Disclaimer
Firstly, I would like to thank the 1More team for giving these to me for the purpose of this review. All impressions will be made from as much as an objective standpoint as possible. I’ve been involved in audio for some years now and enjoy listening to music extensively. With a good set of earphones, headphones and source you’ll be set for life. Well until the next new thing comes along.
Introduction
The best pair of Bluetooth earphones I've ever heard!!!! I can't stress this enough, I may not have had extensive time or experience with Bluetooth audio devices but everything about Bluetooth until now has pointed to one conclusion, hard wire is simply so much better!
Whilst that might still be the case but in this new day and age with times changing and Apple removing our jack leaving us jack less fools unable to jack off... Yes, I know what I said! (Also I am aware there is an adaptor but that's not the point I'm making!). We have to conclude there needs to be an advancement in technology and we are about to see a new era of Bluetooth and fancy do flip bangers to come during this period I’m sure.
Thankfully I'm glad to say even a diehard wired in audiophile such as myself has come to see a little ray of hope shining in this new, thought to be, fruitless abyss. Enter in the 1More iBFree.
Now the introduction is over I think I'll bore you to death with the specifications, design, ergonomics, accessories and such. Thankfully there’s not much to add here so I’ll bullet point for the most part making comment on what is necessary.
Specifications
Accessories
Once again 1More provides a stellar minimalist package that feels fairly premium.
Inside the box you will get the following:
• In-ear Bluetooth wireless headphones
• 3 sets of silicone ear tips and sport grips of various sizes
• Micro-USB charging cable
Pretty disappointed after receiving some great foam ear tips with their current flagship that they haven’t included something compatible here! Alas, hopefully all these reviews might lead to more of an assortment in their future products, fingers crossed eh.
Design
I won’t rant on about the design but have pinched a few beautiful pictures from 1More’s website to further the brief description of the iBFree earphones.
As aforementioned these do come in a wide array of colours all of which pop in my opinion my personal favourite being the Aqua Blue. Talking a little about the design they are pretty much what you can expect from a Bluetooth set of earphones slightly big and bulky but the craftsmanship, like all of their other products, is just superb. You’ll get a slightly angled nozzle and the ear glides for additional ear support should you feel the need to use them.
Ergonomics
Okay well it has to be mentioned even with all the eartips and ear glides I just couldn’t get a good, comfortable or secure fit! Not good when you consider the target audience, in their defence I could be just that 1 out of 10 who had a weird shaped ear. If you overlook this subjective flaw and manage to find a compatible set of tips, which I did in the end, you are okay there isn’t much wearers fatigue despite the bulky housing design.
Note for those who are struggling to find a good fit, foam ear tips with a slightly small bore due to the nozzle size also remove the ear glides if you find them of no use. Below you will see a picture of how the ear glides were designed to work.
I’d say that about wraps it up but please leave a comment below if you would like any additional information.
Functionality
All of what is written here can be found in the manual if you ever need to read it. In the manual you’ll see the first four pages have some useful diagrams displaying how the earphones work how to turn them on (No not like that!) and of course how to turn them off, you’ll also see how to charge them, how to change the ear tips and how to properly position the earbuds in the ears.
Upon power up you will be greeted with the robotic mono tone “1More” followed by a brief announcement of you level of battery and connection “Pairing, Battery High.” Navigate into the settings on your phone, then Bluetooth and you will see the “1MORE iBFree.” Select this and you will be informed that the device is now connected. You will hear that same mono tone female voice upon switching off your device to “Power off”.
I would say all the information is pretty darn accurate and I’ve had a good distance connection with them and about 7-8 hours play time after a full charge.
Sound Quality
Yay finally the wait is over unless you just skipped to this part which I don’t blame you if you did, but I do know where you live. Just kidding let’s see how this thing performs.
