$ 200 Puro Pro hybrid headsets are almost perfect

Last December, a representative from Puro Sound Labs offered me an evaluation sample of the company’s main Bluetooth hybrid headsets. Her timing couldn’t have been better – I had a surgery scheduled for January 8 that would put me on the couch all day, every day, for two weeks in a row, with nothing to do but watch movies and television (preferably , without taking my wife and children insane).

The Puro Pro has an earphone design, which can be connected to audio sources via Bluetooth 5.0 pairing or a simple headset cable. It offers almost any feature you can imagine for a pair of headphones: safety volume limitation (configurable to 85dBA or 95dBA), battery over 30 hours, content control via buttons on the left, noise cancellation and even a built-in microphone for calls.

At $ 200, Puro Pro costs more than I would normally spend on a pair of headphones to watch TV late at night and occasionally fly on an airplane (my two main use cases). But after spending several hours a day with Puro Pro for a few months, I lost money in the blink of an eye.

How I tested

Puro Sound Labs PuroPro Hybrid headphones with active noise cancellation

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I spent most of the time with Puro Pro on the couch, watching content from YouTube Music, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix, along with some TV shows and movies stored locally. Both my Roku Premiere + 4K UHD media player (for streaming content) and my custom HTPC (for local content) are connected to my Denon AVR-S510BT receiver and Denon headset with a Boltune low latency Bluetooth 5.0 transceiver.

This setup was my most important test scenario for headphones, but I also did more demanding tests of musical accuracy by connecting them (wired) to the Scarlett Solo preamp that I use in my podcast studio. Scarlett Solo is connected to my workstation; its main “work” function is to provide an XLR input for my RE230 microphone, but it doubles as my system’s main audio output interface, via its 1/4 “headphone jack – normally connected to a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro studio headphones.

I must make it very clear that my test is subjective—I actually used the headphones and compared them to several sets of reference equipment and I’m sharing my impressions here. That said, I am a very demanding listener; I grew up with a broadcast engineer father and spent the past 30 years trying to buy personal audio equipment that straddles the line between “this is one of the best you can buy” and “this is an audiophile that drains my Absurd wallet.”

The competition

I’m an owl at night, but my wife wakes up early, so watching movies and TV shows late at night is essential at the Salters’ house. Wireless headphones turned out to be an obstacle for me. I tried several models that I liked, but – although I initially found them comfortable – they all resulted in repeated ear infections after long-term daily use. Battery life was also less than ideal – the LG Tone HBS-510 headphones I used the most had only about 8 to 10 hours of playback, with similar results for a variety of lesser-known brands.

Then I tried on a set of Monodeal on-ear Bluetooth headsets – for $ 35, they are incredible value, and I ended up buying a second pair for my wife (who also loved them). But I still had problems with comfort; after several consecutive TV episodes, the design on the ear was a little strange. The battery life also left something to be desired, around eight hours – not bad for the price, but not enough to make you travel by plane between continents without saving a lot.

Finally, I used a $ 200 pair of JBL Live 650BTNC Bluetooth headphones. Its over-the-ear design was much more comfortable for long-term use than the Monodeal pair, and the play time of over 20 hours was a big improvement. The audio quality was also slightly better than Monodeal. They were still not 100 percent comfortable for long-term use, however, due to weight, balance problems and the combination of very firm padding and significant tightening pressure on my head.

Although the JBL headphones were not perfect, they were functional enough that I wasn’t really looking for a replacement.

Evaluating Puro Pro

For my main use case – watching TV and movies late at night on the couch without disturbing my wife – Puro Pro headphones are by far the best thing I’ve ever experienced. I also found them excellent for listening to a wide variety of musical genres, including classical, acoustic, a capella and hip-hop.

The only flaw I was able to find with them – besides the charge port being not USB-C – is an annoying background humming device produced when the headphone volume is at maximum and a staccato sound (for example, “click “by moving the focus to the Roku interface from one item to another) is produced. This flaw is easily overcome: just decrease the volume of the headset with a single click and there is no more hum.

Comfort

The padding is extremely soft and comfortable, and the headphones provide enough clamping pressure to stay firm without loosening after a few hours.

Although the weight of the JBL and Puro headphones is similar, the balance is different. This is not something that I instantly notice when I put on the headphones – but after several hour-long episodes of a hectic show (or a Lord of the Rings film), JBL phones make my neck a little tense, while Puro Pro phones do not.

The lighter grip pressure and softer padding of Puro Pro headphones also leaves me with significantly less “sweaty ear” after several hours of prolonged use than JBL headphones – or, by the way, the my studio Sennheiser HD 280 Pro phones after recording a podcast.