There is no shortage of in-ear headphones in the market, and you will find options that suit every price range. Companies such as Xiaomi and OnePlus are selling their models at around the Rs 2,000 mark, but there are other companies targeting users who are willing to spend more. We now have a pair of single-driver in-ear headphones from 1More, the same company that manufactures the popular Piston headphones for Xiaomi. These are priced at Rs 2,799 and command a premium over the OnePlus Bullets V2. So are these 1More headphones worth the extra money? We put them to the test.
The 1M301 is a pair of in-ear single-driver headphones, and the company even lists it as "1More Single Driver" on e-commerce sites. 1More uses a similar naming strategy for some of its other headphones as well.
The 1M301's plastic box is unsurprisingly very similar to the one that the Xiaomi Piston Fit came in. The casings have aluminium alloy bodies that house the drivers, and an angled design that helps them sit flat when in the ears. The cables are rubber till the Y-splitter, with additional nylon braid from there till the 3.5mm plug. The nylon braid helps reduce tangles and should make the cable last longer. However, the rubber cables above the Y-splitter do tangle, which can get annoying.
These in-ear headphones have a frequency range of 20 - 20000Hz and have an impedance of 32Ohms. The impedance is higher than that of other headphones such as the OnePlus Bullets V2 which means that you will need a powerful source to get the best out of them. According to 1More, the drivers have a triple-layer diaphragm comprising of aerospace-grade metal between two layers of PET. You get four sets of ear tips in the box which can be swapped based on your preference. 1More also offers a headphone pouch in the box which is a good add-on.
The inline control unit has three buttons - the call button and volume controls. The centre button can also be used to play/ pause music as well as skip tracks. Double-tapping it skips to the next track on your phone, while a triple tap jumps to the previous one. In our experience, skipping to the next track was easy but we couldn't jump to the previous track on a OnePlus 5.
We put these headphones to the test on a OnePlus 5 (Review) smartphone while listening to MP3 and FLAC files, streaming music with Saavn, and watching YouTube videos. The focus tracks used while testing these headphones were How Long by Charlie Puth, Best Friend by Sofi Tukker, and Whatever it Takes by Imagine Dragons.
The first thing we noticed when wearing these headphones was their wide soundstage. You can easily distinguish between different instruments. The mids were quite strong and we enjoyed listening to music. You get good bass that doesn't overpower the mids or highs. In fact, highs can be a bit too sharp and can somewhat drown out the mids and bass at higher volumes. We would pushing the volume all the way, for the best balance. The improvement in audio quality is evident when switching from MP3 to FLAC files.
1More offers an app called 1More Assistant which can help burn headphones in for you, which is recommended when you first buy them. The app also has its own inbuilt music player with loudness compensation, and we found that enabling this kept the highs in check, giving a more balanced output even at higher volumes.
We must say that these headphones can get loud, and long listening sessions will cause fatigue. The ear tips provided with the 1More fail to provide a proper seal, causing a lot of sound to leak out. Everyone around you will be able to hear what you're listening to. We tried using our own Comply foam tips, which helped reduce leakage to some extent.
Apart from music, these 1More headphones can be used for calls as well. The in-line microphone cuts out ambient noise well, and we did not hear any complaints from people we talked to. The call button can be used to accept or reject calls, and long-pressing it invokes the Google Assistant on Android or Siri on iOS.
Verdict
The 1More Single Driver 1M301 offers clean and detailed output across different music genres. If you are a basshead you will miss the thump that other headphones such as the OnePlus Bullets V2 provide. If you just want to enjoy your music, these headphones are worth the price - just don't forget to buy good ear tips separately.
Pros
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Ratings (Out of 5)
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