Treble
I can’t lie to you all and say one will be welcomed into a room of refinement silky smooth detail and sparkly highs that will leave you misty eyed. However, what I can say is you will be invited in with detailed features scattered around the room, a rather sharp character and hard overtone will case it’s shadow whilst ironically shedding light on each instrument you are trying to pick out.
I seriously can’t get over how good these things sound overall! Yes, there is cravats in the sound of course there will be I mean take a look at the price tag and accept the fact you are listening to a Bluetooth device. Once you’ve got over all of that you’ll be enjoying yourself just as much as I have been, well at least I hope you will. Now back to the point at hand how’s this treble coming across in a few words clean, clear, crisp and a little sharp.
Those adjectives best describe the sound to expect I have no idea why but it is almost like the veil has been lifted in comparison to any and all other Bluetooth headsets I have previously tried. There is without a doubt a lack of refinement and a little weight resulting in slightly tinny sound, I am not putting you off just needs to be clearly described as best I can.
Concerned about the sibilance issues well you might have a right to be if you are overly sensitive to such things. I am blessed in the fact my ears have been able to adjust over the course of my journey to handle and cope with a splash of sibilance now and with the ……. It’s there just not overbearing so I am happy enough to spend extended listening time with them to enjoy the rest of its spectrum and character.
Midrange
“Hey! Hey!! Here I am, I’m not late am I guys?!” No you are not bloody hell calm down, ah what the heck you just do your thing girl. I can see a ton of people here finding a marmite type sound signature, as you have probably figured out I like marmite. So how does this tie into me making such an outlandish claim as to say “These are the best Bluetooth Earphones I’ve heard to date”.
Well I am glad you asked Sir/Madam the answer we find located is within the energy of music, the flow to which one can enjoy and relish in the ambience and character of a such a vibrant soul. I like this kind of midrange sort of an in your face transparent demonstration of vocals and notes combined with an unsure yet sunny personality.
I won’t for a minute describe the midrange as over confident, strong, thick or lush but that doesn’t detract from the level of enjoyment I get from these. In all honesty we are probably getting closer to why these sound so damn good, well to my ears at least. The magic voodoo comes with the breezier approach the iBfree is trying to demonstrate and does quite well I might add. I do in general prefer a slightly lusher sounding midrange but in this case because of the bass, which I will get to later, you get a more rounded type of sound as weird as that is to admit with what some audiophiles will call undefined.
I am not scoring these on the premise of their sound flaws dos or don’t but rather as a whole sound package. With the midrange expect to hear a level of clarity and some peaks towards the upper register but do not let this detract from the overall feeling these earphones produce so well.
Bass
In a nutshell we are happy to attribute bass with musicality and this is another area I’d like to commend the iBFree earphones for performing within their means.
Mid bass is fairly prominent and holds a candle over the sub bass meaning a little less bass finesse however, this is where most consumers looking for a set of Bluetooth earphones in particular really won’t care. If these are to be used as intended i.e for an active user, despite those pesky ergonomics, functionality and housing design, they are pretty brilliant because they are serving a useful purpose of delivering you just enough bass on your plate to have you feeling full and gratified.
No, sorry to say these won’t be winning any awards for the most well rounded sound signature any time soon but they perform well enough to the extent that if you enjoy them the last thing you’ll be doing when you exercise is thinking I can’t wait to take these bloody things out.
Short Story
Side tracking here a bit but one of my first experience’s with Bluetooth earphones was a need for something wireless ish to use as work when cleaning. I got sick and tired and quite frankly peeved at every time I would snag my wire and whoosh an earbud would be yanked from my ear and go flying, just one time happened to be into a toilet (a clean one but still).
Suffices to say that was it, I thought I’ll be blown if I am breaking a pair of any earphones costing £150 upwards and dealing with the annoyance of having something yanked out my skull.
In the end I placed my order on some relatively cheap branded Bluetooth earphones in the vein hope it could at least serve me the purpose of enjoying my music and not having the continual upset of snagging my wires or losing earphones down toilets.
