1MORE EVO True Wireless Earbuds (Review)

1MORE has a new flagship pair of wireless earbuds and this time, they come with deep personalization of the audio profile using SoundID by Sonarworks. These new buds can be custom-tailored to your listening preferences using a simple wizard that runs you through a few comparison scenarios. This is the new 1MORE EVO True Wireless Earbuds.

Not only can these be personalized, but they sound absolutely great. Comparable to some of the company’s wired options, like the popular triple-driver earbuds. This says something since these buds only feature a dual-driver design (a 10mm dynamic driver paired with a balanced armature). This is paired with Bluetooth 5.2 and the LDAC codec to deliver a wonderful audio performance.

As always, the buds come with a travel case that doubles as a portable charger. Keeping the buds charged for up to 28 hours of use until everything needs to be charged again. The buds themselves can carry a charge for up to 8 hours of use (5.5 with ANC enabled). With everything they have to offer, this feels like a fair balance. The case can also charge wirelessly via any Qi charger (charging times vary depending on the capabilities of the charger).

You have two color options to pick from, including white or black. Both options feature the same gold trip running around the back of each bud. The backs are also touch-sensitive, allowing you to control simple actions like pause/play, answering calls, triggering your voice assistant, or switching between ANC modes.

One thing we immediately noticed was that these take on a smaller design than the previous 1MORE True Wireless ANC model. Leading to a more comfortable experience during longer usage periods. The case is also compact and easy to just drop into your pocket without having to worry about any noticeable bulk sticking out.

They come with a short USB Type-C cable for charging everything (if you don’t have a wireless option) and multiple pairs of tips covering five sizes. So you shouldn’t have any trouble finding the perfect fit. The tips are comfortable, and as usual, if you want a lot of low-end (bass), you will want to stick with a nice tight fit.

There is no wall adapter of any kind, so you are on your own when it comes to finding what you will be plugging the USB into. Or buying into a wireless charger if you don’t already have one. This is no surprise though as there aren’t really any buds out there that come with this.

Active Noise Canceling

This is a subject that doesn’t always work out for in-ear models. You have less space to work with when it comes to designing hardware that can perform well and depending on the tip sizes, you may or may not get a perfect seal. However, it’s easy to find a tight fit with these tips and boy does the ANC perform (for in-ears).

You don’t get the same performance as you’d get with a pair of over-ear Bose QC headphones, but compared to most of the in-ear ANC models we have come across, these buds offer some of the best performance out there. It’s enough to filter out plenty of noise around you, leading to an ANC experience that is unmissable.

Of course, like with almost any ANC solution, it will result in some white noise in the background, but that is a compromise you almost always have to trade for. That being said, it is almost unnoticeable in certain situations.

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You can switch between ANC profiles via the touch-sensitive controls of the buds or via using the app. The app is a bit friendlier since you can visually see everything you are doing. Including a pass-thru mode that allows you to bring in a little of the surrounding noise in your environment, including “voice enhancement” for anyone speaking around you.

Setup/Pairing with Sonarworks SoundID

Pairing is as easy as adding any Bluetooth device to your phone. However, the real experience begins once you have downloaded the app. The app runs you through using the buds, including the touch controls on each bud. Then it leads you to run SoundID by Sonarworks.

This is where you are able to customize the buds to your liking. It runs you through various “this vs that” scenarios using a track of your choice (from a list). Each time, molding the sound more and more to your liking. It then combines the results together to create your profile and uploads them to the buds directly. This means you can then connect them to other devices (tablets, laptops, etc) and continue using them as is.

Performance

What’s nice, is that they sound great right out of the box. This is before customizing them with SoundID. Then you run through the wizard and get even more out of them. Now pair them with a device that supports LDAC as well, and the end result is just perfect for this price range.

We have been spending a lot of time with these buds over the last week or so, pairing them to various high-res tracks (FLAC, DSD, etc). Everything we threw at them resulted in a great listening experience. From the classics to harsher genres.

