EVEN H1 Headphones review: Truly personalized sound for your ears

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TA-ratings-98We’ve reviewed more than a few pairs of headphones and earbuds here at Techaeris, and I know I’ve certainly reviewed my fair share as well. One thing that I’ve recently started to notice is that the sound in my right ear feels softer, somewhat lacking. I’m sure that having one earbud in my right ear for the majority of most days doesn’t help. The thing is, it makes sense. I wear glasses and my eyes are different, so why wouldn’t my ears be different as well? Our EVEN H1 Headphones review takes a look at a pair of “revolutionary” headphones that personalize the sound for each ear through their proprietary EarPrint technology.

Before we begin, check out this EVEN introduction video.

Sounds pretty amazing, read on to see if the EVEN H1 Headphones live up to the hype.

Specifications

The EVEN H1 Headphones have the following features and specifications:

  • Style: Over-ear
  • EVEN EarPrint technology with 90-second setup
  • Driver unit: 50mm Beryllium Drivers
  • Sound Pressure Level (SPL): 110+/-2dB
  • Frequency Range: 20-20,000Hz
  • Impedance: 32 Ohm
  • Total Harmonic Distortion (THD): <3%
  • Lithium Ion battery: ~9 hrs per charge
  • Inline remote with call control, microphone, play/pause, and volume control
  • Weight: 9oz
  • 30-day Money Back Guarantee
  • 1 year Warranty

What’s in the box

  • EVEN H1 Headphones
  • Inline Remote
  • Charging Cable
  • Carrying Case
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The EVEN H1 Headphones include a carrying case.

Design

The EVEN H1 headphones look great at a glance. The outer side of the earcups is finished in a genuine walnut wood housing. The sweat-resistant ear pads on the inside of each earcup are made from faux leather. The bottom of each ear cup has a gold plated jack port and is attached to the headband with an inverted u-shaped metal arm. The arm twists a full 180° on each side and is attached to a metal housing at the base of the headband on each side. Pulling down on each ear cup extends the headband size by 8 stops on each side by way of a thin metal piece that pulls out. The headband itself is wrapped in a fairly plush faux leather and is very comfortable for extended listening sessions.

EVEN-H1-Headphones-review-06
From the walnut wood to the faux leather, the EVEN H1 headphones are premium looking.

There’s no question that the EVEN H1 headphones not only have a premium look but also have a premium feel and construction to them.

The tangle-free cable itself is a white and black braided nylon cable and runs about 32″ from the 3.5mm audio jack to the inline controller. The inline controller houses the microphone, Micro-USB charging port, three control buttons for volume/song/phone call control, and a button with the EVEN logo on it (the EVEN button). From the top of the inline controller is a white cable and a black cable — both also braided nylon. Each of these cables is about 14″ in length and end in a gold plated jack.

EVEN-H1-Headphones-review-02
Braided nylon cables and inline remote.

I mentioned that each earcup twists a full 180° and there was a gold plated jack port on the bottom of each one. These ports are where you insert the white left and black right cord, and the nice thing is that these headphones are omnidirectional so it doesn’t matter which port you plug which cable into. The only thing that matters once you’re plugged in is that the earcup attached to the white cable goes over your left ear.

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It doesn’t matter which cable you plug into which ear cup as long as the ear cup with the white cable goes over your left ear.

The included carrying/storage case is pretty nice as well. It’s thick and solid feeling with a zipper that goes almost the entire way around the case. On the inside, the EVEN H1 headphones lay flat and there’s a small zippered pouch on the opposite side to store your charging and audio cable.

Ease of Use

After you’ve charged up the EVEN controller and turned it on, double-tapping the EVEN button launches the EarPrint configuration. The very pleasant sounding Sarah guides you through the 90-second process which maps 8 audio frequencies in each ear. The EarPrint process plays sound in each ear and you have to press the EVEN button as soon as you hear the faintest sound. At first, I wondered if it was even working as it seemed to take a long time before I heard anything, but eventually, I heard the faintest sound of music coming through. Repeat until you’ve pressed the button for each audio frequency and your EarPrint is complete.

EVEN-H1-Headphones-review-11
Press the EVEN button to customize and toggle your EarPrint.

A word of advice: EVEN recommends you sit in a quiet space when customizing your EarPrint and it does make a difference. At first I tried sitting in different areas of my house but there was always some ambient noise that I could hear, for example, the fish tank, the furnace, or a fan or other such distraction. In the end, I walked into my garage, closed the door, sat in my Jeep, closed the door and ran the EarPrint customization process there.

