Libratone Q Adapt On-Ear
Excellent noise cancelling headphones for fashionistas
£219 FROM Libratone, libratone.com features Bluetooth 4.1, 3.5mm cable included, touch controls, 20-hour battery life Libratone has done an excellent job with its first pair of on-ear headphones
How do you stand out in a sea of noise cancelling headphones? Libratone believes the answer is beautiful and intuitive design. It’s minimalistic, with smooth ear cups that feature hidden controls on their undersides. While most noise cancelling headphones have obvious grilles for their microphones, Libratone has hidden this pair’s four mics behind the ear cup ‘forks’ for a sleek look.
The right ear cup houses a touchpad, which lets you skip tracks, control volume, play/pause and activate Siri. We liked the intuitive controls of the touchpad, but were often frustrated by taps to play and pause music going unregistered. Helpfully, music pauses automatically when you take off the headphones. You adjust volume by dragging your finger clockwise to make music louder, or counterclockwise to make music quieter.
Resting your whole palm on the trackpad activates Hush mode, which pauses your music and lets you hear the outside world without taking off the headphones.
There are different levels of active noise cancellation (ANC), including one that Libratone calls ‘CityMix’, which is handy for maintaining situational awareness while you’re walking. There are four levels of noise cancellation, and the one button toggle makes it easy to jump between settings.
The ANC performance is impressive; at maximum setting, the headphones drowned out a majority of the outside noise, including voices, typing and other people’s music.
These headphones don’t just look good – they’re well built, too. The ear cups are attached to metal rods that slide smoothly into the headband. They’re not notched, so you can get the perfect fit quickly. The band is covered in a durable fabric and its pads are covered in comfortable leather. We had no issue listening all day long, which we can’t say for many on-ear headphones.
Speaking of all day, these cans are rated for 20 hours of playback, and our testing showed that number to be accurate. There’s a 3.5mm cable included for wired playback, but using it means you’ll lose out on the ANC.
Sweet sounds
As for their audio output, you get a balanced sound signature with a slight warm tilt. The mid range is very well represented and bass has satisfying impact. The bass can sound a bit loose at times, but only audiophiles will likely notice. Imaging is good, enabling you to hear instruments around you, instead of having the sound focussed inside your head.
Still, Libratone has done an excellent job with its first on-ear headphones. The Q Adapt On-Ear offers unique styling, great build quality and good sound. We love the touchpad for its intuitive controls, but hate that our taps and swipes don’t register every time.
If you want ultraportable noise-cancelling headphones that sound good and stand out from the crowd, these are a great choice. They’re not cheap, but they’re worth it.