Panasonic RP-HD305B

These over-ears are highly flexible due to their tilt and swivel suspension, sitting loosely rather than tightly on the ears so that no pressure problems occur even during longer periods of use. The adjustment of the band covers a wide range of sizes, from small to large heads. The oval-shaped shells are not straight but slightly slanted, so your ears are surrounded by the luxurious leatherette padding which provides a high degree of protection from the outside world. However, due to the design and material – the earpieces are primarily made of plastic – a certain amount of heat can develop. Nevertheless, this model appears robust and is solidly manufactured.

With a runtime of more than 28 hours at higher levels, these Bluetooth headphones prove to be enduring, especially as the quick charge function allows for over three hours of use after just fifteen minutes of power. A full charge via the supplied USB cable takes three and a half hours. In addition, the existing 3.5 mm audio input offers a genuine alternative to Bluetooth operation, as the RP-HD305B wired headphones offer a significantly extended frequency response from 4 to 40,000 Hertz and can be used as full-fledged hi-fi headphones. A mini-jack cable with gold-plated plugs is also included with the accessories.

Device control

Coupling the headphones, which can be done in combination with various Android and iOS devices, offered stable ranges of eight metres within an urban environment and is achieved by holding down the power button on the right-hand ear cup. This switches the system on and automatically puts it into pairing mode. If a wireless connection exists, the central remote button is used to control the Play/Stop function and to answer and end telephone calls. Voice assistants can also be activated by holding down the button. Double-clicking the button also allows you to skip forward to the next track and pressing it three times allows you to skip back. It is also possible to move forwards and backwards within the title by holding down the button when pressed for the second or third time. For volume control, however, separate plus and minus buttons are available and here it is noticeable that the remote reacts with a slight delay. Also, speech intelligibility during phone calls was not completely convincing as your own voice sounds quite soft and a bit muffled, while the other person is clearly understandable.

Sound

The tuning of these over-ears is well balanced and has a clear, bright sound with slightly springy, precise basses that appear slim rather than overloaded and reach down into the low frequency range. The mids are also pleasingly strong, sounding very clean and detailed which, despite rounding them off, do not appear unnatural at all. In my opinion, only the high frequencies reveal slight weaknesses, which appear soft and balanced and is particularly noticeable with sibilants. The upper tweeter range appears more reserved and the contours seem to fade. All in all, however, these headphones offer extremely good sound quality and are universally applicable, especially since the output has reserves that can be used with fairly low distortion. Another advantage is that a booster is available for bass-heavy music, which can be activated via the sound button. It boosts the low frequencies to a noticeably stronger bass foundation without much loss of sound. Although the basses gain in depth, they still sound defined. At the same time, the sound appears fuller and more assertive. Pressing the Sound button a second time switches to voice amplification, which provides increased speech intelligibility for films and spoken content by attenuating the bass and focusing voices centrally. Here, too, a good sound level can be maintained so that both modes are convincing. A further press of the button returns to the headphones to their basic tuning.