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Headphones are considered a commodity product these days with hundreds of options with the same generic look, features and bargain-basement prices. While many of those cheap headphones are able to do the job of delivering music from your smartphone over Bluetooth to your ears. Most of them sound terrible, have horrible mics for audio calling and can’t be tuned to your specific audio needs.
If you’re looking for headphones that will deliver a superior audio experience with active noise cancellation at a reasonable price, the Avantree Aria Me are a great option.
What’s in the box
The accessories that are included with the Avantree Aria Me are the first indication that you’re not getting a generic pair of headphones. The Aria Me headphones come with a hard case to keep the headphones protected when you throw them in your bag or suitcase for travel. You also get a detachable 3.5mm cable so that you can plug the headphone directly if you don’t want to connect over Bluetooth and a micro USB cable to charge the headphones.
The most unexpected inclusion if the charging stand. Built from aluminum and plastic, the stand will look elegant on your desk, giving you a dedicated place to store your headphones while charging them at the same time.
Specifications
- Audio codec support – aptX-HD, aptX-LL, aptX, SBC
- Active noise cancellation: 22dB noise reduction
- Bluetooth Profiles: HSP v1.2, HFP v1.7, AVRCP v1.6, A2DP v1.3.1
- Operation Range: Class 2, up to 30 ft / 10m
- Qualcomm aptX low latency support
- Simultaneous Bluetooth Connections – 2 mobile devices
- 40mm drivers with 32ohms ±15% Speaker Impedance & 20Hz-20KHz Frequency Response
- 650 mAh battery (Play Time 24hrs with ANC OFF, 15hrs with ANC ON)
Design
The headphones are built with a matt-finish plastic with adequate earpad cushioning, allowing for a comfortable fit. The cups swivel 90 degrees, allowing them headphones to lay flat and fold in, allowing the headphones to fit into the included hard case.
The black and gray color scheme isn’t flashy, but it’ll likely match the gray and black esthetic of your smartphone, laptop and other electronics.
Avantree has included a handful of physical buttons on the headphones, giving you physical controls for a variety of different features.
On the left headphone, you’ll find the 3.5mm headphone jack connection, a switch to turn active noise cancellation on or off, a mute button and a voice assistant button that will activate the Google Assistant or Siri on your smartphone. On the right headphone you’ll find the micro USB port, the Bluetooth on/off switch and a play/pause button in between the volume up/down buttons.
The layout of the buttons makes them easy to recognize and while some other premium headphones use touch gestures to control the volume, the physical buttons used on the Asia Me headphone are a lot more reliable and don’t require an instruction manual to figure out.
Audio Quality
Where the Aria Me headphones stand out from the competition is with its unique audio profiles that are created specifically on the user’s hearing profile. The accompanying app will walk you through a series of tone mapping exercises to determine how sensitive each ear is to different tones and frequencies.
Once your unique profile is created and saved to the headphones, you can turn your audio profile on or off by long-pressing the Play/Pause button on the headphone. We’ve seen similar audio calibration techniques on smartphones like the HTC 10 and HTC U11, but it’s not something that’s common among noise-canceling headphones.
Switching on the custom audio profile you create for yourself makes a huge difference in the audio quality, bringing to life the mids and the highs with bass that’s solid, but not overwhelming.
The headphones can also be used for making calls through your smartphone or for audio on a conference call on your laptop. The built-in microphone does a decent job of picking up your voice, but for a better experience, the detachable boom mic allows for better audio capture since it can get much closer to your mouth, isolating your voice from ambient sound in the room or on a busy street.
Noise Cancellation
The noise cancellation offered by the Avantree Aria Me headphones is quite respectable, reducing surrounding noise by 22dB which is enough to drown out the sound of a fan or even an air conditioner that’s on the other side of the room.
If you’re a frequent flyer, the headphones can also be a great way to dramatically reduce the cabin noise of an airplane, though 22dB isn’t enough to get rid of it completely.
Battery Life
When it comes to battery life, the Aria Me headphones are capable of delivering 24 hours of continuous music playback over Bluetooth on a single charge when noise cancellation is turned off. Switching it on will reduce battery life to 15 hours. Charging the 650 mAh battery in the headphones takes about an hour and a half with the included micro USB cable, but if you place the headphones on the charging stand after you them, you shouldn’t ever have issues with the battery running out.
Price
The Avantree Aria Me headphones sell for $149.99 on Amazon, but if you use coupon code J3BEE75R will get you a $15 discount at checkout.
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