By: Aaron Lai
May 18, 2018
Several Fridays ago, our company hired a new group of cleaners. Over the weekend, they came in to do the cleaning. On Monday I came in but noticed something was a bit strange as I noticed a few things on my desk were moved around. It was not until one of our interns came in when he asked, "Where is the iPhone 8?". Since we are a software company, we often use current generation devices for testing purposes. We looked all over the office, but we could not find it. I decided to turn on the Find My Phone feature, but the phone in question was turned off. We later had a meeting and somehow the conversation got around to talking about how sketchy Northeast Calgary was. Most crimes and gang-related activity often happen in that area of the city, so it was an easy target. The intern tried to defend the northeast as he lived there, but it fell on deaf ears. At the end of the meeting, it seemed someone had turned on the missing device. Lo and behold, we tracked it to an address in the northeast. While it may have seemed premature to blame the theft immediately on someone in that area, it goes to show sometimes you cannot really shake a reputation after you have one. So what happens if you do not have a reputation yet? We are in this situation today, as we have a new product from a new company at APH Networks. 1MORE sent us their Quad Driver earphones for us to take a look at. As a reviewer, we look at every product without preconceptions or biases from previous experiences with other products from the same company. So how do these IEMs compare and are they capable of being my daily drivers? Let us read on to find out!
Today's review unit of the 1MORE Quad Driver arrived from Mississauga, Ontario. This is not the location of 1MORE's offices, but rather one of the fulfillment offices of Amazon Canada. Shipping via Canada Post and their Expedited Parcel service, this yellow bubbled envelope arrived without any issues to speak of. Of course, with a less rigid shipping container, you are less likely to see any dents or bruises until you actually open what is inside. Thankfully, we do not have anything to be concerned about as you will see shortly.
The retail container of the 1MORE Quad Driver is a pretty standard state of affairs, with a clean black box used. The left earbud is displayed in a scaled up size with the company's logo on the top left corner. On the bottom we have a description of "In-Ear Headphones", along with some features. A Hi-Res Audio logo is marked at the bottom right corner, but we will see how high the resolution of the audio is later when we do our testing. Otherwise, the box looks pretty nice and clean.
Before we continue on, I have grabbed the specifications from the manufacturer's website for your perusal:
Specifications
In-Ear
Weight: 18.5 g
Cable Length: 1.25 m
In-line Remote Control and Microphone
Oxygen-Free Copper Wire
Plug: 3.5 mm Gold Plated
Frequency Range: 20-40,000 Hz
Impedance: 32 Ω
Sensitivity: 99 dB
Rated Power: 5 mW
I have to say the 1MORE Quad Driver's retail packaging is quite premium. The outside design slips off the front and the box opens up with a magnetic flap holding the box. Inside, we have the 1MORE Quad Driver packaged with all of its accessories neatly put in. These accessories are a shirt clip, airplane adapter, 1/4" plug adapter, leather carrying case, and eight different sizes or styles of ear tips. I have not seen so many included with one set of earphones, and I am quite happy with the selection 1MORE has included. This includes both rubber and memory foam tips for your ear comfort needs. Underneath these many tips are two manuals regarding other 1MORE products, quick use tips, a random sticker, and warranty information. Speaking of which, a one year limited warranty is included with the Quad Driver.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
