House of Marley Uprise Wireless

These Bluetooth in-ears are equipped with two types of earhooks. First up there’s the short version which sits in the auricle itself to provide support, while the second design can be placed behind the ear itself. This relieves wearing pressure and has a stabilising effect. Wearing the in-ears correctly therefore takes a little patience and focus the first few times, but once you’ve found your feet, you’ll find pressure issues alleviated and wearing stability significantly improved. Also practical here is the splash and sweat resistant properties of the hardware, which not only makes them ideal for workouts and listening on the go in all weathers, it also means they’re easy to clean. Made from recyclable aluminium, a mixture of natural fibres and recycled REGRIND silicone, these in-ears are a fine example of the sustainability philosophy the manufacturer maintains, without feeling like quality and processing has been compromised. In addition to this, the company behind these headphones promises one tree will be planted for every sale in support of the ‘One Tree Planted’ reforestation initiative.

The neck of the tangle-resistant cable can be adjusted with ease, allowing you to change it to your desired length with the use of a sturdy clip. This helps minimise the chance of it coming free while you work out and causing annoying cable noise disturbances while you move. The insulation of this cable feels great to the touch, but bear in mind it is susceptible to contact transmission. This can be made less of a concern if you use a clip when wearing them. Two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 60 mAh are on hand to power these headphones, with one battery supplying juice to a dedicated driver. All in all, expect a runtime of up to eight hours provided you’re patient enough for a full charging cycle of two hours. You can keep an eye on battery life when using these in-ears with iOS devices, with a battery remainder display appearing next to the Bluetooth symbol to keep you updated.

Device Control

These sporting headphones support Bluetooth 4.2 and delivered stable transmission ranges of up to 10 metres in practical tests when used with various Android and iOS devices. The system is easily paired by pressing down and holding the central button on the remote. This first switches the device on and then switches it to pairing mode. Once radio connection is securely established, you can adjust your volume by using the plus and minus buttons. These can also be used to navigate through titles by holding down for longer. Holding down the plus button for longer jumps to the next track, while holding down on the minus button skips backwards. This approach to shared button functionality is a good choice on the part of the manufacturer, serving as an intuitive option that most users will quickly get used to. The start/stop function and call answering and termination are controlled by the central button. Unfortunately, the integrated microphone lets overall functionality down, failing to impress with speech quality. While the other person on the line can be heard clearly enough, the voice quality of the headphone user is relatively quiet and accompanied by disturbances to the audio. As such, the potential of severely compromised communication is a concern.

Sound

The Uprise Wireless In-Ears have a bass-driven character, which delves into the lower frequencies. However, this ultimately proves a shortcoming of the headphones, with the low bass range coming across as somewhat undefined. The mids are much clearer, with a nice assertiveness to them. Trebles remain quite neutral, but subsequently drop off. When listening inside or a more quiet surrounding, background noise of the headphones quickly becomes apparent. The result is a rather muffled sound profile, which can be more clearly experienced when listening to bass-heavy productions. However, this unwanted audio effect doesn’t seem to cause any issues when you’re listening on the go in busy outdoor environments. Likewise, I had no problems when using them while training, which leaves me confident these in-ears are entirely suitable for sporting use. Also, as these in-ears have quality shielding from external noise and high battery reserves, you’re free to turn up the volume when listening in noisy surroundings to enjoy your music uninterrupted. However, if you’re looking for in-ears for relaxed music listening sessions, you’ll start to find faults and realise these House of Marley headphones have restrictions.