A nice set of quality earphones for all types of entertainment.
A good set of quality, affordable headphones can be hard to find. And even though wireless headphones have really become popular in the past couple of years, it’s hard to beat a good set of wired ones. Even though I sometimes have trouble with earphones fitting me properly, I still enjoy testing them out and when I had the opportunity to try the M2 earphones from Brainwavz, I jumped at the chance.
DETAILS
The M2 earphones are designed to provide a mature, refined sound for the user. They should sound good with any style of music and because it uses a high-quality silver oxygen based cable, the sound quality is preserved from the audio source to your ear. The earphones come with 6 sets of silicone ear tips in small, medium, and large sizes along with 1 set of Comply foam tips to ensure the proper fit for any sized ears. In addition to the tips, the M2 earphones ship with a hard storage case, Velcro cable tie, instruction manual, and 1 shirt clip. They are compatible with devices that have a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack.
SPECS
- Drivers: Dynamic, 10.7 mm
- Rated Impedance: 20 Ω
- Frequency Range: 20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
- Sensitivity: 115 dB at 1 mW
- Rated Input Power: 10 mW
- Cable: 1.3 m Y-Cord, Silver Plated
- Plug: 3.5 mm, Gold Plated
USER EXPERIENCE
The first impression I had of the M2 earphones was pretty good. They have a classic style to them and they seemed to fit my ears well. This has always been a struggle for me – finding earphones that fit properly enough for me to have a good sound. After wearing the M2s for a while (a couple of hours), I found them to be tolerable, but not as comfortable as my AirPods.
I like to use a movie or TV show I’m familiar with to test out headphones because I know what it’s supposed to sound like. Therefore, if it sounds off for some reason I know it’s probably the quality of the headphones. The first set of sound tests I ran involved connecting the M2s to a Lightning headphone adapter for use with my iPhone 7.
Overall sound quality was above average. I found that the M2s pulled up higher-end audio details very well. I watched the first 6 minutes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as a baseline for audio. This is a standard test for me because it has a strong mix with lots of sound effects, spoken word, popular music, and a musical score, too. I was not disappointed with the sound quality as I could hear and understand the characters when they spoke quite easily.
That said, the bass was lost a bit. Usually, I can attribute this to the ‘fit’ of a set of earbuds but the M2s seemed to create a nice seal in my ear canal. The depth was lost but the other higher end sounds were very crisp and distinguishable from each other. For example, the music track Mr. Blue Sky is playing over the top of a battle with lots of gunfire in the background. You can hear the gunfire, but not heavier sounds like body hits or people falling. I was also able to hear tiny noises like footsteps over other sounds when I believe I’ve lost that in the past with the deeper noises included. The M2 earphones definitely pick up on the smaller sound details that other headphones miss.
I found that this same depth/quality issue came up when I listened to the music through iTunes on my laptop. In this instance, the headphones were plugged in directly to the headphone port. I pulled up Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson which has a pretty diverse sound – lots of treble and bass mixed together. Janet’s voice was loud and clear as were the higher pitched musical instruments and while I could hear the bass beats they were ‘booming’. I found the same was true when I listened to The Miracle of Joey Ramone by U2. The track features a very pronounced deep electric guitar right from the beginning. I heard it but it wasn’t as prominent as it is with other listening devices. It was almost like listening to the track again for the first time.
I actually did a side by side test with the M2 and the Apple AirPods. I started the track Futures by Jimmy Eat World on my iPhone (connected through AirPods) and my laptop (connected through the M2 earphones) and found that while the crispness of the M2 headphones was just a good as the AirPods, the AirPods won for overall sound quality because the depth of sound wasn’t lost.
CONCLUSION
Aside from the ‘budget’ earphones available, the price ($60) of the M2s are in-line with other noise isolating earphones. I don’t like that there are no in-line controls on the cord, but other than that, the M2s are a decent set of headphones for any type of user. They provide a quality sound, but if you are looking for something that gives you a heavy bass, I don’t think these are the headphones for you.
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