With no shortage of great headphones on the market these days, it’s understandable if you being to look for what makes a company unique. Nothing makes me happier than getting to test Irish products and that’s what Onesonic offers. This Irish company has carefully designed a great value pair of wireless headphones and they’re great. I’ve been testing out the Onesonic BB-HD1 wireless headphones with noise-canceling for a few weeks and here’s what I’ve learned.
Sound Quality
I’m going to start with the headphone’s strongest point; the quality of audio. I’m always quick to point out that assessing sound quality is very subjective, both to your ears but also the size of the hole left in your pocket by a pair of headphones. I enjoyed using these headphones on a recent train ride to Ennis for a couple of reasons. First of all, I knew these were a great value pair of wireless headphones that you can buy for less than €75.
For the price, the sound quality is brilliant but I don’t want that to mislead you. The sound quality you get with these Onesonic headphones is akin to that you’d expect for something in the €100 to €130 range. I was blown away with the return you get on your investment here with plenty of volume and clear tones throughout regardless of your chosen music genre.
Active Noise Cancelling
I love active noise-canceling headphones. It’s just a few years ago I tried out my first ever pair with this feature. They were great but cost over €300. The level of noise-canceling on-board here is quite remarkable. As I mentioned, I took these on a train ride recently and was able to totally zone out for the trip. Not bad considering I was surrounded by people watching videos without headphones and taking calls at full volume.
Sure enough, the noise-canceling side of things is better the more you pay, but the level of return gets smaller the more you pay. These are a great pair of ANC headphones to start you out.
Design
Given the price of the Onesonic headphones, I was on the lookout for where they cut the costs. The materials used to build the frame of these headphones arguably aren’t as impressive as some other models on the market. Still, when I think back to the Sennheiser Momentum Headphones I’m reminded very quickly that all those expensive materials can deliver a pricey unit that sounds no better than the cheaper alternatives.
I put these Onesonic headphones side by side with my beloved Bose QC-II headphones and I think I found where they took quite a few cues. The ear cups aren’t quite as soft and comfortable but they’re not bad at all either. The headband is has a nice soft cushion that I can’t fault. Ultimately, in terms of built quality and design materials, these Onesonic headphones are, once again, delivering far beyond what you would expect from the price range.
A Tale Of Two Ports
There’s good and bad news on the port side of things. The good news is that these headphones have a 3.5mm jack. Lots of high-end headphones lean towards their own smaller headphone jacks which means if you lose the cable you’ll be out of pocket. The bad news is that in a world where USB-C has fast become the norm, these headphones require a micro USB cable to charge them. I only highlight this because more and more I find myself struggling to dig out a micro USB cable when needed.
What Makes Onesonic Irish?
When all was said and done, I liked the headphones. But I was left with one question. What makes these Irish. At the end of the day they are still made in China, right? Well, this is very much like the Apple approach to products: designed in California, assembled in China.
While all the parts are put together in China, the parts are all picked by the design team in Ireland. Onesonics research and development team is based in Tallaght. Here, they do all the development work, leaning on the team’s experience in acoustic and audio design. This is where all the testing and optimisation, testing various configurations of parts to get the best audio experience for you. Once the prototyping is completed in Tallaght, it’s sent to China for mass production.
Dan from Onesonic says “sound quality is our number one priority as we believe that enjoying music should be the number one deliverable for the customer”.
Onesonic Wireless Headphones: The Verdict
I love these. They’re an Irish product, delivering great quality far beyond the cracking price you can get them at. Are there flaws? Yes, but they’re all tiny little things that don’t make me think any less of the product. If you’re in the market for a pair of headphones and always wanted ANC without the headphones, look no further.
Buy the Onesonic Wireless Headphones from their website and Three.
