Bluedio T3 and T3+ Bluetooth Headphone Quick Review by mark2410
Thanks to Bluedio for the sample.
Full review here http://www.head-fi.org/t/823736/bluedio-t3-and-t3-bluetooth-headphone-review-by-mark2410
Brief: Congratulations, its twins.
Price: £36 for T3, £43 for T3+, in Americaland US$50 for T3, US$60 for T3+
Specifications: Bluetooth version: 4.1 +EDR, Bluetooth transmission frequency: 2.4GHz to 2.48GHz, Bluetooth operating range: up to 33 feet (free space), Profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, HSP, HFP, Audio resolution: up to 24bit@48KHZ, Drivers: Φ57mm, Impedance: 16Ω, SPL: 116dB, Frequency response: 15Hz-25,000Hz, THD: <0.1%, Standby time: up to 1100 hours, Bluetooth music/talk time: about 20 hours, Charging time: 2 hours for full charge, Operating temperature range: -10 ℃ to 50℃ only, Headphones dimensions: 159*126*78mm, Package dimensions: 251*170*95mm, Headphones weight: 388g, Package weight: 955g, Micro SD card music time: about 18hours applies to T3+ only.
Accessories: Carry baggy thing, 3.5 to 3.5mm male to male audio cable, Micro USB charging cable.
Build Quality: For the price it would appear great. The texture of the plastics isn’t super but the solid metal headband joints feel very sturdy, looks and feels equally so.
Isolation: Actually really good. The cups seem rather sealed and with the vinyl type pads rather than the velvety kind they give you a hard seal. A very tight seal for an on ear, so much so if I pushed them I could feel the air pressure change. Thus these isolate very well. I’d be fine using out and about, on a bus etc etc. Tube and long flights, not my first choice but for an on ear are great. Naturally if you don’t want to get a free trip to a hospital do remember you must use your eyes, not ears when near traffic.
Comfort/Fit: Well the negative aspect of them being great isolators and being rather heavy clamping on your ears is that they clamp hard. Great for iso and great for staying on your head while moving about but not so great for long term comfort. An hour on was okay but by two hours, I wanted them off. Not just oh it’s a little snug my ears need a breather, I wanted them off right now.
Aesthetics: I think I like them. They polished chrome is a little shiny for my tastes but they aren’t unattractive or anything. Not sure I super love their looks either but well, you know they look nice, I don’t have strong feelings on the subject.
Sound: These are heavily bassy and with that high clamping force, with the tightly sealed cups and the tight seal on the ear pads, oooh they punch. Punchy punchy punch punch. Now me, that was fun for a little bit but oh my, it just wouldn’t stop with the punching, thumping bass lines. So much vigour, so much aggressiveness in the bass I found it rather tiring. Like a hyperactive child, fun in small doses but god it never tired or mellowed. Super crazy party bass time. Now if that’s what you want, awesome. With their snug fit and energy they would be great for a run or for an hour at the gym. Securely on your head and driving you on with its relentlessness. Not to mention that with the +’s ability to be its own source its perfect for those places where you don’t want your £700 phone around for it to be potentially damaged. They are just full of bass, hard punchy bass and if you get them it’s for that. The mids are really nice and they can do vocal heavy stuff well. The treble too is nice but they are a little lacking in abundance. They respond well to EQ but the treble is clearly aiming to be very forgiving to bad bit rates or bad mastering. You know like mainstream chart topping stuff tends to be.
Value: I think they are both great value but I cannot suggest that you should buy the T3. For the tiny, tiny amount extra take the + for that micro SD card support. Even if you think you’ll never use it, I mean £43 gets you source and headphone all in one, excellent value for money.
Pro’s: Micro SD card support!!! Great isolation. Super securely fitting.
Con’s: High clamping force. Highly bass centric sound.
Peddler
1000+ Head-Fier
Pros: Loud. Good bluetooth range. Responds to EQ
Cons: Tight fitting. Leaks some sound for a closed unit.
I have been an enthusiastic headphone user for many years now. I used to have a really nice British based hi fi system but unfortunately that had to go once the kids started happening. Ever since then I have used headphones for most of my listening as I feel it’s the only way I can get the resolution and scale I used to achieve with my original system.
Over the years I have had an impressive range of headphones and portable media players - starting with Discman players, moving through Mini Disc and now MP3 players and mobile phones.
