When the world went into a shelter-in-home stance, little did any of us know how long this would all last. Little did any of us realize how stir-crazy we would all go, living with roommates, children, and other working-from-home family members.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I live alone, so for the past few weeks I’ve been essentially sitting alone with my music playing on a sound system all day long. That’s not the case for a lot of my Facebook friends.
Many of them have little ones running around, significant others in meetings, and dogs barking all day long. A constant distraction when you’re trying to maintain an 8-hour work day.
While you can’t avoid the challenges that come with working from home with everyone also at home, you can improve your focus by blocking out unnecessary noise.
If you have been using earbuds or headphones over the past few weeks to help with your focus, there’s a strong chance that sound still leaks through the earcups. Active noise cancellation is the answer for an extended quarantine.
By using a soft and quiet noise, Tribit’s QuietPlus wireless headphones block out more than just subtle noise, but everything in the room with their active noise-cancellation technology. Comfortable for an 8-hour day, with all-day battery life, it’s time to take a look at the shelter-in-home-leave-me-alone solution for those who are getting a little sick of their current home situation.
Welcome to my review of the Tribit QuietPlus wireless headphones.
Design
Having both owned and reviewed Tribit products in the past, I looked forward to testing their latest QuietPlus headphones.
The QuietPlus are constructed out of an all-plastic exterior body which doesn’t feel inferior to some cheaper plastics like that found on the original Beats Headphones. Whether in the hands, around the neck, or on the head, the QuietPlus feel good despite the plastic shell.
Inside the plastic shell is an aluminum frame that holds the earcup together. Running from one earcup through the headband to the other is a flexible aluminum band that allows the QuietPlus to fit most head sizes without excess pressure or the feeling of looseness.
When it comes to head adjustability, the QuietPlus are one of the better headphones I’ve seen with this much adjustment. Width of your head is covered by the previously mentioned aluminum headband; each earcup is adjustable to pivot up, down, left, and right, and each earcup has an adjustable headband height adjustment ratchet.
For ease of identify which earcup is left and right, Tribit printed large L and R letters on the inside of the softly felted earcups.
On every contact point with your head, the QuietPlus are well padded with super soft and plush foam. Wrapped in a faux-leather, the foam on both earcups and the headband is superb and offers all-day-long comfort.
For a while now, the QuietPlus headphones have been my go-to headphones for my work desk and are by far the greatest to wear and don’t leave a sweaty head or strong hair pressure indents.
Matte black all around, the QuietPlus aren’t a flashy product and are just meant to be used as general headphones for everyday use.
On the right earcup, you will find all of the controls of the QuietPlus including power, volume, noise cancellation on/off, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB-C power jack. There’s also a small microphone for voice calls.
At the end of the day, the QuietPlus can fold their earcups into the headband for a compact structure and then can be housed in the included hard travel case. The included USB-C charging cable and 3.5mm headphone cable are also tucked away in the little pouch.
Functionality
The QuietPlus headphones may be really comfortable to wear for long periods of time, but are they Quiet? Plus, do they offer a great sound?
When played on maximum volume, the QuietPlus is anything but quiet, but the soft foamy earcups do an excellent job at keeping the noise inside the earcup and lets very little leak out allowing it to stay quite quiet in the room.
At maximum volume the QuietPlus gets loud, but not blaring loud where your ears can’t take it. The 40mm drivers do a decent job at pumping out sound without draining battery life or losing out on quality sound.
Connected to my Galaxy S10 Plus via Bluetooth 5.0 with an aptX codec, I played an assortment of music through the QuietPlus to get a sense of where Tribit was at with tuning these headphones.
Songs with strong guitar, and more instrument focused, sound great and are quite pleasant to listen to. When swapping over to Jim Croce’s I Got a Name, the vocals of Jim’s voice make the music sound as though I am in a large open room with a speaker. Pop and bass-heavy songs sound really strong and just as good as through my Grado earbuds.
What this says to me is that the headphones were made for the modern, and subsequentially more popular, pop-based music. Highs and lows are listenable and enjoyable, but they stumble on the mids within songs.
Following listening to Jim’s song, it felt like his voice wasn’t quite right. It felt more as if I was in a big open gymnasium and his voice was echoing off of the walls. While troubleshooting with other similar songs, I had the same problem occur, but it was certainly less noticeable on today’s newer music.
My best description of the QuietPlus’s audio output is that it makes for great travel (hotel), working, and kids’ headphones. If you’re an audiophile, I would tell you to check out my other headphone reviews, whereas the general public will be okay with what Tribit is offering.
Without music playing and active noise cancellation on, the QuietPlus does a pretty good job of blocking surrounding noises. With the window open, the birds chirping disappears, the air conditioner can’t be heard, and with my PC playing a podcast right in front of me, the voices were audible, but the moment I stopped focusing on the voices my brain completely drowned them out.
Keeping active noise cancellation on and then listening to music, you can tell it does have a slight affect on the music you are listening to, but not enough to be a bother. The audio pressure added by the active noise cancellation may bother some on their ear drums, but for me it was just subtle and I quickly ignored the added pressure.
For a family or person out and about in a busy area, I would say that the QuietPlus’s active noise cancellation is good, but not great. It’s better than not having it, but the effect it has on music and loss of up to 10 hours of battery life is a slight bummer. Luckily, it can be turned on and off depending on where you are and what is going on around you.
While the QuietPlus can be wired, wireless is preferred. The Bluetooth 5.0 aptX connection should last you multiple days without needing a recharge. When recharging time comes, a few hours are needed for a refresh.
Finally, the built-in microphone of the QuietPlus is about what you’d expect. Nothing fantastic, but you can have a conversation easily enough in a moderately quiet environment.
My Final Thoughts
I’ve always been a good fanboy for Tribit and their products in the past. They offer some great products and have normally always gotten a recommendation from me. These QuietPlus headphones are more of a gray area for me.
Priced at $80, I don’t think I could recommend them to someone looking for some wireless headphones. The active noise cancellation isn’t enough of a “Plus” for me to justify saying that these are worth it. Tack on the “eh” music playback and it just draws the line there.
For less money, I’ve reviewed other headphones, including Tribit’s, that sounded better. In a day when earbuds can be reasonably priced from a well name brand that also sound well, the next question is to why bother with headphones?
If you find the QuietPlus on a sale or even if a friend is giving them away, they are a great travel buddy, but, sadly, not much more than that.
Buy it now:
© 2019 Justin Vendette