Review: K’asq fully wireless in-ear headphones by PKparis

The first thing that usually comes to mind when you think wireless in-ear headphones, is two earbuds with a cable running between them but no cables from there (ie, nothing going to your phone or other device). This is starting to change as companies develop new approaches to in-ear headphones that eliminate wires completely. One of these companies is PKparis with their upcoming K’asq headphones that release later this month.

These new headphones feature two stereo earbuds that are completely unattached. Both buds have their own tiny battery and connect to each other and your device without a single wire. Gone are the days of any wire mess–except for having to charge everything of course

Similar to the Here Active Listening buds that we reviewed a few months ago, they are quite noticeable in your ears but do not create an eyesore due to their neat modern design. The only difference is the Here buds didn’t stream sound from your device, they only adjust the sound in your environment and pump it back into your ear. K’asq are actual headphones to enjoy your music and phone calls with and that is all. They are small enough and come with a selection of tips and hooks to acquire the best fit with so you will no longer need to worry about there being a wire to catch them with.

They point straight forward during phone calls so that the mic can reach you which does loosen them some, but then they recommend you to rotate them upwards by some degrees to better lock them in place when not in a call. They call that “Town Mode” vs “Gym Mode” (as if slightly positioning the buds requires mode designators). Once in “Gym Mode”, they do stay in your ears quite well assuming you accessorize them properly.

Three silicone tip selections are available, small medium, and large, to get the best tight fit with, allowing you to get as much of your lows in as possible (which can be a little difficult). There are also three different hooks as well that are available in the same sizes to help capture the inside of your ear without causing any discomfort. They are completely interchangeable and both items help to keep the buds in your ears. The silicone is comfortable and doesn’t seem to cause any pain after long periods of use. It also helps that the buds themselves are light in weight.

You turn them both on by holding down the small play/pause button (shaped like a “play” icon) on the back of each. It takes about 6 seconds to turn them on (as well as off). They will then attempt to connect to each other. Once they have done that, they will connect with your device. All of this is accompanied by voice alerts, so you know what’s going on. If it is the first time that you have ever turned them on, they will immediately go into pairing mode (once they have connected to each other) so that you can find them in your device’s pairing screen. If you need to pair them to a new device in the future, you simply continue to hold the buttons down for an extra 2 seconds while powering them on.

Now we get to talk about sound quality! Surprisingly…it’s mediocre. The first thing that ran through our minds was “please don’t let the asking price for these be around $200-$300” because that would lead to quite a bad score. They feel more like $99 or less. Keep in mind that our ears are hard to win over since we have some audio technicians and engineers among us and just about everyone here is an audiophile.

The highs and mid-highs are there and sound pretty good. We tested them against various tracks from artists like Chris Cornell, Alanis Morissette, and Dave Brubeck. Anything brass or acoustic, as well as bright vocals, sounded great and really popped. Mids are present but average and anything below that is hard to find. You hear the lows in there, but they are distant and quiet. This prevents you from wanting to choose any tracks that benefit from the lower frequencies, like most rock, club, and hip hop.

Phone calls and Bluetooth announcements on the other hand sound just right. At least what you would expect out of a Bluetooth earpiece. In fact, that’s the best way of describing these. Sound-wise, it is like taking two high-end handsfree Bluetooth earpieces and pairing them together so that you can also listen to music. If you take the price of a high-end earpiece and multiply it by two, you would probably come close to where these cost.

When you receive or make a call (or receive any Bluetooth notifications), the headphones mimic an earpiece by only operating from the right ear in mono. Once the call is done and you switch back to anything else for sound, they go back to stereo. They could have done this in order to provide a more natural feel or so that your left ear can hear your own voice clearly so you don’t raise it too loudly as you would normally talk while wearing headphones that covered both of your ears.

During phone calls, both parties could clearly hear each other, leading to a natural conversation on both ends. Noise control is minimal but does provide a little background isolation so that the person on the other end can hear you clearly.

