Solar-POWERED Headphones??? - Urbanista Los Angeles
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2022-05-05
·
2,282 words · ~11 min read
0:01
- We're going in blind, everyone. It's a new dawn. It's the Los Angeles Earphones from Urbanista,
0:07
which are apparently solar powered and I live in the Pacific Northwest
0:10
where there is no solar power. What? These aren't ear buds. These are actually headphones, blind.
0:16
(laughs) This looks like the actual retail packaging.
0:19
Let's see if I can get this out of here without actually opening it, there we go.
0:23
Los Angeles, Los Angeles solar powered headphones,
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always charging, Powerfoyle by Exeger.
0:31
It's a cool box. All the same crap there.
0:35
There's no power above the moon. Why would they even put the moon on here then?
0:39
They didn't enumerate all the other various circumstances where I'm not gonna get any power.
0:44
- [Jono] Moonlight is the bad light. - Okay, there's no moon power guys, I'm sorry, that's V2.
0:48
Let's just check them out though. Okay, we've got a case and it looks kind of nice.
0:54
I like this little, what do they call that on a saddle, bullhorn,
0:58
holding that together, and what's this, a charging cable, perhaps.
1:02
They really don't stand by this infinite battery thing, do they?
1:06
You know what, you know, that's why they have the moon on the back. If you use it at night, you're gonna need this.
1:10
This case is interesting. It's soft, it's actually squishy.
1:17
It's probably cardboard or something, but there is a little squish to it.
1:20
It's kind of rigid.
1:23
Wait, maybe that's just the headphone. Yeah, yeah, that's just, this doesn't have walls.
1:27
So these walls are just stretchy like this.
1:31
Cool, there they are. And yeah, I mean, it's not nothing.
1:38
It's case is all right, and here they are. - [Jono] How big are they?
1:42
- They're all black, they are 40 millimeter drivers.
1:45
They are dynamic drivers. Left and right clearly marked here.
1:49
I'm immediately thinking that this driver looks like it might touch my ears,
1:53
which is the worst, that always hurts. The ear cups are fairly squishy.
1:59
They take a while to expand. They look like the kind of ear cups
2:03
where if your ears are small, they might just go in there and then these would cease to be on your headphones,
2:07
but they are designed to be on ears. You can see these cups swivel,
2:11
which is nice when you have them like this,
2:15
'cause this can sometimes be a little scarf, you know, you're on the bus and it's just,
2:20
Windows are all fogged up, it's a winter and crap. When you're outside it's good.
2:23
When you're inside, you might want to lay that down. Although they really have a tendency though to go fully there
2:27
and then it's kind of weird. I feel like it's choking me out a bit. I really liked the look, this like soft touch,
2:33
I guess rubber finish on the plastic here is nice.
2:36
The branding, the Urbanista kind of iconography
2:40
there is cool. I can see there's some buttons, three buttons here.
2:46
They're really tactile. Oh, sound is not consistent.
2:51
It looks like there's a microphone there. On the other cup, we've got a USB-C port and another button.
2:58
That button's way louder. The headband we've got foam all the way around
3:03
but damn that is thin. That basically just like, looks like a thin veneer of leatherette
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over top of like something hard. And then it looks like it breaks right here.
3:13
That's where there's actually some foam and that, oh yeah,
3:16
that does not look very pillowy. That looks like it's gonna compress and hurt right away.
3:23
And then says Powerfoyle on the top, which I guess is the name of the technology
3:27
for the solar power. I guess, is that the solar panel at the top,
3:31
this whole thing? I'm told that it's the same technology as a solar panel
3:35
you see on like a calculator and those never died and there are way smaller than all this.
3:40
Let's put them on. - [Jono] Whoa, before that. - What? Oh my God.
3:45
Yeah, this is how big they are. This is our new ShortCircuit merch, isn't that cool?
3:49
You guys got merch, you guys, us?
3:53
Am I, do I work here? (laughs)
3:56
Cool, you can get blue bananas. This is pretty dope. You know what, and this doubles
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as a very discreet airline pillow.
4:03
Oh, and there's the logo on there too. This is really cool.
4:07
Don't try to peel it. All right, I wanna wear them. This is left.
4:12
The caliper pressure is pretty tight.
4:17
Yeah, my ear is like, this half of my ear is just immediately inside of that,
4:24
which is probably not gonna be great. They don't go that small.
4:28
I'm on the smallest setting out and I think I would leave it there. I don't have like a tiny dome, I have like a media melon.
4:34
So if you got a tiny dome, maybe look elsewhere,
4:39
and this is as big as they get. If you got like just a huge knock and noggin
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actuation of this, it seems to be friction base. It's not ratchet, it's continuous.
4:52
Oh, it just powered on, I heard a little voice. There they are, 76% charged.
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Now, I wonder if they'll go up
5:03
as we sit here under these studio lights. looks like there's three ANC settings.
5:08
There's ANC on, there's ambient sound transparency mode,
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and there's default, and I can hear a voice cue when I switch that.
5:16
- [Virtual Voice Assistant] ANC, ambient sound, default.
5:20
- Nice. Draining, it's draining right now, oh God.
5:23
It's draining faster and faster. This is so cool that it shows you the rate of the drain.
5:29
Wait, now it's gaining? Oh, wait a second, it's simultaneously gaining and draining,
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but overall it's draining. That's how I'm reading this.
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What's this button do? I don't know, do I wanna look, why would I wanna look at a picture of it
5:42
if I know what they look like, okay. What does this do?
5:46
There's a feature button, I'm guessing that's the big one. Long press on that same button.
