B&O Play is dialing back the clock with its latest Bluetooth earphones, an update to a Bang & Olufsen earbud design from the 90s.
The B&O Play Earset earphones have a decidely retro look, and don't seal off your ear canals like many of the earphones we review these days.
They pack a substantial sonic presence, with rich lows and a warm sound that will appeal to some and scare off those looking for crisp definition.
At $299, however, you really need to love the design before opening up your wallet.
Design
Available in graphite brown or white, the Earset's overall look is quite unique.
The ear hooks, covered in soft rubber, and the metallic hinge they connect to are both visually striking.
The matte plastic earpieces are detailed with anodized aluminum, and the inline remote is also aluminum.
The end result is a cool, retro-inspired design.
Further adding to the retro vibe: foam earpiece covers, rather than silicon eartips.
We're talking old-school Walkman-style slip-on foam covers, not Comply foam or memory foam, and for earbuds, not headphones—you get three pairs of them in black.
The adjustable ear hooks can fasten over your ears in any number of positions thanks to the smooth hinges they're attached to, and provide a relatively lightweight in-ear fit—but you do notice that the earpieces are more or less clamped to your ears.
You can better hear your surroundings using the Earset than you can with earphones that seal off you ear canal, as they don't block out much, if any, ambient noise.
The inline remote control and mic compartment has three buttons—a central multifunction button for playback, call management, and track navigation, and two outer buttons that control volume.
Internally, the earpieces utilize 14.2mm drivers to push out audio.
B&O Play claims the Earset's frequency range is 20Hz to 20kHz, with an impedance of 32 ohms.
The mic offers above-average intelligibility.
Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 6s, we could understand every recorded word clearly, though there's a lack of crispness to the overall sound.
Regardless, it's a cleaner mic sound than most Bluetooth in-ears provide.
The included USB-C charging cable, which is easily twice as long as most charging cables, connects to a port on the left earpiece.
Unfortunately, this port is uncovered, and thus the earphones seem particularly susceptible to water—be careful wearing these in heavy rain, or using them during sweaty exercise.
B&O Play estimates the Earset's battery life to be roughly 5 hours, which is not terribly high.
The issue is likely the larger speakers the battery must power—in-ears that seal off the canal can work with smaller drivers, but earbuds don't typically require more juice to power their larger drivers.
Performance
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the earphones deliver powerful bass depth that doesn't distort at top volumes.
On this track, the bass almost seems to overwhelm the mix—there's crispness in the highs, but it's not as strong as the throbbing bass, and the balance seems weighted toward the lows more so than is typical.
On Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, we get a better sense of the Earset's general sound signature.
And again, the lows seem to own the stage.
I'm not sure what to make of this sound signature—it's not unpleasant, and in its own way, it also seems a little retro—Callahan's baritone vocals and the drums are delivered with rich low and low-mid presence that outduels the higher frequency elements.
It's a warm sound signature—the sound of a vinyl record that's been played over and over.
Some may prefer this sound, but it's missing high frequency information—the treble edge of Callahan's vocals and the crisp attack of the acoustic guitar are not completely absent, but they're relegated to the background.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," we encounter new elements of the sound signature.
The highest frequencies appear to be boosted somewhat—the vinyl crackle that is usually in the background is brought forward in the mix, while the high-mid elements of the mix seem dialed back as they do on the other tracks mentioned above.
The means the drum loop has plenty of thump, but less edge and punch to its attack.
The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with solid presence, but not as much power as we might expect given the performance on the previous tracks.
For orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the lower register instrumentation gets a nice push forward in the mix—there's some added body and fullness that sounds pleasant, though it won't appeal to purists seeking an accurate mix.
The higher register instrumentation is dialed back notably—we hear less of the brightness from the brass, strings, and vocals than we typically do.
This is most definitely a warm sound signature that favors the lows and low-mids, and tamps down the brighter presence of the high-mids that provide crispness and definition to mixes.
You can loosen the earhooks slightly, allowing the earbuds to press less firmly against the ear canal.
The promiximity effect comes into play when you do this, and the bass response lessens enough that the overall mix sounds more balanced and equalized.
The Callahan track isn't as rich, and has a bit more crispness.
The classical track sounds brighter, and the lower register instrumentation has a pleasant, rich presence that balances things out while the higher register instrumentation takes a step forward.
The trade-off is that the earphhones feels a little less secure like this, and you also run the risk of one ear being slightly off-axis, which results in uneven stereo imaging.
Conclusions
B&O Play's Earset earphones look cool and fit securely—but even those who love warm sound signatures might find its lack of high-mid presence less than ideal.
Yes, the earpieces can be adjusted to compensate, but it makes the fit less secure.
If a warm sound signature happens to be your thing, and you're into the unique design, you'll be quite pleased.
If you're simply looking for solid Bluetooth in-ears, the gym-friendly Jaybird X3 and the JBL Reflect Mini 2 are two of our standby favorites, and for audio performance, we like the V-Moda Forza Metallo Wireless and B&O's own Beoplay H5, all of which are more affordbale than the Earset.
The Bottom Line
The B&O Play Earset earphones offer a warm sound signature and will appeal to retro design fans with money to spend.
