I’m an over-ear headphones man, and haven’t really explored the offerings of in-ear headphones. The last time I had a set was a few years ago. They were a set of Sennheiser buds, and although sounded great, they never really resonated with my ears. They are incredibly large, and most in-ear offerings usually fall out. However, trying the RHA MA750 in-ear headphones was different.
They’re unique in a sense that they have cables that require you to position them around the top and back of your ear, which I know could be quite fiddly for some, but was perfect working with what God pinned on the side of my head. The ear straps are made of a toughened flimsy plastic material so you can’t really use them any other way. And yes, before you say it, I do know other manufacturers offer this kind of setup in their sport ranges.
The ‘i’ part of the model refers to the inline remote that’s located about halfway down the right ear cable before you get to the join. The microphone has been designed to work with the iPhone exclusively, but testing on an Android model, I can confirm that the volume buttons didn’t work for music, but the middle play and pause button did. With calls, the microphone I was told was extremely clear. Again, the volume buttons for calls didn’t work, but the middle button was able to hang up the call.
RHA has been generous in their accessories offering, supplying you with a pouch to store the ‘phones and 18 in-ear buds, ranging from the standard one tier to three tier buds and even some memory foam tips if that’s your thing. My ears being on the larger side meant I needed to swap out the standard installed tips for the larger variety, but still, they sealed my ears quite well, offering some level of external noise isolation.
I don’t think this is the market that RHA are aiming towards though. They’re mostly black; with stainless steel accents to give them a truly premium feel. The cable has been covered in a thick rubbery type material to save them from fraying or even snapping inside. The jack plug that goes into your audio device has been reinforced with a spring to save the cable coming away from the connection. It’s impressive to see that so much thought has gone into the design of in0ear headphones as they’re usually regarded as throwaway items.
The sound quality is equally as impressive as the design features. Nothing sounded out of place and there were a really tight mix of bass and trebles most of the time, with more bass focused tracks knocking some treble out of the audio experience. Apart from the odd time when I was listening to Dubstep type music, I didn’t find a single fault with the audio quality on offer. For a sub £100 set of headphones, they are definitely well worth the investment if you often find yourself listening to music on the go.
The one thing I found a little disappointing was the sense of placement that you would usually find in higher tiered headphones. What I mean by this is that everything seems to be on one soundstage, especially if you’re listening to big orchestral bands. Although every instrument is clear and sharp, and the lower instruments are prominently heard, placement is missing. This doesn’t affect your every rock, pop and hip-hop genres however as these types of music are generally recorded in a studio as separate tracks.
With the issue with presence, there is very little I didn’t like about the RHA MA750 in-ear headphones. The over the back of the ear cable setup took a bit of getting used to, and they did take some time to really break in, but they have overtook my Monster ROC headphones as my daily driver. These are a seriously impressive set of headphones, and retailing at around £90, they are an absolute steal. It would have been nice to see an Android version that worked, but this wasn’t a deal breaker. If you didn’t need the iPhone compatibility, then there is a set that costs £10 less which comes without the inline remote.
