The company from Shenzhen, currently headquartered in Califonia, certainly knows what they are doing and it is evident from the amount of effort they put into their marketing message, packaging and, of course, their product. Today, we will be reviewing the 1More Triple Driver In-Ear Headphones.
Packaging
The packaging of the Triple Driver is large, like Harry-potter-esque large. The box is hard-case and feels premium to touch. When the package arrived at the office, it did attract a lot of attention. Many were surprised when they knew about the price point of the headphones. The packaging looks that good. To open the box, we have to flip it open like a book. Opening the box felt like opening a present. At the front and center, we see the Triple Driver hanging enticingly while the accessories are packed modularly at the back. This slideshow requires JavaScript. You can find out more about what is included in the package here at their official website. However, when we tried to take the headphones out of the packaging, it was a tense moment. The groove which the headphones lie in seems to be gripping them very tightly. To take it out, we have to use an uncomfortable amount of strength to detach the headphones from the groove. Perhaps this was a one-off manufacturing error. Comment below if you had encountered the same problem. Our favorite accessory provided was the magnetic clasping travel case. The hard case protects the headphones well and it has enough space to place the headphones in while staying compact. We can just chuck the case into the bag without worrying about damage.
Comfort And Build
The Triple Driver has the right amount of weight to it which oozes quality. The aluminum alloy body has a sandblasted surface which looks pleasing to the eyes. Just as advertised, you can barely leave any fingerprint on the metal body. The cable, made from kevlar fiber, feels strong and durable but yet the exterior felt soft to touch. The amount of microphonics we get from the cable is significantly lesser too. The oblique angles of the headphones make the headphones easy to fit into my ear canals. Overall the Triple Driver is a comfortable IEM and we are able to wear them for hours with no signs of discomfort.
Noise Isolation
We got decent noise isolation from the Triple Driver. At around the halfway mark to the max volume, most external noises are already being blocked. You can increase the noise isolation from the variety of ear tips provided.
Sound Leakage
This is where the Triple Driver did not perform well for us personally. Despite replacing the ear tip with a tighter fit, sound leakages still can be heard. The volume we set was only somewhere near the halfway mark and we were just playing pop songs. Since we are using this IEM for travel and work, this is a disappointing aspect for us.
Power Requirement
Unlike the SoundMagic E80C, the impedance level is pretty standard at 32Ω. The sensitivity of the Triple is 99 dB. Using our Headphone Power Calculator, we see that it only needs 0.25 volts to drive the IEM to a 100 DPSPL. Most mobile devices can already power this IEM sufficiently.
Sound Quality
What is a triple driver?
Let’s talk about the core mechanism of this IEM – the triple driver. It basically means that there are 3 audio drivers within the IEM – 2 Balanced Armature (BA) drivers and 1 dynamic driver. To learn more about how multi-driver work together, check out 5 Types of Headphones Drivers. Each driver is being distributed an area of frequency response to handle and this is what they call audio crossover. The BA drivers will handle the mid to high frequency range while the dynamic driver handles the bass response.
Bass
Bass was tight and punchy. It performed better than the SoundMagic E80C. Listening to “Save the world” by Swedish House Mafia and “Paradis Circus” by Gui Boratto was enjoyable and got our head nodding very quickly. As usual, we test the sub bass with “Intro” by Yoshi and it brilliantly delivers that rumbling feeling that we were looking forward to.
Mids
The Triple Driver did well here in this department. In fact, we will say it did slightly better than the SoundMagic E80C. The vocals were equally clear and crisp but we manage to hear more details from the Triple Driver. The vocals of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” sounds really intimate and adds on to the emotional layers of the song.
Treble
We tried a violin cover of “Beauty and The Beast” by Daniel Jang and the treble was detail without being too bright. There were none of those irritating graininess in the higher frequency either. EDMs like “Harder Better Faster Stronger” sounds great and energetic on the Triple Driver.
Conclusion
Overall, the Triple Driver has a well-balanced sound signature. We like the punchiness of the bass and also the detailed mids and treble. The separation between the frequency response is really good in “ Dirt off my shoulder/Lying” by Jay Z and Linkin Park. However, we did receive feedbacks from others trying on the headphones that the sounds from the Triple Driver are too “defined” or analytical. Perhaps it has to do with the triple driver architecture where the frequency responses are handled individually by 3 drivers instead one driver. The taste for such sound quality is subjective and we personally like it.
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