Product link:
https://www.amazon.com/AUSDOM-Cancelling-Headphones-Bluetooth-Technology/dp/B01ERMHI2E/
A bit about myself - I'm a female student from HK studying in the US. I mainly listen to classical, instrumental and pop, and in general I tend to enjoy headphones that are balanced with a touch of warmth. I also value a wide soundstage, accurate positioning, and to a slightly lesser degree clarity and micro-detail retrieval. I should also mention that I'm not very tolerant towards sibilance and shrill treble in general. I’ve used the QC25 for a long-ish period of time before, but this is the first pair of noise-cancelling (NC)+Bluetooth (BT) headphones I’ve owned. These retail for $129 on Amazon.
Disclaimer: I was kindly provided with the Ausdom ANC7 by @gracesheng for review purposes. However, I also took the retail value of the ANC7 into consideration while writing this review, so hope that’s good enough for all of you!
Introduction
The Ausdom ANC7 is a pair of NC+BT circumaural headphones. Compared to leading names such as Bose on the market, they are relatively low-priced at ~$130 per pair. This is, I believe, the first NC+BT headphone that Ausdom has released; however, they aren’t new to the BT headphone market at all – their M05 has been well reviewed on HF as a pretty decent BT offering at an even more decent price. However, some people claimed that they had somewhat of a boosted mid-bass section. The ANC7, therefore, is their maiden journey into the interesting realm of NC+BT headphones. I didn’t have extremely high expectations – I almost never do – but this pair of headphones has surpassed my modest expectations and deserves some recognition.
Appearance, Build Quality, Comfort & Others
These came in a simple cardboard box that had the product name and some specs on it – the usual. Unpacking the cardboard box, there was a hard case with carbon fiber pattern that was protecting the headphones. The case feels extremely sturdy – I’ve dropped my headphones (with the case) a couple of times since receiving them and they’ve held up just fine, as well as the case. Other accessories include a micro-USB to USB charging cable and a 3.5mm cable to use the headphones wired. The headphones fold flat and fit perfectly into the provided headphone case - nice portability form factor. Overall, there aren’t a lot of accessories but sufficient – I would also mention that the 3.5mm cable is pretty thin so I bought a cheap 3.5mm cable that also does the job and I heard no sound difference. I evaluated the wired sound according to my own cable as well.
The build quality is decent IMO, nothing spectacular but definitely good enough to withstand some torture – the carbon fiber looks pretty nice and, since I’m kind of a carbon fiber addict (see: me spending 2 hours to make the perfect carbon fiber sticker for my DAPs), I really like the design. The headphones are mainly made out of rubberized plastic that feels smooth to the touch. The pads are made out of a soft synthetic leather material that seemed comfortable but has its issues (which I will talk about later). The NC/BT control and switches are another favorite – very tactile to the touch and feels pretty solid. Overall, I would say that build quality’s average – probably middle of the road for a $130 headphone. The joints of the headphone, especially the cup adjustment hinge and the headband adjuster, could be more secure, but I wouldn’t call it flimsy either. In terms of ease of use, I felt that the button placement was pretty intuitive – once I realized that the switch for NC was on the left and BT on the right, I didn’t even need to look at the manual to figure out the BT controls – I just guessed and got it right. One weird thing about these, however, is that the cable entry is on the right earcup, which I find awkward. For others it might be convenient but I often tried to plug the cable into the left earcup and found nothing, and then trying to figure out what was wrong!
The pads on the ANC7 are pretty small for a circumaural headphone – I believe that some people may even need to wear them as a pair of supra-aural headphones. The headphones themselves are very light and are one of the more comfortable ones I’ve tried. The pads are rather shallow and my ears were often touching the bottom of the pads after half an hour or so of listening. I did attempt to try switching out the pads, but I still haven’t figured it out for fear of breaking the headphones – some brave soul should try it! However, the pads themselves are fine besides the depth; they are pretty soft and provide a decent seal, albeit not perfect. The swiveling earcups design also provide for a better seal that facilitates the NC. Another personal note – I have a small head, and even in the smallest setting the headphones were a bit too loose and big. Clamping force is low, but I couldn’t use these for more than 2 hours without taking a small break in the middle. These also isolate above-average – I wasn’t able to get a perfect seal with the pads due to the headband issue but, even with that, the headphones manage to isolate pretty well. Of course this is somewhat rendered useless with the NC but I still find the passive isolation pretty important due to the sound differences, which I’ll talk about later.
