by Avi Greengart
1More is an audio brand that somehow has flown under the radar, despite consistently offering excellent sonics at reasonable prices and getting rave critical reviews. The company's latest earbuds are a bit of a throwback - they aren't wireless, and they don't have any form of active noise cancellation. They even have a 3.5mm headphone jack! Just in case you live in 2023, the P50's do come with a USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter, along with a soft carrying case for the earbuds and accessories so that you don't lose it.
1More should lead a seminar on packaging; for $169 earbuds, the unboxing experience is excellent, setting high expectations for the product itself.
There are FIVE drivers in each of the P50's: one dynamic driver and four planar units. Five drivers sounds like a comedy sketch about adding more razer blades, but the end result is really nice sound for a price a fraction of professional IEMs (In Ear Monitors). 1More claims that these earbuds were tuned by "Grammy award-winning sound engineer Luca Bignardi, capturing the passion and emotion of music." To my non-Grammy award-winning ears, the 1More P50's audio response is extremely flat. The $169 1More P50's sound more like to my reference $1200 UE18's (which have six drivers apiece) than most consumer earbuds that tend to emphasize bass and, to a lesser extent, treble. The treble on the P50's is clear without any ringing or sibilance, but without any extra oomph, so there should be no listener fatigue. They are extremely revealing -- you can easily hear the difference between production quality in different musical eras and genres. These really excel in accuracy and soundstage - orchestral, theatrical, and live music is particularly engaging on them. The Hamilton Broadway recording sounds extraordinary on them, and I had to stop writing this review to listen to Marc Knopfler's guitar technique on Dire Straits Live.
In my initial listening tests, bass response was the weakest element. To get the best bass the P50's drivers could deliver, I had to move to the largest foam tips to get a better ear seal. That was a bit uncomfortable, so I compromised with the medium foam tips, and then rotated them to get as tight a seal as possible. YEMV (Your Ears May Vary). This brought the bass back to tracks like Will of the People by Muse or even the chorus on pop tracks like Victoria's Secret by Jax, and completed the flat response across the board. Still, bass does not extend particularly deep and may not be loud enough for bassheads. If you want over-emphasized bass for hip-hop or movie watching, or if you just a warmer midrange, you might be able to get part of the way there with EQ, but these probably aren't the right earbuds for you.
The in-line microphone is fine for calls even in moderately noisy environments, but the volume level is low. If you hold it just a bit closer to your mouth, it sounds great.
One final note: the DAC that's hiding in the adapter is pretty good, but when I substituted in an ifi Go bar, there was a slight reduction in noise and increase in clarity once I matched the volume. Of course, the ifi Go bar costs $329 so pairing that with earbuds that cost half that is kind of ridiculous. But if you do decide to go there, the P50's are capable of revealing any sonic differences.
Highly recommended.
1More sent over a P50 for review but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with 1More and does not accept affiliate payments.