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UPDATE [February 2022]: This product is no longer available. Choose from one of these on-ear headphones or these budget headphones instead.
Audiofly is a relatively new company in the audio world, and we’ve only reviewed one of their products in the past. That review was for the AF120 in-ears, and we were very impressed with the sound that came out of them. Now we’re taking a look at one of their premium over-ears dubbed the AF240 headphones. Do they have the same great sound as the in-ears or did Audiofly drop the ball on these?
What’s in the box?
Inside you’ll get the headphones, an airplane adapter, 3.5mm audio cable, Audiofly sticker, warranty booklet, and a really nice waved canvas carrying pouch. Seriously, it’s a really nice pouch kudos to Audiofly for not skimping out on quality accessories.
Build & Design
There are things I really like about the Audiofly AF240’s, and things that I really don’t. The main parts of the headphones are made of a glossy black plastic, while the outside of the ear cups have a kind of faux leather plastic with he Audiofly branding on it. The padding on the ear cups is a comfortable memory foam that’s reflected on the bottom of the headband as well. On top of the headband there’s a strap of leather sewn on. On the bottom of the left ear cup is a 3.5mm input so you can attach the included audio cable which is wrapped in a clean fabric. It also has a small mic and 1-button remote a few inches down on the cable.
The AF240’s are pretty flexible and, even though they don’t look too durable, they feel like they can survive a beating. One thing that does get annoying is that the ear cups seriously love finger prints, but other than that we were happy with the choices in build materials. The adjustable headband is made of metal, but has a weird way of adjusting to the shape of your head that I wasn’t a big fan of. When you pull the headphones down over your ears they tend to creep back up slowly which eventually ends in me pulling them down again. You won’t have to re-adjust them every 5 minutes, but during a long 7 or 8 hour testing sessions I found myself adjusting them more than I would have liked. On that same note, they like to slide forward every time you look down. I wish they had a slightly higher grip on my head because I caught myself having to quickly grab them almost every time I looked down.
On the bright side you can rotate the ear cups 90 degrees and they spring back into place. It’s not a huge deal, but it helped to get a better seal since they’re always rotating to face your ear. Audiofly claims that these can passively block about 20dB of outside sound and though I’m not exactly sure how to measure that for testing, it did do a good amount of noise isolation. Though design is certainly subjective, I really did not like the way these looked. Even though they’re all black, they’re far from inconspicuous and you’re going to be very aware of these sitting on your head even though they’re fairly comfortable to wear. They’re just not the sleekest looking headphones I’ve ever used.
Connection
These take a 3.5mm audio cable hardwired into the bottom of the left ear cup, and during a few days of testing the cable didn’t come loose once even when it got snagged on something. As advertised, the one button remote works on both Android and iOS and has a surprising amount of functionality.
For iOS users, it lets you pause/play music, skip/return to tracks, fast forward, and rewind. Android users are a little more limited, with the button only working to pause/play music or skip songs if double tapped. Holding down the button on both Android and iOS also activates voice control for Siri or Google Now. Microphone quality is surprisingly good too. I had full conversations with people and they were none the wiser after we hung up.
Sound Quality
Lows
The low end was probably my favorite part of the headphones. They were good, but not powerful at all. You won’t find too much (if any) embellishment here and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to ‘Ultralight Beam’ by Kanye West over and over again just to feel the intricacies of the low end. That said, if you’re a bass heard these might not do it for you.
Mids
Instruments in the mids tended to have a good amount of detail in most songs. Snares and guitars were kept their grit in ‘From Yesterday’ by 30 Seconds to Mars but they did sound a little mashed together if I’m nit-picking.
Highs
Highs weren’t harsh at all and there was a good amount of detail in hi-hats and cymbals. If the low end was my favorite part of the headphones, then the highs have to be the best part of them. Everything in the highs were clean and never became uncomfortable at all.
These also have a pretty decent soundstage and the percussion in ‘Laika’ by Camel Power Club sounded like they were dancing around me.
Conclusion
The Audiofly brand is just as focused on the details of sound as we remember them to be. Sound quality isn’t perfect, but it’s hard to find negative things to say about it. There were only a few hiccups here and there, but for the most part they handled everything we threw at them with ease. Unfortunately the build wasn’t up to par with the sound and (in my opinion), they’re not exactly a good looking pair of headphones.
As good as they sound, it’s hard to give them a whole-hearted recommendation because they don’t come cheap. They’re a good pair of headphones, but they happen to be in a very competitive price range. In the end if you disagree love the design and want to give them a shot, we doubt you’ll be disappointed in the sound they push.