1More Triple Driver Over Ear Headphones Page 2


Sound Quality

I can't believe this is a $249 headphone. Sean Olive contends that there is little relationship between the price of a headphone and the quality of reproduction. I agree. Usually it's used as a damning criticism of expensive headphones that don't live up to their price tag. Fortunately the opposite is also true: There are headphones that punch well above their price tag. Such is the case with the 1More Triple Driver Over Ear Headphone.

Generally speaking, the 1More TDOEH is a headphone with a moderate warm tilt. Bass is emphasized in a large humped response starting at around 300Hz and centered at 50Hz. The quality of bass response is very hard to describe. It's not sloppy or bloated, but it's not particularly punchy either. As mentioned previously, there's a significant rise in measured distortion, but it doesn't sound much like the distortion I've heard in other cans. It can get a little confused sounding with complex bass information. It does sound somewhat more visceral (having a physical sensation) than I've heard before...maybe I'm sensing the moving mass of the bass reflector.

I was listening to some Ray Brown Trio tracks. As he deftly traversed the finger board moving up and down over the lower ranges of the stand-up bass, the natural character of the instrument would change as it descended into the mid-bass region. It's almost as if another electric bass came in and played along for the low notes. What makes it noticeable is that the mids and treble on these headphones are superbly articulate and clear, which makes this transition into the mid-bass a bit of a distraction.

On the other hand, with electronic music the solid bass level and visceral sensation was really fun at times. I think these are actually borderline basshead headphones without being too offensive to people with neutral sensibilities. I'm kinda torn on the quality of bass response; I'd sure like to hear what these cans could be without the bass reflector, but I'm not entirely sure I'd want to do without it in the end. It is bringing something fun to the low end even though you're giving up some textural articulation. Definitely worth a listen to see if it's up your alley.

Apart from the odd transition between the bass and midrange, the midrange is quite neutral, and transitions nicely into a well balanced treble. Though the 1More TDOEH doesn't have the liquid coherence of some high-end cans, the articulation is spectacular. Response is very well balanced portraying the full spectral range of female vocals and cymbals. Response is crisp (in a very good way) without being strident in the least. I could play tracks I knew to be borderline edgy a high volume with no problems at all.

All this clarity spills over into the imaging and dynamics, which is moderately better than average in both cases. Imaging is is a tad shallow and remains in the head, but it's precise and specific with instruments stably in place in a continuous arch left to right. It's also somewhat low in the head, which I like as sometimes image depth is portrayed in more of an up than out direction that I find distracting. Dynamics, other than the somewhat odd bass response, are very nice. The 1More pretty much throws a strike right down the middle with excellent macro- and micro-dynamics...pretty much just does exactly what the music calls for.

The 1More Triple Driver Over-Ear Headphone is a stylish and very well built headphone at this price using quite a bit of metal and quality materials. Ear pads are plush and the headphones quite comfortable, but the earpads are as much on-ear as open-ear. The accessorization is solid including a Kevlar reinforced fabric covered OFC cable; 14" to 3.5mm adapter; and both hard-side clam-shell zipper closure case and fabric storage bag.

Sound is mildly bass emphasized with a fairly neutral midrange and treble response. Mids and treble are fabulously articulate and nuanced; imaging isn't particularly deep but breadth, specificity, and stability are excellent; macro- and micro-dynamics are very good. Bass is moderately emphasized but lacks textural resolve, seems like the bass reflector passive element is smearing things a bit. But it also adds a unique and subtle visceral sense of physical bass impact. I do hear it as a bit flawed but also quite fun.

Yes, these cans will be going up on the Wall of Fame as a really solid choice at the price. I think bass lovers will be particularly pleased; even though the bass is a little flawed the solid level and fun listening experience will win many over. And I can't say enough about the brilliantly nuanced control in the upper-midrange and treble. These headphones can shine without ever getting strident.

View on YouTube here.

1More home page and Triple Driver Over-Ear Headphone product page.
Head-Fi.org reviews and impressions thread.


risotto's picture

Does the flat phase response affect SQ and is it audible? One more question, why Sennheiser/Beyerdynamic/Focal are not using graphene coated diaphragms?

I see a lot of new earphones with new exotic materials being used in ch-fi. Is this just a new craze or they are really good? Many of them are very cheap. For example, Senfer PT15 is only $9.

Argyris's picture

Response-wise, this looks an awful lot like an improved HD 569. In the few weeks I spent with that headphone, I liked the overall response but found it a little shouty and lacking in mid-treble.

However, the thing that really bothered me about the HD 569 was the soundstaging, which was relentlessly stuck in the center of my head. It felt like I was trying to focus on my own nose every time I listened, and this ended up being extraordinarily fatiguing. I'd only had this experience once before with a headphone, years ago when I had the original (non-X) M50.