Some pictures – again, I’m not good at taking pictures so forgive the poor quality:
I actually quite liked the minimalistic cardboard packaging.
So they went with carbon fiber...
The headphones folded flat in the case along with its accessories - the USB cable, the 3.5mm cable and the warranty card.
Headphones in action - they actually look rather nice with the red accents!
The cups are a bit shallow, but very comfortable nonetheless.
Sound Quality
This is a bit complicated just because there are four ways you could set up the headphones – wired with no NC, wired with NC, BT with no NC, and BT with NC. I’m going to evaluate the sound quality based on its performance wired with no NC because it was subjectively the best to me, but I’ll also evaluate them based on their performance in the other three settings. In general, these are pretty neutral headphones. They are decently balanced across the spectrum, with a slight mid-bass hump and decent treble extension.
Bass
These have some pretty linear bass with a small mid-bass hump. The closed-back design helps that as it provides the ANC7 with good impact despite the linear bass – I auditioned them with some pop pieces as well as some large organ pieces and never found the bass lacking. However, it does lack some oomph compared to basshead cans that I’ve briefly listened to, which is entirely fine by me. In fact, I quite enjoy the bass in passive wired mode; it is rather controlled and detailed in nature. They seemed to have removed the mid-bass hump that many people complained about in the M05 and made the bass a lot more “hifi” in nature. There was a little bit of distortion when I put on some really hard-hitting hifi testing tracks that I had just for fun, so that’s also something to keep in mind. Despite the good bass extension, I did find myself wanting a little bit more thump at times in the sub-bass region, but that’s just nitpicking now… J
Mids
Another can for the mid-heads! Mids are very forward in their presentation and are rather detailed. Despite the closed design, vocals don’t sound “stuffed-in” and have quite a bit of air to it. They don’t have the upper-mid spike that many headphones have – at most a very small one – and therefore female vocals sounds particularly pleasant, as evident from this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeEpRzU-mws
(Not the best quality, I know…)
Treble
Decent extension, nothing spectacular. I would say that it’s a little bit on the bright side, not really sibilant but enough for me to notice with some organ pieces that are in the higher octaves. Just like the rest of the spectrum, they are pretty detailed with a bit of sparkle. For most people it’d probably be very tolerable, but I’m kind of sensitive to treble so it was just very slightly irritating at times. Like I said just now, nothing much though – on the absolute majority of songs the treble isn’t too sharp yet maintains a nice amount of detail to satisfy hifi lovers. It was also slightly grainy at times, but nothing much. Considering the rest of the spectrum, I’d actually say that the treble is well balanced – kudos to Ausdom for tuning them well!
Across the spectrum and other notes
These are very balanced headphones – I’d argue that some may even call it analytical if they’re used to warmer headphones. They are pretty consistent across the spectrum in terms of the amount of detail, which is a wonderful thing. Those looking for extreme musicality might want to look elsewhere, but for me it was a pretty good balance between dry and musical. They manage to not sound dry while sounding fairly musical – you know, those Jack of all trades? Yeah, that’s the ANC7 in a nutshell. I would argue that you could find better bass/midrange/treble elsewhere, but even simply considering the SQ they offer a nice balance of everything to please most hifi lovers.
The soundstage is worth mentioning in its own paragraph (yay)! They have one of the more spacious soundstage I’ve heard in the closed headphone group. Many closed headphones sacrifice soundstage for isolation and produces a closed-in presentation that is, frankly, claustrophobic at times (the issues of growing up in a hifi family that exclusively messed around with speakers). The ANC7 is the exception to the closed-is-bad-for-soundstage rule by producing a presentation that is well rounded, out of the head and has good separation and placement. I love the soundstage on these things!
NC and Bluetooth
Let’s be honest here – most people buying them will be using them with NC on, BT on, or both. To a certain extent this section is even more important than the others because there’s probably no point in buying a pair of NC/BT headphones that perform horribly under those conditions, right?
