Shoutout to OneOdio for reaching out and sending the A70! I do not have to return these and received them free of charge.
Greetings mate and Welcome aboard!
Stuart Charles here, HomeStudioBasics.com helping YOU make sound decisions leading to a beautiful audio experience that will make you fall in love with music (NOT gear) all over again, so…
OneOdio A70
Price: Check Amazon!
At A Glance
In The Box
OneOdio A70 Bluetooth Headphones
3.5 mm to 6.3 mm coiled cable
USB to micro-USB charging cable
Instruction Card
Carry Pouch
Manual
Specs
- Frequency Response: 20 – 20,000 Hz
- Charging Current: 250mA
- Talk Time: 50 Hours
- Wireless Range: ≥10m
- Charging Voltage: 5V
- BT Music Current: 7-9mA
- BT Music Playtime: 72 Hours
- Battery Capacity: 650mAh
- Charge Time: About 2.5 Hours
- MIC Sensitivity/MIC: -42±3dB
- Plug Type: 3.5mm/6.35mm
- Impedance: 32 Ohm
- Sensitivity: 110dB/mW
- Codecs: AAC, SBC
Introduction
Last time we reviewed the OneOdio A71, but how does the A70 stack up? Is it any different?
Well, yes and no.
Let’s start with the build quality.
Build
This matte black headphone is a rather cheap-feeling pair of headphones and I suppose its price somewhat reflects that.
It’s pretty much the exact same build as the A71.
There’s a sliver of metal for the headband adjustments, but aside from that, we have an all-plastic profile that feels about as heavy as a K240.
The adjustments make a clicking sound (as you can match both sides) and the look and design remind me of a smaller M50x but not nearly as robust.
There are dual terminations into the earcups, but you’ll only be using one side and have the option of utilizing the 1/4″ on the left or the 3.5mm on the right.
The earcups rotate around 90 degrees and also fold up rather compactly, but they don’t fold quite as neatly as my beloved MDR V6:
In any event,
the stitched faux leather headband padding seems soft and supple, and the earcups do as well, though I can see these peeling and cracking over time as many others have in the past.
There’s also a USB Type-C charging port on the back of the left cup.
More on that later.
Rounding out the package are an included carry bag, some literature, Bluetooth instructions, and 2 different cables:
- One coiled.
- One straight which is convenient and also locks into place post-insertion.
How’s comfort?
Comfort
Surprisingly, these are rather comfortable and do improve on headphones of the past such as the 40x and 50x.
I’d feel much better wearing these over long sessions than I do those.
I complained a bit about the A70’s lightweight profile in the build section, but it turns out to be one of its strongest assets here as I don’t really feel it digging into any part of my head.
Just be aware that it’s going to feel pretty cheap in your hands.
The clamping force is snug but not too tight or loose, and there’s just enough room for my ears inside the cups which is a nice improvement over the MDR-7506 and V6’s somewhat Supra-Aural feel.
In other words,
I felt like those headphones were a cross between around-ear and on-ear and tended to rest on your ears more often than not.
As for the A70, does it sound good?
Sound
Well, this is where things turn a bit south.
Bass
First off, the bass is noticeably bloated and boost-y in the mid area around 100-200Hz or thereabouts.
This is a spot in the frequency response that most companies tend to overemphasize, and unfortunately, the A70 is just another that falls victim to this issue.
In fact,
the higher you turn the volume up the more bloomy and bad it presents itself, which was an issue when I tried to rock out with Fabolous’ “Into You” – one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
The same issues manifest on Little Brother’s “Slow It Down”, as the low-end attempts to flex over the other frequencies and most certainly takes away from the overall vibe of the song.
It kind of sounds like there’s a layer of fuzz over everything, and it most certainly ruins what is one of my favorite hip-hop tracks.
Mid-Range
Because of this, the mid-range will sound pushed back and ends up playing second fiddle.
Not only are instruments and voices distant, but they have no life of their own, no character, and no unique tone.
In other words,
the Timbre here isn’t good and just plays like a bunch of sounds vomiting through a headphone driver.
