vlenbo
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2011
- Posts
- 2,646
- Likes
- 146
Thinksound On1 Review
Thinksound Background
If a person ever wished to purchase a luxurious headphone, I would personally recommend him a wooden headphone as his first premium product. While other competitors have headphones that look, feel, and are also worth the premium price (i.e. the beats, as their current line up did improve) I seriously believe that either a beats owner or an inexperienced music lover should first and foremost, purchase the thinksound on1s.
While the specific wood material used on the thinksounds ear cups befuddle me, I at least acknowledge that some sort of wood has been used to beautifully handcraft them. In addition, the headphone uses recycled materials that had me question my own ideologies regarding recycling. I would like to thank thinksound for making this headphone eco-friendly, especially since the US population need to voice their concerns about recycling in general. The thinksound on1’s co-founder, Aaron Fournier, definitely has the amazing skill to turn a recycled headphone into the most euphoric sounding piece of audio equipment I ever experienced. Without further ado, I would like to begin with the build quality of this magnificent headphone.
BUILD QUALITY
The thinksound on1’s 40mm drivers help the beautiful body of the headphone become quite portable. In addition, you can also fold the cups inwards towards the headband in order to capsize its portable potency. The headband on the headphone itself feels….somewhat disappointing. I enjoy the fact that the headband is padded with a synthetic leather fabric, which provides enough comfort to withstand the headphone’s light weight for hours. However, I do not particularly enjoy the plastic shell that connects the headband and ear cups as the plastic appears to be flimsy. Despite that, the headphone is pretty good, as are the ear cups. The ear cups are aesthetically pleasing to behold. In all honesty, I would rather commit the same amount of time to admire the ear cups as I do listening to them. Regardless, this headphone’s wooden cups not only have a fine grain that expounds its beauty, but a smooth glossy finish that helps the headphone feel premium and smooth. These ear cups should be able to withstand heavy objects, but I do not know the threshold of this headphone’s weight resistance.
The earpads themselves are flush and somewhat thick enough to deceive your ears into believing that you’re wearing pillows on your ears. Of course, the on1’s ear pads are not alike other headphones that I’ve owned. These ear pads are easily detachable, which can either be a pro or a con. From my experience with these headphones, they are definitely both. I enjoy the fact that I can easily replace the ear pads whenever I desire, but there are moments when the ear pads detach through a small twist of the ear cup edges. For instance, if I wanted to store the headphones using the included pouch, the ear pad may accidentally fall off the bag and onto the floor. Despite this small qualm, I enjoy every aspect of this headphone’s build, especially since it has a simplistic design.
Driver protected by Metal Grill.
Accessories
Contains two detachable cables, a pouch, and that's about it!
The Black pouch is from Audio Technica's latest product, the Ath-msr7s. They're both well made pouches, but a hard case would have been preferred. In additition, the pouch is woven with cotton, and is pretty competent as well.
FIT
The headphone’s fit is average. I don’t have any problems fitting these small on-ears onto my medium sized head. In fact, they sit flush on my ears, enough to create good isolation. The headband extends far enough to fit a big headed person as well. The headband extends to 11 ticks (I slowly extended the headband and counted each tick). Clamping force is pretty good, as I do not find the clamp force to be overbearing or underwhelming. In addition, the earpads also aren't sweat resistant. After an hour or more, the sweat sticks to the earpads, but nothing major.
In addition, the headphones can actually contort and reshape itself.
An assistant of mine helped me bend the headphone's headband to the most exponential force possible. If you bend it in this manner, the headphone's clamp force will feel pretty tight.
However, if you bend it in this demeanor, then the headphone's clamp force would be pretty light and insufficient for people with small heads.
One thing to note. This headphone was marketed for flush earpads and a flexible headband for added comfort.
However, I would like to state that this headband could also be marketed to be one with the most endurance. I had my assistant flex the headband brutally. Of course, we did not have a malicious intent to destroy this prepubescent headphone (I'm only naming it prepubescent since it is somewhat adorable). Instead, we had an incentive to bend the headphone in order to provide it the most elqouent form.