Let’s move on.
NC on
The midrange sounded noticeably recessed with NC on and in a quiet environment, sounding muffled and distant. At the same time, the mid and sub-bass were boosted significantly – in general, they became a far more bass-oriented headphone than with NC off. I wasn’t a fan of this signature in a quiet environment because it destroyed much of the liquid midrange that was originally there. However, using them in a noisy environment, I finally realized why they were tuned that way. I was using them in my school dining hall with NC on and oddly everything sounded more in balance - the bass was not really overpowering any more. In terms of the NC itself, it efficiently blocked out most of the lower frequencies (although, of course, it doesn’t beat the QC25) and I could very easily see myself using them on a 16-hour flight from US to HK!
BT On
Surprisingly, the loss in sound quality when using BT was not as much as I expected. There was a loss in details and the sub-bass/treble were a bit more rolled-off. However, the excellent implementation of BT meant that the convenience of using BT sometimes trumped the drop-off in sound quality. Pairing was very easy with my Macbook Air, although I had issues originally pairing with my LG G4. I would say the range is more than the 10m quoted – I still had good connection around 2x m away.
Battery Life
Although I haven’t been using them extremely heavily, I’ve never needed to charge them since I received around 2 weeks ago. I would believe battery life is more than the 18 hours quoted (especially if you have mixed usage), but since I didn’t time myself using them or anything take this with a grain of salt. Regardless, these seem to have pretty good battery life.
Conclusion
These headphones are most definitely a solid offering by Ausdom at $130. I could find headphones with better comfort, or better bass/mid/treble, or even better BT/NC capabilities at similar prices, but what the ANC7 provides is an all-rounded package – a perfect jack-of-all-trades headphone. Combined with its comfort and the nice carrying case, I’d recommend the ANC7 to anyone looking for traveling headphones without wanting to burn their wallet down. Even on its SQ alone, however, they deserve a recommendation as a pair of closed, portable cans most notably because of its soundstage that I particularly enjoyed.
https://www.amazon.com/AUSDOM-Cancelling-Headphones-Bluetooth-Technology/dp/B01ERMHI2E/
A bit about myself - I'm a female student from HK studying in the US. I mainly listen to classical, instrumental and pop, and in general I tend to enjoy headphones that are balanced with a touch of warmth. I also value a wide soundstage, accurate positioning, and to a slightly lesser degree clarity and micro-detail retrieval. I should also mention that I'm not very tolerant towards sibilance and shrill treble in general. I’ve used the QC25 for a long-ish period of time before, but this is the first pair of noise-cancelling (NC)+Bluetooth (BT) headphones I’ve owned. These retail for $129 on Amazon.
Disclaimer: I was kindly provided with the Ausdom ANC7 by @gracesheng for review purposes. However, I also took the retail value of the ANC7 into consideration while writing this review, so hope that’s good enough for all of you!
Introduction
The Ausdom ANC7 is a pair of NC+BT circumaural headphones. Compared to leading names such as Bose on the market, they are relatively low-priced at ~$130 per pair. This is, I believe, the first NC+BT headphone that Ausdom has released; however, they aren’t new to the BT headphone market at all – their M05 has been well reviewed on HF as a pretty decent BT offering at an even more decent price. However, some people claimed that they had somewhat of a boosted mid-bass section. The ANC7, therefore, is their maiden journey into the interesting realm of NC+BT headphones. I didn’t have extremely high expectations – I almost never do – but this pair of headphones has surpassed my modest expectations and deserves some recognition.
Appearance, Build Quality, Comfort & Others
These came in a simple cardboard box that had the product name and some specs on it – the usual. Unpacking the cardboard box, there was a hard case with carbon fiber pattern that was protecting the headphones. The case feels extremely sturdy – I’ve dropped my headphones (with the case) a couple of times since receiving them and they’ve held up just fine, as well as the case. Other accessories include a micro-USB to USB charging cable and a 3.5mm cable to use the headphones wired. The headphones fold flat and fit perfectly into the provided headphone case - nice portability form factor. Overall, there aren’t a lot of accessories but sufficient – I would also mention that the 3.5mm cable is pretty thin so I bought a cheap 3.5mm cable that also does the job and I heard no sound difference. I evaluated the wired sound according to my own cable as well.
