The Gen XY Lifestyle
Ultimate Audio Experience On The Cheap?
How good can a pair of headphones be at S$119?
What if it’s from Xiaomi? Xiaomi may be a mobile phone company, but it has been making waves with whatever it releases. Fair enough, it’s mainly because they’re ridiculously cheap, but the products are actually of decent quality despite the too-good-to-be-true price.
Today, they will release their new Mi headphones, and yes, it’s in gold. But by the looks of it so far, not as cheesy as it sounds. They’ve sensibly stuck to a tried and true classic design and in essence, looks like a blinged up, pimped up Grado.
And like a classic Grado, it doesn’t sport a closed back design; i.e. the sound leaks. But unless you’re concerned about annoying people, it’s not a bad thing. The Mi Headphone uses a semi-open housing that Xiaomi claims improves fidelity and produces a realistic surround sound. It also utilises a large 50mm driver (usually reserved for high end headphones, 40mm is more common), which in theory can result in better sound reproduction. In fact, they claim it to compare favourably with the AKG K551 and Sennheiser Urbanite, which are much more expensive headphones that deliver high fidelity and low distortion.
The new Mi Headphone comes with a three replaceable on-ear and over-ear cushion kits, which is a nice touch that few, if any, headphone companies do provide. You get the full works here, with a hard case thrown in for your trouble.
In a normal world, S$119 is an entry-level price for a decent-sounding headphone. Not quite the case in Xiaomi’s crazy world. While the value proposition has become quite a tiresome cliché when talking about Xiaomi’s products, but going by their track record, the Mi Headphone looks set to be a safe purchase. It has to sound really terrible to be bad buy.
The Xiaomi Fan Festival will run from 10am to 10pm today, 8 April 2015, and products on offer will go on sale at specific timings. For more information, go to http://www.mi.com/sg/#news. Sale of the new Mi Headphones starts at 12pm.
