1More Sonoflow NC Headphone Review

[AndreaT]

Great review, great product with affordable price. I am considering to purchase a pair for late night movies when WIA (wife is asleep)
Thank you Amir!

 

[Robbo99999]

I just gave this headphone a "Not Terrible" vote, the only reason being the low price and Amir's positive listening impression (saving it from a Poor vote). I just don't think it measures well, in my eyes it's got frequency response issues that are not totally EQ'able and that it shouldn't have.

 

[mathman]

Thanks for the review!

Noise cancelling
Wireless
Good battery life
Acceptable sound quality (EQ'd)
Low price

I'm not a headphone guy, but that's exactly what I was looking for when I have to be one

 

[peniku8]

@amirm seems like you forgot to add the normalized (to harman) graph to the review (the single most important graph imo)

to the headphones, I think active headphones that need EQ to sound right are a bit of a fail... response doesn't look good

 

[SiW]

How do these compare to the Amazon Eono brand ANC headphones?

 

[amirm]

Am I right in assuming that you’re referring to wired OOB performance (with electronics off)?

No. My listening tests were all wireless with NC on.

 

[amirm]

@amirm seems like you forgot to add the normalized (to harman) graph to the review (the single most important graph imo)

Oops. I will add it later.

 

[amirm]

It would be great to have a comparison with the similar Soundcore Q30 - their App already has 10 band custom EQ (as well as presets) and there are a few recommendations already floating around the internet to get it close to Harman.

As I just responded to you, I seem to have bought one back in 2021! I will find it at some point and review.

 

[soundwave76]

What’s the best place to buy these in the EU?

 

[OnLyTNT]

Please excuse my ignorance but I don't get it. I get there is a lot of suspicion of trolling going around, please rest assured that is not my intention nor I am an agent of headfi or have an alterior motive or a hidden agenda - I am simply a bit confused.

Below is the graph of Trio IEM that was reviewed some time back. We read it was not salvageable with EQ, and it did not get a recommendation.

This is the current 1More can being reviewed, and I understand this can be saved with EQ and gets recommended.

View attachment 271170

Looking at the out of the box FR graphs, it is hard for me to see how. Is it becasue 1More has 10db less distortion than Trio, or is it the price, or maybe the expectation from 64Audio was higher. I do not understand how this is objectively OK but the other is not.

Take it like this: If you are looking for a cheap bluetooth headphone, fairly good measurement for the price, ANC, long battery life, acceptable with EQ and without high expectations, this can be recommended.

When it comes to Trio, for the price point and technicality it is not any better then U12t which is recommended.

 

[Yoku-San]

What’s the best place to buy these in the EU?

I bought it yesterday on Amazon (Germany) for 80€. I guess the reduced price is still available.

Dear @amirm , could you please post your EQ settings for this headphone? Your picture only shows the setting for the lowest band. Thank you very much in advance. And thanks a lot for the detailed review.

 

[Jimster480]

1More hitting it out of the park again! It seems the Sound Engineer they have Luca Bignardi really does great work. I have had extremly great luck with 1More headphones. I got into Hifi after getting the 1More Triple Driver In-Ears... bought the Triple driver Over-Ear and the Quad Driver In-Ear (which Amir tested and found to be some of the lowest distortion IEMs he ever tested).
Now this product being amazing is like 0% surprising... I'm tempted to buy one of these for mowing my lawn.

 

[Maiky76]

This is a review, listening tests, EQ an detailed measurements of 1More Sonoflow Noise Cancelling Bluetooth headphones. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $99 although goes on sale for $79.
View attachment 271103
The look and feel of the unit belies its low cost. The plastic seems stout and good quality. Pad feels soft and I like the nice large channel indicators in the red inserts. An app comes with lets you control the unit although I found the buttons very intuitive as well -- unlike many others I have tested.

Alas, the cups are just a bit too small to fully cover my ears so I can't wear them long term. I could not achieve identical response for each cup over my GRAS 45C measurement gear so consider what you are about to see approximate.

1More Sonoflow Measurements
There is provision for wired access which turns off the unit. Where possible I use to test headphones using wired mode as that eliminates impact of the BT codec. So let's start with that:
View attachment 271105
Wow, that is one massive bass peak! Followed by good depression at higher frequencies. So I downloaded the app and tried the different modes there over Bluetooth:

View attachment 271106

That is more like it. We see that the noise cancelling mode has the flattest response so I chose to stay with that from here on. For distortion tests however, I thought it was not fair to penalize it by using the 500 Hz amplitude which is the lowest for the headphone. So I adjusted the level some:
View attachment 271107

Using this reference, the distortion was surprisingly low:
View attachment 271108

View attachment 271109

1More Sonoflow Listening Tests and Equalization
Out of box response is rather pleasant although once you EQ it, you realize that much better response is to be had:
View attachment 271110

The bass was tighter and spatial effects improved. The sound is a bit bright but I was OK with it. With everything in place, the level of fidelity was shocking at times! Bass is extended nice and deep. There is plenty of volume and headroom. The clarity startling with appropriate track. As a matter of fact, despite it bothering my left ear lobe, I am still listening to them as I type this!

