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About our testing:
For more information on our tests, read this article.
Frequency Response (4.19)
How the test works:
This test measures the emphasis added or subtracted by the tested headphones. Ideally your headphones will faithfull recreate the original, but some headphones opt to dynamically alter playback to boost bass or vocals or what have you. We test the headphones' response by playing a frequency sweep through them. Since the frequency sweep plays known frequencies at known decibel levels, we can compare whatever HATS hears to the original sound to determine the headphones' response.
On the graph below, the left channel's response is in green, the right's is in red, and the dotted black lines serve as our upper and lower limits. If the lines peek ouside these limits by a few decibels, it likely won't be a big deal. If it falls/rises far outside the limits, the emphasis/deemphasis is likely too much, which will have a negative effect on sound quality.
What we found:
The MX W1s didn't have the worst frequency response. The bass end is emphasized well; it drops off at the lowest end, which should give a strong base without a lot of boominess. Towards the higher end, however, both lines drop significanly and dance around at our lower limit. They take a small dump up only to dive down past the lower limit, at which point they start getting a bit scribbly.
This loss of the high end is somewhat to be expected, given the odd way these headphones fit into your ears. When they're secure, they don't necessarily fit flush with your ear canal, which not only ruins isolation, but causes you to lose some high end as well.
Again, this isn't necessarily a bad frequency response, but the headphones do handle treble poorly.
Distortion (1.76)
How the test works:
Distortion refers to differences between the original sound wave and whatever winds up wiggling into your ear canal. The distortion test again utilizes a frequency sweep and we again check the original against the HATS-gathered playback. Of course, the ideal result here is 0% distortion, but it should be noted that distortion's effect may be considerably more noticeable when listening to certain types of music: rock, punk, and other genres often heavily utilize distortion filters to begin with, so additional distortion might not be as perceptible when compared to its affect on, say, a fully-orchestrated opera.
On the graph below, the left and right channels are again color-coded green and red respectively. Anything over 3% will definitely be noticeable.
What we found:
The MX W1 actually suffers from less distortion than we would have thought. We expected a ton of distortion because the signal needs to be compressed in order to be wirelessly transferred. Since your music is crunched to a pulp then has to fly through the air before it reaches your ear, it's understandable that some distortion exists.
Regardless of the trials and tribulations that only wireless headphones know, the distortion is definitely high in the low end. Towards the 1kHz mark, however, the distortion falls back down to nominal levels.
Tracking (6.76)
How the test works:
Tracking refers to the balance between the left and right channels. If the two channels are playing back at 100% equal decibel levels, then the heapdhones have perfect tracking. Again we turn to our perpetually useful frequency sweeps; this time we look for uneven volumes between the left and right. On the graph below, any unevenness is apparent by the blue line rising above or falling below the zero line. When the line creeps above zero, the left channel is louder. When the line falls below zero, the right channel is louder. The amount of this extra loudness is measured along the Y-axis.
What we found:
The MX W1s don't have perfect tracking, but it's not abysmal either. The main issue with tracking will undoubtedly be positioning errors. If you don't have them just right, one ear piece will generally play slightly louder than the other, and these headphones are really hard to position correctly.
This being said, if you look at the graph and how it wanders from left to right and back again, the slopes are all relatively shallow (no vertical spikes) and the amounts involved aren't particularly noticeable. A four decibel decibel difference isn't going to shock you so profoundly you pop your monocle. We've seen headphones with far better tracking, but again, the MX W1s are wireless in-ears.
Maximum Usable Volume (9.31)
How the test works:
Distortion is exacerbated by loud volumes. Maximum usable volume refers to how loud you can get your playback before overall distortion levels hit that nasty 3% mark. To do this, we simply run a series of distortion tests at varying decibel levels, until we hone in on the highest we can achieve without distortion levels going awry.
What we found:
The MX W1s were capable of a very loud 117.1dB. We award max points for 120, but anything over that is aural overkill.
Isolation (0.45)
How the test works:
Isolation refers to how much external noise the headphoens are capable of blocking out. There are two flavors of isolation: active and passive. Passive cancellation refers to how much sound is blocked out by virtue of the headphones sitting between you and the noise. Stuffing your ears with cotton balls is a form of passive cancellation. Active cancellation is very futuristic and relies on electronics and science to get the job done. Active noise cancellation relies on microphones built into the headphones. The microphones listen to the ambient noise, which lets the headphones play back a sound with an inverse amplitude. If you remember your old science class on soundwaves, you know that wave plus inverse wave equals a flat (or mostly flat) wave, which is inaudible.
We test isolation by blasting HATS with pink noise to calibrate it, then blasting it again once we've put the headphones on. On the graph below, the green line represents passive cancellation and the blue line represents active cancellation (if present). The lines themselves display the decibel levels of each frequency that are being blocked.
What we found:
The MX W1s did not have the best isolation. The ear buds don't fit really flush with the ear, so there isn't a lot to block out sounds. They don't have active cancellation either.
Because of the barely-there isolation, the MX W1s might not be the best headphones for people on the go. If you're going to walk outside, ambient noise is going to overpower (or at least rudely intrude upon) your playback. We would not recommend these for the average commuter for this reason.
Leakage (7.04)
How the test works:
Leakage refers to the amount of your playback that "leaks" out of the headphones. Leakage is bad, because it can disrupt the world around you and shatter the privacy between you and your playback. Leakage is easy enough to test, providing we have so many precise microphones lying around: what we do is play back a known amount of pink noise through the headphones and use a spare mic to pick up any leaked sound.
What we found:
Interestingly enough, considering the poor seal, the MX W1s didn't leak much.
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