I've been using the 1More EB100 for the past few days and will give them a proper review soon. I believe they are a discontinued model since there is no mention of them on 1More's website and only two retailers currently offer it; $159 at
Newegg and $50 at
GearBest. I've never owned a pair of Bluetooth headphones or IEMs before so I can't offer comparisons to similar offerings from other manufacturers but overall my experience with them is positive despite several annoying quirks.
These are my impressions:
Pros:
-Good battery life. Easily gets me through the day between charges.
-Musical v-shaped signature.
-Sound is clear with a powerful, but not overwhelming, bass.
-Light, comfortable, secure fit. Extra points here since I wear glasses.
-Solid build.
-Phone call quality. My voice doesn't sound distant and comes in loud and clear.
-Water-resistant. Wore it in the shower to test and they came out unscathed.
-Quick, easy pairing.
-Precise vocal prompts for Pairing, Connected, Disconnected and High, Medium and Low battery levels.
-Simultaneous pairing with 2 devices.
-apt-X support. Definitely sounds clearer and less compressed connected to my apt-X enabled Galaxy S6 Active than my non-apt-X Windows 10 laptop.
-Independent 30-step volume control. Combined with the host device's volume control you can really fine-tune your listening level.
Cons:
-Cannot use while charging. Although being tethered to an electrical socket or USB port defeats the point of wireless headphones.
-Bass lacks texture and rolls off early. It's slightly boomy, but not overtly so. Sub-bass is lacking.
-Treble is HOT! Tip rolling doesn't alleviate this due to the shallow fit. It has lessened with burn-in, but the sibilance is strong with this one. The treble sensitive beware.
-Small soundstage with poor imaging.
-Not waterproof. Light splashing and rain are okay, but these will not survive a dip in the pool(or toilet).
-Cable favors the right side. The weight of the playback control and mic module causes the short cable to pull to the right instead of resting evenly on the back of my neck. Not that big of an issue, but my OCD won't let it go.
-Buttons are confusing. Even though the center multi-function button has a raised dot to help identify it, I often can't tell it apart from the natural seams between the buttons and usually fumble around when trying to pause/play music. Also, long pressing the volume buttons will skip tracks but for some reason the buttons are reversed. Long pressing Vol + restarts the current song or skips to the previous track while Vol - skips to the next song. Weird.
-Shallow fit. Because of the design the EB100 can't go very deep although it doesn't affect the seal or sound quality.
-Vocal prompts sound like 32kps mp3s.
-The Max Volume BEEP! It's high-pitched and loud. I hate it every time I hear it.
-Short wireless range. My 600 sq-ft apartment isn't big, but it's big enough to lose connection from one corner to the other.
-Beware the hand. Putting my hand in the pocket that my phone is in will result in cutouts.
-Connection issues when dual paired. I get more cutouts, static interference, and a glitch where I stepped away from my laptop while on a phone call and got a vocal "Disconnected" prompt every 10 seconds until I powered them off and on again.
Overall it seems like the Cons far outweigh the Pros, but the convenience of running around my apartment untethered while listening to podcasts and doing housework is priceless. It's also nice to use Android Pay without juggling cables. Perhaps newer Bluetooth IEMs lack the shortcomings of the EB100, but I haven't used any other models. The $159 price at Newegg is definitely too high considering better options available in that price range, but for the $50 I paid for them I feel they are well worth the investment.