I perform my ad-hoc noise cancelling test to see if it quiets down the loud fans from my Audio Precision analyzer and it did that.

Conclusions
You don't expect much for $79 but boy, do you get a compelling package here with a bit of eq. Had the fit been better for me, I would be in the clouds! FYI, I heard in some review they may be adding custom EQ in the app for this headphone. If so, that would make it near perfect.

I am happy to recommend the 1More Sonoflow wireless headphone. Even without the sale it is a good deal but there was one on Amazon last night so might as well take advantage of it.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

@amirm, the EQ is not readable...

Here are some thoughts about the EQ.

Notes about the EQ design:

• The average L/R is used to calculate the score.
• The resolution is 12 points per octave interpolated from the raw data (provided by @amirm)
• A Genetic Algorithm is used to optimize the EQ.
• The EQ Score is designed to MAXIMIZE the Score WHILE fitting the Harman target curve (and other constrains) with a fixed complexity.
  This will avoid weird results if one only optimizes for the Score.
  It will probably flatten the Error regression doing so, the tonal balance should be therefore more neutral.
• The EQs are starting point and may require tuning (certainly at LF and maybe at HF).
• The range around and above 10kHz is usually not EQed unless smooth enough to do so.
• I am using PEQ (PK) as from my experience the definition is more consistent across different DSP/platform implementations than shelves.
• With some HP/amp combo, the boosts and preamp gain (loss of Dynamic range) need to be carefully considered to avoid issues with, amongst other things, too low a Max SPL or damaging your device. You have beed warned.
• Not all units of the same product are made equal. The EQ is based on the measurements of a single unit. YMMV with regards to the very unit you are trying this EQ on.
• I sometimes use variations of the Harman curve for some reasons. See rational here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...pro-review-headphone.28244/page-5#post-989169
• https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...pro-review-headphone.28244/page-6#post-992119
• NOTE: the score then calculated is not comparable to the scores derived from the default Harman target curve if not otherwise noted.

Good L/R match except 1000 - 2000Hz range.

I have generated one EQ, the APO config file is attached.

Score no EQ: 40.3
Score with EQ: 81.8

1More Sonoflow Wireless NC EQ Flat 96000Hz
March132023-155129

Preamp: -3 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 63.51 Hz Gain -4.13 dB Q 0.44
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 206.78 Hz Gain -2.73 dB Q 0.96
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 584.82 Hz Gain 1.62 dB Q 1.87
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1292.44 Hz Gain -5.95 dB Q 1.35
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3228.8 Hz Gain 3.48 dB Q 1.38
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 6447.2 Hz Gain 2.48 dB Q 2.49

 

[BigSweeny]

$80 for a bluetooth ANC over ear headset with nice (for smaller ears) comfort and good looking? This is a very easy "buy these" recommendation for most people when they get asked about what headphones to buy for cheap.
As for the voting, I gave it a fine (happy panther) just due to the fact it needs quite a bit of EQ to get it tamed in a bit toward target for people who care about the audio quality it comes with as stock. If it came out of the box like that it would be outstanding, but again for the vast majority of (non technical audio) people they will never EQ this so we must take it as we see it.

Thanks for a great review Amir!

 

[amirm]

Dear @amirm , could you please post your EQ settings for this headphone? Your picture only shows the setting for the lowest band. Thank you very much in advance. And thanks a lot for the detailed review.

My pleasure and apology for missing that. It is now in the review. Here it is also:

 

[oceansize]

Now this product being amazing is like 0% surprising... I'm tempted to buy one of these for mowing my lawn.

As much of a bargain as these are, I suspect that you'd be better off getting a dedicated mower for the lawn.

 

[Jeromeof]

As much of a bargain as these are, I suspect that you'd be better off getting a dedicated mower for the lawn.

- I imagine the ear cups can't capture much grass as a dedicated mower

 

[PeteL]

Interresting how perception of quality varies. I'll say I am no plastic expert, and also maybe picture don't do it justice. But to my eyes this looks very brittle and flimsy and would fear these hinges could break just by looking at them.

 

[Roland301]

Yknow, I've never understood why AP wouldn't make their boxes passively cooled, or at least put silent fans in (maybe a temperature threshold for them to turn on?). It's an audio measurement device, after all. I've used several of their products at work and all of them have noticeably noisy annoying fans.

 

[MacCali]

Really curious to get the master & dynamic MW65 or 75 measured. I have the 65 and use it daily. It’s pretty pricey but honestly sound amazing.

I also prefer the unit with ANC 1 on, vs ANC 2 or off. Maybe this is explains it.