Pavel Jelic A few months ago, we saw the introduction of AirPods Pro – revolutionary in-ear headphones that, as the first ever in-ear headphones, came with active noise cancellation. This technology works by using special microphones that listen to the surrounding noise and then play the sound in the opposite phase to your ears. Thanks to this, the surrounding sound is "interrupted" and you simply cannot hear the noise from the surroundings while listening to music. But noise cancellation has been with us for a really long time, even if it's not active. In today's review, we will take a look at the Swissten Hurricane headphones, which offer classic noise cancellation and not active noise cancellation - so this must be taken into account when buying, so that you are not confused. Classic noise cancellation uses only the closure of the earcups, together with the best possible "fit" of the earcups to your head. So let's get straight to the point.
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Technical Specifications
The Swissten Hurricane headphones are wireless headphones that have Bluetooth version 4.2, thanks to which they have a range of up to 10 meters from the sound source. As for the size of the battery, unfortunately, the manufacturer does not provide this information, but on the other hand, it promises a maximum endurance of up to 14 hours - you will find out whether this really applies in one of the next paragraphs. The charging time "from zero to one hundred" is around 2 hours. As for the exact specifications, the Swissten Hurricane headphones have a frequency range of 18 Hz - 22 kHz, a sensitivity of 108+/-3 dB, the size of the speakers themselves on each side is 40 mm, and the impedance reaches a value of 32 Ohms. If you are interested in the supported Bluetooth profiles, they are A2DP and AVRCP. The Swissten Hurricane headphones also offer an SD card slot and play all commonly used music formats, specifically MP3/WMA/WAV. You will also be pleased with the certified water resistance of IPX3, which means that Swissten Hurricanes are resistant to water splashes, according to the official definition. This definitely does not mean that you can listen to music with them in the bath or in the sea.
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Packing
If you decide to buy Swissten Hurricane headphones, you will get a rather large box in the classic white-red color from Swissten. On the front of the box you'll find a picture of the headphones themselves with information about classic noise cancellation, then on the side you'll find certain specifications and features you should know about. From the back, you will then find illustrated headphones with labels for the individual parts of the headphones. After opening the box, all you have to do is pull out the plastic carrying case, in which, in addition to the folded headphones, you will also find Czech and English instructions for use, as well as a USB-C charging cable, together with a 3,5mm - 3,5mm cable for connecting two headphones to listen to the same music. It should be noted that the SD card is of course not part of the package and you have to purchase and use your own.
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Processing
As soon as you take the headphones in your hand for the first time, it will seem to you that they are not quite high-quality due to the plastic design. The headphones even crunched a little when I put them on my head for the first time, but that really only happened once and most likely the plastic just needed to settle down. Of course, you can make the headphones bigger or smaller, the internal reinforcement of the headphones is then made of aluminum. Once you get used to the headphones after a few minutes, you will realize that the processing in the final is not bad at all. The headphones are quite light shells and are made of very pleasant material. You can even fold the headphones when traveling, reducing their size and the risk of possible damage/breakage. All the controls of the headphones are located on their right side. Specifically, here you will find a button for turning on/off the headphones, a "slider" for increasing/decreasing the volume, a special EQ button, which you can use to control calls or switch to FM radio mode or playback from an SD card. From the buttons, it's more or less everything in terms of connectors, so on the right part of the headphones you will find a USB-C charging connector, a 3,5mm jack for sharing music and an SD card slot. There is also a blue diode that shows the state in which the headphones are located.
Personal experience
As I mentioned above, at first glance the headphones may seem rather poor quality. However, the opposite is true, because after you get used to the headphones, you will find that the plastic processing actually suits you - the Swissten Hurricanes are not heavy at all and you don't recognize them on your head at all. Personally, I'm really very sensitive to new headphones and it takes me a few long days to get used to new ones. I'd rather actually use the same pair of headphones that I'd never put away than have to get used to them again. However, in the case of the Swissten Hurricane, the impossible happened - the headphones fit me perfectly, and even after the first six hours of use, I didn't need to take them off because my ears hurt.
The earcups are really very pleasant and soft, in any case, the ears sweat a little under them, which you probably cannot avoid with any headphones. As for the mentioned 14-hour endurance, the manufacturer most likely stated this when listening at the lowest volume. I personally reached a maximum endurance of around 9 hours when listening at higher volumes. The charging time is then really less than 2 hours. The only thing that bothers me a little is the location of the controls - all the buttons are really quite close to each other, so it can happen that you sometimes perform the action that you did not want to perform. In addition, the upper part that rests on the head could be a little nicer (thicker) - but that is a complete detail and practically does not detract from the beauty.
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Sound and noise cancellation
Of course, sound is very important with headphones. It goes without saying that no one will buy the Swissten Hurricane to listen to music in original quality – of course, that is not even possible via Bluetooth. So I decided to test the headphones in a way that ordinary users will use them, i.e. by listening to music from Spotify via iPhone. As I mentioned above, I tested the headphones for several long hours, as I really didn't mind wearing them. I'll start with the negative right at the beginning - if you have your headphones on and pause the music playback, you can unfortunately hear a kind of crackling and a slight hum, which becomes quite annoying if you don't listen. But as soon as you start the music, of course the crackling stops.
As for the sound itself, it won't excite you or offend you. I would describe it as "non-greasy, non-salty" in a way, so the bass is not very pronounced and the treble is not either. Swissten Hurricane stays in the middle zone all the time, in which they play well. At extra high volume you can hear some sound distortion, but this only really shows up when the volume is uncomfortably high. However, what I have to praise is the noise suppression, even if it is not active. As I mentioned above, the headphones really fit perfectly on my head, which allowed the earcups to adhere perfectly. So mainly because of this, the noise cancellation is really great in my case. However, this is of course an individual matter and of course the headphones may not fit everyone. Personally, I don't have large or small ears, but I still have some extra space in the earcups, so the headphones should fit even users with larger ears.
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If you are looking for cheap headphones that can cancel out ambient noise, the Swissten Hurricane headphones are a great choice. We had a gray version of the headphones to try out in the editorial office, and a black version is also available. The price tag of the headphones is set at CZK 1, which is literally a bargain for excellently crafted and comfortable headphones with noise cancellation. But you have to answer the question whether more ordinary headphones will be enough for you, and whether you want to invest more money in higher quality headphones, for example with active noise cancellation. For myself, I can recommend the Swissten Hurricane to all occasional and "ordinary" listeners who do not need ultra-high quality, and who at the same time want to at least try to suppress ambient noise.
I don't know, Pavel, what you mean by "reverse frequency", but in my younger years, noise was suppressed with the opposite phase (amplitude). ;)
Peter, thanks for the correction. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to express the "opposite frequency". Now I am smarter and know that it is the opposite phase, that is amplitude. I edited the article. Have a nice day.
"aptitude" -? → Perhaps by amplitude (deflection)