SuperEQ S1 Review – Great Budget Active Noise Cancelling Headphones

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General Musings

Do you like listening to Justin Beiber, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Chainsmokers and maybe a little Kygo?

If pop music is your thing, then these cans are a great choice. You’ll even get Hi-Res audio-certified headphones for under $60!

Don’t let me limit the genres, I’m just saying they certainly excel in this area. Many other genres work well also including Jazz, R&B and ambient tunes.

Classical music might struggle a little with how the frequencies placed as they are in these SuperEQ S1 active noise-canceling headphones.

These budget ANC headphones are from the OneOdio stable (they’ve made our lists before) as a lifestyle brand extension. OneOdio has a huge following offering a massive range of affordable HiFi headphones

Unboxing the SuperEQ S1 Headphones

Comfort

The SuperEQ S1 ANC headphones come with some very comfortable ear pads. They create a nice seal over your ears (circumaural).

The really nice to have element of these affordable little cans is the headband even has nice padding. It’s bright red, which I love, and adds to the premium feel of the SuperEQ S1.

Overall, they are really comfortable. This is only improved with the ANC on.

Only real observation on comfort is that they will suit smaller heads. This is perfect for younger students or teenagers. As a parent I will certainly pass these on to the kids and would buy another pair to avoid fighting.

They fit well, have an extendable head band and have comfy ear pads.’

Tick in the box there, if you don’t have a really big head.

Transparency and ANC

The S1 Hybrid ANC offer transparency mode (which is really ANC off?) and active noise-cancellation. Honestly, for this price to have ANC on a set of headphones this well made is impressive enough. The question is, does it work?

The answer is, yes, it really does.

I have owned a few sets of Bose. My current being the QC 35ii which just died so I’ll be in for QC45’s when I next travel. I’ve also had many other units over the years including Audio-Technica and Sony. Bose make me happy.

I say all that ‘boastful expensive ANC headphones stuff’ to illustrate I know my way around travel with ANC headphones.

In transparency mode the audio is fine. It doesn’t make a huge impact on the overall sound signature. You can hear outside the headphones but not through the headphones.

By this I mean to say that the transparency mode doesn’t seem to enhance external noises. The earcups still provide a decent amount of passive sound isolation.

To be honest, I’d stick to listening with the ANC on.

ANC – Active Noise-cancelling is where external microphones pick up and detect external frequencies, especially consistent ones like airplane noise or hum, and cancels them out with a counter frequency so you don’t hear them in the headphones, where there is usually more microphones. These have 4 microphones.

The SuperEQ S1 does a good job, no, an excellent job for this price. It’s a significant change when the ANC kicks in. Again, affordable headphones for travel? These are perfect.

If you’re in an office they will also provide ample noise-canceling. Just using them at home and in the office, I disappeared once ANC was on and music was playing.

The combination of sound isolation and active noise-canceling makes the SuperEQ ANC S1 a very quiet and enjoyable experience. You can let the music play without having to crank the volume up.

Probably only get these on Amazon and the SuperEQ website.

Hybrid isn’t like an IEM or multiple drive headphone is hybrid

From what I can tell from poking at the headphones, these don’t contain hybrid drivers as you would expect from other audio equipment.

Hybrid suggests multiple listening states i.e ANC + Transparency modes but I think its really related to the 2 external and 2 internal mic array.

Sound Quality

Overall these sound great. There isn’t a lot of clarity between frequencies and the sound stage isn’t separated and clear but that’s a criticism from a guy that listens to $2k+ headphones most days.

So all that aside – these are awesome. The bass goes deep, the mids are quite crisp and while treble isn’t very forward it’s there and certainly don’t leave me feeling fatigued.

Bass

The bass on these shines really well on some tracks more than others but overall, it’s shows up in a big way on all tracks.

It’s not too much but it is warm. Not super tight.

Quite impressed really. If they could make this just a little tighter these would be an amazing budget alternative to the Sony WH-1000XM4. Actually, they already are a great affordable alternative for those.

The reason I say that is the bottom end reminds me of the typical Sony sound signature. Deep, round, warm.

Rockstar – Post Malone is always a great track to test your sub bass.

Mids

I like guitar and vocals. While the tuning on these is not completely V shaped, (only as the treble isn’t too pronounced) the mids do sit back a little.

Guitars sound nice, keys are full and melodious and vocals are clean and relatively crisp. Add a little more upper mids and treble and you’d have a really sharp unit. These punch above their weight.

These are great for most genres and shine with Pop music, Pop Rock and some R&B and Rap. NF, Eminem sound super. Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and other acoustic vocal work.

Treble

It’s there. It’s present and it’s not overbearing. I like treble so a little more lower treble would help the mids blend in but I can’t fault them too much.

In some ways the mids and high end also reminded me of my Shure SE-215 IEMs. This makes rock music a good listen.

Again, for long listening periods these make for a comfortable listen.

Movies will certainly sound awesome with these.

Conclusion…because I haven’t talked enough already

The big question in this SuperEQ S1 review is, should you buy these headphones? Too hard to answer but let me try my best.

If you have less than $75 and you want a closed back set of Bluetooth headphones with active noise-canceling, a decent battery life and good sound? These are a great pick.

My bottom line with any audio accessories is do they allow me to ‘feel’ the music. These do that. It’s rare at this price point. Right now I’m listening to Hide & Seek by Garrett Garfield and it’s tasty. Before this I listened to 30 Seconds to Mars – Walk on Water. Equally good.

Well made, comfortable, good sound, excellent price and ANC – damn. If I was younger and commuting again in NYC, London, Sydney or Vancouver I would recommend these to anyone I could find.

I’d like to think the faint crackle that appears intermittently is unique to this pair but even then I only notice it as I am tuned to do so. Most people wouldn’t even pick it up.

Well done SuperEQ on a great set of cans.

What I’d love to do is blind test these with Sony and Beats and see what people choose. I think we might all be surprised.

FAQ

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This post was last updated on 2025-01-15 / Some images from Amazon Product API & some links may be affiliate links which may earn us a commission from purchases.