True Fidelity NC350BC by Able Planet
Rating: 
Price: $149.99
Requirement(s):
» Headphone Jack
» (Optional) Apple Products (iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.)
Overview:
The True Fidelity NC350BC headphones by Able Planet are “Active Noise Cancelling” headphones that are aimed to change the way you listen to music, games, movies, or any other media – mainly on your Apple devices. With award-winning “LINX AUDIO Hear The Difference” technology, could these headphones really stand out from the rest? Let’s find out!
Unboxing, Package Contents, and First Impressions:
The package contents consisted of the following items:
» Headphones
» ¼ Home Stereo Adapter
» 1 AAA Battery
» Hard Shell Protective Carrying Case
» Airplane Adapter
The packaging of the product itself (the box, colours, textures, etc.) gave the product a positive high-quality feel to it – before even seeing the actual product. Once you open up the box packaging, you then see the carrying case that the headphones are inside. This is a nice addition because if you are a traveller, you do not want your expensive $150 headphones to get damaged by the slightest of things, and it’s good to see that Able Planet thought of this and came up with a simple yet effective solution. The product quality was very smooth and had that “new” smell to it and overall was well put together and presented to the customer.
Specifications & Features:
As outlined by the developers:
» Frequency Response of 20Hz-20kHz
» Sensitivity at 1kHz: 115dB (Off) and 121dB (On)
» Plug: 3.5mm
» Featuring Award-Winning Patented LINX AUDIO – a Hear the Difference Technology
» In-Line Volume Control for Easy Adjustment to Safe Listening Levels
» Lightweight and Comfortable fit
» State-of-the-art active noise cancellation (ANC)
» Superior comfort
The specifications and features are standard for a higher-class headphone product, and I was glad to see that even with the decent specs, the headphones had a nice stylish look and feel to it.
Configuration & Setup:
No real configuration is required for this product. Just plug in the wire included and then plug it into your audio device of your choosing.
Performance:
One of the first things a potential owner would think of when purchasing the product is – is it comfortable? There are many headphones on the market that have superiors sound quality but unfortunately, due to the discomfort of the material or structure of the product, after prolonged uses you begin to feel very uncomfortable or in pain from the product. I can safely say, that after using this product for hours on end continuously for 2 weeks (at least 4-5 hours per sitting), I did not encounter any discomfort whatsoever. There was one time I was at the computer for too long (about 7 or 8 hours) and this is when I felt a little bit of discomfort such as my ears beginning to get slightly sweaty, but this is understandable. No one should be sitting at the computer for 8 hours straight anyways! When using the product outside with my iPod Classic, I was pleased to hear the noticeable difference in sound quality compared to your typical iPod earphones. Here is a closer look of the headphones to see for yourself the amount of padding used for your ears:
The sound quality of these headphones were impressive. I absolutely loved the bass, although at first I must admit it took a little bit of getting used to because not many other headphones out there have this quality of bass. To get the best experience out of these headphones, you should have the noise-cancelling feature enabled (turn on the headphones with the switch and insert battery). There is a noticeable difference.
As just mentioned, you have the option to enable/disable the noise cancelling feature and there is an on/off switch on the headphones that does this as well as a slot for a AAA battery should you chose to use this feature.
When comparing the maximum volume to my Sennheiser headset, I noticed that these headphones seemed to have a nicer quality for the output sound, but only when the noise-cancelling feature was enabled. When the noise-cancelling feature was disabled, the volume of the headphones did not go as loud as the Sennheiser headphones did – but the headphones were still fully functional without issues.
You will notice that these headphones have a volume rocker and a microphone integrated into the wire (similar to the style the apple earphones use). Note: this remote and microphone for the volume rocker piece will only work for iPod Nano (4th generation and above), iPod Classic (120GB and 160GB), iPod Touch (2nd generation and above), iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad. For iPod shuffle (3rd generation and above) only supports the remote. In future versions I would like to see the volume adjustment to be able to work with other things as well, such as gaming consoles, computers, monitors, etc. – this would give the product a more “multi-use” image which would help consumers decide on the product.
The wire length and height adjustment of the headphones were acceptable. I would have liked the length of the wire to have been longer should I choose to plug in the headphones to my television set and listen.
Overall:
I was happy with the product and after 2 weeks of solid use (minimum of 4-5 hours per sitting), I did not really encounter any discomfort issues. The bass of the headphones took a little getting used to since they were quite different from other headphones, but once you get used to it, it is simply too hard to switch to another pair of headphones since the difference in sound quality is instantly noticeable!
Rating Breakdown:
Material Quality: 100%
Specifications & Features: 90%
Configuration & Setup: 100%
Performance: 90%
Overall: 95%
Purchase the True Fidelity NC350BC Headphones Here
We would like to thank the developers of Able Planet for providing us their product for this review.
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