One bluetooth on ear headphones
Status SAHD1-BT Headphones
This is the first review that I have ever written, therefore I’m certainly not a professional writer! Justin from Status.co sent me a message on Head-fi asking if I’d be interested to give them a try and give my opinion. I jumped on the chance as BT headphones wise, I only own the Sony WH-1000XM3. The Sony’s are -as is well known- very good, especially for their noise cancelling ability and comfort. They are over-ear and are therefore quite a bit bigger and bulkier than these on ear SAHD1-BT. Also, the status headphones are less than half the price of the Sony’s. Anyhow…
The package arrived very well wrapped in the post a few days after talking to Justin. Once opened, I instantly noticed that they come in quite a premium little case that definitely seems above its price point. Inside this case are the neatly folded headphones, USB C charging cable, 3.5 headphones cable and paperwork. This is a very well presented complete package and competes with far more expensive models.
The headphones themselves have a sturdy, sleek metal build with some very comfy leather like ear cushions and headband padding. This is obviously a very important feature for on ear headphones or they would feel very uncomfortable rather quickly. After doing some research on the web, I discovered that they come in two colours, black and the brown and pewter combination that I received. They also have a 40 mm driver and are closed back.
These headphones are exceptionally easy to pair up with your phone. Once I switched Bluetooth on in my phone settings (oneplus6) all that I had to do was slide the on button which is located on the side of one of the headphones, and it connected straight away. There is no software to install, so it’s literally switch on and use. These headphones feature Bluetooth 5.0 and from use there was no cut outs at all even when I walked to the other side of my office from the phone. I did not need to charge them for a very long time as these have a 30hrs battery life, so it basically almost covered my weeks in work music listening.
Talking of work, they are incredibly good for work as they are very light and comfy and unlike my Sony’s have no noise cancelling. This allowed me to still hear if colleagues wanted my attention and less risk of being ran over on the walk to work! They are also very small and compact and are perfect for packing in your bag and using in a portable manner.
Reading their description on status website they state “We’ve brought the warmth and authenticity of the analogue connection into the wireless universe. The BT One is tuned for depth, punch, and accuracy.” I’d have to agree with what they’ve written.
The first thing I noticed while listening to Wiz Khalifa – on my level is that these cans have some of the best bass I’ve heard from on ear cans. The bass is very deep and punchy and is so much fun to listen to, but the highs are also very good. I’m getting the impression of a slight u-shaped sound as the vocals are slightly behind the music, but this for me is a desirable for a portable set.
They are however not just great for hip hop as I also listened to some Miles Davis (Blue in Green), where I heard some sounds in the background I’d not picked up before with other sets. Of course the bass sounded incredible where I could literally hear the bass strings being plucked.
I’m also a fan of metal bands such as Mayhem, where with some headphones the low quality raw recordings can sound bad and very sibilant. That problem does not exist with these, I could comfortably listen to black and death metal for hours with the studio bt headphones. They also keep up well and give plenty of detail to tech metal bands such as Nile. No detail is lost but most importantly they are just very enjoyable to listen with.
Thanks for reading a novice reviewers ramblings, but I strive to improve over time! This is a simple conclusion. These headphones have got very well-tuned drivers and are absolutely perfect for what they set out to do. A highly portable set that are perfect for listening while out walking or sat at a desk at work. Literally the best bass I’ve heard from an on-ear set let alone a wireless one. They are not a reference set for analytical listening but a set for just enjoying your music while out of the house. Another good thing, they are below £100. What are you waiting for?!
Takeanidea
Headphoneus Supremus
Pros : Folds away for easy storage. Comfy. Light. Huge bass. Rolled off treble. Isolate well. Clamp well.30 hour life 1 hour charge
introduction
For some reason, the BT One has not made an impact on headfi as of yet. Curious..Are you curious? I have been sent a pair by Justin of Status, so that’s about to change now.
Released in Spring 2019, the Bt One is a US Headphone. It is an on ear model. That is, it doesn’t have deep cups and deeper ear pads that your ears will fit inside of. Instead the earpads will provide a soft clamp around the outer edges of your ears. You can still fit a fairly decent size driver into a design of this size. In this case, Status has opted for a 40mm driver. The headphone has 97 db of sensitivity, 20 hZ to 20 kHz of frequency response, 32 ohms of impedance. The on ear seal, with the tech spec, translates into a headphone that needs roughly 50% volume on my Samsung S7 indoors, and needs turning up to 75% outdoors.
At £99 in my country, the UK, the headphone can be at your door the day after you order it, and is available through amazon. Status also sell them direct from their New York offices, a link for which can be found here.
About Status and me
The Bt One is the only current on ear wireless product by Status. The company make in ear wireless models, the Status BT Transfer, for which I have made a review previously, the link is here.
