Eoz Audio Arc ANC wireless headphone evaluate: Superior comfort with mediocre sound quality

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Eoz Audio used to be founded on the realization that vogue and abilities are no longer mutually peculiar. As the corporate net build declares, “We make our earphones to be as stylish and tidy as they sound…We don’t fabricate, we craft them. We utilize top rate offers on account of we need our merchandise to final, on account of we need them to be an expression of our personality and vogue.”

The company’s most recent providing is the Arc wireless Bluetooth headphone. Whereas the make quality and comfort are first-class, I’m anxious the sound quality is no longer.

This evaluate is portion of TechHive’s protection of essentially the most attention-grabbing noise-cancelling headphones,  where you’ll procure reports of the opponents’s offerings, plus a buyer’s e-book to the ingredients you ought to still agree with when browsing for this form of product.

Substances

The Eoz Arc is a closed-again, over-ear headphone that indubitably lives as much as the corporate’s vision by manner of make offers. The tidy, minimalist earcups and headband are constituted of stainless metal and aluminum, which makes them some distance harder and prolonged-lasting than plastic.

Eoz Audio

The earcups toddle along the one-allotment headband to adjust them for your head dimension. On most assorted headphones, the earcups are linked to a separate allotment that slides in and out of the tip of the headband, which will likely be significantly awkward and more inclined to breakage. On the assorted hand, the more well-liked make enables the headphones to be folded to suit in a minute anxious-shell case. The Arc can no longer be folded, and it comes with a soft carrying gain, which is no longer as preserving as a anxious-shell case.

In one other nod to quality offers, the earpads embody excessive-density, adaptive memory foam covered in soft “protein leather” that’s in actuality plant-essentially essentially based—wonderful for vegan tune followers! Fixed with Eoz, this synthetic leather appears and feels correct love the trusty thing whereas being twice as durable. And in incompatibility to the more frequently extinct polyurethane “leather,” it obtained’t peel off after six months or a twelve months.

Every aluminum earpiece homes a 40mm, graphene-covered diaphragm that’s specified to ship a frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz (±3 dB). In a gesture of uncharacteristic candor, on the other hand, the corporate despatched me a frequency-response graph, which clearly exhibits the response to be -3dB at 20Hz, -1dB at 40Hz, -6dB at 300Hz, +4dB at 5kHz, and -5dB at 20kHz—the traditional “smiley” curve that emphasizes the bass and treble on the expense of the midrange. Other specs embody a maximum SPL of about 102dB at 1kHz and THD of about 0.1% at 1kHz.

Eoz Audio

As a wireless headphone, the first enter is Bluetooth 5.0 with reinforce for the SBC, AAC, aptX, and aptX Low Latency codecs. Onboard microphones allow you to assassinate and resolve phone calls and utilize the suppose assistant of a paired phone as correctly. That you just would possibly also moreover join the Arc to a hardware headphone output with the integrated 3.5mm cable linked to the enter on the underside of the merely earcup; in this case, it gifts an impedance of 160 ohms.

Most Bluetooth headphones embody stuffed with life noise cancellation (ANC), and the Arc isn’t any exception. It does no longer offer a “transparency mode” that immediate disables ANC and feeds the mic signal to the headphone so chances are high you’ll well maybe also hear issues love a flight attendant’s instructions.

The battery is asserted to manufacture as much as 25 hours of play time at lifelike volume with Bluetooth on and ANC off, or 15 hours with ANC on. It takes round 60 minutes to totally impress the battery by connecting the USB-C port on the underside of the left earcup to a 5V/1A USB strength source.

Eoz Audio

Particular person interface

As correctly as to the USB-C charging port, the decrease portion of the left earcup holds three buttons: strength on/off/Bluetooth pairing, volume up/skip to next phrase, and volume down/skip to outdated phrase. These buttons are raised and properly separated, making them easy to procure by in actuality feel. Two LEDs suppose strength/charging and Bluetooth-pairing state.

As talked about earlier, there’s a 3.5mm audio jack on the underside of the merely earcup, on the side of a slider switch that turns ANC on and off.

Performance

The Arc is exceedingly cheerful. The protein-leather earpads are very soft, they’re trim ample for my ears, and the clamping stress is no longer execrable at all.

After I grew to was on ANC with out tune, I heard a style of sigh, which disappeared when I grew to was ANC off. I would possibly well well maybe also even hear the sigh all the plot thru gathered passages of tune, which is no longer true.

Eoz told me that the corporate tuned the Arc to be used with ANC on, in yelp that’s how I listened to it for many of my checking out. After I attempted it with ANC off, the sound used to be pretty thin and restrained, so I grew to was it on and left it there.

For my reports, I listened to excessive-res tracks from Qobuz on my iPhone XS. First up used to be “What About Us” (24/44.1) from Crimson’s album Handsome Trauma. Here’s a paunchy-on pop/rock phrase with a style of bass, which used to be pretty famed and significantly boomy on the Arc. Also, issues love cymbals had been excellent zingy. That “smile” curve is seductive, but I make a choice a more tonally balanced sound.

Subsequent, I cued up “Taliat” by Mdou Moctar from Afrique Victime (24/96). African pop makes utilize of a style of electrical guitar, which is entrance and center here, accompanied by bass, drums, and vocals. The Arc used to be excellent heavy on the bass, whereas the guitar used to be engaging and crispy.

For some solo guitar, I listened to “Spring Ain’t Here,” a Pat Metheny tune accomplished by John Pizzarelli on his album Better Days Ahead (24/44.1). Over all all over again, the Arc used to be bass-heavy with some congestion within the low midrange. Also, there perceived to be a soft veneer over your total sound.