Furthermore, imaging and instrument separation is fairly poor as well as stuff ends up running together more often than not.
Making distinctions between sounds and subtleties is nearly impossible and just ends up leaving me disappointed and not wanting to listen to music.
It’s even worse if you’re listening to a track such as Toonorth’s “Wish You Would Call”, one in which he really went overboard mixing the low end.
It’s a good track that sounds terrible through the A70.
This is a prime reason why it’s important to mix on but also listen with neutral headphones as they won’t overly accentuate an already boosted mixdown.
I wouldn’t use the A70 for mixing if someone paid me. That’s how bad it is.
In no way does the A70 represent an honest portrayal of music and anyone who’s mixed a track can instantly recognize that within seconds of firing up a song.
Now it may sound like I’m really dumping on these headphones and I am.
When you’ve heard over 120, many of them being of the high-end audiophile variety, it becomes way easier to instantly recognize the poor sound and that’s what we have here.
Treble
That said, the treble isn’t all that bad but lacks the sparkle, zip, and zest needed to liven the sound signature up and make it sound in any way worthwhile.
I appreciate the fact that it’s not Sibilant or essy, but there’s no character here.
It sounds dull and repressed like a dog who ends up in a cone.
To be fair,
most of this has to do with the boosted low end, but it’s really bad.
On Masego’s “Flight 99”, you can actually hear fuzz when the bass hits, and it’s just cringe-inducing.
Is this an issue with the track itself and how it was mixed?
Perhaps (it depends on the track), but the A70 is not tuned well and it becomes painfully obvious when you’re listening.
In the case of Flight 99?
No, because I don’t hear that fuzz with good headphones that portray the bass correctly.
Now, some may say the highs are actually peaky and overly emphasized.
The problem with this is that you can’t really make that distinction because the bass is so out of control and boomy that it kind of unnecessarily takes precedence over everything else.
In other words, the bass almost inadvertently masks the A70’s treble deficiencies – an alarming thought.
Bluetooth
Aside from its BT functionality, it’s the exact same headphone as the A71.
Build, sound, comfort, everything. It’s as close as close gets to being the A71’s identical twin.
So the A70’s sound is sub-par, but the other issue is that they’ll fall off your head in no time as you’re laying down on a bench for dumbbell chest presses.
As soon as I sat back into position, the headphones fell to the floor and I felt like a complete doofus.
I’ve owned headphones that never move when I’m in the gym, so to say this was a complete disappointment would be an understatement.
To make this embarrassment possible, there are 3 buttons on the back of the right cup.
Hold the middle to power on/play/pause, and cycle songs with the + and – buttons which also obviously raise and lower the volume. There is also a status LED and mic.
Lastly, charge the headphones via the USB Type-C jack on the left cup.
Isolation
The other thing is that they don’t isolate that well because the seal isn’t quite tight enough.
I suppose that’s good from a comfort standpoint but bad in terms of isolation, so make of it what you will.
Put simply, I can still hear mostly everything going on outside of these headphones including birds, my phone going off, the fan, etc.
Amplification
At 32 Ohm impedance and 110dB Sensitivity, these aren’t hard to drive and will sound loud enough out of virtually any smartphone or device you may have.
In short,
No amplification is needed.
Final Word
Unfortunately, I can’t recommend these and won’t.
They are marketed as Wireless DJ headphones but I wouldn’t use them for that or anything else: easy listening, mixing/mastering, etc.
If OneOdio was going for a basshead’s headphone for Hip-hop/Rap, I don’t think they hit the mark.
If they were going for a mixing/mastering headphone,
I don’t think they hit the mark.
If they were going for DJ headphones,
I don’t think they hit the mark.
If I were just grading the overall package and what’s in the box,
I’d say they succeeded given the dirt-cheap price.
The problem is that the sound is dirt cheap, and that’s not what we’re after, friends.
If you’d like a list of great headphones for Hip-Hop, check out the article below.
Learn More:
For a much better Bluetooth headphone, definitely go with the M50XBT.