This is a dual driver wireless iem and it has some innovative earwings that have certainly helped out with a decent lock during my many runs with them. If you’ve not got time to read the article, needless to say, Status did enough with the Transfers to show me they know how to make a solid performer. The gauntlet was thrown down; let us see what they can achieve with their £99 flagship!
The BT One
This is a bluetooth 5.0 headphone, it is backwards compatible with older smartphones, like my Samsung S7, for instance. It supports the aptX codec. It doesn’t do LDAC, which is a lossless bluetooth codec. aptX is near CD quality and the ins and outs of that can be left to double blind tests etc. before my ears can differentiate too much between the codecs, at least at this price-performance level.
What bluetooth 5.0 brings with it, are instant unlocking of my phone, a longer range, less battery drain, longer battery life, and multiple pairings. What you can do with these is to connect the Bt One to a smartphone and a DAP, like my Fiio M11 for instance. I can be listening to the M11 but if a call comes my way, it will mute the M11 and route the call straight through to me. Or if I want to watch a video on my phone, I can press stop on the M11 and the video will instantly play through the headphones. Clever eh?
Included in the packaging of the On Ears is a quick charge cable. It is USB C and will charge the Bt One in an hour. The Bt One will then run for up to 30 hours on that charge. There is a 3.5mm cable to connect the headphone directly, should your battery die on you. There is a travel case supplied with a separate pouch to store the cables. The case is a hard case with a soft look. The case is surprisingly small. How? Because, dear headfiers, these Bt One’s are hinged; they fold down to half their size.
The Bt One’s come in at 155g, and are light and comfortable to wear. With the caveat that you need to readjust your glasses to deal with them clamping against your head and the back of your earlobes. You will soon notice just how much the headband is pushing against your temple without this warning if you are a spectacle wearer. I have reading glasses. Pulling the tips away from the temple relieves the force from the pads completely and I can still see fine, but I can’t say how it would affect other users. You’ll all know anyway. As I’m sure most people would realise that on ears use that clamp to get a good seal around the ears for decent bass and passive isolation.
The lightness of the Bt Ones and the softness of pads and the headband mean that they should be comfy enough for hours and hours of use.
The cups are solid, look pretty durable, (although only time will tell about, of course) and have all the controls arrayed around the sides of them. The usual volume up, down, pause/play are included on the side of the right cup. Rather than a smaller on/off button, Status have considered this and decided on a switch. The switch makes things altogether easier to work your way around, especially if you’re clumsy, like me. The earpads come out from the cups a little, disguising the whereabouts of the buttons as much as possible.
I hope you can see how little is visible on picture 3. I have turned the headphones upside down on picture 1 and 2 to show you a) the on off switch and b) the 2 volume buttons, play/pause/receive call button and 3.5mm plug on the right cup and the usb-c in on the left.
Status have explained in very simple terms on their website that they are not interested in turning out Beats style headphones. That I am very pleased with! Beats have improved their sound signature but they still don’t do it for me, and there are many other consumer brands churning out cheap and cheerful stuff for the masses. The diagram I have culled from the Status website tells all.
So with that in mind, what to expect from the Bt One in terms of low end, the driving pulse of music? The bass is big in the Bt Ones, much more so than I was expecting having come from their IEMs. The mids are not swamped because the emphasis is more on a sub bass feel than a mid bass slam. The modern recordings — George Ezra and Ed Sheeran are 2 of my particular favourites, use lots of synthetic bass in their mix, and the Bt One does it’s best to keep up with it. There is a touch of bloat there, a product of closed cans and on ear design. A lift in the bass can be quite pleasant for more anaemic genres, Classical Symphony’s benefit from a lift in that region.
Mids
Vocals are easy enough to follow and come reasonably high in the mix. Guitars sound pleasantly airy. The bass shows it’s presence throughout. However, the bass does not completely win the battle. Strolls and runs outside of the inner sanctum of the household environment bring out the benefits of a bassier headphone.
The space between the instruments , the width, height and depth of the sonic picture outside of the circumference of the drivers is well within acceptable parameters. The treble is rolled back and the cymbals are toned down as a result, but the energy, ladies and gents, is down below. If there was the same energy in the highs, I would be running for the hills! Thankfully, these are not too fatiguing.
Conclusion
There is still a market for on ear headphones. They are light. They isolate well. They are portable. They don’t suffer from the type of fit problems that plague many an IEM or earbud. I can wear these out for a run and know that unless a tiger has got loose and I need to move rather more rapidly than I am truly capable of doing, these are going to stay rock steady. There is some wind noise that hits these when out and about. Wind, like water, finds a way in. Not too off putting, but you heard it here first. The price tag gets you a decent sized driver which is capable of some big hitting bass, reasonable mids and highs and a decent enough sound stage. The Bt One folds away to next to nothing. It will complement some genres in need of some warmth. There is some viscerality in the low end. The mids and highs have to take second stage to the lower end. I hope, armed with this information, Status can get some more customers under their belt and it’ll be really interesting to see where they go with their next models.