I love listening to music. Unfortunately personal circumstances (i.e. being married with 3 adult children - and a dog) means that I seldom get the chance to rock out with loudspeakers any more. So it’s headphones all the way for me.
I have a fairly extensive collection now - including the following (for reference purposes):
Sennheiser HD598se - Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 - V-Moda Crossfade Wireless - 1More Triple Driver - needless to say the list goes on with a significant amount of inexpensive bluetooth in-ear headphones). Generally I don’t consider myself a basshead - I prefer a fairly dynamic, flat response - with smooth, detailed but not too edgy treble.
Whilst I accept that it’s not fair to compare the Q29 Pros with some of these more expensive wired headphones, I always want my headphones to sound good - I’m really not that bothered what they look like, what colour they are or which company makes them.
Over the last couple of years I have become very interested in wireless technology and feel that, to a certain extent, has become good enough to be taken seriously. I find that at times, even when I’m at home and not planning on moving around I often find myself wearing the V-Moda Crossfade Wireless rather than a conventional wired set of headphones.
The Q29 Pro’s are definitely different internally to the original Q29. There’s a different (and even more annoying) sound effect when you power them up and their ability to connect to both your playback device and each other is definitely considerably faster. Externally though their fit is the same. Unfortunately you really are limited to the tips supplied with the headphones if you want to be able to fit them in the charger case. This is a shame because the supplied tips take a fair bit of jiggling about before I could get a really good seal.
The good news is that once in, they tend to stay in. They’re also extremely light and as long as you don’t go headbanging to heavy metal they should pretty much stay put. The controls are the same as on previous models when it comes to basic playback but there are some slight differences with the way you now initially pair the two headphones together.
As with the original version, the Q29 Pro’s don’t offer remote volume control - you still have to turn the volume up and down using the controls on your phone. One neat solution to this is if you have an Android Wear Smartwatch as you can control pretty much everything from that.
Sound Quality
OK - I know these are not an expensive pair of headphones. Whilst they won’t win over the big boys with their fancy cables, balanced armatures and ultra-wide frequency response, they’re actually not too bad at all. I did experience some minor dropouts whilst walking the dog with them in but this pretty much stopped when I got back indoors.
Bass is definitely more pronounced on the Pro model. They are significantly ‘bassier’ than the original. Definitely a little more ‘fun’ but also quite welcome when the fit is less than ideal. Mids are fairly recessed and so is the top end. Whilst these are not detail monsters - they’re quite clear and not too ‘wooly’ sounding - all in all, an acceptable sound quality when you take into account their form factor. This additional bass really comes into its own when you’re using the headphones outside as the bass can sometimes be sapped by external noise.
They do have a small amount of electronic noise floor which can potentially spoil low level listening in bed for example. There's also a danger of accidentally pressing the button when you lay on your side. With this in mind I don't think these will make ideal headphones for sleeping with (although I have done it with these without too many problems). The biggest problem for me is dropouts - in all fairness I strongly suspect that this is as much to do with my phone as it is the headphones as they hardly produce any dropouts when used with my Asus Chromebook but do with my LG V20 phone.
For their price, and taking into account their form factor, the Q29 Pro represents a good buy. They're not really designed for primary listening in my opinion but are ideal for things like walking the dog or mowing the lawn. With a sufficient insertion depth they offer an acceptable amount of sound isolation from the outside world and can go sufficiently loud enough to be genuinely enjoyable. In all fairness, if they cost more I would only give them four stars but because of their excellent price I’m comfortable giving them a five star rating.
****UPDATE****
The last couple of times I have used these I haven't experienced any drop-outs at all - even over a couple of hours listening. I still suspect some compatibility problems with my new phone but I thought I would update the review to keep things fair.
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I have a fairly extensive collection now - including the following (for reference purposes):
Sennheiser HD598se - Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 - V-Moda Crossfade Wireless - 1More Triple Driver - needless to say the list goes on with a significant amount of inexpensive bluetooth in-ear headphones). Generally I don’t consider myself a basshead - I prefer a fairly dynamic, flat response - with smooth, detailed but not too edgy treble.
Whilst I accept that it’s not fair to compare the Q29 Pros with some of these more expensive wired headphones, I always want my headphones to sound good - I’m really not that bothered what they look like, what colour they are or which company makes them.
Over the last couple of years I have become very interested in wireless technology and feel that, to a certain extent, has become good enough to be taken seriously. I find that at times, even when I’m at home and not planning on moving around I often find myself wearing the V-Moda Crossfade Wireless rather than a conventional wired set of headphones.
The Q29 Pro’s are definitely different internally to the original Q29. There’s a different (and even more annoying) sound effect when you power them up and their ability to connect to both your playback device and each other is definitely considerably faster. Externally though their fit is the same. Unfortunately you really are limited to the tips supplied with the headphones if you want to be able to fit them in the charger case. This is a shame because the supplied tips take a fair bit of jiggling about before I could get a really good seal.
The good news is that once in, they tend to stay in. They’re also extremely light and as long as you don’t go headbanging to heavy metal they should pretty much stay put. The controls are the same as on previous models when it comes to basic playback but there are some slight differences with the way you now initially pair the two headphones together.
As with the original version, the Q29 Pro’s don’t offer remote volume control - you still have to turn the volume up and down using the controls on your phone. One neat solution to this is if you have an Android Wear Smartwatch as you can control pretty much everything from that.
Sound Quality
OK - I know these are not an expensive pair of headphones. Whilst they won’t win over the big boys with their fancy cables, balanced armatures and ultra-wide frequency response, they’re actually not too bad at all. I did experience some minor dropouts whilst walking the dog with them in but this pretty much stopped when I got back indoors.
Bass is definitely more pronounced on the Pro model. They are significantly ‘bassier’ than the original. Definitely a little more ‘fun’ but also quite welcome when the fit is less than ideal. Mids are fairly recessed and so is the top end. Whilst these are not detail monsters - they’re quite clear and not too ‘wooly’ sounding - all in all, an acceptable sound quality when you take into account their form factor. This additional bass really comes into its own when you’re using the headphones outside as the bass can sometimes be sapped by external noise.
They do have a small amount of electronic noise floor which can potentially spoil low level listening in bed for example. There's also a danger of accidentally pressing the button when you lay on your side. With this in mind I don't think these will make ideal headphones for sleeping with (although I have done it with these without too many problems). The biggest problem for me is dropouts - in all fairness I strongly suspect that this is as much to do with my phone as it is the headphones as they hardly produce any dropouts when used with my Asus Chromebook but do with my LG V20 phone.
For their price, and taking into account their form factor, the Q29 Pro represents a good buy. They're not really designed for primary listening in my opinion but are ideal for things like walking the dog or mowing the lawn. With a sufficient insertion depth they offer an acceptable amount of sound isolation from the outside world and can go sufficiently loud enough to be genuinely enjoyable. In all fairness, if they cost more I would only give them four stars but because of their excellent price I’m comfortable giving them a five star rating.
****UPDATE****
The last couple of times I have used these I haven't experienced any drop-outs at all - even over a couple of hours listening. I still suspect some compatibility problems with my new phone but I thought I would update the review to keep things fair.
FB: https://www.facebook.com/qcy.world/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/QcyGlobal
