Sound of Substance

Want to feel like you're in a club, wherever you are? Strap on the Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless!

Sennheiser has been continuing to do what they do best - arguably being the most "purist" audio company in the world today.
The German sound bell-wether recently launched some stuff, and we're happy enough to be hearing one of them: the Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless.
As you will notice in the name, this headset is one big baby that packs a punch into your music experience. And lives up to Senn-heiser's "club sound wherever you go" description. Don't forget their famous tagline either - "let your ears be loved" - because I like the ear cups' well surrounding fit on my ears - although again, they may be too big for some users.
Pairing won't be that hard; slide the button on the right ear cup to where the Bluetooth sign is and, of course, make sure the device you want to connect it to is discoverable. The headset connects real fast from off mode.
And since we all know that this is the wireless version - there is a wired Urbanite XL, don't worry - here comes the chunky part. The panel over the right ear cup is where all the controls are: tap once to start/stop a track or answer/end a call; tap twice to skip to the next track or to redial the last number; tap thrice to go back to the previous track; and slide up or down to increase or decrease the volume. Tapping and holding for a second will reject a call. Whew.
For good measure, here are some more tips to remember: while listening to music, you can tap twice and hold it to rewind the track, and tap thrice and hold it to fast-forward. During a call, tap and hold for a second to transfer the call from the mobile to the headset or vice-versa. There's also a chord included that has an inline control you can mess with, if you run out of battery.
My beef here is, well, the control panel itself. It's hovering too much above the ear cup that when you try to remove the headset, there is a big tendency for your fingers or hand to touch it, thereby performing an action you might otherwise might not want to do.
As for sound quality, it's excellent; the tones are clear and crisp, although the bass rendering could do with a little more work.

AND SO.
At up to 25 hours of power (my test put it at around 22, though), the Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless is one serious contender in the sound domain.
THE LAUNCHPAD

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alvin@khaleejtimes.com 

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