Stupid, silly idiot I thought to myself as I tried to bare and endure just one minute alone with these things…. Overblown bass, screechy highs, non-existent midrange, no instrument placement, musicality haha you won’t find that here and of course lack of any decent sort of volume levels, Bluetooth earphones just suck. That until this day has pretty much remained, Brainwavz did do a good job of losing me up making me believe not all hope is lost just not quite enough to convince me I could live without wires.
Back to the Bass
So now you know the history let me reveal the mystery of why I believe these to be one of the best if not the best Bluetooth earphones on the market. Simply this, enjoyment I actually like these once I’d wrestled with the fit and got over function control I just found myself enjoying these. I hate to say it but the bass is on point it lacks a touch of depth when you come to the lowest notes but with a good recording these are just a joy to listen to. Flabby and uncontrolled bass in Bluetooth earphones is becoming a thing of the past my friends and here seems to be the answer iBfree. This is by no means to say the bass is spot on but it doesn’t stray too far from being controlled and I’ve heard a lot worse. There is a shaky bit of flab that jiggles its way into the music every now and again but for the most part you are just going to be smashing these out enjoying your club anthems looking like a complete wally as bang your head to the beat re-enacting Ozzy Osbourne or Geezer Butler back in the old days. Just note you aren’t allowed to claim whiplash from 1More trust me I tried, when the insurance company rang they just laughed, can you imagine that! Moving on….
Soundstage/Imaging
Wow, holy crap that’s probably the most I’ve ever wrote in one sound section but I feel it was necessary as consistently we have had to face too many trade-offs when it has come to the wireless world of audio. This nicely leads me onto the soundstage and imaging something I rarely hear a lot of in Bluetooth earphones but you know what it is here and boy oh boy it’s present enough to be talked about.
Now before I go gushing my heart out I just want to say that I am not trying to make any outlandish claims that these are going to be a multi BA setup or anything the likes of which but just to merely proclaim my excitement for the fact a Bluetooth earphone has a soundstage and a fairly decent one at that!
Space, finally! You get an almost airy kind of signature here wide but not very deep still there are great spatial cues hard to keep up during complex passages of music but during the slightly less chaotic times you get an abundance of the slightly peaky treble and in your face midrange scattering detailed around your head. From note to note they accurately portray the information being presented to you. Yes, there are dead zones in the music which is so disappointing considering there is such a balance of excellence for the most part.
Overlooking the parts, the iBfree can’t handle you still get this moderately immersive soundstage with imaging being shown to you as best it can you’ll hear the instruments pop, click and vocals when or where they’ve been panned they’ll be presented. I suppose in a way this could be a way of saying you are getting to hear your music closer to what the artist indeed you to hear it like.
Okay let’s not get ahead of ourselves here they are good for earphones…. But in terms of Bluetooth earphones they are great and we shall leave it at that.
Conclusion
Need to wrap this up so some short pros and cons:
Pros:
As always if there are any questions or comments please leave them below and I will do my best to get back you.
Link to their website for more info and purchasing: https://uk.1more.com/collections/in-ear-headphones/products/ibfree-bluetooth-dual-driver-in-ear-headphones
Firstly, I would like to thank the 1More team for giving these to me for the purpose of this review. All impressions will be made from as much as an objective standpoint as possible. I’ve been involved in audio for some years now and enjoy listening to music extensively. With a good set of earphones, headphones and source you’ll be set for life. Well until the next new thing comes along.
Introduction
The best pair of Bluetooth earphones I've ever heard!!!! I can't stress this enough, I may not have had extensive time or experience with Bluetooth audio devices but everything about Bluetooth until now has pointed to one conclusion, hard wire is simply so much better!
