Bang Olufsen EarSet 3 gear review

By Torbjorn Kamblad, Sweden
for www.touchgen.com

Published: October 8, 2009

Bang Olufsen EarSet 3 gear review thumbnail

Here is the first review for our new gear section, where we will be reviewing a selection of gear available for both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Bang Olufsen EarSet 3 is a stereo headset with built in microphone that is compatible with the iPhone. Just like the Apple earphones shipped with the iPhone 3G it lets you control pause/play, double click to next track, and triple click to go back one track. The products from Bang Olufsen comes much in the same kind of minimal presentation that Apple uses with focus on the product, and not the wrapping paper.

The EarSet 3 features sturdy adjustable rubber design that go around the ears. These sit just as well as a pair of glasses. The space behind your ears might get a bit cramped if you want to use the EarSet 3 together with glasses or sunglasses. This is something to take in consideration before getting any headset that needs to be placed behind the ears. I myself have had no trouble wearing sunglasses together with the EarSet 3 but my ears are kind of big.

The EarSet 3 stays on without any trouble when exercising too, even when sprinting or jumping around shooting hoops. A lacklustre noise isolation might make you hear your own panting though, at least if you are in my poor shape.

The sound quality is great, and if you sit in a silent room with the EarSet 3 you can’t hear any noise at all but the sounds you want to hear from your chosen game or piece of music. This means that the EarSet 3 has a great signal-to-noise ratio, which limits unwanted noise pollution.

I have tried and tested the EarSet 3 in my home with two daughters below the age of two whom both have inherited interests in technological shiny objects from their father. The EarSet 3 has been almost eaten, almost drowned in water, and more or less abused against any thinkable surface. The result of the abuse is a torn foam pad, and not a single scratch. I felt despair as I found the EarSet 3 on the floor all crumpled just to find that like the Phoenix it rises again once I untangle the cord.

I am a teacher at an upper secondary school, and the level of interest the Bang Olufsen EarSet 3 has brought is unparalleled so far. Not even the Skullcandy Metallica Hesh managed to create the same level of interest. And with the EarSet 3 the interest and fascination is not only from students aged 15-20, but quite a lot of my colleagues have taken an interest.

I really enjoy listening to music and podcasts on my iPhone, and most in ear headsets hurt my ear after long periods of use. Sometimes even inserting something into the ear canal can feel uncomfortable. Sadly most headsets with iPhone compatible microphone are in ear, and finding a quality headset like the EarSet 3 has been great for me personally.

At $199.95 the EarSet 3 is quite expensive compared to most in ear headsets, which you can get for prices starting as low as $30. Still I must say that the EarSet 3 breathes quality, and the robust design has proven durable at least in my totally unscientific and totally unplanned tests.

Image/Style/Design

The Bang Olufsen EarSet 3 is truly beautiful to behold, and out of all the earphones I have tried it is by far the one getting the most attention. The aluminium and black rubber design looks just as well on a table as on your ears. The circular microphone is also something people tend to notice as a neat looking feature.

Portability/Comfort

Once the EarSet 3 sits in place on your ears you won’t notice it for hours. It is really comfortable, and as you don’t have to remove them to speak to anyone you can wear them all day. To talk to someone simply angle the earphones from your head. At times I wear them that way to get a bit of music as well as being available for my colleagues questions.

There are some entanglement problems inherent with the design. The bows often get the cord entangled around them if you carry them in your pocket without the leather case. Even when I have placed them in a neat pile on a table they tend to tangle as the cord also has a bit of friction making it prone to entanglement.

I live in Sweden, and as you all know polarbears roam our streets in the constant winter. The aluminium around the ear gets really cold when the chilly wind starts blowing, and I reckon that I won’t be able to use the EarSet 3 outside in below zero Celsius degrees. A minor problem, but still important to know if you are looking for a headset to use all year round.

Sound quality

All I can say is wow. The clarity of the sound is astounding, and when listening to a podcast it feels like I am inside the studio recording it. Clear, vibrant and from what I can tell there is no loss of audio quality at all despite the open design. The EarSet 3 is not heavy on bass, and to some that is a big thing. I rather have a good presentation of how the source sounds, and don’t care much for extra bass making everything murky.

The sound of the microphone while talking is also top-notch. I have asked the people I have had on the phone how it sounds, and the answer I get is that it sounds like I am in the room with them. The circular microphone is extremely sensitive to wind, and when outside or travelling at speed you have to cover it up with your hand or clothing.

Noise isolation

The EarSet 3 is more about allowing you to hear people around you than blocking them out. It isolates its own leakage to some extent, but as all open earphones there is an audible leakage up to 1-3 meters from the earphones. Still not as bad as it is with the earphones Apple ships with the iPhone.

When out walking next to traffic and extensive crowds the EarSet 3 gets drowned pretty badly. The loss of audio is about 70% meaning that it is impossible to listen to podcasts and audiobooks in those environments. On a bus it is acceptable but still a problem. The EarSet 3 is best suited for calm silent environments.

Gaming

The EarSet 3 has been tested playing games from all genres and it holds up really well especially to real voices such as those found by the commentators in Madden 2010 and Real Soccer 2010. They lack the low end a bit when it comes to playing games with 8-bit sounds and chiptune music, and hence the experience in games such as Squareball and Vector Blaster is somewhat less intense. To conclude I will say that the EarSet 3 is best suited for games with a full range of sound such as most high end sports and racing games. The poor noise isolation might hinder you to play adventure games and games where you have to either hear a dialogue or get audio cues to play.

Final rating

4-stars

Bang Olufsen EarSet 3 is the best looking earphone I have ever used, and the comfortable design paired with the excellent audio makes for a great experience. Sadly it is let down when it comes to noise isolation, and entanglement problems. To me the EarSet 3 is a great everyday earphone, as you don’t have to insert anything into the ear canal. And yeah you look really good with them, and you know it.

Bang Olufsen EarSet 3 $199.95 at the US Apple Store

Information on EarSet 3 at Bang Olufsen

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here