1More Sonoflow NC Headphone Review

[amirm]

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.

It stinks. The darn fan is not even temperature controlled! And the latest generation is louder than the last (I think). Of all companies to cut cost to the tune of $2 to make the fan temp controlled.

Their solution by the way was to produce another model that is silent just for measuring headphones!

I can't stand the noise for even 15 seconds. It gets to me and puts in me bad mood. Without headphones to wear while testing, I could not handle 10% of what I do! I put mine in a rack and it is quieter there but still this annoying.

 

[MacCali]

I would assume as clearly it makes no sense that they didn’t simply set a fan curve vs temp like in a regular pc.

At the same time for a unit with such a price tag and heat being the enemy might as well do whatever to keep that unit chilly

I’m not sure what other processes this is used for, but if someone is using it for extended periods it would be best to keep it blasting from the get go.

 

[Yoku-San]

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 saw a different review by "headphones addict" that already shows the custom EQ feature in the app:

It would have been really nice if you had used the feature to equalize the headphone so every user would be able to replicate it (the custom EQ feature was added to the app in October 2022).

I guess that it is not possible to somehow translate your PEQ settings into the 10-band fixed EQ given that the Q-factor is not known.

 

[IAtaman]

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.

That is a sensible way to look at it.

Until you start thinking about it a bit more and then it becomes a bit less sensible in my opinion.

Lets take this hypothetical for a moment, imagine based on this review sales of this product increased and price went up to $129, would it still be a good product for the price? How about $199? At what price this headphone would stop being a good value for money and recommendation? When you are looking at Trio, you are comparing it to U12T performance and price. Fair enough. And what other cheap headphones are you taking into consideration when you say this can be recommended for what it is?

For electronics, you look at 5-6 data points that are important for you, and say if a DAC is transparent, it is objectively transparent, pricing, competition, etc. will not change that. People can than decide whether they are willing to pay the money the manufacturer is asking for themselves and that is perfectly fine. But whether a product is recommended or not depends on its price point, and what other products are available in that price bracket/from the same brand currently, than is means review is not objective, it is Amir's opinion based on his current understanding of the category and his personal taste of the sound after EQ, doesn't it? How is this review is any less subjective then any other headphone review that refers to measurements when reviewing the headphones? Or maybe there is no such claim for objectivity for headphone reviews and all these ultra-objectivists I have been talking to lately are confusing me?

Speaking of which, where are they btw, they were very keen to jump on the bash the expensive product bandwagon. None seems to be around to defend the Harman curve for the cheap product. I believe that to be objectively interesting.

 

[Yoku-San]

How is this review is any less subjective then any other headphone review that refers to measurements when reviewing the headphones? Or maybe there is no such claim for objectivity for headphone reviews and all these ultra-objectivists I have been talking to lately are confusing me?

I do not understand the problem. Amirs measurements are an objective depiction of sonic performance of an audio-related product. His recommendation however is based on his subjective weighing of different aspects of the product including sonic performance (with or without EQ), value for money, features, build quality, ergonomics and other factors.

Whether you agree with his recommendation is up to you.

You can create your own recommendation for yourself by weighing product-related factors that are important for you.

In my opinion, Amirs way of measuring as well as the description of the factors leading to the recommendation of a product, or not, is presented in a clear and transparent manner which is appreciated by a lot of Hifi enthusiasts, including me.

I hope my words do not lead to an unnecessary off-topic discussion about ASR.

 

[somebodyelse]

How is this review is any less subjective then any other headphone review that refers to measurements when reviewing the headphones? Or maybe there is no such claim for objectivity for headphone reviews and all these ultra-objectivists I have been talking to lately are confusing me?

Master Complaint Thread About Headphone Measurements should cover most of the arguments. Objectivity is awkward with headphones because the response is altered by physiology and fit of the person wearing them.

 

[lewdish]

Isn't this wild channel imbalance?

 

[ElJaimito]

Thanks for the review. I have small ears And glasses! I was looking for a cheap adequate bluetooth headset, and as the Amazon sale was on in the UK too I bought these for around £65. They are very comfortable and sound decent for the price, even better with the suggested EQ (approximated in the app), and the ANC is good with no substantial hiss.