Learn More:
For all of my top mixing options,
Learn More:
Well that’s about it for today my friend! enjoyed this OneOdio A70 Review and came away with some valuable insight.
Questions? Comments? Requests? Did I miss the mark on something? Please let me know down below or Contact me!!
If you love what I do here and want to support the blog and channel in a more personal way, check me out on Patreon and discover all the value I have to offer you.
Just want to make a one-time donation? Click here. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps keep this site running!
Do YOU think the A70 is a good value? Be sure to let me know!! Until next time…
All the best and God bless,
-Stu
Can’t decide which headphones to purchase? Interested in a complete buyers guide outlining over 40 of the best options on the market? Click on over to the best audiophile headphones to learn more!!
Be sure to also check out my Reviews and Resources page for more helpful and informative articles!
OneOdio A70
12 comments
It’s so frustrated to read your review on the web full of ads every few lines. Good luck
Hey Kelvin! Try ad block. Good luck?
NICE! I LIKE YOUR’S ARTICLES MUCH.ARTICLES ARE VERY INFORMATIVE FOR ME .THANKS FOR SHARING
Thanks, Warner! And you’re welcome 🙂
I have a70s and they are the second brand of headphones I have and I absolutely love them man. I use them everyday and almost never charge them. I think for me personally that they sound awesome but that’s just my opinion, the only thing I don’t like about them is how they fall off as you mentioned
Hey man!
Glad to hear you’re enjoying them 🙂 If you are ever in the market for a new pair, please reach out as I can help guide you in the right direction.
Cheers,
-Stu
The several trillion ads aside, I like the review. Seems detailed enough. Cannot help but wonder how much bias there is when you start off comparing them to a £250 pair of headphones, when there are 13% the cost.
It’s like watching Top Gear test-drive a sensible family sedan that costs £30k and then shooting it down because it’s not as impressive as a £400k Rolls Royce.
Ever heard of this thing called Ad Blocker? Thank you for the sentiment on the review. There’s no bias; they’re just terrible headphones regardless of price. When you’ve heard over 130 it’s easy to tell a good pair from a bad one – especially given my ears are trained for critical listening due to how many tracks I’ve mixed over the years. I would never recommend these to anyone under any circumstance as there are infinitely better options at the price point.
That said, OneOdio has a couple of great offerings in the Monitor 60 and Monitor 80 so I’m in no way trying to dump on the company. I think more people need to be transparent about gear because let’s be honest, most stuff, even if it’s trash, gets recommended by most people.
You might be misunderstanding the audience for these. I’m consistently baffled by how many people I know only listen to music through things like phones, gaming headsets, TV’s, and clip-on Bluetooth speakers, that straight-up make all music sound like shit out of a butt. Those are the people I’d wholeheartedly recommend these to. They’re $50, the battery lasts forever, the volume’s the best of any Bluetooth set I’ve found in its price range, and the clarity’s nowhere near as unlistenable for the average person as it is for you.
I’m not a musician or audiophile, but I do care about sound quality, I daily these because I can’t use wired sets with my phone, and they only come up short when I put them head-to-head with more expensive models. Yes, they’re bass-heavy out of the box, but… graphic equalizers. Anyone can use them.
I used to have decent Audio Technicas that cost around $130. (Lost them, unfortunately.) And of course, they were noticeably better—but not almost three times better. I understand this is a music production blog, but are music producers even considering these for anything except testing their mixes on lower-end cans in the first place?
The real problems with them I’ve found is that they last exactly one year before the plastic holding the adjustment slider breaks. Happened to all OneOdios I’ve had.
Hey man!
I really appreciate you stopping by and for taking the time to comment as much as you did. So I will return the favor.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear; these are not recommended for anyone. Ever. Any audience, any situation. They are horrifically tuned. What baffles me is that people are, for whatever reason, unable to do anything more than surface level research when supposedly trying to find a long term solution to whatever problem they may have; i.e. they need something for mixing, casual listening, whatever the case may be.