5:50
Activate voice assistant, that sounds good, or toggle ANC and each other stuff, yeah, okay.
5:56
On ear detection that's on music. We'll pause when I take the headphones off.
6:00
Decent settings, cool. Well, let's listen to the sound quality
6:05
right after this message from our sponsor. Thanks to Corsair for sponsoring this video.
6:09
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6:12
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6:15
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6:19
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6:23
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6:27
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6:31
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6:36
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6:39
All Corsair build, let's go. You know what I'll give it is they're pretty silent.
6:45
They're not too creaky. That looks nice, with that little marketing.
6:48
Facebook Meta. This one's pretty good.
6:52
The base is pretty good. Billie Eilish, you need the base.
6:56
The music is so like after party.
7:00
So like, meh, this bar is supposed to be closed right now,
7:03
but it's not and you're allowed to smoke in here. Hold on, let me put you in transparency mode.
7:08
Oh, it pauses the music and goes ANC, pause ambient sound.
7:14
What'd you say? Yeah, I don't think this is really doing much. (finger snaps)
7:20
Okay, it was, it was. It's not that aggressive though, it wasn't like really amplifying everything around me.
7:25
Let's put the ANC back on. Ah, the interruption's brutal.
7:29
Oh, this album, this is a good Hi-Fi album.
7:33
Pretty warm sound. This guitar sounds nice and soft.
7:37
Left, left ear just sounds so much more prominent.
7:41
Maybe I'm going deaf. The backwards, you got to test the backwards on
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because if you're one of those weirdos and I've been this guy,
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who wears actual headphones to the gym
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and you're holding dumbbells and you go down to like bench press or do flies
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or something laying down, I've worn headphones where they're like, (laughs).
8:02
Yeah, I think with the $200 range these sound okay. I'm still gonna try some rock and roll music.
8:08
You could be mine. Let's turn it up and see how harsh and crappy they sound
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or if they get distorted.
8:16
This is a, don't go that loud.
8:20
This is louder than I want to listen to, but I could see myself maybe putting up this loud
8:26
in certain circumstances, and it's not that loud. Although I am listening to title
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and sometimes it's just quieter.
8:34
I find like I have to turn my AVR up higher than I would on YouTube Music, for example.
8:38
Axl Rose, man. (laughs sarcastically)
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His voice is hilarious. I'm satisfied, I've made my final appraisal of this product.
8:47
I think that they sound good enough. I think that a lot of what you're paying for
8:53
is going to go to non-oral properties
8:56
such as the solar powered thing. But I think if the solar power thing appeals to you at all,
9:01
it has some value for you. Like if you're willing to pay 20 or $30 for that,
9:04
I think the sound is like, good enough for this price range.
9:09
They don't sound markedly worse than like say truly wireless earphones in that price range.
9:15
Although I'm not going to sit here and say, there's not $200 headphones that sound better than these, there are,
9:20
but with that, with the look of them, the overall build quality, it's got the companion app.
9:25
There's no EQ in the companion app, but I think these are like, they're decent value.
9:30
Even if they didn't have the solar thing, they would still be like, all right.
9:34
Without the solar thing, they probably should be like 130 or something, 150.
9:38
The biggest thing you wanna evaluate in a review, which this is not,
9:41
is how well does the solar aspect of it work
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and I can't do that right now. And let's see what happened after like three minutes of music, whatever that was,
9:51
searching for device again, come on, man.
9:55
Baloney. - [Brandon] Baloney. - What? Dude, I can't get back into the app.
10:00
I'm sorry guys, we can't get back in. What does it say in Bluetooth power level?
10:04
Cell is at 80. Cannot confirm or deny.
10:07
I will say they don't seem to be, they're a bit heavier.
10:10
They're a bit heavier a little and bulkier than on normal headphone this size,
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but it's not really, not like too noticeable.
10:19
The weighting of them like you can tell there's weight in the headband,
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but it's not onerous. I would be concerned about again,
10:26
how comfortable they're gonna be after an hour, especially with the actual weight up there and the thin padding of the headband.
10:30
But while I've been wearing them here, they've been fine. If I was going to LA,
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I probably wouldn't even bother bring my cable. If I knew that, yeah,
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it's gonna be sunny from six to six, I just put in by the window.
10:42
That's actually pretty sweet. Whatever I can do in my life to have a lighter kit,
10:47
a lighter everyday carry, the best. Like if you have a car that doesn't need keys,
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or if you have a garage opener, so you don't need a fob, you have a pin pad, like a code on your door.
10:58
You don't need a house keys, I love that stuff. So if you're one of those people,
11:01
these could be awesome for you. But if you don't mind just plugging your headphones in
11:04
like what, once every couple months, honestly, my earphones, I use it in the gym
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'cause I'd never work out. I'd charged them like twice,
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like I never have to charge them. So what are you really gaining?
11:17
I don't know. Your mileage may vary, but I think these, they don't suck.
11:21
Of course, inconclusive findings on the solar panel.
11:26
You know another real cool thing is there's no like striations on the solar panel
11:29
and you can't see all of the cells. It really just looks normal. No one would know that these are weird.
11:34
So that's very cool, that's another bonus for them, but yeah, you'll have to check out other in-depth reviews
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of this product to know whether the recommendation is, I'm just saying right now it's not a don't buy.
11:44
So thanks for watching ShortCircuit. If you like our headphone or earphone reviews,
11:48
then check out more of them by me or Riley,
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the other earphone guy here. David, you've done them?
11:54
- [David] One. - Watch David's.