Sony Hybrid Black In-Ear Headphones - XBA-H1

General Information

Prepare for an exceptional in-ear listening experience beyond compare and treat your ears to: deep bass, radiant mids, smooth highs, and notable vocal clarity. For the first time, proven Sony® dynamic drivers are paired with cutting-edge Balanced Armature driver technology to deliver rich, dynamic, and detailed audio response.

Latest reviews

GVladM

New Head-Fier
Pros: Clear, powerful bass, nice design, hybrid system works well
Cons: Low-quality music sounds awful, they stick out of the ear quite a bit, no in-line controls
Disclaimer:
I will compare the XBA-H1s with my old IEMs, the Sony MDR-XB50APs (used them for about 1500 hours, gave them a proper run for their money)
 
You can see that the XBA-H1s are Sony's top-of-the-line in-ear headphones from the packaging, which is similar to Beats's boxes. Inside the box you can find buds of different sizes (the ones that were already on them fit me just fine), along with a little case and some instructions (just in case you don't know how to plug some headphones in a device). The headphones themselves look really nice, and they don't look kitsch-y like the Sennheiser Momentums. In fact, they have one of the most understated yet nice design out there. The cable is red on one side and black on the other, giving it a more modern look.
Unlike Apple's EarPods, they go deep into your ear, eliminating all the noise from the outside (don't use them whilst driving!!!) and keeping the music in the ear, not dissipating it around you, letting everybody know what your musical tastes are. They do stick out of your ear, so using them in the bed (whilst resting your head on the pillow, you naughty boy!) is really not a good idea. 
Unlike usual headphones, these are called hybrids, because they use two types of drivers. One is a usual 9mm dynamic driver (found in just about every headphones out there), and the other one is a Balanced Armature driver, which looks like a small box. The dynamic handles the lows and some mids, whereas the Balanced Armature handles the other part of the mids and the highs (from what I've heard), so the instruments and the voices should sound a bit more separated in the end. The truth is, that they do and they don't. It's really up to the quality of the music and the sound card of your device. Some songs sound incredible, whilst others sound like they're coming from some supermarket in-ceiling speakers (okay, I did exaggerate a bit). Compared to my old XB50s, the bass is about as powerful (even if the old ones had 12mm dynamic drivers), but there's a lot of details that I didn't hear with the XB50s. Yes, they were only 30$, so I couldn't expect much from them (yet they delivered a lot), so this is the reason why the XBA-H1s just don't feel like they're worth paying three times more money for. Clarity? Only when listening to high-quality audio files (which aren't available anywhere, as you might know). Bass? Enough at all times, even without a smiley-face set eq. 
Now, I'm going to talk about their performance based on the songs I've auditioned with them: mostly 2000s pop, a tiny bit of rock, no Papa John 50s music and Mozart and so on. 
Songs like Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' sound really bad, with Queen B's voice being almost muted in the favour of the instruments. The song which sound glorious on these headphones is Lenny Kravitz's 'Will You Marry Me'. The instruments and voices are well balanced and the guitar(s) are really warm-sounding (thanks to the small but powerful dynamic driver).
I shall end this review by saying that the Sony XBA-H1s are some nice headphones that do need a proper burn-in to reach their full potential. I bought them because they were on stock in the closest electronics shop to my house, and I didn't want to mess with small headphone companies. There are plentiful of other options in this price range, but those will surely serve you well.
(Sorry for my English, it's not my native language :)  )

suburbanite

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: detail, warmth, easy ingress/egress, plenty of ear fittings, availabile at Best Buy
Cons: sensitive to source, cables not serviceable
DESIGN
Large, bulky, arguably overbuilt ear elements
Perfect for those with larger hands as the ear elements are easy to not only handle but also to remove from one's ears
Large ear elements may be problematic for those with smaller ears- may excessively contact outer ears
Cable does have some memory, but it otherwise easy to handle
Sturdy-feeling 90* 3.5mm jack with good strain relief
 
ACCESSORIES
Nylon pouch which is just a bit smaller than I'd like
6 ear fittings- S, M, L in both silicon and foam-impregnated silicone
Plentitude of ear fittings makes asymmetrical ear canals easy to fit
 
SOUND SIGNATURE
Depends on source device!
 
SYNERGY WITH SOURCE DEVICE
These seem to pair well with the (onboard DAC and AMP) headphone-out on my ThinkPad X220 with good detail and bass that's ample but reasonably controlled
They pair poorly with my SanDisk Santa Clip+ with which they have OK detail but excessive, poorly-controlled bass
These are much more source device-tempermental than my Etymotic HF5's, which seem to deliver a pretty consistent sound signature amongst my source devices
 
 
EDIT:
The more I listen through the headphone-out of my X220, the more I notice how distinct the bass guitar and background vocals are on my copy of Jimmy Hendrix' "The Ultimate Experience" (greatest hits). This reinforces my earlier impression that synergy is important with these and which makes them a "garbage-in, garbage-out" type of 'phone. FYI. YMMV. Etc.

jmotyka

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Clear, Precise, Decent bass.
Cons: Sounds weird in certain songs.
I have been using the xba-h1's for about three days now. I am no audiophile, What i am is someone who loves music and knows what good sound is. My past collections are piston 2.0, xba-3, shure se-215, klipsch x10, klipsch s4, v-sonic gr07, Among others and i have found these to be one of my favorite headphones. But there is something weird about the sound as a whole that i cant point my finger at. I know that i wish these had a more expansive soundstage. The treble could use quite a bit more extention and the mids i wish were alot more airy. Instrument separation is pretty impressive. Im still on a search for what is the perfect IEM for me, and have been for a long time. For now these are close and i enjoy them. The bass is very much present and definitely not boomy. Which i love! I would definitely recommend these to anyone who can get them under $90 like i did. The reason for my low value rating is because i know from what ive read on this website you can get better IEM's for this price range all though i have yet to find them, i have a limited wallet and cant keep buying earphones. If i could i would.
Tr1ppy
Tr1ppy
Very nice, concise review!
How would you rate the bass quality (especially sub bass extension) and quantity against the klipsch x10?
Thanks
jmotyka
jmotyka
Its an ok review lol. Along with a couple misspellings and grammatical errors. But the bass is great, especially with some eq the bass is amazing. Im very much a bass lover but i hate muddy bass with a passion and these are not muddy at all, the bass is very detailed and well extended, but not perfectly extended. The mids are detailed but dry and blends with the unextended treble which is what i think sounds weird to me. This could all sort itself out ounce burn-in is finished.

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