The Soho Wireless Headphones by Harman Kardon is a nice piece of audio gear that comes with a classy design and capable of producing good sound quality. And like its name suggests, it’s wireless and powered by Bluetooth so you don’t have to worry about wires. Find out what this gear has to offer by reading our Harman Kardon Soho Wireless Headphones review below.
Design and Construction
The H/K Soho Wireless headphones is one of those kinds of audio gear that not only sounds good but looks good as well. As mentioned earlier, the right word to define it is “classy”. While some headphones go for plastic with metal and cloth. The Soho Wireless is mostly clad in leather and accented with metal and plastic.
The head band is wrapped in leather with visible stitches underneath. At the end of the bands are metal mechanisms that attaches to the swivel and frame for the square housing. The exterior has a leatherette finish to match the head band. Also found here are the Harman/Kardon branding. On the other side are soft paddings with leatherette finish as well.
Going back to the earpiece, the right part is where it gets busy. Underneath you will find the microUSB port (with cover) for charging, 2.5mm jack for wired listening, microphone, and Bluetooth key which glows when you switch it on. The left part, on the other hand, houses the NFC for easy pairing with NFC-equipped devices.
The fancy part though is the touch controls which is located on the exterior – tap at the center play / pause / answer call, swipe down / up for volume down / up, and swipe left / right to skip tracks.
When worn, the Soho Wireless fits and snugs well to the head. Since it has a small frame and housing, it doesn’t feel confining. However, we feel that there’s not enough padding underneath the head band which could have made it more comfortable and snug.
Still, it was able to clamp firmly on my head and doesn’t fall off even if we lean down. But like most on-ear headphones, it’s not designed for activities that require you to move a lot as it will wobble and slide off.
Connectivity and Touch Control
The Soho Wireless is easy to pair like most Bluetooth-equipped devices. Just press it once and it will light and blink. If your mobile device doesn’t have NFC, you can go to Bluetooth settings, just tap on the Soho Wireless and it will connect. A short tone will let you know that the pairing is successful.
Once connected you can then start playing your tunes, and for the coolest part, control playback using the touch controls. Swiping left and right to skip tracks and tapping on the center to play and pause is almost instantaneous and spot-on. Swiping up and down to adjust volume works in small increments which is good since we don’t to destroy our eardrums when accidental swipes happen.
Sound Quality
When it comes to sound quality, the Soho Wireless is one of the good ones out there. If you’re the type who plays a lot of Hip hop and Club music, the Soho Wireless does a good job as bass is warm and punchy.
It’s also powerful enough to deliver the kind of booming bass that you can feel. It’s also good when it comes to RnB and Rock as it provides enough emphasis on the highs. Mids need some work though as it feels too gentle and could use more detail or clarity especially when it comes to vocals.
As for call quality, the microphone located under the right earpiece works well and was able to catch our voice without any problem during calls. Only when I’m in a noisy environment where I find the need to speak up. In a nutshell, call quality is good but nothing ground-breaking.
Battery Life
Harman Kardon promises up to 9 hours of music playback for the Soho Wireless. We got almost the same result at around 7 to 8 hours before we have to recharge via microUSB. If you’re out of juice, you can still continue listening (minus the touch controls) by using the cable that comes in the package. Overall, it’s good battery life but falls short compared to the Bose SoundLink On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones (15 hours) that we reviewed last year.
Conclusion
The Harman Kardon Soho Wireless is an elegant-looking audio gear that comes with good audio quality and cool set of features like touch controls, wireless capability, and NFC. It’s portable as well as you can fold it and store it in the carrying case included in the package. The asking price isn’t cheap though at Php12,000.
Another alternative is the Bose SoundLink On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones which costs a bit more at Php13,500, It’s not as classy and feature-packed as the Soho Wireless but it sounds better in our experience.
Harman Kardon Soho Wireless specs:
Premium on-ear stereo headphones
Frequency response: 20 Hz – 20 kHz
Impedance: 32 ohms
Max input power: 30 mW
Sensitivity: 100 dB @ 1 kHz / 1 mW
Bluetooth
NFC
aptX and AAC coding
Felt carrying case included
What we liked about it:
* Classy and elegant design
* Premium build
* Good sound quality
* Nifty touch controls
* NFC
* Portable
* Carrying case included
What we didn’t like:
* Pricey
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