I guess I have two basic sets of questions. First, how close would the overall sound of the 1More be to the HD 569? Does it adequately fill in the mid-treble area that sounds lacking on the HD 569, without overdoing it? Both headphones share a hump around 1 kHz—does this ever come across as shouty or chesty on the 1More? Does the well between the bass hump and 1 kHz bump ever make things like male vocals sound thin or lacking in body?

Second, does the 1More lack that stuck-in-the-head quality of the HD 569? I've owned the SRH440, SP330, NAD HP50 and HD 4.40BT and, though limited obviously by their closed design, none of these exhibited the soundstage issues I had with the M50 and HD 569. I'd put it down to my ears just not interfacing well with angled drivers (a notable commonality between both the M50 and the HD 569), but I think it's too small a sample size to make a definitive statement there.

Tyll Hertsens's picture
The 569 image resided high in my head. It would be interesting to do a survey of one headphone on many people to see how differently it imaged on different individuals, I suspect this may be the most variable character on different heads. The 1More was in my head but quite nicely wide. Boy, the two plots do look quite similar, but no, I didn't hear them as chesty or shouty.
crazywipe2's picture

...the image of the 569 high and a bit back. The good thing is that the image is quite wide with a good space. I really like the 569, some peoples say it's not good for rock, I have to say that a guitar solo really cuts with this cans.
It's true that something is lacking in the mid-treble, vocals sound just a bit muffled.
I want to try some aftermarket cable, I ordered one for 15 bucks it's very well reviewed on Amazon. I am pretty sure that the stock cable with microphone lowers somewhat the sound quality, let's see if the new cable gives more highs presence.
Anyway, I really like this cans. It's full size and extremely easy to drive with a stealth look good even for public use, it's a rare combination.

Argyris's picture

I wanted desperately to like the HD 569. It has a lot of good things going for it. It's immensely comfortable, it has solid build quality, it's very efficient (reaching ear-bleeding volume even with the anemic output of my Nexus 5X), and, apart from the tonal issues I mentioned, it has a really nice overall balance. The bass in particular is satisfying, with nice weight and control without muddying up the midrange or sounding boomy or unnatural. For most folks I think it's a great buy and every bit deserves its place on the WoF.

I guess I'm not typical, though. The soundstaging was a surprising demerit to me because it sort of snuck up on me. I didn't notice it at first. It was only after listening for a while that it stood out, and after that I noticed it every time I listened. I'd had the same thing with the M50—for both, everything was suitably wide, but it was like a line going directly through the middle of my skull from ear to ear. It also exacerbated my slight hearing imbalance, making certain midrange elements appear noticeably to the left and dissociated from the rest of the music. It was a disorienting and fatiguing experience that only these two closed headphones have ever produced for me. All the others I've ever owned or tried had normal closed headphone soundstages, which is to say less integrated than open headphones and with less forward projection, but otherwise perfectly acceptable.

Argyris's picture

Thanks for your thoughts, Tyll. I agree; I'd be interested to see how different people relate their impressions of a given headphone's imaging. I'd also like to see if another headphone with angled drivers produces notably different responses—if, for instance, a subset of listeners experience anything like what I did. Normally impressions seem to indicate that the angle actually improves the sense of forward projection, but maybe it doesn't work on everyone?

At any rate, I'm glad to hear the 1More doesn't have the midrange issues I asked about. If I had to guess why it and the HD 569 differ here despite looking similar in measurements, I'd say the additional mid-treble of the former might add clarity and balance, lowering the volume required to hear clearly and thus keeping the midrange in line. But that's total conjecture based on having only heard one of the headphones and looking at some squiggly lines, which is fun but certainly not exhaustive.

Thank you again for responding. I'll have to keep the 1More on the radar. I do still need a good closed full sized headphone, and on paper at least this one ticks a lot of the boxes for me.

Impulse's picture

Love all the new design elements at play here and your deep dive into them, but I kinda miss the usual direct comparisons against other competing headphones.

johnjen's picture

I'd call em,
1 More the 3D phones.

Marketing genius right there I tells ya… ;-)


Geoffrey's picture

On ears typically provide little isolation at lower listening levels. Why would 1More do this on what could have otherwise been a most desirable headphone at price?

John O&#039;Connor's picture

I watched your YouTube review only to be dismayed to learn, from the comment section, that there are two different versions of this headphone, tuned for different markets. In a globalised world, when will manufacturers learn not to do this? As I live in Ireland, I could not likely get the version you listened to. Worse, I might not be entirely sure of what version I'm getting.

I might be in the market for a Focal Clear, but this sounds like some awfully impressive engineering and sound for a much lower price.

