RBH Sound EP1 Noise Isolationg Earphones Review

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admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
The RBH EP1 noise reducing in-ear headphones are about the best sounding I've heard from this category of product. Their oversized 13mm drivers produced excellent bass response and were able to play cleanly at much louder than safe listening levels. Their overall tonal characteristics seemed to be pretty well balanced though the midrange was a tad thin at times depending on source material. Anyone looking for respectably good performance from a pair of portable earphones would be remiss not to check these babies out. Portability, good fidelity, comfortable to wear; all backed by the legendary RBH name shipped to your door direct for $149. Recommended is about all I have left to say.


Discuss "RBH Sound EP1 Noise Isolationg Earphones Review" here. Read the article.
 
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KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Gene,
Something is amiss. There is only the cover page without links to the additional review pages.
 
dkane360

dkane360

Audioholic Field Marshall
I've seen a few headphones that look very similar to those. Are they designed by RBH from the ground up?
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I've seen a few headphones that look very similar to those. Are they designed by RBH from the ground up?
Per the review, they have bigger transducers than any others Gene has seen.
You can access the review via a search, just don't select the cover page.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
All review pages do show up fine.... at least now they do
Regarding the headphones - They actually might be a very good deal, giving competition often cost 2-3 times more (Shure etc...)
 
D

DS-21

Full Audioholic
$150 bucks for dynamic drivers earbuds? That doesn't sound like good value.

At that price in today's market, dual balanced armature drivers with a decent crossover would be expected. I mean, if Apple can do it (and do it very well, actually) for ~$80, then other companies should be able to do it for almost double that.
 
D

DS-21

Full Audioholic
In this case, not really. Dynamic driver earbuds have been around for a while. None of them ever have been any good. Ever. I don't expect any of the newer ones will change that. Though because earphones are a hot new fashion category, so they will be more expensive than past ones of similar or better performance.

IEM's really only became a thing when Etymotic Research started adapting balanced-armature drivers from hearing aids for earphones. Then others (Shure, Ultimate Ears, Apple, etc.) followed suit, some adding multiple drivers for greater SPL. The gulf between the BA units and the mere dynamic driver units is little narrow now than it was when the Ety ER-4 first came out. If the dynamics have gotten a smidge better - they have, but in the main the best of them are basically on the level of the decade plus old Senn MX500 - the balanced armature ones have improved at if anything a quicker pace.

Keep in mind also that a very large dynamic driver either means extreme discomfort due to the large housing pressing against one's ear-parts, or a big ugly blob sitting outside the ear and a long tube that will have its own resonant signature to feed the sound into the ear canal.

Maybe RDL can make it work decently well, but we're still talking about a kludge here compared to starting from current best practices.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
$150 bucks for dynamic drivers earbuds? That doesn't sound like good value.

At that price in today's market, dual balanced armature drivers with a decent crossover would be expected. I mean, if Apple can do it (and do it very well, actually) for ~$80, then other companies should be able to do it for almost double that.
I have the dual driver Apple earbuds and they are no match for the RBH's for reasons I mentioned in the review. Dual drivers that small not only limit dynamic range of the HF driver but also bass response since the LF driver is now smaller than an equivalent single driver design.

Hence the difference between theory/paper specs vs reality and understanding real world design trade offs.
 
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BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I have the dual driver Apple earbuds and they are no match for the RBH's for reasons I mentioned in the review. Dual drivers that small not only limit dynamic range of the HF driver but also bass response since the LF driver is now smaller than an equivalent single driver design.

Hence the difference between theory/paper specs vs reality and understanding real world design trade offs.
I have dual driver Shure in ear headphone monitors and I quite love their sound, true I could have used a bit more lows but the sound quality is excellent

That said, my shure's are double the price of RBH :)
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
I have dual driver Shure in ear headphone monitors and I quite love their sound, true I could have used a bit more lows but the sound quality is excellent

That said, my shure's are double the price of RBH :)
There are always exceptions. Shure makes great headphones, light years beyond Apple, and hence the price reflects that. I bet the RBH's have more bass than the Shure's based on the size of the drivers used.

Still, IMO nothing replaces a good open ear headphone like the Sennheiser HD600s but they are far more pricey and not portable.
 
GranteedEV

GranteedEV

Audioholic Ninja
I'd be interested in hearing how these RBHs compare to the JH Audio JH5s
 
jp_over

jp_over

Full Audioholic
I've ordered a pair of the EP1s and should receive them in about 2 weeks. Can't wait to get them as these will be the highest end "in-ear" phones that I've tried. Ah, the waiting game!
 
jp_over

jp_over

Full Audioholic
I've ordered a pair of the EP1s and should receive them in about 2 weeks. Can't wait to get them as these will be the highest end "in-ear" phones that I've tried. Ah, the waiting game!
OK - finally got the EP1s in the mail. Excellent product!

Very accurate and articulate. Dialogue is clear. Bass is well defined and plays low with authority. Here's the surprise, I typically despise in-ear phones and find them very uncomfortable after any length of time. With the Comply T400 'medium' earphone tips installed (shipped with the EP1s) these are very comfortable.

Further, the noise isolation is so good I have to leave at least one half way out so I can hear if we have "incoming". Overall, excellent product and the sound quality/accuracy puts my Audio Technica ANC7b headphones to shame which are currently being shipped back to AT since one side is cutting out. Don't get me wrong, the ATs are a good product that I'll keep but they're just not as accurate (especially in the lower frequencies) as the EP1s.

Caveats: My laptop requires about 60% volume to really get them rocking. So, they're not as sensitive as other in-ear headphones I've had (a set of Ultimate Ears that I bought in 2009 - I think the UE 1 / $99). Also, I'd personally prefer a right angle plug.
 
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KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
OK - finally got the EP1s in the mail. Excellent product!

Very accurate and articulate. Dialogue is clear. Bass is well defined and plays low with authority. Here's the surprise, I typically despise in-ear phones and find them very uncomfortable after any length of time. With the Comply T400 'medium' earphone tips installed (shipped with the EP1s) these are very comfortable.

Further, the noise isolation is so good I have to leave at least one half way out so I can hear if we have "incoming". Overall, excellent product and the sound quality/accuracy puts my Audio Technica ANC7b headphones to shame which are currently being shipped back to AT since one side is cutting out. Don't get me wrong, the ATs are a good product that I'll keep but they're just not as accurate (especially in the lower frequencies) as the EP1s.

Caveat: My laptop requires about 60% volume to really get them rocking. So, they're not as sensitive as other in-ear headphones I've had (a set of Ultimate Ears that I bought in 2009 - I think the UE 1 / $99).
So, will these work as a final solution?
For the benefit of readers who did not see your other thread, you felt you needed noise cancelling and these noise insulating were a stop-gap measure.
 
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