The highs are crisp, the mids are present and enjoyable, and the lows can either be balanced or deep depending on how you set up through SoundID.

We eventually switched to MP3s to see what average digital tracks (compressed) would sound like. You do lose a bit of range, but the end result is still fantastic. The loss of range isn’t caused by the buds though (its the compression used in the files).

Many users will likely assume it sounds even better than that (with compressed source music). However, we are a bit spoiled and surrounded by high resolution everywhere we turn. So our expectations can sometimes be a little high (including in the scoring of products that promise high resolution/fi performance).

Call performance is ok, although not the best. These buds can indeed be used for any normal use-case scenarios when taking calls. However, if you are in need of solid performance when in a call (for both parties connected), it is just “ok”. This may change over time with firmware updates, but not everything can be fixed with software. So time will tell. That being said, call quality is indeed good enough for most average situations and the environmental noise cancelation worse decently well so the other person can hear you better.

You can connect the buds to two devices at the same time, allowing you to bounce between your laptop and phone calls easily. The feature is experimental at this time though, so you have to enable “Dual-Device Connection” within the Experimental Features of the app. This is a great feature to have and something we should start seeing in more wireless headphone/earbud models in the coming future.

Water resistance is a bit limited at just IPX4. This means you won’t be walking around with them in torrential rains or hitting the pool. However, a splash here and there or heavy sweat from the gym won’t affect them at all. Sometimes, we tend to expect a little more when it comes to water resistance. However, this seems to be common with wireless buds at the moment and doesn’t really degrade our expectations.

Availability/Price

Currently, the buds are only available via 1MORE and AliExpress (links/buttons for both are available below). However, they should be making their way to other retailers in the near future (more than likely). They just released today (May 10th) and the world is still experiencing plenty of issues in the global shipping industry. So patience is everything. I’m sure they will pop up in places like Amazon soon enough. In the meantime, ordering from 1MORE directly is quite user-friendly and safe. The only thing you may be missing is the faster shipping you get from things like Amazon Prime.

The MSRP is $169.99 and this could vary by retailer.

Update (05/11/22): Link to Banggood added to the retail options below.
Update (07/12/22): 1MORE updated the firmware (v1.0.2) with Customizable EQ Profiles & 12 studio-grade EQ presets

Our Conclusion

These buds absolutely deliver when it comes to performance. Especially, within this price range. 1MORE did a great job pricing these out, which means they should be falling off the shelves once consumers learn about the quality and experience they have to offer. We love the level of ANC they have to offer (for buds), and they feel great.

The only thing they are missing is spacial audio, but I honestly don’t think they needed it. Only if it was an optional feature that was disabled by default. They sound great the way they are. However, if they planned on making a separate Gaming Edition with Waves NX built-in, this may lead to something interesting for sure.

There is no doubt that these will be putting a lot of pressure on Apple’s AirPods, bringing in Apple users just as much as they will Android. So once again, 1MORE delivers another great product.

Additional Images:

Specifications:

• Model: EH902
• Earbud Weight (Single): 5.7g
• Case Weight: 46.9g
• Gross Weight: 58.3g
• Earbud Dimension: 22.03 × 20.69 × 25.11 mm
• Case Dimension: 66.60 × 28.61 × 38.65 mm
• Earbud Battery Capacity (Single): 48 mAh
• Case Battery Capacity: 450 mAh
• Earbuds Charging Time: 1 hour
• Case Charging Time (Wired): 2 hours
• Playtime (ANC On): up to 5.5 hours
• Playtime (ANC Off): 8 hours
• Case and Earbuds Fully Charged Music: up to 28 hours
• Speaker Impedance: 32 ohms
• Frequency Response: 20Hz – 40kHz
• Bluetooth Range: up to 10m (33ft)
• Bluetooth Version: 5.2
• Input: 5V 1A
• Working Temperature: 0 C – 45 C
• Frequency Range: 2.400 GHz – 2.4835 GHz

Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.

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