We did discover an issue with them losing sync with each other. If one loses sync with the other, they both stop playing and re-sync to each other and then start playing music again. This happens in a matter of seconds but can still be annoying. We found at times that this would happen frequently and other times, they work great and never lose connection to each other. We couldn’t quite figure it out. Our early assumptions were that it might have had to do with the building because wireless activity here is pretty strong. It’s a wireless playground in just about every way imaginable. Might also be why GPS seems to be non-existent anywhere around the building. However, using them elsewhere resulted in the same experience. So it appears they aren’t perfect yet.

Due to the same topic, distance is also minimal as you want to make sure that your device is close to you at all times. At times we were able to walk more than 10ft away (but not by much) without any interruptions but other times we made it about 5 ft before dropouts occurred.

They do offer up to 5 hours of music playback which is great. It’s hard to believe that something so small can spit out music for so long before dying. What makes it even better is that they can get a little extra more when keeping them in their case while not in use as it has its own battery and will charge them while they are stored. This will increase that time to about 8 hours or so until you have to plug them into power.

The case or “Charging Box” is also how they charge normally. They do so by laying it into their designated spots, closing the box, and plugging it into a USB port or adapter. It’s a tight fit and they sit loosely, so it might take a few seconds for you to figure it out at first. A USB cable is built-right in, however, it is just under 2-inches long so you will have to limit yourself to laptops or adapters since you probably don’t want the full weight of the unit hanging from a USB port. There are USB male-to-female cables on eBay you can find for cheap, but we think they should have included a small one at least.

Beyond that, there is also a small draw-string pouch that can be used for storing them as well as 3 sets of rubber rings that surround the earbuds, allowing you to adjust their color. The pair they sent us is white with a chrome face with the white rings already installed. There are a blue and red set as well so you can add a little extra color to them. These headphones are also available in a gray/chrome combination and that option includes a pair of gray, white, and orange rings.

WIN

Canceled: Item has been returned to the company. Sorry guys! Stay tuned for an alternative option announced later on Facebook, Twitter, and more! 

Our Conclusion

They truly are wireless. Not a single wire running anywhere. They connect quickly and look pretty nice in your ears. They include 3 sets of everything you need to make them fit or look good. The sound quality and connectivity needs work however and until this is improved, the score is affected. This also affects our interest in the price because at the moment they are priced at $143.96 (an odd price). They feel like they should run less than that, but at least they don’t run more. They are pretty cool when you compare the size to battery life, but they don’t compare to any on-ear, over-the-ear headphones, or wired earbuds within the same price. We do however look forward to where they go from here as with improvement these can really turn into something big.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

Video:

Additional Images:

Specifications:

Reference

400100 : K’asq Sport (grey – orange – white)
400110 : K’asq City (white – light blue – red)

Interface

Bluetooth 4.1 for K’asq
USB 2.0 for the charge box

Compatibility

Compatible with all Bluetooth devices

Calls

Free-hands unit with

Audio

Sensibility 95 dB
Impedance 32 ohm
Mini speakers 8mm special bass
High quality soundcertified 4/5 by the Label Augmented Acoutics Lab.
Vocal announcements (pairing, battery level, incoming calls, etc.)

Noise cancelling

-40% noise cancelling

Resistances

Certified IP55, rainproof for tropical rains
Anti-fall system with patent

Battery

K’asq : 90 mAh, 5-hours battery life in active mode, 100h in off mode, 1h45 charging time
Switches off after 90 sec with no connection
Displays battery level on smartphone (iOS and most Android)

LED

1 blue / red LED indicates K’asq’s stat (play, pause, call, etc)

Height and weight

31.5 x 28.5 x 19.2 mm / 1,24 x 1,22 x 0,76 in
9 g / 0,32 oz (x2 earphones)

Charge box

65,6 x 60 x 33,8 mm / 2,58 x 2,36 x 1,33 in
Integrated cable length Longueur 4 cm / 1,6 in
3 white LED indicates the battery level and the charging progress
2x 145 mAh battery, +8-hours battery life for the headset, 2h15 charging time

Material

Plastic, rubber, metal

Packaging

Packaging content : 1 K’asq (two earphones), 1 charge box (integrated charge cable), 2 additionnal rubber rings with different colors (see references), 3 earplug sizes (S, M, L), 1 fabric bag
Height and weight : 187 x 116 x 44 mm / 7,36 x 4,57 x 1,73 in / 184 g / 6,5 oz

Warranty

2 years

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.