Whilst that might still be the case but in this new day and age with times changing and Apple removing our jack leaving us jack less fools unable to jack off... Yes, I know what I said! (Also I am aware there is an adaptor but that's not the point I'm making!). We have to conclude there needs to be an advancement in technology and we are about to see a new era of Bluetooth and fancy do flip bangers to come during this period I’m sure.
Thankfully I'm glad to say even a diehard wired in audiophile such as myself has come to see a little ray of hope shining in this new, thought to be, fruitless abyss. Enter in the 1More iBFree.
Now the introduction is over I think I'll bore you to death with the specifications, design, ergonomics, accessories and such. Thankfully there’s not much to add here so I’ll bullet point for the most part making comment on what is necessary.
Specifications
- Bluetooth®4.1 and aptX®Coding
- Water Resistant Aluminium Alloy Body
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 4.1 with 30 ft. range
- Battery Life: Standby 240 hours, Talk 10 hours, Music 8 hours
- Range of different colours: Vibrant Red, Space Grey, Aqua Blue, Apple Green
- Duel layer drivers, Titanium
Accessories
Once again 1More provides a stellar minimalist package that feels fairly premium.
Inside the box you will get the following:
• In-ear Bluetooth wireless headphones
• 3 sets of silicone ear tips and sport grips of various sizes
• Micro-USB charging cable
Pretty disappointed after receiving some great foam ear tips with their current flagship that they haven’t included something compatible here! Alas, hopefully all these reviews might lead to more of an assortment in their future products, fingers crossed eh.
Design
I won’t rant on about the design but have pinched a few beautiful pictures from 1More’s website to further the brief description of the iBFree earphones.
As aforementioned these do come in a wide array of colours all of which pop in my opinion my personal favourite being the Aqua Blue. Talking a little about the design they are pretty much what you can expect from a Bluetooth set of earphones slightly big and bulky but the craftsmanship, like all of their other products, is just superb. You’ll get a slightly angled nozzle and the ear glides for additional ear support should you feel the need to use them.
Ergonomics
Okay well it has to be mentioned even with all the eartips and ear glides I just couldn’t get a good, comfortable or secure fit! Not good when you consider the target audience, in their defence I could be just that 1 out of 10 who had a weird shaped ear. If you overlook this subjective flaw and manage to find a compatible set of tips, which I did in the end, you are okay there isn’t much wearers fatigue despite the bulky housing design.
Note for those who are struggling to find a good fit, foam ear tips with a slightly small bore due to the nozzle size also remove the ear glides if you find them of no use. Below you will see a picture of how the ear glides were designed to work.
I’d say that about wraps it up but please leave a comment below if you would like any additional information.
Functionality
All of what is written here can be found in the manual if you ever need to read it. In the manual you’ll see the first four pages have some useful diagrams displaying how the earphones work how to turn them on (No not like that!) and of course how to turn them off, you’ll also see how to charge them, how to change the ear tips and how to properly position the earbuds in the ears.
Upon power up you will be greeted with the robotic mono tone “1More” followed by a brief announcement of you level of battery and connection “Pairing, Battery High.” Navigate into the settings on your phone, then Bluetooth and you will see the “1MORE iBFree.” Select this and you will be informed that the device is now connected. You will hear that same mono tone female voice upon switching off your device to “Power off”.
- Hold and press the power button on the in-line controller for 3 seconds after that the device will turn on followed by a blue LED flash. If you hold the power button for ~4-5 seconds it will turn off, a red light will flash and the device will turn off. The device should pair automatically when turned on (red/blue LED flashing).
- There should be a red light with charging and this should turn off when charged.
- The device will take about 2 hours to fully charge and can support a 15-minutequick charge, which should give you 1 hour of playback.
- There are 3 buttons on the in line controller, volume up, power/multi-function button, volume down.
- The multi-function button has different functions in different modes. In call mode, you can answer/end call, decline call (hold button), redial previous number (press button x2).
- While in music mode you can increase/decrease volume with short presses of the volume buttons, you can advance Next/Previous by holding the button and play/pause with the multi-function button.
