House of Marley Roar Review

House of Marley is known for making audio products for bass lovers. We've reviewed several products from the brand and found that most of them favour bass. The latest one on our test bench is the House of Marley Roar. This is one of the brand's more affordable products, which makes it interesting for a lot of people.

On-ear headphones rest on your ears, as opposed to covering them entirely like over-the-ear headphones. If you've been looking for this kind of product, the House of Marley Roar is an interesting option, especially since it costs just $40 (roughly Rs. 2,700). Does this pair of headphones deliver good sound? Read on to find out.

Design, specifications, and comfort
The House of Marley Roar doesn't come with any accessories. We got the grey and orange version for review and were pleased with its looks. Other colour options, especially black, are good looking too. This pair of on-ear headphones has 40mm drivers, and a single-button remote with an in-line microphone. This means that it is suitable for use with smartphones - you can listen to music or any kind of audio, and use it to control calls.

The House of Marley Roar is quite light and extremely comfortable to wear. Its pads are soft and the headband applies just the right amount of clamping force. We've reviewed on-ear headphones such as the Audio Technica ATH-S100, which clamps down on your ears a bit too hard, making it hard to wear for long hours. Getting the comfort level right should be the top priority for makers of on-ear headphones. We wore this pair for long hours in particularly hot and humid weather in Mumbai and found it uncomfortable only when walking outdoors in the searing heat around noon. But in every other use case - in an airconditioned office, outdoors at night, and in crowded trains - we didn't face any discomfort while wearing the Roar.

However, we were not happy with the build quality of these headphones. The outer shell is plastic but the band is padded with soft rubber. It uses a sliding mechanism to adjust the fit. We aren't big fans of this slider as it's loose and slips a bit too easily. The slightest of shoves in crowded places made it change its position, which was annoying. On the first day of use, we noticed that the House of Marley Roar's cable had slipped out of the plastic casing of its remote. This exposed the thin cord underneath. After a week of light use, the rubber material resting on our head began peeling off. Thankfully it didn't peel off entirely but just enough to expose gaps between the plastic and the rubber.

Performance
We used multiple smartphones including an iPhone 5s, a high-resolution Fiio X1 audio player, and a Windows laptop to test the audio quality on the House of Marley Roar. We streamed several songs using Apple Music, listened to at least 50 episodes of multiple podcasts, and played some FLAC files during our tests. Our test tracks included Riders on the Storm by The Doors and Leaving on a Jet Plane (Original Mix) by Chantal Kreviazuk.

Favouring bass has become a hallmark of House of Marley products and the Roar is no exception. Riders on the Storm is a track best suited to neutral-sounding headphones, but we were surprised to find that the Roar handled it quite well. The sub-bass was a bit exaggerated but not so much that the song sounded bad. We noted a slight treble spike as well, and in our opinion it works for this track. The high-octave piano solo midway through the track remains enjoyable. We'd have been happier if instrument separation and detailing had been better.

We chose Chantal Kreviazuk's cover of John Denver's Leaving on a Jet Plane because it has a combination of high-frequency vocals and low-frequency instruments. In this track we thought the Roar handled vocals very well. We noticed no distortion in the highs and the treble spike wasn't excessive. We found the sub-bass a little fatiguing though. The early parts of the song were especially hard to listen to because of the Roar's excessive sub-bass.

We had no trouble using the House of Marley Roar's remote and in-line microphone. The button was always responsive for taking and ending calls, and for music playback. The microphone picked up our voice pretty well even in noisy places such as crowded trains.

Verdict
The House of Marley Roar is very comfortable to wear and works well for phone calls too. Its flimsy build had us constantly worrying about damaging the review unit. People look at on-ear headphones for their portability, but poor build quality becomes a big problem considering that a lot of use will happen outdoors.

The House of Marley Roar's sound signature brings us to an interesting conclusion. If you like your headphones to have a bass bias but you don't listen to bass heavy tracks, then you will like this pair. If your music collection has plenty of bass-heavy tracks, you might find the Roar's sound a bit too much.

This pair of headphones offers good value for its $40 (roughly Rs. 2,700) price tag. In India, it was only available via Amazon at the time of publishing, but at almost double the price.

Pros

• Comfortable to wear
• Mild treble spike sounds good
• Can be used for phone calls

Cons

• Poor build quality
• Fatiguing sub-bass
• Expensive

Ratings (out of 5)

• Design: 3
• Performance: 3.5
• Value for money: 3
• Overall: 3