House of Marley Positive Vibration XL headphone review
These headphones deliver good sonics using sustainable materials.
I’m a huge fan of the way the House of Marley does business, minimizing its environmental impact by using recycled and recyclable, sustainable materials to build its products. The
Positive Vibration XL over-ear headphones are a prime example: They leverage reclaimed aluminum, steel, and plastic to deliver good sound with hardware that won’t add to a landfill at the
end of its useful life. You can read more about the materials used at House of Marley’s website (fave.co/3fdrb2a).
DESIGN AND FEATURES
The Positive Vibration XL are available in three color combos: all black, blue and black, and copper and white, each of which costs $100. Okay, black-on-black isn’t really a combo unless you count the Fsc-certified wood inserts in the cups with the House of Marley logo (fave. co/3unztwj). Regardless of literary license, all three schemes are attractive and thoughtfully bling-free.
The packaging is also minimalist, with none of those peel-off plastic protective sheets that make me wonder about the sanity of the human race and doubt the ethics of corporations. Even the included audio cable and USB Type-a to Type-c charging cables are tied off with recyclable string, not plastic. Sweet.
You’ll find multipurpose controls on the right ear cup: power/answer/play/ pause, next/up, and previous/down. There’s also a tiny reset button, and a microphone that’s not mentioned in the accompanying documentation. The USB-C port and audio jack are located on the left cup.
The Positive Vibration XL feature Bluetooth 5.0, but not aptx or aptx HD, which would provide higher-resolution wireless streaming and low enough latency for TV use, assuming that your TV supports it. Just as an aside, some pricier TVS automatically compensate for Bluetooth lag.
SOUND AND COMFORT
Eco-friendly means nothing if a product doesn’t perform. To my ears, the Positive Vibration XL are good, if not greatsounding, headphones. At lower volumes, the listening experience was very good, but the midrange became a bit crowded once I cranked things up a bit, making it a
tiny bit harder to delineate instruments and adding a slight graininess to some material. I’m being extremely picky and a second listener noticed none of that.
The balance between bass, midrange, and treble is otherwise largely spot on—that is, unless you’re looking for that little extra low-end bump so many listeners like. The Positive
Vibration XL are more accurate to the original mixes in their bass rendition, but if bump is your thing, it’s only there in the standard degree.
I found the Positive
Vibration XL very comfortable to wear—more so than the recently reviewed, sonically superior (and somewhat more expensive) Cleer Enduro 100, if not quite on the level of Sony’s higher-end products. The Positive Vibration XL’S cup pads are deeper than those of the Enduro 100, and the extra padding inside the top of the band was most welcome. Put another way, the Positive Vibration XL rest on your head as easy as they do on your conscience.
Battery life was very good, somewhere in the neighborhood of the 24 hours that House of Marley claims on a full charge. And 10 minutes charging was good for nearly two hours of use as claimed.
BOTTOM LINE
The Positive Vibration XL are very good headphones for the price; however, I wish House of Marley would step up its sonic game a notch to prove that environmentally friendly doesn’t have to mean sonically average. With that last 10 percent of quality added, I could trumpet these to more than the average listener.
That said, if I were king, all companies would market only sustainable products—period. I have one simple justification for that: We all live on this one planet, so don’t trash your living quarters. Good on ya, House of Marley. ■