Eoz Audio

Turning to jazz, I accomplished “Gettin’ To It” by the Christian McBride Expansive Band on Bringin’ It (24/96). As forward of, the Arc emphasised the bass, which used to be pretty boomy as correctly, whereas the horn sections sounded crisp and pure.

I in actuality dig Jon Batiste’s gathered album We Are, so I listened to “Demonstrate Me the Methodology” (24/44.1), which beautifully channels Marvin Gaye and Earth, Wind, and Fire. The Arc sounded pretty bass-heavy, whereas the rhythm guitar used to be trim-crispy, and the vocal used to be pretty recessed.

Transferring on to country, I accomplished “Cosy Any place” from Blake Shelton’s Physique Language (24/48). As I had arrive to position a question to by now, the Arc overemphasized the bass whereas the vocal used to be pretty recessed and the metal guitar used to be pretty crisp.

On the classical entrance, I was cheerful to procure La Lyre Amoureuse (24/88.2) by Les Sacqueboutiers (The Sackbut Avid gamers). I play sackbut (renaissance trombone), so this is merely up my alley. I listened to Sonata “La Augustana” by Giovanni Martino Cesare (1621), which is scored for cornetto (a recorder-love instrument with a brass-love mouthpiece), sackbut, organ, and gamba (renaissance fretted cello), and the efficiency here is unbelievable. On the Arc, the cornetto and sackbut had been good and pure sounding, but the low organ and gamba had been significantly sick-outlined.

Eoz Audio

Lastly, I cued up the fourth circulation of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Well-known, Op. 73, as recorded by the Tonkünstler Orchester under the route of Yutaka Sado. The Arc rendered the extensive dynamic vary correctly, though as forward of, the low frequencies had been overemphasized, and the basses and timpani had been significantly clouded. Within the meantime, the excessive woodwinds had been too intellectual.

To test the Arc’s stuffed with life noise cancelling, I took it into my laundry room and fired up the clothes dryer. Unfortunately, its ANC used to be no longer very efficient. It cut low-frequency noise significantly, but no longer almost as noteworthy as assorted ANC headphones I’ve tried. Also, the passive isolation with ANC off used to be no longer true at all.

Comparability with Cleer Waft II

Right thru my listening, I in contrast the Eoz Arc with the Cleer Waft II, which I chanced on to construct extremely correctly. The Waft II lists for $199.99, though the Cleer net build and assorted outlets occupy it for $149.99 as of this writing, which makes it almost exactly impress akin to the Arc.

On story of the Arc is designed to be extinct with ANC on, I engaged ANC on the Waft II all the plot thru my comparisons. Now not just like the Arc, the Waft II sounds just about identical with ANC on or off.

In phrases of comfort, the Arc wins arms down; the Waft II’s earcups are too minute for my trim ears. Also, the Arc appears to be sturdier. In my evaluate of the Waft II, I commented on its true make quality, but since then, the padding has began to cut loose the headband, and it doesn’t seem like replaceable.

Audio quality, on the other hand, is a wholly assorted topic. Without exception, the Waft II’s sound is noteworthy greater—clearer and cleaner with a smarter tonal balance. The low frequencies had been tighter and of their rightful situation, the midrange used to be more suppose, and highs had been no longer overly crisp. In well-liked, vocals had been more forward than they had been on the Arc. On Crimson’s “What About Us,” the vocal used to be pretty sharper—my notes embody the phrase “astringent”—and on “Gettin’ To It” by Christian McBride Expansive Band, the horns sounded a bit closed in. The identical used to be merely of the cornetto and sackbut on Sonata “La Augustana,” though in each circumstances, the assassinate used to be minor.

Eoz Audio

With the dryer working within the laundry room, the Waft II’s ANC used to be some distance less complicated than the Arc’s. It drastically decreased the low frequencies and midrange, and even decreased increased frequencies to a diploma as correctly.

Within the event you switch off ANC on the Waft II, it engages ambient mode, which pipes ambient sound thru the onboard microphones into the headphones; it has no entirely passive mode. So, I grew to was off the strength to gaze how noteworthy passive isolation it offers—and it offers plot more isolation than the Arc.

Bottom line

The make quality and comfort of the Eoz Arc are impressive, but they’ll no longer rescue this headphone from mediocre audio efficiency. In well-liked, the bass and treble are overemphasized, whereas the midrange is recessed by comparison. This so-known as “smiley curve” can be seductive to about a, but its enchantment will likely wear off immediate. Also, the bass and low midrange tend in opposition to some congestion.

Then there’s the ANC, which is no longer very efficient at reducing ambient noise phases. As correctly as, it produces a sigh that’s audible all the plot thru gathered passages.

At $139, the Eoz Arc isn’t terribly costly. However for no longer plot more, the Cleer Waft II sounds loads greater, and its ANC is noteworthy less complicated. Granted, the Waft II’s earpads are no longer as cheerful, no longer no longer as much as on my trim ears, and its make quality doesn’t seem to compare the Arc, but by manner of audio quality, it beats the Arc arms down.

• The Eoz Arc shows top-notch make quality and comfort, but its sound quality is mediocre and its ANC is no longer very efficient.

  Execs

  • Sturdy make quality
  • Enormous cheerful

  Cons

  • Sound is bass-heavy with recessed midrange and too-intellectual highs
  • ANC no longer very efficient and produces clearly audible sigh
  • Earpieces can’t be folded into a compact shape for shuttle