The build quality is decent IMO, nothing spectacular but definitely good enough to withstand some torture – the carbon fiber looks pretty nice and, since I’m kind of a carbon fiber addict (see: me spending 2 hours to make the perfect carbon fiber sticker for my DAPs), I really like the design. The headphones are mainly made out of rubberized plastic that feels smooth to the touch. The pads are made out of a soft synthetic leather material that seemed comfortable but has its issues (which I will talk about later). The NC/BT control and switches are another favorite – very tactile to the touch and feels pretty solid. Overall, I would say that build quality’s average – probably middle of the road for a $130 headphone. The joints of the headphone, especially the cup adjustment hinge and the headband adjuster, could be more secure, but I wouldn’t call it flimsy either. In terms of ease of use, I felt that the button placement was pretty intuitive – once I realized that the switch for NC was on the left and BT on the right, I didn’t even need to look at the manual to figure out the BT controls – I just guessed and got it right. One weird thing about these, however, is that the cable entry is on the right earcup, which I find awkward. For others it might be convenient but I often tried to plug the cable into the left earcup and found nothing, and then trying to figure out what was wrong!
The pads on the ANC7 are pretty small for a circumaural headphone – I believe that some people may even need to wear them as a pair of supra-aural headphones. The headphones themselves are very light and are one of the more comfortable ones I’ve tried. The pads are rather shallow and my ears were often touching the bottom of the pads after half an hour or so of listening. I did attempt to try switching out the pads, but I still haven’t figured it out for fear of breaking the headphones – some brave soul should try it! However, the pads themselves are fine besides the depth; they are pretty soft and provide a decent seal, albeit not perfect. The swiveling earcups design also provide for a better seal that facilitates the NC. Another personal note – I have a small head, and even in the smallest setting the headphones were a bit too loose and big. Clamping force is low, but I couldn’t use these for more than 2 hours without taking a small break in the middle. These also isolate above-average – I wasn’t able to get a perfect seal with the pads due to the headband issue but, even with that, the headphones manage to isolate pretty well. Of course this is somewhat rendered useless with the NC but I still find the passive isolation pretty important due to the sound differences, which I’ll talk about later.
Some pictures – again, I’m not good at taking pictures so forgive the poor quality:
I actually quite liked the minimalistic cardboard packaging.
So they went with carbon fiber...
The headphones folded flat in the case along with its accessories - the USB cable, the 3.5mm cable and the warranty card.
Headphones in action - they actually look rather nice with the red accents!
The cups are a bit shallow, but very comfortable nonetheless.
Sound Quality
This is a bit complicated just because there are four ways you could set up the headphones – wired with no NC, wired with NC, BT with no NC, and BT with NC. I’m going to evaluate the sound quality based on its performance wired with no NC because it was subjectively the best to me, but I’ll also evaluate them based on their performance in the other three settings. In general, these are pretty neutral headphones. They are decently balanced across the spectrum, with a slight mid-bass hump and decent treble extension.
Bass
These have some pretty linear bass with a small mid-bass hump. The closed-back design helps that as it provides the ANC7 with good impact despite the linear bass – I auditioned them with some pop pieces as well as some large organ pieces and never found the bass lacking. However, it does lack some oomph compared to basshead cans that I’ve briefly listened to, which is entirely fine by me. In fact, I quite enjoy the bass in passive wired mode; it is rather controlled and detailed in nature. They seemed to have removed the mid-bass hump that many people complained about in the M05 and made the bass a lot more “hifi” in nature. There was a little bit of distortion when I put on some really hard-hitting hifi testing tracks that I had just for fun, so that’s also something to keep in mind. Despite the good bass extension, I did find myself wanting a little bit more thump at times in the sub-bass region, but that’s just nitpicking now… J
Mids
Another can for the mid-heads! Mids are very forward in their presentation and are rather detailed. Despite the closed design, vocals don’t sound “stuffed-in” and have quite a bit of air to it. They don’t have the upper-mid spike that many headphones have – at most a very small one – and therefore female vocals sounds particularly pleasant, as evident from this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeEpRzU-mws
(Not the best quality, I know…)
Treble
Decent extension, nothing spectacular. I would say that it’s a little bit on the bright side, not really sibilant but enough for me to notice with some organ pieces that are in the higher octaves. Just like the rest of the spectrum, they are pretty detailed with a bit of sparkle. For most people it’d probably be very tolerable, but I’m kind of sensitive to treble so it was just very slightly irritating at times. Like I said just now, nothing much though – on the absolute majority of songs the treble isn’t too sharp yet maintains a nice amount of detail to satisfy hifi lovers. It was also slightly grainy at times, but nothing much. Considering the rest of the spectrum, I’d actually say that the treble is well balanced – kudos to Ausdom for tuning them well!