One thing though, they only seem to be able to pair with one source at a time. I paired them with my PC, and that was fine, then with the phone, but they don't want to go back to the PC. Obviously this can be forced, but is a slight nuisance. It may be just my BT adaptor or something which is why I am mentioning it here. Maybe someone else has them, to check>

 

[CEAV]

I ordered these to give them a try. $80 US from Amazon.

I have a few DACs + HAs but I'm excited by these because as much as I love being able to sit down and listen to music without doing anything else, it's just a challenge to find much time to do that every day. Between work, house work, and young kids, there always seems to be something to do. With a solid wireless headphone, I am able to be milling about the kitchen and the rest of the house while still listening to high sound quality.

To that end, I would love to see an adaptation for a custom eq through the app itself too. I listen to music through Roon so can eq through that, but if I want to watch sports/tv/movies through a TV with these it'd be nice to apply a similar eq.

Also, does anyone know if there are other solid wireless headphones? I think an even higher price could be justified, since they would include the dac/ha/transducer all in one.

Anyway, thanks for the review amir!

 

[Yoku-San]

Got the headphone a few hours ago and have been listening since.

I tried to recreate Amirs (sounds very good) and Maikys (sounds a little bit harsh for me) EQ Settings and created a mixture of both that suits my taste and sounds nice (IMHO). If someone is interested, here they are:

Have a nice day and greetings from Cologne, Germany!

 

[norcalscott]

Curious if anyone has tried using these for phone calls, and if so, has anything to comment on voice / mic quality? I have found that the less expensive headphones almost always cheap out on microphone and voice noise canceling capabilities. Not an issue if you don't use them for calls, but someone else mentioned using these in an office and a good benefit of that would be to use them for Teams/Zoom calls and that sort of thing. Interesting that on Amazon there are reviews that rave about the microphone and others that say it's trash...

 

[threni]

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

This is definitely a rare example of where a pair of Grado headphones would be a better choice!

 

[TheBatsEar]

Available at Amazon Germany for 80€ (there is a 20€ coupon you have to activate, runs out at 19th march):

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0B7NBXWDV/

Finally something for a fair price for us Germs!

I will use them outdoors for hiking and kayaking, as a pair of Galaxy buds II seem to slowly slip out of my ears, no matter which foam or silicone plug i use. My current ones are a pair of Jabra something, they don't speak LDAC/APTx and have no noise canceling.

Thanks to the guy that bought them to get them tested, and thanks to @amirm for the review.

 

[TheBatsEar]

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.

That's right, it's doesn't appear to be top shelf, just watched a guy on Youtube fondle one.
But then, this thing is cheap.

 

[TheBatsEar]

Curious if anyone has tried using these for phone calls, and if so, has anything to comment on voice / mic quality?

German Youtuber gave it a go and recorded it, sounds ok to me:

 

[SiW]

Got the headphone a few hours ago and have been listening since.

I tried to recreate Amirs (sounds very good) and Maikys (sounds a little bit harsh for me) EQ Settings and created a mixture of both that suits my taste and sounds nice (IMHO). If someone is interested, here they are:
View attachment 272238
View attachment 272239
View attachment 272237

Have a nice day and greetings from Cologne, Germany!

Are you able to share the values of the ASR cuts and boosts?

I have slightly different EQ band values on iPhone.

 

[Yoku-San]

The values for my approximated ASR preset are:

-2.5;-1.5;0;-3;0;+1.5;+0.5;0;0;-1.5

I guess you have the same values. How does it sound?

 

[Yoku-San]

After some listening with the "Yoku-San" preset I switched back to "ASR" as it was better and more neutral sounding. However, it also sounded a little bit boring. Therefore I tuned it a little bit and created the preset "Yo 2" which is still quite neutral but a little more fun to listen to. I guess I will stick with this for the future after having used it for the last two days. Try it out, here it is:

The values for this preset are:

-2.5;-1.5;0;-2;0;+1;+0.5;+0.5;0;-1

 

[SiW]

Many thanks - sounds nice.

I wonder why the EQ bands are different between our apps?

 

[SiW]

How do you switch between devices?

Want to use them on Windows laptop and iPhone (with app) but can’t connect to both at the same time or see how to switch devices (apart from disconnecting first).