At the moment I use the following items on a regular basis:-
Playback
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (custom ROM running Google Play Music and the excellent Neutron).
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (standard ROM running the same as above).
Vintage Apple iMac - running iTunes of course
IMP MP3 Player - excellent for driving headphones to a higher level than most phones can achieve.
Topping NX-2 Headphone Amp/DAC
Headphones
Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 - it doesn’t get any better than these - you should consider these narcotics for the ears.
Audio Technica ATH-M50X - excellent full sized headphones that offer a non-fatiguing and yet lively sound. Not easy to drive with a mobile phone though.
Packaging
Even though these are inexpensive headphones when compared to others in my collection, I have to say that the packaging they come supplied with is absolutely first class. This quality of packaging puts companies like Sony and JVC to shame. The outer box clearly shows the features, facilities and specifications of the headphones and, on opening, shows the phones behind a clear plastic hard covering. The additional accessories (USB cable and headphone cable for passive non-wireless listening) come in a separate back cardboard box along with the instruction manual (which no-one ever reads - me included). This product would certainly not be out of place being displayed in a high street consumer electronics shop and the packaging would certainly help sell the product.
Build Quality and Comfort
The Bluedio T3 is surprisingly heavy for such an inexpensive headphone. The frame is all metal and appears to be really tough. They remind me of products like Beats or perhaps some of the more rugged headphones sold in the seventies. Unfortunately the earcups are made of plastic and they rattle against the metal parts and sound like really cheap plastic. All in all though you get a real sense of rugged build quality with them and I definitely feel they would last a long time and survive some serious abuse.
The pads are quite soft and comfortable although the phones do clamp fairly tightly to your head but I have worn them for quite some time whilst playing games on my xbox but occasionally you have to take them off for a couple of minutes to give your ears a bit of a breather.
The hardware buttons are very clunky and this is perhaps the only real giveaway that they are not a premium set of phones (apart from the sound the plastic makes when rattling against the metal frames). One good point though is that you would rarely accidentally press the controls whilst adjusting them - I suspect you can't say the same for those premium headphones which feature touch controls like the Parrot Zik and Samsung.
One thing I did notice is that when you're pressing the buttons there is so much positive pressure that the drivers flex and you actually cut out the sound on one side for a second whilst the pressure is applied. Hopefully this won't cause damage to the drivers in the long term.
Features and Facilities
The headset features all the controls on the right hand earcup and, like most bluetooth headsets, the controls offer different functions depending on short pressing or long pressing. The middle button is used to power on the unit, activate Google Now or Siri and enter pairing mode. The bottom button is used for Play/Pause and the left and right buttons are used for track skipping and volume. There is a microphone fitted which works OK but it’s fair to say that a proper dedicated bluetooth phone headset will beat it hands down.
Pairing up your phone happens nice and quickly and, again like many inexpensive headsets on the market now, can be actively paired to more than one device at a time. A Chinese sounding female voice through the headphones tells you when you’re connected, pairing and powering off - actually useful function. Like all other bluetooth headphones on the market there is a bright flashing blue light to tell you that they are powered on, in pairing mode and playing music. Given the amount of sound that leaks from these phones, it’s not going to disturb your sleeping partner any more than they’re already being disturbed anyway.
Sound Quality
Unfortunately out of the box with no eq applied, these headphones are absolute bass monsters. So much bass that all the other frequencies are repressed and they actually start to rattle. They do go loud. Far louder than anyone would be comfortable with which is nice because I'm betting fed up with consumer electronics not having enough volume - I'm a child of the 60’s and need to rock out LOUD sometimes. They are extremely efficient and can be driven easily by any media player when used in wired mode. The drivers are 57mm - definitely larger than those found on most other headphones. Whilst this does perhaps contribute to the bass, I personally would have liked a more balanced sound without having to resort to using eq.
As mentioned earlier the seal on these phones is tight enough to actually press the drivers in when you first put them on due to positive air pressure. This tight seal and pressure helps with passive noise cancellation but strangely the sound does leak out of them quite a lot so they are not ideal for wearing in bed if your partner wants to get some sleep. I would stick with something like the Apple EarPods for sleeping in.
Using the phones with my trusty Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running Neutron and Viper for Android I can use the eq to greatly reduce the bass and boost up some of the higher frequencies to get a more balanced sound and to an extent they start to shine. Although Neutron has the better eq controls, the effects only apply when using Neutron to play music. By using Viper the eq settings are automatically applied whenever the bluetooth headset is connected and its effects are applied to all music software on the device. One of the reasons why I don’t like to use eq though is because you have to remember to switch the effects off when using conventional headphones like the Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10’s which definitely don’t require eq.