Isolation
Alright, to make this section simpler for the readers, I would like to point out the volume levels I listen at with this headphone.
On a Samsung galaxy note 4, I listen to music with the stock player at 7-8 volume. However, what it is in DB I don’t know. I originally attempted to measure the decibels that the headphones produced by mashing the samsung note 4 into the wooden earcups. Now, my method seems pretty ignorant to do, but I had a good reason. I used an application that would supposedly measure decibels using a decibel meter. However, the samsung galaxy note 4 could only measure my voice and other external sounds. The sounds emitted by the wooden earcups, Unfortunately, could not be picked up by the note 4's microphone.
Now, if you want to know another source I use, I would say...
On a custom PC, I listen to it at 26 volume level. I’m using a motherboard sound driver. Which means, that I only use a realtek source from the AC97 drivers.
Now that I got that out of the way, these listening levels should be enough to isolate well. So well, in fact, that the annoying farm tractors become tolerable as I could barely hear the details of the raucous noise that derives from them. Cafeterias, restaurants, and even commuting trains do not pose much of a problem with the average to above average isolation of the on1's. AT least, with the volume set to 50 percent.
Amping benefits
When I finally retrieve my cayin amp, I’ll update this review.
Drivability
It’s a pretty easy headphone to drive. I can hear most of the details in each song that I have playing on my note 4 when I reach the 5-6 volume level.
Sound Quality
I would love to start with songs I have used to test each frequency section.
For the Lows, I used my favorite J-pop song, FEELING, by a band called ACID.
In addition, I used DAFT PUNK- Staying Alive, Taco – Puttin on the Ritz, Sting – Seven Days, Trombone Shorty- Do to me.
For the Mids, I used Another J-Pop song called This game, by Suzuki Konomi. In addition, I used Church of the Poison Mind, Little Busters! By Rita, and Bicycle Race by Queen.
For Treble, all of those songs listed above.
Bass – The bass would be something similar to what I described the ckr9s as. The difference between both, however, is that the ckr9s were very tight and a little less in quantity than these on1s. The on1s are a bit boomier, just slightly boomier, and engulfs part of the mids. The subbass of this headphone reaches lower than what I expected for a 40mm headphone. A good 22 hz from my testing. In music, it stops at 25 hz, but only at 0db. The bass and subbass are thunderous at times, and the texture is phenomenal.
The song, Feeling – By Acid, had a great rumbly, thunderous, and vibrating bass that I enjoyed hearing from the on1s. The good thing about this song is that the passages aren’t that complex, so the bass isn’t exactly one noted, or unable to produce tight quality. I was tapping my foot and moving my head ferociously when hearing this song. The drums in this song are pretty fulfilling. While I would personally like them to sound a bit thicker and more prominent and detailed, they have enough detail to satisfy the consumers.
Putting on the Ritz – By Taco, has a great textured bass that produces are more enriching bass experience compared to Feeling. In this song, the bass on the thinksounds reached deep and created an alluring impression as the bass not only sounded punchy, but also the tremor of the bass and the “vocals” of such bass reached my ears as The smooth, but detailed and somewhat rough and rounded bass reproduction of the thinksounds helped recreate the song faithfully.
Daft Punk’s – Doing it Right, had the on1’s hit harder than usual with its bass quantity. There is a slight mid-bass hump to create this effect. Bass surprisingly doesn’t overpower the mids, and the texture is awesome eto boot. It reminds me of the lowest note of a cello string. It’s the vibration and the low hum of the cello’s smooth and string texture that transpires from the bow scraping against it is exactly what I hear with the bass reproduction of the on1s.
Seven Days - by Sting had a great balance of bass through treble, can’t really explain the bass since it’s already been done.
