Preamble    

I received these as part of Havit’s roll-out of review units. This is the second Havit unit that I have received as a review sample. I was provided voucher codes that made these free from amazon.co.uk. I think that is a really clever way to send review samples and I applaud Havit for their ingenuity. The views in the review are my own and not for sale.
 

Introduction

Havit is a Chinese manufacturer of electronic goods, making a variety of items from Bluetooth headphones to elaborate and fancy looking backlit gaming keyboards and mice. Shiny shiny.
 

 
Havit is entering a crowded market with their latest entries into Bluetooth headphones and headsets in the under $50 range. For an idea of the amount of stuff in the market, go to your local amazon website or check your local department store. This market is crowded.
 
These were £24.99 (roughly $38) on amazon.co.uk. I previously reviewed the Havit I8 sports Bluetooth headphone. I didn’t find the sound to my taste, but didn’t think it was bad value.
 

I’m biased, you’re biased, tunings are biased, here’s my bias

A wise HeadFier once told me that without acknowledging your own biases in your reviews, you risk misleading those who read them. So this is about me and what I hear and like to hear. If you’d like to go in blind to my bias, you may figure it out by the end anyway. Feel free to skip the hidden text.
 

 

Form and function

These came in cheap plastic transparent container with cardboard to hold the headphones and hide the accessories. These are made of many types of plastic and almost certainly okay for vegans. There may be metal somewhere in the band (I doubt it), but the only metal I could see was the screws. The finish is primarily softly rubberised plastic. The earcups and headband padding are a mid-grade pleather.  The band can get a little bit of a hotspot on the top over time, but this is almost always the case with this type of padded pleather. Clamping power makes the tops of my ears hurt over time. I don’t think this is a headphone that I would toss in a backpack or large purse, even though these having a folding design that encourages you to do so. I think these would break rather quickly as the build quality is not convincing.
 
This doesn’t come with a charger and I have multiple chargers with varying current output, so I never bother to record how long it takes to charge for any device that doesn’t come with its own charger. Havit says it should take 2-3 hours to charge. It doesn’t take terribly long in my experience with 2.1 amp and up chargers.  Go watch a couple episodes of your favourite HBO or Showtime series and check back, it will probably be ready for you. The battery life from full to empty that I got was 10 hours 55 minutes, which is significantly better than the 8 hour time it said in the manual.
With regards to the manual, it was in English. This shouldn’t be a surprise! With the Havit I8, I received a Chinese manual with a Chinese pairing buddy speaking in my ear. Whilst the manual is in English, it could use some improvements. Instead of using named buttons throughout (e.g. power, volume up, previous track), they refer to labels on the headphone diagramme in the manual (S1, T1, etc…). This is unintuitive and led to some confusion on my part. This manual is better than the 100% Chinese one I received last time, but improvement is necessary to capture this headphone’s target market.
 
Manual issues aside, I had no trouble pairing this with my Note 2, or my Aukey BT-C1 transmitter (I need to get a better transmitter). Range was a little under 30 feet. I didn’t get 10 meters of range before having complete drop-out, which occurred around 30 feet. I got about the same range from the Havit I8, and this is about the range I got with the Ausdom M05 (it had a little more solid signal). It may be that my transmitters aren’t as strong as an iPhone 6 or Galaxy Note 5. Your meterage may vary.
 
The volume up and volume down buttons have helpful tactile dots and worked well, though the levels of volume adjustment are very limited. I found myself adjusting volume using my computer or a combination of phone and the headphone. The headphone volume controls were not sufficiently sensitive for me. The other buttons were very frustrating to use. The right earcup has all the buttons on the outside, but it is a touch panel. The touch zones aren’t very responsive and I found myself not knowing if I’d successfully hit the buttons due to time lag. I could pause a track, but I couldn’t get it to start back up. Tactile physical buttons would be much easier to use and could be accomplished while maintaining the same single panel smooth exterior by using a softkey underlay with some pivot built in on the top layer.
 
Call quality was good when used with my Note 2 and my partner in testing had no trouble hearing me. The call switched over to the headphone seamlessly.
 
I put these on my wife’s head to find out how they leak or don’t leak sound, and like the Ausdom M05 these leak, a lot. These are not headphones to wear at work. They are okay for around the house, but a bit obtrusive in public.
 

