Review: Jabra Revo Headphones

By Mike Wheeler

By Mike Wheeler

One of my main whines about earphones and earbuds in general, is how the cable in most sets I’ve had have been inherently weak. I would say six or seven pairs of ‘phones and buds have gone in the bin because only one earbud was working due to the cable being broken inside the insulation. At one stage I thought there was something intrinsically wrong with my iPod in that maybe one of the internal mechanisms that push sound to the earphones needed repair. However, each time I would test the iPod with a new set of phones and the MP3 player would be fine…for a while. I’m not overly rough with earphones, but they do get used a lot.

So it was with great interest I reviewed Jabra’s Revo headphones, especially after being assured by the local distributor that the cable was designed to last the distance and would handle the knocks with ease.

Out of the box you get your standard set of headphones, which sit comfortably, helped by a nice piece of foam on the headband that connects the two ear cups. The ear cups themselves, while not covering the ears completely, do sit well and are very comfortable and soft. When I was first shown Revo’s  I was told that as well as the cable being very strong, so was the headband. As if to accentuate the point, the distributor pointed out that you can try and twist and bend them pretty hard and they would always go back into shape. So I duly tried just that, and he was right. Beware, this doesn’t give you open slather to try and see their breaking point, but it is nice to know that they are not flimsy.

While these are sold as wireless headphones, they also do have the aforementioned cable that you can connect to your MP3 player or home theatre system. As for bluetoothing, it was pretty simple as I have an NFC-enabled smartphone so it was just a case of tapping the cup and it was connected.

And what about the most important part of all – sound? It was very good. The bass wasn’t too punchy, while the higher end treble was fantastic. I played a range of classical, heavy metal, reggae, house music and some good old rock and roll and was very pleased with the results. There was no discernible distortion, although when turned to full volume those around me could hear what I was playing.  What might cause confusion with some users is the sound control. The actual volume dial itself is part of one of the cups and you have to slightly press the outside of the cup and rotate your finger in a clockwise position to turn it up, and anti-clockwise to turn it down.

Overall, this would have to be one of our favourite earphones we’ve tried in quite some time. Most of the top end earphones and buds are pretty good, but what sold us on these was the strength of the head band and cable.

Pros: Excellent sound; strong cables, top-notch build; wireless set up is easy
Cons: Cable could be longer; volume button might confuse some

4.8 Shacks Out of 5