Arctic Sound E361-BM earbuds with microphone
Monday, 04 July 2011
Arctic is a Switzerland-based company that started out making cooling fans for PCs and, with Chinese high-tech manufacturing on board, has been branching out into a range of computer-related consumer items.
Similarities include gold-plated stereo minipin connectors and three sets each of small, medium and large silicone caps.
And both these sets come with nifty little carry cases (below). Other than that, they’re quite different. The E361-BMs have a mic for iPhone use, while the E352s have actual wooden chassis for ‘enhanced bass’.
The E361-BMs have an aluminium chassis and a frequency response of 18Hz at the low end and 26 22kHz at the top – that’s a higher than typical high end response. Often earbuds go down to 20Hz so 18 is pretty good; the Apple In-ear Speakers go down to a remarkable 12Hz.So how do they sound?
It’s usually considered that the human ear comfortably handles frequencies down to 20Hz and up to around 20KHz. Above that is heading for hearing what bats chatter about, which you really don’t need to do, and below 20Hz is heading towards subterranean rumblings. So if the range of your ’phones is at least ‘20-20’, you should be OK, but you’ll get more beyond those numbers in either direction – more clarity and even sounds if you’re still young at the high end, (we lose the higher frequencies as we age) and more definition and punch in your bass end under 20Hz.
I used my usual seven-song playlist to give these buds a stretch. On my old reference Sennheiser headphones, The Suit by Public Image sounds round, warm and full even though they only go down to 18Hz. Bass player Jah Wobble famously leaned his speaker cabs up against the wall and recorded the wall to get his trademark rumbly bass, and it sounds good in these old cans.
The E361s by comparison don’t have as much bass presence, but the mids and highs seem crisper and clearer.
The Anner Bylsma cello is always a good test, with lots of overtones present. I like this recording (I use Bach: Suite For Violincello, BWV 1007 - 1009 –1979) for testing definition as you can hear Anner’s breathing and the impact of the bow on the strings – well, if you can’t, your earbuds aren’t much good, as cello doesn’t really go down into sub bass. Reproduction is crisp and clear, if a little cold.
The E361s passed this with flying colours, as it did the Zoe Keating track Walking Man – she’s another cellist, but the tracks feature up to 16 cellos rather than just one. Actually, Zoe sounded awesome on the Arctics – this is the perfect range for these earbuds.
Tropical Hotdog Night by Captain Beefheart starts (or it should do) with audible old-fashioned tape hiss and can distort on low quality sound devices within seconds. You have to listen hard to this test – there’s a lot going on, from guitars and trumpets to drums, bass, xylophones and maracas – plus Beefheart’s trademark gravelly voice.
You can hear everything without noticeable lag or slurring, but if you push the volume the overall effect can be unpleasantly harsh.
I have this in normal and 256kbps versions. The 256kbps version should sound better – that’s why you pay more for it in the iTunes Store.
Good old Alanis’ (probably justifiably) hate-filled ballad You Oughta Know also sounds harsh at high volume but I couldn’t drive this to distort at even dangerously high volumes. (Ouch.)
The distortion point in this is a jump in intensity just after the woo-woo bit just past the middle – if you want to see what I mean (assuming you have it), crank the volume and sit back at around 3 minutes. I’ve had phones completely lose it at this point. These Arctics don’t, and the sibilance on Alanis’ words ending in ‘s’ are impressively rendered. But the popping and burbling bass definitely sounds better with earbuds or phones with a wider bass frequency response, even just down to 18Hz.
Microphone
So there’s a mic in the left cord (Apple earbuds have it on the right). It is black and small with a shiny surface that you can depress: once for play/stop, press twice for forwards and three times for rewind. This works on your Mac in iTunes just like it does with the iPhone/iPod touch. But it does not include a volume control.
The mic really improves reproduction when it’s close to your mouth so you might find yourself hunting for it and holding it close on a phone call, but the sound quality is OK.
As a direct comparison to the mic in the in-ear speakers by Apple (which look pretty decrepit after two years of daily use, but they still sound awesome), the Apple quality was better but when put that mic right by my lips, the recorded sound became distorted, whereas the Arctics did not get overdriven by close-to-mouth (in both cases I was talking, not shouting).
Adapter, adapter
Sorry, I was quoting one of Beefheart’s other songs. It doesn’t tell you much about them on the pack, but you get an adapter that plugs into the minipin and then you get two cables, one for your sound-out (headphone) jack and one for the line-in mic in the left cable. The green one is the audio out (the one you listen on) and red is line in.
This shows up in System Preferences in OS X (I was using a developer copy of Lion at the time) and sound played out fine, but I couldn’t get the mic to work at all, on my MacBook Pro.
Conclusion — well made earbuds that sound good with all sorts of music, rendering clear detail, especially in classical. Handy that there’s a mic and skip control, and nice attention to detail.
What’s great — nice design, mic for iPhone users with stop/play, next track and three for previous track, and great that you can customise the buds to your ears with a choice from three sizes. They exclude sound fairly well, too, once the fit is snug.
What’s not — I’d prefer more bass, but these ’buds are better than many. I couldn’t get the mic to work as an input on my Mac, but it worked well with my iPhone 4
Needs — someone who wants a move away from Apple’s earbuds with great treble and mid-range reproduction, and acceptable bass response, at a good price. If these could reproduce a bit lower bass, they'd be top class.
4/5
Arctic E361-BM earbuds with microphone RRP $79
System — 1/3 metre cable with gold-plated 2.5mm minipin stereo plug with two-way in-out adapter for Mac and PC use, mic for iPhone calls, computer-based Skype or gaming; 32 ohms impedance, 105dB/mW; 15mW power output; 18Hz-26MHz frequency response. Also comes with a nifty little carry case.
Contact — Arctic Cooling.
Available from — I don’t know, but try your favourite electronics retailers. I did notice them on eLive.
