SoundPEATS H3, the review with a surprise

It is impossible to have comprehensive knowledge of all the brands that produce high-fidelity products worldwide. One has limitations and acknowledges them publicly, as I have done on more than one occasion. Here is a clear example of what I am talking about: SoundPEATS.

The marketing department of this Chinese company contacted me to explore the possibility of reviewing one of their high-end products from their catalog: the H3. I had no prior information about them and did not want to risk accepting a product for review if I was not satisfied with the result. In other words, if it did not meet the minimum quality standards, it would not appear in this publication. It's that simple. In China, they make good, average, and bad products; I did not know where to place them beforehand.

They accepted the challenge and sent me some IEM headphones without knowing what my decision would be. Three days after receiving them, I sent them a message confirming that they had passed my first test and that they would get their review.

Shenzhen SoundSOUL Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Behind the SoundPEATS brand is a company located in Shenzhen, China. This is a hub for technological development in the Asian country. There are a number of high-tech companies in the area that form a cluster for the growth and development of new technologies or their application in real environments. SoundSOUL (for short) was created in 2010, starting its business journey as a white label manufacturer of products for third parties.

Among its business partners are such prominent names as Qualcomm, for the integration of Snapdragon Sound chips in its high-end and audiophile products, and Sony, with the integration of LDAC encoding, also in its high-end ranges.

Keeping the focus on Japan, due to its agreement with Sony, I would like to highlight that this is possibly one of its main markets for two reasons: the economic one, with strong sales in Japan, and the prestige obtained in that country, which has catapulted it to greater heights thanks to this recognition granted by a country whose expertise and knowledge in the world of high fidelity is undisputed.

And everything I have mentioned above is amplified by another reason: the price of its products is really attractive and affordable. The economies of scale that a company must achieve in order to sell in OEM format are very demanding, and if they take the step of wanting to market their products directly to end consumers, we have a winning combination.

H3 headphones, main technical features

As I have done on other occasions, I am including literal excerpts that the company has sent me and which, for obvious reasons, I am unable to evaluate in some cases due to a lack of technical resources:

The Bluetooth signal range comparison I have carried out over the last few days is similar in both quality and difficulty to that shown by other headphones with similar characteristics, such as the Technics AZ-60 or Bowers & Wilkins P7, just to mention two different brands. Obviously, the range is determined by the transmitter, but what I am looking for in these comparisons is the following. In a gray area, where the signal is poor, which one has the greater ability to pick it up and recognize it. And the SoundPeats H3 get the same result as the two previous brands, but their price is significantly lower. That's a plus.

Sound of SoundPEATS H3

In the introduction, I already mentioned that sound was a fundamental point for me. If they didn't measure up, out they went. No problem. And they do measure up, and I knew it within a few minutes of listening. I played my Qobuz playlist to test the equipment, which you can listen to here. But before you do, don't be impatient and do what good sound enthusiasts do: enable the LDAC option. This is disabled by default to be compatible with most enthusiasts; however, we are not the majority and we want the best. Therefore, instead of being able to connect two devices, we will only connect one, but at the highest quality.

To refresh readers' memories, LDAC is the only codec approved by the Japan Audio Society, with the "Hi-Res Audio Wireless" seal. To summarize quickly, the Bluetooth standard, SBC, transmits up to 328 kbps, and LDAC transmits at 990 kbps. That's triple the capacity, with a resolution of 24 bits and a sampling frequency of 96 kHz.

And with the headphones ready, I'm going to give you a few pointers so that you all have a clear idea of what these elegant headphones sound like. Depending on the type of transducers or drivers mounted in IEM headphones, we can quickly classify them as either excessively crystalline, due to the total absence of a low-frequency driver, or blurred, as they use a modified transducer to work within those frequency parameters, but which often results in an unclear, confusing, and somewhat dirty sound. Between the two models, I prefer the first. The second is rubbish.

SoundPEATS have their own bass engine, which opens up new horizons in our idea of these devices, especially considering their low price. By physically separating the bass generation from the midrange and treble, we get a sound that truly fills you up. As we all have enough experience with over-ear headphones, we could say that these H3s are a middle ground between the sound of open and closed headphones. Without reaching the compression level of closed headphones, we have a bass presence that is much higher than expected in these devices. Best of all, when recordings do not have sub-bass, but rather a very subtle bass, the separation of transducers allows for a clarity that is only imaginable in much higher-priced products.

Alicia Keys' song "Girl on Fire" begins with her voice in the foreground, with little musical accompaniment, until the drums come in with a very powerful beat. You all know it and you know what I'm talking about. Here we can analyze a product and hear where we rank it. Surprisingly for me, this one ranks very high.

"Nightshift" performed by Bruce Springsteen is another musical concept. Its percussion is always present, but in the background. It almost never takes on the tone of a main or dominant piece. However, its guitars open up as much space as possible and achievable. Keeping the rhythm with the drums all the time, constantly, its strings opening up the whole scene, to make it big, no, immense. And there appears Bruce's voice, unique and unrepeatable. With a life behind him that makes his vocal snaps a lesson in interpretation. It conveys emotion. And I have experienced all this with these toys in my ears.

PEATSaudio APP

As you can imagine, this is the app that manages the headphones. Available in the app stores we all know. Well, here we are going to tone down the language used so far.

The app is available in four languages: Chinese, Japanese, English, and German. I used the English version and my phone is an Android. After a simple setup, the app is synced with the headphones. At first glance, it resembles the Technics app, for example, but it's not the same at all.

The translation is poor, with numerous comments in Chinese on the screen, depending on which option you choose, or everything in Chinese in others. It is clear that the program was originally written in this language and then adapted for others, but it was not created directly as a multilingual program.

The main and fundamental parts are all correctly translated. However, when it comes to the less common parts, the result is not good. For a user, having to press a button without knowing the full content of the message is not reassuring.

In a section that I thought would help me learn about other products from the same company, presented in a very elegant and well-designed way, you can see photos of other products from the brand. When you click on the desired product, instead of going to the website where you can find more information about it, or having it embedded within the app itself, you are taken to the user comments section for that product. Having a significant impact in the Asian market, you don't understand anything. What could be a sales opportunity becomes a waste of time.

What's more, to access certain extended features of the product, you have to register on their website. I don't like this and I haven't done it. I could go on, but I think you all get the message. These headphones deserve another app right now.

The positive side is that with a new version of the app, the product will have all the blessings of publication, and this doesn't cost that much.

Final conclusions

The surprise effect is the most genuine one can analyze and experience. When you don't know what to expect and you find this gold nugget in your hands, you smile. It makes you feel like a pioneer.

I love its sound profile; I already liked it when I tried another similar piece from a well-known brand at a similar price.

Its management app needs a lot of work, as it falls well short of the technical performance of the headphones. We need a new software version immediately.

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