Yes, this is a music production blog, and yes, because I have so much experience with countless headphones, EQ, and mixing, I would never in good conscience recommend these under any circumstance. They sound objectively awful. I firmly believe that more people need to STOP shilling every damn product that comes through because it’s completely unethical and makes me sick to my stomach. How are these even being recommended at all? If this is the standard for what’s “good”, or even “passable” we’re in deep trouble.
Have a gander at this graph. Does that in any way shape or form look ideal to you? Answer honestly. It’s not. It’s just about the worst way to construct a frequency response. It took me all of 5 seconds of listening to know I’d never use the A70 for anything ever – and this was way before I ever looked at a graph. That measurement represents almost exactly how it sounds: wonky, weird, and in no way ideal for anything.
In fact, I think it’s dead last on my Bluetooth rankings list, and for good reason.
As someone who has almost 2 decades of experience with this stuff, I genuinely want the BEST for anyone who reads my blog. And if you care about good sound quality as you claim, you’d ask me for a better recommendation. Because this ain’t it. Not even close. If you’re going to go with OneOdio, the Monitor 80 is the best I’ve heard from them so far, mixing or otherwise.
The average person? As you allude to? They deserve better than this. That’s part of why I started this blog in 2014. It wasn’t so we could all be satisfied with mediocre trash and never hold companies accountable for any of the weird crap they do. And spending your hard earned money on something only to have to EQ it is completely counterintuitive. Small tweaks, fine. But if you have to essentially reconstruct a sound signature from scratch because it’s so bad, then honestly, what’s the point? It’s a complete waste of time and you may as well just return it for something better. And no, I wouldn’t use these to test anything; they are that bad. I’d rather someone vigorously rub sandpaper on my ears than listen to these for more than 5 minutes.
Which Audio Technica model did you have? Because those are also very hit and miss too.
And if this came off a little brash, it’s because I’m very passionate about this stuff. It’s what I live and breathe. So please don’t take offense. I’m just trying to help people avoid bad consumer products at any and all costs.
And yeah, physical construction/build is also very questionable; even right out of the box they are completely underwhelming in every facet.
Anyway, hope this helps. I mentioned the Monitor 80, but I also have more recommendations if you want. Just let me know. If not, that’s fine too. Thanks again for stopping by!
-Stu
So what do you recommend as a better option in this price range? Doesn’t seem all that fair to compare to $150+ models. What contenders in the $50-ish price range rises above “really bad” sound quality by your scale?
The A70 I compared definitely has excessive bass than something more balanced (probably treble as well, looking at your graph), but for general non-audiophile use, I’d say the build quality is a bit more of an issue than “really bad” sound: the rotating joint is not that strong and can break pretty easily. The Bluetooth I can’t speak to, as I haven’t compared it, but I don’t expect it to be on par with anything wired. The fact that they’re fairly comfortable and light, have bluetooth and dual audio jacks at all are pretty good selling points in this price range.
Also, just a minor point: the A70 has a micro USB charge port, not USB-C (at least mine does).
Stephen,
Glad you asked! You’re right about features; OneOdio is pretty good in this regard. In terms of build, you’re exactly right; they are not good at all and seem very prone to breakage. As for sound, I can kind of see what you’re saying, but there are pleeenty of headphones in the sub $100 range that run circles around the A70 I’ll get to that in a sec, but have a look at my Budget Kings to start. My Hip-Hop article goes into great depth about why this stuff is so important, so please check that one out as well.
Also it would help to clarify that yes, I am a bit cynical when it comes to sound because I am a producer with a good ear and also have heard some really good headphones (Utopia for example). So yeah, my views may seem extreme but when it comes to sound quality it’s pretty much non negotiable for me since I know great sound is possible at a cheap price.
That said, what type of sound signature are you looking for specifically? I can absolutely help hone in on something amazing. Do you need Bluetooth? Closed Back/Open? The more info you give me the better.
As for the USB, I checked the A70 I have here and it is indeed micro. I will update the article to reflect. Thank you for pointing it out!
Talk soon,
-Stu