Disclaimer:
I will compare the XBA-H1s with my old IEMs, the Sony MDR-XB50APs (used them for about 1500 hours, gave them a proper run for their money)
You can see that the XBA-H1s are Sony's top-of-the-line in-ear headphones from the packaging, which is similar to Beats's boxes. Inside the box you can find buds of different sizes (the ones that were already on them fit me just fine), along with a little case and some instructions (just in case you don't know how to plug some headphones in a device). The headphones themselves look really nice, and they don't look kitsch-y like the Sennheiser Momentums. In fact, they have one of the most understated yet nice design out there. The cable is red on one side and black on the other, giving it a more modern look.
Unlike Apple's EarPods, they go deep into your ear, eliminating all the noise from the outside (don't use them whilst driving!!!) and keeping the music in the ear, not dissipating it around you, letting everybody know what your musical tastes are. They do stick out of your ear, so using them in the bed (whilst resting your head on the pillow, you naughty boy!) is really not a good idea.
Unlike usual headphones, these are called hybrids, because they use two types of drivers. One is a usual 9mm dynamic driver (found in just about every headphones out there), and the other one is a Balanced Armature driver, which looks like a small box. The dynamic handles the lows and some mids, whereas the Balanced Armature handles the other part of the mids and the highs (from what I've heard), so the instruments and the voices should sound a bit more separated in the end. The truth is, that they do and they don't. It's really up to the quality of the music and the sound card of your device. Some songs sound incredible, whilst others sound like they're coming from some supermarket in-ceiling speakers (okay, I did exaggerate a bit). Compared to my old XB50s, the bass is about as powerful (even if the old ones had 12mm dynamic drivers), but there's a lot of details that I didn't hear with the XB50s. Yes, they were only 30$, so I couldn't expect much from them (yet they delivered a lot), so this is the reason why the XBA-H1s just don't feel like they're worth paying three times more money for. Clarity? Only when listening to high-quality audio files (which aren't available anywhere, as you might know). Bass? Enough at all times, even without a smiley-face set eq.
Now, I'm going to talk about their performance based on the songs I've auditioned with them: mostly 2000s pop, a tiny bit of rock, no Papa John 50s music and Mozart and so on.
Songs like Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' sound really bad, with Queen B's voice being almost muted in the favour of the instruments. The song which sound glorious on these headphones is Lenny Kravitz's 'Will You Marry Me'. The instruments and voices are well balanced and the guitar(s) are really warm-sounding (thanks to the small but powerful dynamic driver).
I shall end this review by saying that the Sony XBA-H1s are some nice headphones that do need a proper burn-in to reach their full potential. I bought them because they were on stock in the closest electronics shop to my house, and I didn't want to mess with small headphone companies. There are plentiful of other options in this price range, but those will surely serve you well.
(Sorry for my English, it's not my native language )
I will compare the XBA-H1s with my old IEMs, the Sony MDR-XB50APs (used them for about 1500 hours, gave them a proper run for their money)
You can see that the XBA-H1s are Sony's top-of-the-line in-ear headphones from the packaging, which is similar to Beats's boxes. Inside the box you can find buds of different sizes (the ones that were already on them fit me just fine), along with a little case and some instructions (just in case you don't know how to plug some headphones in a device). The headphones themselves look really nice, and they don't look kitsch-y like the Sennheiser Momentums. In fact, they have one of the most understated yet nice design out there. The cable is red on one side and black on the other, giving it a more modern look.
Unlike Apple's EarPods, they go deep into your ear, eliminating all the noise from the outside (don't use them whilst driving!!!) and keeping the music in the ear, not dissipating it around you, letting everybody know what your musical tastes are. They do stick out of your ear, so using them in the bed (whilst resting your head on the pillow, you naughty boy!) is really not a good idea.
Unlike usual headphones, these are called hybrids, because they use two types of drivers. One is a usual 9mm dynamic driver (found in just about every headphones out there), and the other one is a Balanced Armature driver, which looks like a small box. The dynamic handles the lows and some mids, whereas the Balanced Armature handles the other part of the mids and the highs (from what I've heard), so the instruments and the voices should sound a bit more separated in the end. The truth is, that they do and they don't. It's really up to the quality of the music and the sound card of your device. Some songs sound incredible, whilst others sound like they're coming from some supermarket in-ceiling speakers (okay, I did exaggerate a bit). Compared to my old XB50s, the bass is about as powerful (even if the old ones had 12mm dynamic drivers), but there's a lot of details that I didn't hear with the XB50s. Yes, they were only 30$, so I couldn't expect much from them (yet they delivered a lot), so this is the reason why the XBA-H1s just don't feel like they're worth paying three times more money for. Clarity? Only when listening to high-quality audio files (which aren't available anywhere, as you might know). Bass? Enough at all times, even without a smiley-face set eq.
Now, I'm going to talk about their performance based on the songs I've auditioned with them: mostly 2000s pop, a tiny bit of rock, no Papa John 50s music and Mozart and so on.
Songs like Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' sound really bad, with Queen B's voice being almost muted in the favour of the instruments. The song which sound glorious on these headphones is Lenny Kravitz's 'Will You Marry Me'. The instruments and voices are well balanced and the guitar(s) are really warm-sounding (thanks to the small but powerful dynamic driver).
I shall end this review by saying that the Sony XBA-H1s are some nice headphones that do need a proper burn-in to reach their full potential. I bought them because they were on stock in the closest electronics shop to my house, and I didn't want to mess with small headphone companies. There are plentiful of other options in this price range, but those will surely serve you well.
(Sorry for my English, it's not my native language )
How would you rate the bass quality (especially sub bass extension) and quantity against the klipsch x10?
Thanks