Summary
Bass is a bit more potent than the ckr9s, but has better detail and texture as the bass does not really feel like the yolk of an egg, but the white crust of the egg if done over medium, especially since the bass is definitely solid and present in music without being overpowering.
Mids – The mids are the cream of the crop for the thinksound on1s. The mids are not only somewhat thick and detailed, but also somewhat warm and transparent. While this is a pro, the mids
are not that intimate with the listener. The reason is because the mids are somewhat recessed compared to the rest of the sound spectrum, at least on certain songs. The sound is not thin or analytical, nor is it that warm and thick, it’s a great balance of both, and the vocals and instruments reproduced by this headphone are remarkable. Wooden and Brass instruments sound fabulous on this headphone. As for guitars, songs like Little Busters! Or Vocals such as This game had the most transparent, cotton candy like sound that was sweet enough to remind you the taste and texture of caramel. Of course, the bite and crunch from guitar strings sound beautiful. The beauty form the crunch, bite, and detailing of the guitar comes from the departure from analytical sound, and the fact that the voices, instruments, and everything in the mids sound natural. Do you know how snapping your fingers in real life sound so satisfying when done right? The same can be applied for the on1s. The instruments have enough weight to them that almost all genres work well with the on1s. Classical sounds tranquilizing with the on1s once you play some Mozart.
Also, female vocalists sound very celestial, as do the men of course, but the females have a little ibt more emphasis in detail retrieval and warmth to their vocals. If you have a wife who sings well and thought of her voice to be somewhat creamy yogurt as a comparison, the on1s will make vocals feel as strong and silky smooth as the coffee you drink in the morning.
The music that helped me make these impressions were the aforementioned ones.
Little Busters! - A J-pop/rock song helped me realize how intimate the female vocals and electric/acoustic guitars were. They seriously pop out in detail, but not to the point of becoming analytical. The instruments have some fullness to them in this song, and best of all, no sibilance!
Chuch of The Poison Mind - had the greatest mids I've heard. They sounded pretty warm in this recording, but somewhat detailed despite the vintage style of this recording. The main vocals exhibited some mild recession, but when you hear the choruses, they immediately start to sing at your ears. This recording fits best with the soundstage height and width of this headphone, the harmonica in this song is produced beautifully in this headphone. You get to hear the dry, detailed, and breathtaking nature of the harmonica in this recording with the on1s.
Summary
Mids have a good transparency and airiness to them. In addition, the silky smooth vocals create a wonderful coherence with the crunchiness of string instruments and the nice smoothness of wooden ones.
Highs: Won’t write much about this section only because of a few problems. One, the out of box treble was somewhat unbearable because of its light sibilance in the upper mid region. The ssss and chs do tend to sting a little. However, I do have to admit that I was listening to the Samsung note 4 on 8-9 volume threshold. Lowering it to 6-7 and the required burn-in mitigated this issue. Treble can sound grainy at times though, but despite those problems, the detail retrieval and the micro detailing are one of the best I’ve hear on an on-ear portable.
Soundstage
The soundstage is somewhat above average in width and depth, even height actually. Hearing Church in the poison mind during the moment where the choruses (both male and female) sang “ahhhhh” “babababa” made me want to listen to the sound multiple times. The on1s have great imaging and positioning to create this nice 3d effect in height.
Conclusion
The on1s are the first wooden headphone in my collection, and they already overwhelm the metal headphones I own. The msr7s, the ath-es700s, the ws99s, the a900s, and even a plastic headphone like the sony zx700 cannot compete with this headphone. Well, except the msr7.
Overall, the on1s provide the most euphoric, musical, and almost the most audiophile experience without producing an overbearing amount of detail. Most genres would work fine with the on1s, and the like the ckr9s I reviewed, these cannot disappoint any potential buyer due to its gorgeous looks, sound, impenetrable build quality, and detachable cables.
Happy Listening!
BONUS
NICE LEGS THERE.
Keep working on it, Ath-msr7.
Extra Voluptuous pictures.