I think it's important to remember that these are inexpensive headphones and it's perhaps a little unfair to compare them to something like the Audio Technica ATH M50x headphones. Even with eq applied the bass can still dominate the sound - especially when listening at higher volumes. At lower volumes though the phones really sound surprisingly nice - taking into account the price. Certain frequencies in the vocal range appear to have some edgy distortion which I’m hoping will go when they are burnt in properly.
I have briefly tried the headphones in wired mode using my Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (with aggressive eq applied of course) and they sound really nice. Basically with the eq set to reduce the bass frequencies almost off and the treble frequencies boosted almost to the max, the sound is quite full, not distorted and very listenable. Strangely though I am listening to a Dido album with the volume set almost to full - perhaps there’s an impedance differential with the tablet which limits the output somewhat but the sound is nice and mellow and enjoyable. Also, so far, I haven’t experienced the distortion in the female vocal range in this configuration.
All in all I actually like these headphones. When their price is taken into account they have the potential to be really nice - with a considerable amount of eq applied. Their excessive bass works quite nicely when using them with my xbox but for music it’s a different matter. Their build quality is really remarkable for the price. They do have a somewhat retro look which does look a little strange when wearing them to walk the dog but then again I really don't give a monkey’s. I would cautiously recommend them to anyone looking for inexpensive headphones who have a player with eq controls to tame the bass.
I was kindly sent a sample of the T3’s free of charge for an unbiased review. I advised them that my reviews tend to focus on sound quality as the primary reason for purchase.
Bluedio Amazon Shop
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluedio-Fashionable-Bluetooth-Headphones-Microphone-Black/dp/B012TH48VS/ref=pd_ybh_a_18?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CXZZ7SKF828RK9Y27P8J
Bluedio T3 Product Page
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?marketplaceID=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&me=A1VFP8YF5XT3U8&merchant=A1VFP8YF5XT3U8&redirect=true
Over the years I have had an impressive range of headphones and portable media players - starting with Discman players, moving through Mini Disc and now MP3 players and mobile phones.
At the moment I use the following items on a regular basis:-
Playback
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (custom ROM running Google Play Music and the excellent Neutron).
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (standard ROM running the same as above).
Vintage Apple iMac - running iTunes of course
IMP MP3 Player - excellent for driving headphones to a higher level than most phones can achieve.
Topping NX-2 Headphone Amp/DAC
Headphones
Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 - it doesn’t get any better than these - you should consider these narcotics for the ears.
Audio Technica ATH-M50X - excellent full sized headphones that offer a non-fatiguing and yet lively sound. Not easy to drive with a mobile phone though.
Packaging
Even though these are inexpensive headphones when compared to others in my collection, I have to say that the packaging they come supplied with is absolutely first class. This quality of packaging puts companies like Sony and JVC to shame. The outer box clearly shows the features, facilities and specifications of the headphones and, on opening, shows the phones behind a clear plastic hard covering. The additional accessories (USB cable and headphone cable for passive non-wireless listening) come in a separate back cardboard box along with the instruction manual (which no-one ever reads - me included). This product would certainly not be out of place being displayed in a high street consumer electronics shop and the packaging would certainly help sell the product.
Build Quality and Comfort
The Bluedio T3 is surprisingly heavy for such an inexpensive headphone. The frame is all metal and appears to be really tough. They remind me of products like Beats or perhaps some of the more rugged headphones sold in the seventies. Unfortunately the earcups are made of plastic and they rattle against the metal parts and sound like really cheap plastic. All in all though you get a real sense of rugged build quality with them and I definitely feel they would last a long time and survive some serious abuse.
The pads are quite soft and comfortable although the phones do clamp fairly tightly to your head but I have worn them for quite some time whilst playing games on my xbox but occasionally you have to take them off for a couple of minutes to give your ears a bit of a breather.
The hardware buttons are very clunky and this is perhaps the only real giveaway that they are not a premium set of phones (apart from the sound the plastic makes when rattling against the metal frames). One good point though is that you would rarely accidentally press the controls whilst adjusting them - I suspect you can't say the same for those premium headphones which feature touch controls like the Parrot Zik and Samsung.