Dadracer's picture

Hi Tyll, please have a look into this. It appears the US version has the graphene coated driver but the EU version makes do with Titanium. Can you get your hands on both to compare and contrast please? It seems strange that 1More would do this but otherwise your review is not of value to anyone OUS.....probably

RPGWiZaRD's picture

Thanks for reviewing these interesting headphones so thoroughly. I became a bit interested since your CES visit in these. If you want to experience how it would sound when you turn off/on the low frequency driver I suppose Taction Kannon will be the closest as those will allow to do so in the "controller" but I doubt the Kannons have equally good sound quality just by going by your review but I do own the Kannons as the technology intrigued me and I like the physical sense a lot, yes you do lose some accuracy but again you gain so much fun factor that comes to fruit in especially EDM style tracks. One problem I had with the Kannons though is the haptic driver in those just couldn't reproduce the physical sensation evenly throughout the range, it was the strongest around 50Hz (40~60Hz or so) but going above that it would drop very noticeably in the sensation felt to the ear but not because the driver wouldn't be capable of the frequency but because I suppose the faster vibration just won't give as much physical feel as around 50Hz. For certain tracks (I'm an Euphoric Hardstyle genre fan), when the kick pitches up/down there's too much of a difference between the lower frequency and the higher pitched bassdrum and this ruined quite a bit the experience for those kinda tracks which was a bit of a letdown for me regarding the technology. I wonder if this one with a similar but still slightly different approach will have a noticeable drop-off in physical sensation if going from like 50-60Hz to like 70-80Hz.

hifitrends's picture

I reviewed this product some weeks back (http://hifitrends.com/2018/02/17/1more-triple-driver-over-ear-headphone-...), and while you stated it a lot more eloquently than I could, I totally agree that the highs and mids are beautifully done on these headphones.

The bass can be a bit "weird" as you put it, on some jazz tracks, I called it a distraction because it does add a little extra something that sounds unnatural coming from something like a stand-up bass.

However, with electronica, stuff like Nils Frahm-"All Melody", the bass combined with the highly resolving mids and highs was magic.

I also felt that additional vibration coming from the bass reflector, and it is hard to describe, but it doesn't take away from the overall presentation...It's a very "fun" headphone that will suck you in with the right music...

Wick's picture

Thanks for your review. It complements Tyll's very well, and it's comforting that the two of you essentially agree.

I'm still listening for the overload of bass, but as of yet it doesn't sound overly emphasized. But I'm still in burn-in mode at the moment. I find the bass to be quite full, and though perhaps just a little boomy it's still not intrusive. The treble is really good, as you say.

I'm enjoying these phones.

Wick's picture

I decided to look these up on the 1more site and got a discount down to $212 with the code YOUR1MORE. Seems like quite a good price.

Three Toes of Fury's picture

i went to the site and tried to use the code..it applied it but then removed it and wont take the code anymore. too bad, i'd pull the trigger with the additional discount.

If anyone is aware of other active discount codes, please post here. Thanks team!

Peace .n. Living in Stereo


Wick's picture

You should contact them and ask about this. I don’t think I have any special reason to receive a discount that you would not receive. I just went to their website and this discount code popped up.

Wick's picture

I'm glad I read the part of Tyll's review that mentions that the box incorrectly says Titanium even though the phones actually have the graphene main driver. The box still says Titanium, and there is nothing in the box or on their site to reassure you that you have the right phones. I would have thought that their FAQ would have mentioned it. Anyway, the phones I received yesterday had the silver colored housings, so I think I'm OK.

But more to the point, I'm very pleased with these phones. I think they sound very good, especially at the high end where I seemed to hear more air (??) than before around the voices. My test track is "Wildflowers" by the Wailin' Jennys. Three female voices really belting it out and then half-way in, the bass kicks in and goes quite low. I really liked the way these phones resolved all that after two minutes of burn in time on them.

Very happy with this investment of $212 no tax free shipping.

blue212's picture

I’m very interested in this headphone. In the <$400 over-ear cans, I’m trying tondecided on the Meze 99 class vs Neo vs 1More Triple. Any chance you could shed some light in the comparisons. Thanks

Daggers's picture

I picked these up recently and fell in love with the sound they produce, but unfortunately had to return them due to extreme discomfort from the on ear design. Does anyone know of an over the ear alternative that I might enjoy? I was thinking in the sub $400 range. Thank you to anyone who might be able to help me out.

Wick's picture

I also would have preferred true over ear phones, but I don't find these so uncomfortable. And I do love the sound.

Daggers's picture

If they ever make true over ear headphones I'm all in! For some reason my ears don't like these, they turned all red and started to ache a few times before I threw in the towel. It's such a shame because I've never heard anything like them.

IgAK's picture

Very interesting! Even more for the tech than the sound/value. One thought comes up about your musings vav the Graphene stiffness vs. flex and the surround treatment needed to work with this. I had the same thoughts even as I got into reading yours on the matter, but one more came to mind that I did not see in this excellent article.

Sure, allowing the outer portion of the Mylar to flex is one possible solution I also thought of instantly but could it also be possible that in lieu of this solution, and in order to keep the entire diaphragm stiff with the advantage this would allow in the bass (especially), would it not also be possible to effect what is needed by attaching the outer edge via a foam ring? Choose a foam with the right amount of softness and damping ability, and the result should be pretty effective.