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For a lot of people, active noise cancellation is an unattainable goal. All the big players in this market charge $200-$300 or more for ANC headphones. Which is why if you're budget conscious that you're going to be really interested in the under-$75 MIXCDER E9 bluetooth headphones with, yes, active noise cancellation (ANC). With their 30 hours playback on a single charge, zero latency and heavy carrying case, there's lots to like.
Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ found that there were some shortcomings too, however, and you'll want to know about them prior to making a purchase decision.
On Amazon at https://amzn.to/2HOdIUY
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0:00
They're super affordable active noise-canceling headphones, but are they any good? Let's find out
0:11
Dave Taylor here, and I'm looking at these. These are the Mix Cedar E-9 Active Noise Canceling Bluetooth headphones
0:19
And as you can see, they're reasonably nice-looking headphones. But before we talk about the sound, let's go ahead and get some specs out
0:26
So, first off, battery powered, Bluetooth obviously, 30 hours of playtime, and it takes a couple hours to charge
0:34
But if you give it a 30-minute charge, it's good for 10 hours. So if you're at the airport and you're waiting for your flight, 10 hours is a long time to listen to headphones
0:42
You're probably going to be good. Now, it charges through micro-USB, and there are various controls on the side
0:49
So maybe we'll start there. So on the right earpiece is power on off
0:54
and then there is a tiny little hole, which I believe is for the microphone, for phone calls
1:00
We'll get back there. And micro USB for charging, and then big plus and minus buttons for volume up and volume down
1:08
And then on the left side, you have an 3.5 millimeter jack because you can use these as wired headphones
1:16
and it includes that wire, which is great. And you have active noise canceling, which you can turn on or off
1:23
And one of the things I don't like about these is the ANC is completely independent from the rest of the power system on the headphones
1:31
So what that means is if I'm using these headphones on, say, my train commute or something, then I'm going to turn the headphones on, pair it with my handy smartphone, be listening to music, also have active noise canceling on
1:45
And then I get to my office, I get to school, whatever it is. I turn off my headphones. I put them in the bag
1:50
And then when I go to use them next time, they're dead. Why are they dead
1:54
Because I didn also turn off the active noise canceling Now this might be a feature It might be something where it really nice to just put these on and turn on the active noise cancelling and not actually listen to music So in some environments it would take away background noise and ambient noise
2:11
But I can't help but think that a lot of people are bitten by this probably with frequency
2:16
And even after, you know, weeks or months of using these headphones, you'll occasionally forget to turn off the ANC
2:22
and it will drain your battery without you getting any benefit out of it
2:26
You know, know this. This might or might not be a positive thing as far as you're concerned
2:32
From my perspective, I kind of wish if I powered off the headphones that also powered off the ANC
2:37
Now, the headphones themselves are nice and light. They're about 9 ounces or 255 grams
2:44
They feature dual 40 millimeter drivers and they're running Bluetooth 4.0. So it's not the most recent version of Bluetooth
2:51
and they also lack support for either AAC, which is an iPhone protocol for better dynamic range on your music
2:59
or APTX, which is a Qualcomm slash Android protocol, which also gives you better dynamic range
3:05
So these work and they sound good, but if you're used to the really great, you know, high-deaf audio of those greater codecs, this doesn't support them
3:16
Then again, at the price, it's kind of hard to complain. Now, has a microphone for making phone calls
3:22
I did that. I find that making a phone call when I have closed ear headphones is super disconcerting
3:29
so I don't really like it. So I'm not going to make phone calls with this anyway, but it does give you that option
3:35
So that's nice. And it has no latency. So if you want to use these and you want to watch a movie or YouTube or Netflix or something
3:43
on your phone or on your tablet or something, you're going to enjoy it
3:47
There's not going to be that weird out-of-sync thing. which is so frustrating
3:51
So that's really kind of the main features here. Now let me tell you also, there's a padded headband
3:58
and it comes with a bunch of different cables. So let actually open up this bag and see what inside if I can open it So included with our headphones are let see So here the 3 millimeter AUX cable
4:13
And I like that it's just the standard 3.5 on both ends. So you can get a longer cable
4:18
If you want to use these as wired headphones and have a super long cable, you can do that
4:24
Or you can use the included cable, and that works just fine. How long is this
4:28
This is a three foot cable. Now, there is also a micro USB charging wire, but let's be honest, I have millions of those things
4:36
because everything is a micro USB charging wire. And then finally, there is an airplane adapter for those retro airplanes that have the dual jack
4:46
for audio or for headphones, so you can use that too. Now, also features this really nice, though really big, hard case
4:54
So you can see it's like a clamshell. it's a happy clam
5:00
I'll never do that again. Don't worry. So it's nice. It holds the headphones and you have enough space in there for all the wires and stuff that you might need
5:09
Zip it up and you got really good protection, but it's bulky
5:13
So my guess is that a lot of people are just going to carry the headphones just like this
5:16
Or maybe they'll just actually have them around their neck like this. And that works fine
5:22
Now, the placement of the buttons, we already looked at the buttons. The placement's actually pretty good
5:26
once you sort of get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use your thumb to feel where volume is on one ear and then where the ANC is on the other ear
5:36
Because again, you want to be able to turn that on and off, which leads us to the sound and the ANC
5:42
And I will say they sound really good. I was very impressed to have a nice crispness to them
5:47
And I had my phone set to have a loudness, EQ, and boy, it gave me a really nice rich bass
5:54
So, you know, there's not a lot of depth or sound stage
5:58
So if I close my eyes everything sounds like it on sort of a plane between my two ears But I definitely get some spatial separation and it nice and very listenable But when I turn on the ANC I was kind of underwhelmed with the active noise canceling
6:15
Now, I will admit, I'm kind of spoiled by having really nice active noise canceling headphones
6:20
that cost probably five to ten times as much as this. So if you have a lot of budget, there are some well-known brands like Seinheiser and Sony and
6:30
Bose that make really great ANC. But if you're looking for something that's just an entry point or something where if you forget them on the train, it's not the end of the world, these are actually a pretty good option
6:42
They don't give you as much ANC. And of course, regardless of what kind of active noise cancelling you're using, if someone walks up to you and starts talking, you're still going to hear them
6:50
So just to set expectations, this is not magic. It doesn't mean that suddenly all sound vanishes
6:57
It's not how it works. But it does get rid of a lot of the annoying lower frequency, the vibrational
7:03
the hums, the engine sounds, the motor sounds, all of those sort of frequencies all tend
7:08
to go away, which is great. So before I tell you the price, and I think you're going to want to stick around for that
7:14
let me ask if you can go ahead and click on that subscribe button. Really appreciate when you do
7:19
And if you have ANC headphones, let me a comment and tell me what you have and how you like them. Cool
7:25
Now these are the Mix C D-E-R, Mix Cedar, I don't know, we'll call them Mix Cedar, E-9, ANC
7:32
Bluetooth headphones, and they are $699.99 at Amazon.com, which is a pretty sweet deal for active noise
7:39
canceling Bluetooth headphones with 30 hours of playtime and decent sound. So, I encourage you
7:46
to check them out. This is Dave Taylor, and I'll catch you in my next video
#Gadgets & Portable Electronics