One thing I did notice is that when you're pressing the buttons there is so much positive pressure that the drivers flex and you actually cut out the sound on one side for a second whilst the pressure is applied. Hopefully this won't cause damage to the drivers in the long term.
Features and Facilities
The headset features all the controls on the right hand earcup and, like most bluetooth headsets, the controls offer different functions depending on short pressing or long pressing. The middle button is used to power on the unit, activate Google Now or Siri and enter pairing mode. The bottom button is used for Play/Pause and the left and right buttons are used for track skipping and volume. There is a microphone fitted which works OK but it’s fair to say that a proper dedicated bluetooth phone headset will beat it hands down.
Pairing up your phone happens nice and quickly and, again like many inexpensive headsets on the market now, can be actively paired to more than one device at a time. A Chinese sounding female voice through the headphones tells you when you’re connected, pairing and powering off - actually useful function. Like all other bluetooth headphones on the market there is a bright flashing blue light to tell you that they are powered on, in pairing mode and playing music. Given the amount of sound that leaks from these phones, it’s not going to disturb your sleeping partner any more than they’re already being disturbed anyway.
Sound Quality
Unfortunately out of the box with no eq applied, these headphones are absolute bass monsters. So much bass that all the other frequencies are repressed and they actually start to rattle. They do go loud. Far louder than anyone would be comfortable with which is nice because I'm betting fed up with consumer electronics not having enough volume - I'm a child of the 60’s and need to rock out LOUD sometimes. They are extremely efficient and can be driven easily by any media player when used in wired mode. The drivers are 57mm - definitely larger than those found on most other headphones. Whilst this does perhaps contribute to the bass, I personally would have liked a more balanced sound without having to resort to using eq.
As mentioned earlier the seal on these phones is tight enough to actually press the drivers in when you first put them on due to positive air pressure. This tight seal and pressure helps with passive noise cancellation but strangely the sound does leak out of them quite a lot so they are not ideal for wearing in bed if your partner wants to get some sleep. I would stick with something like the Apple EarPods for sleeping in.
Using the phones with my trusty Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running Neutron and Viper for Android I can use the eq to greatly reduce the bass and boost up some of the higher frequencies to get a more balanced sound and to an extent they start to shine. Although Neutron has the better eq controls, the effects only apply when using Neutron to play music. By using Viper the eq settings are automatically applied whenever the bluetooth headset is connected and its effects are applied to all music software on the device. One of the reasons why I don’t like to use eq though is because you have to remember to switch the effects off when using conventional headphones like the Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10’s which definitely don’t require eq.
I think it's important to remember that these are inexpensive headphones and it's perhaps a little unfair to compare them to something like the Audio Technica ATH M50x headphones. Even with eq applied the bass can still dominate the sound - especially when listening at higher volumes. At lower volumes though the phones really sound surprisingly nice - taking into account the price. Certain frequencies in the vocal range appear to have some edgy distortion which I’m hoping will go when they are burnt in properly.
I have briefly tried the headphones in wired mode using my Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (with aggressive eq applied of course) and they sound really nice. Basically with the eq set to reduce the bass frequencies almost off and the treble frequencies boosted almost to the max, the sound is quite full, not distorted and very listenable. Strangely though I am listening to a Dido album with the volume set almost to full - perhaps there’s an impedance differential with the tablet which limits the output somewhat but the sound is nice and mellow and enjoyable. Also, so far, I haven’t experienced the distortion in the female vocal range in this configuration.
All in all I actually like these headphones. When their price is taken into account they have the potential to be really nice - with a considerable amount of eq applied. Their excessive bass works quite nicely when using them with my xbox but for music it’s a different matter. Their build quality is really remarkable for the price. They do have a somewhat retro look which does look a little strange when wearing them to walk the dog but then again I really don't give a monkey’s. I would cautiously recommend them to anyone looking for inexpensive headphones who have a player with eq controls to tame the bass.
I was kindly sent a sample of the T3’s free of charge for an unbiased review. I advised them that my reviews tend to focus on sound quality as the primary reason for purchase.
Bluedio Amazon Shop
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluedio-Fashionable-Bluetooth-Headphones-Microphone-Black/dp/B012TH48VS/ref=pd_ybh_a_18?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CXZZ7SKF828RK9Y27P8J
Bluedio T3 Product Page
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?marketplaceID=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&me=A1VFP8YF5XT3U8&merchant=A1VFP8YF5XT3U8&redirect=true