Once your EarPrint is set, you simply need to double tap the EVEN button to re-initialize the EarPrint customization process.

Sound

I’ll be the first to admit that the first time I watched the video I chuckled a bit at the “wow” reactions of the people in it. Surely sound can’t be that much different than other headphones I’ve tried previously, and I’ve certainly reviewed some outstanding sounding headphones in the past.

Now for the true test: does the EarPrint actually provide a “revolutionary listening experience?” When I first heard of EVEN, I was invited to try the demo on their website and I was impressed and intrigued enough that I couldn’t wait to try out the actual headphones.

After using the EVEN H1 headphones after customizing my EarPrint, I can honestly say that the sound is what separates the EVEN H1 Headphones from the rest of the pack. That’s not to say that other headphone sound bad, but EVEN’s EarPrint technology makes a world of difference. Even after a few weeks of using the EVEN headphones for both music and even gaming, I’ve enjoyed my music and gaming audio that much more.

The easiest way to describe it without experiencing it first hand is that music and audio in the EVEN H1 headphones are more balanced, or as the aptly named headphones indicate, more even. Whenever I get a pair of headphones or earbuds to review, I turn off the equalizer on my smartphone to get an idea of what the headphones sound like out of the box. Pretty much all of the time, I end up fiddling with the equalizer to get the headphones sounding the way I like them. With the EVEN headphones, I haven’t re-enabled my equalizer, they sound that good. With your EarPrint enabled, tones are well balanced, the bass is pretty much exactly at the levels I like it, and every genre of music I tried sounds fantastic — from classic hip-hop, heavy metal, EDM, to classical and Top 40.

It really is one of those cases of not realizing what you were missing before, and being able to toggle your EarPrint on and off to hear the difference only solidifies what you’ve been missing. Of course, my first thought was that perhaps EVEN was toning down the default, EarPrint-less mode but I tested out a couple of other sets of headphones which I consider to be some of the best I’ve tested and they sounded pretty similar to the EVEN H1’s with the EarPrint off. This quick test solidified my belief that the EarPrint was indeed providing me with a better sound experience.

Another thing of note is that the EVEN H1 headphones have independent volume control which allows you to control the volume on the headphones separately from the volume on your smartphone or whatever device that you have them connected to. While this may seem like a minor thing, it really does give you more control over volume and being able to get your preferred sound volume just right.

Call Quality

At the risk of sounding like a broken record here, I’m not one for taking calls when using headphones, but for review purposes we test calls out anyways. Call quality was pretty decent, although I had to hold the inline remote closer to my mouth as that is where the microphone is located and it does hang quite a bit away from your mouth when you are using the headphones. Once I did this, the other party had no issues hearing me, and I had no issues hearing them.

Battery Life

Wait a minute — these are wired headphones, why are we talking about battery life? The EVEN H1 headphones require a bit of juice to power the EarPrint technology. While EVEN claims that the lithium ion battery will last around 9 hours on a single charge, during repeated tests I found I was getting between 14 and 15 hours. When I followed up with the company, I was told that they’ve been working on improving the battery life, and based on my tests they’ve been successful at doing so. Being able to get 14 or 15 hours on a charge is definitely more than enough to get most people through an average day, and I have no complaints about the battery life I was seeing with these.

One thing to note, however, is that once the battery dies you can’t use the headphones until you charge them up again. I’m not an engineer, but it would be nice to be able to at least use them in some sort of “dumb headphone” capacity if there isn’t enough battery left to power the EarPrint functionality. A minor issue in my opinion, but hopefully future versions of EVEN headphones might see such functionality.

Price/Value

Given the wood and metal design of the headphones coupled with the EarPrint technology for fantastic sound, and knowing what a premium set of headphones can go for, you might be a bit shocked to find these coming in at an MSRP of $199USD. In my opinion, that’s a steal for these headphones and the sound they produce, not to mention the quality premium construction and design.

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The EVEN H1 Headphones: premium look, feel, quality sound, and affordable.

If over-ear headphones aren’t your thing or the cost is a bit high for you, the company also sells a pair of earbud-style EVEN Earphones for $129USD.

Wrap-up

There’s no question in my mind that the EVEN H1 headphones are worthy of a Top Pick of 2016 award. The design, comfort, and balanced sound produced by the EarPrint technology will have me highly recommending these headphones to anyone looking for a new pair.

*We were sent a sample of the EVEN H1 Headphones for the purposes of this review.

Last Updated on March 16, 2017.

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