- The device supports IOS battery widget, multi-device connection. Useful for checking your battery life as pictured below.
I would say all the information is pretty darn accurate and I’ve had a good distance connection with them and about 7-8 hours play time after a full charge.
Sound Quality
Yay finally the wait is over unless you just skipped to this part which I don’t blame you if you did, but I do know where you live. Just kidding let’s see how this thing performs.
Treble
I can’t lie to you all and say one will be welcomed into a room of refinement silky smooth detail and sparkly highs that will leave you misty eyed. However, what I can say is you will be invited in with detailed features scattered around the room, a rather sharp character and hard overtone will case it’s shadow whilst ironically shedding light on each instrument you are trying to pick out.
I seriously can’t get over how good these things sound overall! Yes, there is cravats in the sound of course there will be I mean take a look at the price tag and accept the fact you are listening to a Bluetooth device. Once you’ve got over all of that you’ll be enjoying yourself just as much as I have been, well at least I hope you will. Now back to the point at hand how’s this treble coming across in a few words clean, clear, crisp and a little sharp.
Those adjectives best describe the sound to expect I have no idea why but it is almost like the veil has been lifted in comparison to any and all other Bluetooth headsets I have previously tried. There is without a doubt a lack of refinement and a little weight resulting in slightly tinny sound, I am not putting you off just needs to be clearly described as best I can.
Concerned about the sibilance issues well you might have a right to be if you are overly sensitive to such things. I am blessed in the fact my ears have been able to adjust over the course of my journey to handle and cope with a splash of sibilance now and with the ……. It’s there just not overbearing so I am happy enough to spend extended listening time with them to enjoy the rest of its spectrum and character.
Midrange
“Hey! Hey!! Here I am, I’m not late am I guys?!” No you are not bloody hell calm down, ah what the heck you just do your thing girl. I can see a ton of people here finding a marmite type sound signature, as you have probably figured out I like marmite. So how does this tie into me making such an outlandish claim as to say “These are the best Bluetooth Earphones I’ve heard to date”.
Well I am glad you asked Sir/Madam the answer we find located is within the energy of music, the flow to which one can enjoy and relish in the ambience and character of a such a vibrant soul. I like this kind of midrange sort of an in your face transparent demonstration of vocals and notes combined with an unsure yet sunny personality.
I won’t for a minute describe the midrange as over confident, strong, thick or lush but that doesn’t detract from the level of enjoyment I get from these. In all honesty we are probably getting closer to why these sound so damn good, well to my ears at least. The magic voodoo comes with the breezier approach the iBfree is trying to demonstrate and does quite well I might add. I do in general prefer a slightly lusher sounding midrange but in this case because of the bass, which I will get to later, you get a more rounded type of sound as weird as that is to admit with what some audiophiles will call undefined.
I am not scoring these on the premise of their sound flaws dos or don’t but rather as a whole sound package. With the midrange expect to hear a level of clarity and some peaks towards the upper register but do not let this detract from the overall feeling these earphones produce so well.
Bass
In a nutshell we are happy to attribute bass with musicality and this is another area I’d like to commend the iBFree earphones for performing within their means.
Mid bass is fairly prominent and holds a candle over the sub bass meaning a little less bass finesse however, this is where most consumers looking for a set of Bluetooth earphones in particular really won’t care. If these are to be used as intended i.e for an active user, despite those pesky ergonomics, functionality and housing design, they are pretty brilliant because they are serving a useful purpose of delivering you just enough bass on your plate to have you feeling full and gratified.
No, sorry to say these won’t be winning any awards for the most well rounded sound signature any time soon but they perform well enough to the extent that if you enjoy them the last thing you’ll be doing when you exercise is thinking I can’t wait to take these bloody things out.