Across the spectrum and other notes
These are very balanced headphones – I’d argue that some may even call it analytical if they’re used to warmer headphones. They are pretty consistent across the spectrum in terms of the amount of detail, which is a wonderful thing. Those looking for extreme musicality might want to look elsewhere, but for me it was a pretty good balance between dry and musical. They manage to not sound dry while sounding fairly musical – you know, those Jack of all trades? Yeah, that’s the ANC7 in a nutshell. I would argue that you could find better bass/midrange/treble elsewhere, but even simply considering the SQ they offer a nice balance of everything to please most hifi lovers.
The soundstage is worth mentioning in its own paragraph (yay)! They have one of the more spacious soundstage I’ve heard in the closed headphone group. Many closed headphones sacrifice soundstage for isolation and produces a closed-in presentation that is, frankly, claustrophobic at times (the issues of growing up in a hifi family that exclusively messed around with speakers). The ANC7 is the exception to the closed-is-bad-for-soundstage rule by producing a presentation that is well rounded, out of the head and has good separation and placement. I love the soundstage on these things!
NC and Bluetooth
Let’s be honest here – most people buying them will be using them with NC on, BT on, or both. To a certain extent this section is even more important than the others because there’s probably no point in buying a pair of NC/BT headphones that perform horribly under those conditions, right?
Let’s move on.
NC on
The midrange sounded noticeably recessed with NC on and in a quiet environment, sounding muffled and distant. At the same time, the mid and sub-bass were boosted significantly – in general, they became a far more bass-oriented headphone than with NC off. I wasn’t a fan of this signature in a quiet environment because it destroyed much of the liquid midrange that was originally there. However, using them in a noisy environment, I finally realized why they were tuned that way. I was using them in my school dining hall with NC on and oddly everything sounded more in balance - the bass was not really overpowering any more. In terms of the NC itself, it efficiently blocked out most of the lower frequencies (although, of course, it doesn’t beat the QC25) and I could very easily see myself using them on a 16-hour flight from US to HK!
BT On
Surprisingly, the loss in sound quality when using BT was not as much as I expected. There was a loss in details and the sub-bass/treble were a bit more rolled-off. However, the excellent implementation of BT meant that the convenience of using BT sometimes trumped the drop-off in sound quality. Pairing was very easy with my Macbook Air, although I had issues originally pairing with my LG G4. I would say the range is more than the 10m quoted – I still had good connection around 2x m away.
Battery Life
Although I haven’t been using them extremely heavily, I’ve never needed to charge them since I received around 2 weeks ago. I would believe battery life is more than the 18 hours quoted (especially if you have mixed usage), but since I didn’t time myself using them or anything take this with a grain of salt. Regardless, these seem to have pretty good battery life.
Conclusion
These headphones are most definitely a solid offering by Ausdom at $130. I could find headphones with better comfort, or better bass/mid/treble, or even better BT/NC capabilities at similar prices, but what the ANC7 provides is an all-rounded package – a perfect jack-of-all-trades headphone. Combined with its comfort and the nice carrying case, I’d recommend the ANC7 to anyone looking for traveling headphones without wanting to burn their wallet down. Even on its SQ alone, however, they deserve a recommendation as a pair of closed, portable cans most notably because of its soundstage that I particularly enjoyed.
