Headphone Reviews

Sound Quality
Well...they make sound.

Actually, I shouldn't joke—they performed better than I expected. 'Course, I expected something pretty horrific.

Because the audio signal always goes through the active electronics circuitry, sound quality in noise canceling and non-noise canceling modes in both wired and Bluetooth connections are quite similar.

Wired and Bluetooth Non-noise Canceling
In this mode, the overall sound quality is bass heavy with a zingy treble. Bass boost is quite strong and centered in the upper bass/low-midrange (~200Hz) area giving the E7 a significantly thick and wooly character. Mid- and low-bass extension (below 80Hz) is poor and quite sensitive to earpad seal. Bass is moderately loose and distorted; it definitely lacks dynamic punch. Basically a muddy mess.

From the middle of the midrange (~500Hz) to the low treble (3kHz) the overall level is low compared to the bass bump and mid-upper treble (above 4kHz) emphasis. This area gets somewhat lost in the mix, but is fairly balanced in tonal character.

The mid-treble on up (4kHz+) is over emphasized, but not as badly as the bass, giving these cans a zingy character. Fortunately it is relatively well balanced within this range and doesn't have any harsh or intolerable characteristics.

In listening, these three areas are quite discontinuous; you don't get a sense of the whole of the music. The bass sticks out as the worst of the problems; mids and treble manages to hang in there with reasonable intelligibility, but little in the way of musical satisfaction.

Dynamics are mushy and the audio image lies in a blurry blob between the ears.

The only redeeming characteristics of the E7 is that they don't sound hard or piercing, and music and movie audio is reasonably intelligible apart from the inarticulate bass bloat.

Wired and Bluetooth Noise Canceling Active
Flip the switch to turn on the noise canceling and enter a whole new world of sound...a world of cardboard tubes and old school telephones.

In noise canceling mode you do indeed get about 10-15dB more attenuation below 400Hz when compared to the passive isolation, but the sound quality becomes very mid-centric, boxy, and shouty. Pretty much the entire midrange from 200Hz to 1kHz is strongly emphasized and moderately hard sounding—a complete roll reversal from the non-noise canceling mode.

Bass quality actually improves, becoming tighter and better extended, but it is so imbalanced from the now over-emphasized midrange that it's hardly enjoyable—or even noticeable.

The only saving grace in this mode is that the reasonably well behaved mid- and upper-treble (4kHz and up) has just enough level to be heard over the shouty midrange allowing the E7 to retain a modicum of speech intelligibility.

Dynamics are mostly heard as semi-cringeworthy midrange shouts. Imaging doesn't seem as fuzzy as in non-noise canceling mode but remains firmly anchored between the ears.

Summary
I've tried, but I simply can't think of any good reason to recommend these headphones other than being able to wrap "noise canceling" and wireless" buzzwords around your blingy new black and chrome headphones. Sure, they're cheap; sure, they're not so horrible that your ears will bleed (I've heard way worse); but you get what you pay for. The Cowin E7 is just barely okay for the money.

Look, noise canceling is a tricky, tricky thing; it costs real money to do it right. If you can't afford $200-$300 for noise cancelers and you're going to spend 16 hours on an airplane, I'd suggest an inexpensive pair of in-ear headphones like the $70 HiFiMAN RE-400 Waterline in-ear monitors. If you're okay with sticking things in your ears, in-ear monitors generally offer even better isolation from outside noise than most noise cancelers.

If you don't really need noise canceling but want some isolation from the outside world, the Creative Aurvana Live ($69) sound darn good. If you can spend more, the Audio Technica ATH-M50x (~$150), or better yet, the Sennheiser HD 569 ($179) will deliver a much better listening experience and better isolation than the Creative Aurvana Live!

If you simply must have a wireless, noise canceling headphone, the AKG N60NC ($299) on-ear is as low-priced as I can recommend in good conscience. At that point, you're really probably better off crying once and pop for the world-class Bose Quiet Comfort 35 ($349).

There you have it: America's most popular headphones is a mediocre, chrome-plated, caricature; just barely functional; certainly not a good value even if cheap. A disposable plastic wannabe-contender. Perfectly apropos of what happens when you leverage the common denominator with the power of the internet.

Maybe I should have just Tweeted this review:

"All shiny and feature rich at a cheap price...but a pretender in the end...not worth it. Fake headphones. Sad."

Video
View on YouTube here.

Resources
Cowin home page and E7 product page.
Amazon product page and customer reviews.