Bluetooth distance is around average. Nothing to point out beyond the fact that you get your typical 20-30 ft from the connected device. So it delivers where it should (in general).
It comes with an abundant supply of tips and wings/hooks to get them tight to your ear with. Again, you want tight but without discomfort so you can trap in those lows. It also comes with an airplane adapter for in-flight use on airlines that require the specialty connector.
As mentioned, it comes with both the cable to charge it with, as well as the USB-C to 3.5mm cable (aux). The aux cable features cloth-covered sleeve and feels great. It doesn’t seem to snag at all and has a balanced amount of noise transfer when it comes to it rubbing across your clothes and such.
You get a soft pouch to store everything in as well as your typical documentation on how to use them. And you of course get a 1MORE sticker.
Our Conclusion
The headphones are nice, and they sit properly, below the triple driver option. You get added features when compared to such and they try their best to justify their spot in the pricing of things. Their range is pretty good, although we couldn’t use the word audiophile this round. The ability to take them wired via the USB port is a nice touch and they charge pretty quickly thanks to their battery and the use of USB-C vs micro. Battery life isn’t too fancy, but it does give you up to 7 hours at least. As for ANC, it is quite noticeable, but we have seen better in a few other models within the price range. Again, it is hard to compete with over-ear options when it comes to ANC, but still, there are a few that challenge it. All-in-all, they are a pretty decent pair of earbuds with some neat futures, with a good range to them.
| Buy from Amazon | |
Our Rating | Average Price* $149.99 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
Video:
Additional Images:
Specifications:
Model: E1004BA
Charging Time: 1 hours
Talk Time: 7 hours
Music Play Time: 7 hours
Impedance: 32 ohm
Wireless Range: 10 m
Bluetooth: Bluetooth V 4.2
Bluetooth Protocol: HFP/A2DP/AVRCP
Weight: 43.9 g
Input: 5V 1A
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1 Comment
Thanks! I have been struggling with set up of these headphones – since very little info is on brochure and on line – and your video is excellent! Thank you!