Review: 1More’s new EVO Earbuds: Serving High Fidelity Sound Plus Noise Cancelling

1More offers earbuds for Music Lovers/travelers and business users:  The EVO “ True Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones” are an excellent addition to a line of earbuds that are impressive sounding.

The MSRP for the EVOs here in the US is $169.  That said, recently EVO had them on sale on their own website for $129.  Hey, they are a better value at $129 than $169, but at either price, these are some serious contenders for those looking for superior sound quality and music enjoyment.

A quick heads up.  These 1More EVOs definitely are high fidelity, satisfying the music lover in us, but the addition of a respectable level of ANC also makes them a very good choice for travelers who enjoy music.  I was very impressed using them while flying!  Finally, a pleasant surprise, unlike a lot of earbuds, checking with my business friends, they found that listening to me on their iPhones, etc., found them to sound better than most – as many earbuds are criticized for how they do in business conversations.  That from folks looking for a solution for their own business calls.

Why Review These 1More Earbuds?

I already own two other pair of 1More earbuds, (because the first pair I got, blew me away,) along with buds from other companies, but this is my first pair to sport Automatic Noise Cancellation (ANC).  My plan is to discuss the overall sound quality of these EVOs with the other pairs I own, with my primary interests being how good the sound quality is, in conjunction with a serious amount of ANC.

Let me point out immediately, that if you are completely/totally adverse to ambient noise, it is unlikely that any pair of earbuds will suit you as much as the larger, heavier “over ear” type headphones, with the Bose over ear headphones with ANC likely the best known, although Dr Dre’s Beats line, Skullcandy, and others offer similar products in the over ear category. 

But. for the rest of us, who don’t want heavy/bulky headphones, earbuds like these EVOs are likely to really impress you with the amount of ANC they are capable of.  It is said that larger established players like Sony have better ANC tech than typical Chinese made buds, and while that may be true, these do a pretty darn good job

That said, these certainly do provide an impressive amount of noise reduction.  For now, let’s just say that when I flew for the first time with the 1More Evos in my ears, that was the first time I’ve ever found the airplane noise (from a window seat), to be low enough to not mar my listening enjoyment in a significant way. 

This is strictly a subjective review.  I’m not breaking out any test equipment to run frequency analysis, or to measure other aspects such as how much noise reduction I’m hearing. Rather this review is based on my (extensive) experience.  I take my music very seriously. And that means I take my sound system, speakers and earbuds just as seriously.  So here’s my background/qualifications.

It’s about the Sound Quality!  I’ve long counted myself an audiophile.  I worked high end audio retail for years (sales and managing), selling some of the highest end audio around.  Back in the 1970s – the high end stores I worked could sell you a stereo rig costing up to $50K (yes, for one room – and only 2 speakers), if you could afford it!  

That’s pretty crazy since back then (1970) a 911S Porsche had an MSRP of $8675, with “lesser” versions of the 911 listing for even less…

To understand where I’m coming from as you read this, music is my hobby.  I can’t play an instrument.  I sure as hell can’t hit notes when I “attempt” to sing, but I count myself as a “professional listener”.  (I’m also a “retired club DJ” – 1978-82 –  can you say disco?  Most years I typically attend 10-15 concerts a year, and on top of that usually two, but almost always at least 1 music festival a year:  Partial list: (i.e.  Woodstock (1), California Jam (1), Coachella (7) Doheny Blues Festival (15+) – it’s local to where I lived in CA, so attended almost every year), Outsidelands (SF – 3), Ohana (3 so far, again in Sept), a Monterrey, and numerous smaller festivals, ie Joshua Tree.  

And I listen to most types of music, even some classical.  (Mostly rock, blues and jazz.) Only covid slowed down my live music experiences, and I’m pretty much ramped back up now in early 2023, although Ohana in September will be my first music festival since Covid (but not the last!!!)  OK, enough about me.  Let’s get started.

1More Headphones – or rather Earbuds:  A bit of 1More company background

Founded in 2013, 1More is a company that builds their buds in China.  They show two HQ locations one in Shenzhen China and the other in San Diego, CA.  They claim to be the first company to offer THX certified earbuds!   (Getting THX certification is not an easy thing!!!)

BTW, more on this later (ok, pun intended), but 1More does some really great, and informational packaging, too.  Did I mention that 1More’s designer has a Grammy for audio engineering?

I first ran into 1More at a CES show, 2015 or 2016.  This site – SmarterHomeAutomation wasn’t very old at the time.  The first pair of 1Mores I got were wired earbuds – which I reviewed in 2016.  I really hadn’t intended to get into reviewing earbuds, but for perhaps a decade I had been using a pair of pretty awesome Shure earbuds that had set me back about $250, in the ‘90s.  

I can tell you that my Shures broke – a wire tore out of one bud, and it wasn’t repairable – I was desperate, but on my next trip to CES a month or so later, resulted in my discovering 1More, (specifically I found them at the Digital Experience – the CES event where the tech press meets new products.  

1More (as is typical of this type of product), offered me a pair to review (and keep) – their wired Triple Driver earbuds (with their separate drivers for highs. Mid, and bass.)  Wow!.  I had thought my Shures were great, but those 1Mores blew me away!.  Those first 1More earbuds (which I still always carry when I travel, and still use at times), sported excellent audio quality, especially accuracy.  They weren’t perfect, weren’t wireless, but “damn!”  They sound great!  And have what I certainly considered at the time, amazingly clean bass, which is most important because sloppy bass tends to obscure details in voices, and other instruments. 

Note, while my pair are much older, in 2020 the latest version of my Triple Driver wired 1More buds became the first earbuds to receive that THX certification.  Since then, 1More has added an even higher end earbud, the Quad-Driver, which also received THX certification.  (I’m looking forward to listening to the Quad-Driver, at some time in the future.  These EVOs are not THX certified, so theoretically not as accurate reproducers.  (On the other hand, these are new, and might well be in the certification process, I don’t really know.  No matter, it’s about the sound quality.  

A couple of years later I had an opportunity to review their “latest” earbuds, collar style, which have the advantages of long battery life between charges, and that should one of the buds fall out of my ear (ie while at the beach) its still attached to the collar, so it doesn’t end up in the sand (or water).  Those ear buds – the 1 More Wireless Triple Drivers, sounded virtually as good as the wired ones.  I felt the bass was tighter on the wired ones, but overall they sound extremely similar.  

More recently my wife (based on my recommendation) bought and uses 1More’s smallest earbuds (no collar), with ANC.  I tried them briefly, but I didn’t find the audio quality to be near as good as the other two pair.  (hers were far less expensive).  But turns out, 1More was just launching the EVO, which they bill as buds with premium sound quality.  And yes, they do sound quite a good bit better than my wife’s pair – although hers aren’t bad at all (way better sounding, for example than those original Apple earbuds that everyone bought), they’re not not near as good sounding as my shiny new EVO buds.

Enough – let’s get down to how these EVO earbuds work and perform.