I have to admit it upfront. I am a headphone geek. I have far more headphones than I know what to do with and spend a considerable amount of time each day listening to music through them. Over the last couple of years I have been on the search for really top-quality wireless headphones - both full sized and in-ear. I’m more interested in sound quality and comfort/fit than I am with features like noise cancelling and NFC pairing. With this in mind, this review is focussing more on the sound quality and experience using these headphones rather than just a physical description of the headphones - there’s plenty of information on this on their Amazon page.
To give you an idea of what headphones I have had the chance to try or own here’s a list,
Full-Sized Bluetooth
V-Moda Crossfade Wireless
1More MK802
Bose QC35
Sennheiser PXC550
In-Ear Bluetooth
1More iBFree
QCY Q29 Pro
QCY QY8
Wired IEM/Full-Size
Sennheiser HD598 SE
Audio Technica ATH-M50x
Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10
1More Triple Driver
Magaosi K3 Pro
Etymotic ER4P
Plus countless others. The reason why I’ve listed these is to hopefully show that I know what good headphones sound like. Whilst I like a high quality neutral sound I also am not adverse to a little bit of boost in the bass when the headphone can pull it off. For example, the V-Moda Crossfade Wireless isn’t even remotely neutral but does sound very musical to my ears and it’s sound signature is very enjoyable.
The Dodocool bluetooth headphones are pretty much like many of the other inexpensive bluetooth IEM’s out there. Although completely plastic in their construction, they do feel top quality and are well made. One thing that immediately became clear with these headphones is that they fit my ears remarkable well. Their fit is a ‘shallow’ fit compared to say the Etymotics which really go deep into your ears but thanks to the ‘wings’ the fit on the Dodocool is excellent. I have found that these are so easy to put in your ears and get a good fit without having to mess around equalising the air pressure in my ears - something I usually have to do with virtually all my in ear headphones.
I found that the largest tips works best with these (I normally use much smaller tips but as these don’t go so deep into your ears the larger tips seem to seal better). It’s fair to say that these headphones go pretty deep in the bass region and this definitely helps balance the sound - overcoming the limitations of their shallow fit. The end result is a rich, powerful and very full-range of sound throughout the frequencies. The Dodocool’s use the APTx bluetooth protocol which improves the higher frequencies and overall clarity.
My source is the excellent LG V20. This phone’s main claim to fame is the high quality sound from the headphones socket - something which is utterly irrelevant here as these use bluetooth. Music comes from a combination of high quality MP3’s stored on my memory card and from Google Play Music.
The sound quality far exceeds what you would expect from a headphone at this price point. Bass is deep and powerful, treble is detailed - slightly brighter than what I’m used to but not to the point of being ‘tinny’ - mids are slightly recessed but still clear. The APTx protocol allows for a lot of detail to come through - their sound signature reminds me of the V-moda Crossfade Wireless and the 1More Triple Drivers - that’s quite a compliment when you consider the price of both of those headphones and the fact that 1More use two balanced armatures and a conventional driver - and are wired. One thing which I did notice with these headphones is that the volume control offers finer steps than others I’ve tried. It’s a lot easier to get the volume just right with these.
Bluetooth performance isn’t as good as I’ve experienced with other similar headphones. Just walking into the next room will result in dropouts - these really need your phone to be close by. The LG V20 doesn’t have the best range when it comes to bluetooth but I have also tried the headphones on my Acer Chromebook and their range didn’t improve. As long as you’re OK with this limitation you shouldn’t have any other problems. As with many bluetooth earbuds, they also suffered with dropouts for the first few seconds when playing music for the first time - however after that they settled down and were stable. Obviously your results may differ depending on which device you use for playback.
From a sound quality perspective I really rate these headphones very highly. They exhibit qualities that you would normally find on more expensive headphones - the quality of music playback is really very impressive. They go loud without distortion, are extremely comfortable and easy to insert into your ears and appear to have a very good battery life. The bluetooth performance could be better but these are really designed for walking around when your phone is in your pocket rather than walking around the house with your phone on the kitchen table for example. All in all though an easy five stars.