 

Sound

First off I did a test of the frequency extremes to see what I can hear. I tested this by bringing out my headphones with the widest band of frequency response, strangely, the 1.5* rated Geek Verb, which has audible response all the way down at 10hz and all the way up to 23Khz. Yep, still hearing them. I then moved onto the Havit HV-H911BT. The Havit HV-H911BT has audible frequencies (tone not just vibration) from 20hz to 18khz. I tested this using test tones from audiocheck.net with a 48Khz sampling rate.

 

The playlist

• Eagles – Hotel California (DCC gold CD) (for overall sound impression, love the jet pan)
• Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (layering of vocals on chorus, Stevie Nicks has a temperamental voice)
• Katherine Bryan – Flute Concerto Alla Marcia (treble torture test, transient response, timpani impact)
• Massive Attack – Angel (need I say bass)
• Why? – Strawberries (bass and interesting sound effects)
• Camera Obscura – Country Mile (spacious)
• Father John Misty – The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt. (vocal test, his voice can get a phlegmy sound with the wrong emphasis)
• Schizoid Lloyd – Suicide Penguin (speed and modern loud)

 
For reference, I did this listening test using the iDAC2 with an iPurifier2 and a Supra USB cable. I began the test using Bluetooth through a cheap and cheerful Aukey BT-C1. The Aukey is too cheap. I find that it has a high noise floor that interferes with the music. The tracks were mostly 16/44.1 FLAC, but Katherine Bryan and Father John Misty were in HiDef, 24/192 and 24/88.2, respectively.  As I think a decent DAC is key to listening, I kept the iDAC2, iPurifier2, and Supra USB cable in the chain and listened to these corded with a 3m Audioquest Pipeline 3.5mm extension (purchased for £5 on eBay). The cable that comes with the headphones is flimsy and cheap, which made me reluctant to use it for critical listening. It didn’t feel like I was getting a good physical connection with the stock cable. I didn’t burn in the 3.5mm lead, so maybe it will sound different later. I honestly don’t know. I’ve had sound change from burn in on dynamic drivers and on amp/dac components, but I haven’t heard anything notable in cables yet.
 
For Hotel California, Dreams, and Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia I listened using the Aukey BT-C1 in Bluetooth mode. After one time through Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia, I switched to corded and relistened to Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia. I didn’t go back. I don’t know if better Bluetooth devices would have better results, but it was clear to me that the headphone sounded better with the cord, so I stuck with the cord.
 
On Hotel California, I like to listen to the panning of the jet plane overhead and the shimmer of the cymbals for spacing. The plane is a bit submerged in the other parts and doesn’t stand out as it should. The cymbals are located well, but the soundstage is average size. The bass is slow. The overall sound is a bit muffled.
 
On Dreams, I’m mainly listening for if I can hear layering for all the singers on the refrain vocal ‘thunder only happens when it’s raining.’ The vocal is tightly layered, but most headphones don’t get a lot of separation between the layers. The HE1000 does this beautifully, probably better than any other headphone I’ve listened to, the HD600 does okay, most headphones I’ve listened to do crap. This headphone does a crap job, so it’s average. The individual vocalists can be heard, but barely, and they have no separation in their vocal images. It’s all the vocalists from the same place in space. The other reason I listen to this track is I like sultry vocals and midbass emphasis tends to thicken up these vocals, which I’m not into. Stevie Nicks has a thick sultry voice, I don’t want it thicker. The Havit thickens this up a bit, but not unbearably so. The overall presentation is a bit congested. It needs more detail retrieval.
 
Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia will reveal if your headphones have any nasty treble peaks and the song is excellent for showing transient performance. I didn’t detect any particular nastiness on the treble, but one of the highlights of the track: giant timpani strikes that thunder outwards, was a bit muted. The timpani strikes lacked impact in Bluetooth mode, and were only slightly better when in corded mode. The treble is brighter in corded mode, but at this point in listening I’m not getting fatigued by the treble yet. The presentation wasn't as detailed as I like to hear and the transients were a bit slow. When listening through Bluetooth there was some low level hiss. It was very noticeable with the BT-C1 and still present with the Note 2, but it is gone in corded mode.
 
Bass needs to thump on Angel, and these deliver. The snare drum has really good slam with these. There is something going on in the treble that my ears aren’t liking at my customary listening volume. I wish I had tools to measure it. On modern popular tracks like Angel, I had to turn the volume down. I’m now sitting comfortably at about 10:00.
 