Short Story
Side tracking here a bit but one of my first experience’s with Bluetooth earphones was a need for something wireless ish to use as work when cleaning. I got sick and tired and quite frankly peeved at every time I would snag my wire and whoosh an earbud would be yanked from my ear and go flying, just one time happened to be into a toilet (a clean one but still).
Suffices to say that was it, I thought I’ll be blown if I am breaking a pair of any earphones costing £150 upwards and dealing with the annoyance of having something yanked out my skull.
In the end I placed my order on some relatively cheap branded Bluetooth earphones in the vein hope it could at least serve me the purpose of enjoying my music and not having the continual upset of snagging my wires or losing earphones down toilets.
Stupid, silly idiot I thought to myself as I tried to bare and endure just one minute alone with these things…. Overblown bass, screechy highs, non-existent midrange, no instrument placement, musicality haha you won’t find that here and of course lack of any decent sort of volume levels, Bluetooth earphones just suck. That until this day has pretty much remained, Brainwavz did do a good job of losing me up making me believe not all hope is lost just not quite enough to convince me I could live without wires.
Back to the Bass
So now you know the history let me reveal the mystery of why I believe these to be one of the best if not the best Bluetooth earphones on the market. Simply this, enjoyment I actually like these once I’d wrestled with the fit and got over function control I just found myself enjoying these. I hate to say it but the bass is on point it lacks a touch of depth when you come to the lowest notes but with a good recording these are just a joy to listen to. Flabby and uncontrolled bass in Bluetooth earphones is becoming a thing of the past my friends and here seems to be the answer iBfree. This is by no means to say the bass is spot on but it doesn’t stray too far from being controlled and I’ve heard a lot worse. There is a shaky bit of flab that jiggles its way into the music every now and again but for the most part you are just going to be smashing these out enjoying your club anthems looking like a complete wally as bang your head to the beat re-enacting Ozzy Osbourne or Geezer Butler back in the old days. Just note you aren’t allowed to claim whiplash from 1More trust me I tried, when the insurance company rang they just laughed, can you imagine that! Moving on….
Soundstage/Imaging
Wow, holy crap that’s probably the most I’ve ever wrote in one sound section but I feel it was necessary as consistently we have had to face too many trade-offs when it has come to the wireless world of audio. This nicely leads me onto the soundstage and imaging something I rarely hear a lot of in Bluetooth earphones but you know what it is here and boy oh boy it’s present enough to be talked about.
Now before I go gushing my heart out I just want to say that I am not trying to make any outlandish claims that these are going to be a multi BA setup or anything the likes of which but just to merely proclaim my excitement for the fact a Bluetooth earphone has a soundstage and a fairly decent one at that!
Space, finally! You get an almost airy kind of signature here wide but not very deep still there are great spatial cues hard to keep up during complex passages of music but during the slightly less chaotic times you get an abundance of the slightly peaky treble and in your face midrange scattering detailed around your head. From note to note they accurately portray the information being presented to you. Yes, there are dead zones in the music which is so disappointing considering there is such a balance of excellence for the most part.
Overlooking the parts, the iBfree can’t handle you still get this moderately immersive soundstage with imaging being shown to you as best it can you’ll hear the instruments pop, click and vocals when or where they’ve been panned they’ll be presented. I suppose in a way this could be a way of saying you are getting to hear your music closer to what the artist indeed you to hear it like.
Okay let’s not get ahead of ourselves here they are good for earphones…. But in terms of Bluetooth earphones they are great and we shall leave it at that.
Conclusion
Need to wrap this up so some short pros and cons:
Pros:
- Great Performance
- Built like a tank
- Nice array of colours to choose from
- Battery life and charge time
- Potentially tricky fit
- Big and bulky
- No foam ear tips
- Slightly peaky treble and midrange
As always if there are any questions or comments please leave them below and I will do my best to get back you.
Link to their website for more info and purchasing: https://uk.1more.com/collections/in-ear-headphones/products/ibfree-bluetooth-dual-driver-in-ear-headphones