[General Topics] rpz3.14:
Mixcder MS301 and HD601 Wireless Headset Review

Mixcder sent me two sets of bluetooth headphones to review, the MS301 and HD601. I’ve been using them both for the past two weeks and I came away very impressed with both. I used an LG V20 to drive these, with a mix of flac, mp3, and streamed audio.

Build: The MS301s are clearly the more premium build. Basically, the entire frame and cans are metal, and the earmuffs are a high quality artificial leather. These look really nice and give the impression that they could take a good amount of abuse. I’ve been taking them to and from work in my bag without particular care, and they’ve held up wonderfully. Additionally, they fold up right above the earmuffs. They aren’t as compact as other over the ear headphones (I also have a set of Marshal Monitors that fold up to an extremely small footprint), but it does make them somewhat more portable. As a consequence of the premium build, they are somewhat heavy. They moved a bit when wearing them, as well, which was somewhat annoying.

The HD601s are primarily plastic. They have red highlights around the earmuffs, and are otherwise a matte black plastic. The dimensions between both are roughly the same, which provides a comfortable fit on the head. I have large ears, and they were able to fit without any issues. The artificial leather here is of a lower quality, but is still acceptable. Without comparing the two headphones directly, I don’t think I would notice the difference. The key benefit for this set is that the lower weight leads to a very comfortable fit. It truly felt like they weren’t there, basically no matter how long I wore them. Both sets charge with micro-USB, have a power button and two volume/track buttons, two microphones, and an LED. For whatever reason, on the MS301, the buttons are labeled with the forward/back symbols while the HD601 have vol up/down. The functionality was the same: a quick press adjusted the volume, while a long press skipped songs. The microphones did a very good job picking up my voice in a variety of environments.

The MS301 claim a 20 hour battery life, while the HD601 claim a 40 hour life. In two weeks of pretty intensive testing (lots of streaming audio and the entirety of Stranger Things), both are still going strong on the original charge.

Sound: I evaluated both sets of headphones against 10 tracks that tested the range and response. (from https://www.whathifi.com/features/10-best-tracks-to-test-your-headphones). Both headsets performed admirably, both using Bluetooth and the wired connection. These provide very good detail over the entire range, with a pretty flat response. The separation was very good, as was the space. The audio performance on both headphones was basically identical, which is a huge plus. They blew the Monitors away basically in every regard. These also go incredibly loud. I could literally max the volume with them on the counter and use them as speakers. I never experienced any distortion at the max volume, either. The HD601 advertise an “extra base mode” but the effect was fairly minimal. Base performance was quite good regardless, so this wasn’t a big deal. Both use AptX LL as the Bluetooth protocol, which my V20 was able to take advantage of. Additionally, when plugged in, they triggered the “HiFi” mode as expected, as they list a 29Ω impedance. One of the few negatives was the included 3.5mm cable. It was fairly low quality and provided notably worse sound quality than the Monitor cable. Seeing that Mixcder also provides a nicer looking cable for $4 on Amazon, I question the decision to provide something that detracts from the overall package. However, most people probably will never use these, so again it’s not a huge deal.

Bluetooth: The range for these really varied depending on the use conditions. At work, these passed the “printer run” test by getting ~70 feet (10 m) away before noticing any degradation. At home, they really struggled to maintain connection between floors. In both cases, it was obvious when you were approaching the range. There was no cut out or dropped sounds until it basically disconnected. Generally speaking, moving back into range allowed for a quick reconnection, often without pausing the music.

Initial pairing was pretty painless on both. The MS301 had the usual setup by powering the headphones on and going into bluetooth settings to complete the pair. The HD601 used NFC to pair, and it was seamless. Anyone familiar with using Apple or Android Pay would be able to pair these in seconds. While this is a one time thing, seeing them pair was a great first impression and one of those “technology is magic” moments.

Conclusions: Both headphones are awesome and well worth the asking price. The MS301 are priced higher as the more “premium” option ($85 at the time of this review) while the HD601 come in at $60. I really liked the look of the 301’s, but the much lighter build and extra features tipped the balance to the 601s even before the price is considered unless appearance is a deciding factor (my wife said she’d prefer the 601s even if the prices were reversed). Given that the audio performance was excellent on both, I don’t think you can make a wrong choice here.

Mixcder gave me promo codes for both, valid through October

HD601:

20% off promo price: $47.99

Promo code: 6UWB2NT9

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074...=8-10&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=mixcder

MS301:

34%OFF promo price: $59.39

Promo code: DWMYZ7O8

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B071...cder+ms301&dpPl=1&dpID=41xrGlMNnHL&ref=plSrch