Why?’s track, Strawberries has a wide array of sounds: deep real bass guitar and artificial super-deep sub-bass, piano, forward vocals, maracas, glockenspiel, xylophone. There is a lot going on. The Havit does a good job with the higher percussion instruments, but it doesn’t go as deep on the sub-bass as the artificial sub-bass does. So while these have a good quantity of midbass, their sub-bass disappears right at 20hz.
 
The soundstage on Country Mile is a large open empty space with distant walls that make Tracyanne Campbell’s voice echo back in loneliness, which I’m pretty sure was intentional. While not boxed in, the Havit’s presentation isn’t wide or particularly deep. The stage size is average-small.
 
On Father John Misty – The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt., Josh Tillman’s voice can get a bit thick on many headphones. Though the more I listen to this album on different phones and sources, the more I’m convinced that the album is easy to make sound great on just about anything. The wrong headphones or amp can make Josh Tillman sound a little phlegmy, but that isn’t happening here. The bass guitar is more forward in the mix than usual. The presentation is a little stuffy.
 
Schizoid Lloyd presents loud avant garde psycho metal. I like it a lot. The album is all loud. It only has a dynamic range of 5 according to JRiver Media Center, and it sounds like that. The drums get pretty fast in points and the Havit isn’t quite fast enough. The details smear a bit. The guitar lacks some crunch and isn’t as satisfying as it can be. Details generally aren’t as vivid as they should be.

 

Havit HV-H911BT vs. Ausdom M05

For this comparison I used both headphones in corded mode and used the LH Labs Geek Out V2 as the DAC of choice with the iPurifier2 hooked up (the iPurifier2 mainly tightens bass). Corded mode allowed for quick switching between the two headphones. I listened to TidalHiFi (CD quality streaming).
 
First, the Ausdom is superior in build quality in every way. It has tactile buttons, nicer pleather, nicer rubberised plastic, softer earpads and headband, and generally better fit and finish. I found the Ausdom M05 more comfortable. The Ausdom also has double the battery life and more reliable Bluetooth transmission.
 
Both headphones have warts, and upon more listening to the Ausdom, I need to revise my initial enthusiasm in original review.
 
I listened to the following tracks: Bjork – Black Lake, Eagles – Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over), 9Bach – Llywnog, Rodrigo y Gabriela – Viking Man (Live in Japan), and Kamasi Washington – The Message.
 
In general, the Havit has tighter bass presentation than the Ausdom M05, but isn’t as fast. The vocals on the Havit are a bit recessed and tend towards being a bit coloured. On Llwynog, Lisa Jen Hoyland’s voice has a touch of romance from the added midbass/lower-mid weight, but is cleaner on the M05. On Kamasi Washington – The Message, the Ausdom M05 midbass bleeds into the mids, giving a cloudy presentation with slightly muted guitar. The Havit’s treble is fatiguing on Viking Man and aggressive, whilst the M05 treble is well defined and clear without slamming your eardrum.
 
The Havit isn’t as fast as the Ausdom, losing the pace a bit on Viking Man.
 
The soundstage has more depth and height on the M05, but the two headphones have similar soundstage width; I’d give a slight edge to the M05 on width. In terms of total stage volume, I’d say the soundstage is about twice as large on the M05. The centre image is generally really clean and well delineated on the M05, especially noticeable on Black Lake. In general, the soundstage is much more 3-dimensional on the Ausdom M05, which is one of its chief strengths.

 

Conclusion

Overall, the sound has a midbass emphasis, isn’t terribly detailed, is somewhat slow, and a bit congested in presentation. I found that these caused some treble fatigue.  I found the sound pleasant, but not really my cup-o-tea. For the money, it doesn’t perform badly. I have a little bit of concern with the noise floor in Bluetooth mode, but it may be an artefact of my sources, so your mileage may vary. I’ll be looking into a Bluetooth transmitter I can right home to Mom about. Just kidding, Mom can barely use the internet, Bluetooth would send her into the pits of despair.
 
When compared to the Ausdom M05, the M05 was superior in every way with a couple notable exceptions: the bass was tighter on the Havit HV-H911BT, and a bit of midbass bleed clouded up the M05’s mids on Kamasi Washington – The Message. Both headphones need improvement, but I’d definitely pick the Ausdom M05 as my affordable Bluetooth on/over ear of choice. It has better fit and finish, is more comfortable, has a nice 3-dimensional soundstage and generally sounds better. With a little bit better tuning and slightly more clamping power on the ears, the M05 has the potential to be the top Bluetooth headphone on the market.