Quality or affordable headphones are not hard to find, but it’s difficult to see one with both attributes and an accurate active noise cancellation feature. A-Audio has proven it’s here to stay, the company’s Legacy headphone launched last year was a beauty to behold. In order to bring wireless headphone lovers on board, the company’s A-Audio Icon headphones is the missing piece of the puzzle. You can call A-Audio a newcomer in the headphone market but the company is shutting critics down by launching quality headphones, one after the other for those who want the luxury that comes with it. From the logo to the leather stitching, A-Audio headphones has that luxurious feel to it. A-Audio currently offers 3 headphone models and one earbud, the Lyric (on-ear), Legacy (over-ear), Icon (wireless over-ear) and Elite HD Earbuds. I had the opportunity to test this beauty priced at $379 with Jay-Z’s recently acquired Tidal music streaming service and I was totally impressed.
Packaging
The box the A-Audio Icon come in is smaller than the A-Audi Legacy which is absolutely fine with me. A-Audio eliminated the need for the big packaging as they decided to pack the headphone in its carry-case. Opening the box, you’ll find the headphone already pack in the A-Audio “Luxury Travel Case”. The A-Audio Icon comes with two audio cables with and with mic, battery charger and USB cable, a quick guide and your warranty card.
Build and comfort
The A-Audio Icon comes in two colors, the Phantom Black and Liquid Chrome model. The materials used in making the Icon gives the headphone a quality design and feel. It comes with a chrome plating, steel chassis, zinc hinges and a few plastic pieces. The breathable memory foam cushions and leather padding provides the well deserved comfort needed for long hours of listening to music. Each ear cup is attached to a steel frame with chrome plating, fully articulating swivel ear cups that helps provide a perfect seal. Thanks to the audio output feature, your friend can tap into what you’re listening to.
The rechargeable battery cover magnetically attaches to the headphone just like the A-Audio Legacy battery cover. Pressing the power button once when the headphone is powered on allows you to check your A-Audio Icon battery level. The A-Audio Icon comes with a great battery life. The stats boast a 12-hour battery life, I put it test and it totally aced it. To spice things up, A-Audio adds a rechargeable Power Bank you can use to charge your headphone on the go.
Connectivity
Powering and connecting the A-Audio Icon headphone via Bluetooth is as simple as pressing and holding the power button on the left ear cup for 5 seconds until the Bluetooth LED starts flashing. The Icon Wireless comes with Bluetooth 4.0 technology and a range of 30 ft.
Sound
Just like its predecessor, the A-Audio Icon headphone is a wonderfully crafted headphone and sounds nice out-of-the-box. It also comes with A-Audio’s 3-Stage-Technology modes (Bass Enhanced, Passive and Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)), Throughout my testing period, it was hard to find anything to complain about the Icon headphone.
Bass Enhanced Mode – The Icon delivers rich sound right from the start, thanks to the Bass Enhancer functionality. I tested the Icon out with high-quality MP3s, FLAC files and a variety of musical styles in different genres and it performed great. The accurate lows, crisp highs and undistorted bass lets your music sound pleasurable even after hours of using the headphone.
Passive Mode – The A-Audio Icon lets you use the headphone in a wired mode when you run out power. Even in with the wired mode, it still sounds absolutely wonderful.
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) – The ANC feature did a great job of reducing environmental noise, it’s sad this feature doesn’t in the Passive Mode. I found it convenient to use it all the time for my daily New York subway commute.
Conclusion
For a Bluetooth device, the A-Audio Icon is an amazing headphone, thanks to it’s 3-Stage-Technology, and other features that make it outstanding. Overall, the Icon headphone comes with a great battery life, and a bunch accessories you’ll hardly get from other headphone makers. The only thing I didn’t like about the A-Audio is its lack of voice prompts when changing listening modes. The Bluetooth A-Audio Icons cost US$379 and they’re available for purchase now from the company’s official site.
Specification
| WEIGHT | 0.6 lbs |
|---|---|
| DIMENSIONS | 5.75 x 10.5 x 10 in |
| COLOR | Liquid Chrome, Phantom Black |
| PACKAGE CONTENT | 1 set of A-Audio Headphones, Luxury travel case, Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery 3.7V-580mAH, Two audio cables one with and one without remote & microphone, Polishing cloth & warranty card, Instructional booklet |
| SHIPPING | + FREE SHIPPING on Standard Ground |
| SPECIFICATIONS | Driver diameter: 40 mm, Driver material: Mylar, Driver magnet: Neodymium, Frequency Response: 2403MHz to 2480MHz, Bluetooth Version 4.0, Weight: 0.8 Lb, Cable Length: 4 ft., Plug type: (1/8 in) 3.5 mm gold plated |
| CONTROL MIC | Control mic features work with iPad, iPhone and iPod, and may be supported by other music players and phones, With your control mic you can: Answer, end or reject a call, Call waiting, Play or pause a song or video, Forward or rewind a song or video, Voice command, |
| HEADPHONE JACK | 24K Gold Plated Contacts, Headphone jack features 24k gold plated contact for optimum signal transfer and 4 ft. detachable, tangle-free audio cable. |
