[section_title title=Performance]Performance
To get our performance section up and running, the design the House of Marley Uplift earphones results in them being the longest earphones out of four I have on hand. At 52″, they’re longer than the stock Samsung Galaxy S3 earphones, the Sennheiser CX475 we previously covered and finally, longer than the AKG K323 we have in an upcoming review. This isn’t necessarily a bad design choice, but it meant that when taking my phone out of my pocket there was always a faff with excess cable.
Of course, part of this faff is down to me not having an “iDevice” with everything but pause/play having to be done through my phone itself. Either way, I think the cable could do with being a little shorter unless of course you’re somewhat taller than my modest 5’11 frame and could do with the extra give. The earphones themselves feel well constructed and have a satisfying clank to them if they knock onto each other and don’t give off the feeling that they’re likely to break through day to day usage.
Whilst in use they don’t feel at all weighty in the ear and the relatively straight design means that they don’t rub against the inner ear – something my S3 earphones are guilty of. My review was conducted with the already fitted rubber tips and the seal was great with hardly any leakage. The Marley Uplift earphones themselves sound like a more refined Sennheiser CX475 with a heavy emphasis on bass seemingly present here, and strangely, at odds with the Marley Chant that was so lacking in bass. Â The sound itself tends to remain relatively clear throughout, but it’s immediately evident that once the drivers get a whiff of anything remotely representing a lowish frequency that it gets the thumping treatment applied.
On occasion this bass output can stray from a nice thumping feeling into a sound that comes across as more of a 3D EQ setting instead, muddying some transitions and layers in tracks and needing the volume to be turned down to remedy it. Â The end-result is neither unsatisfying or annoying, and depending on your listening habits, possibly preferred, but the processed output is always there. Listening material was again bolstered by Haim, SBTRKT with both playing to different strengths of the Marley.
Haim’s heavily influenced Fleetwood Mac sound shines due to the heavy-bass rifts in their tracks, namely The Wire, which sounds like a small person is sitting on the edge of your ear plucking away on bass. Similarly, SBTRKT’s latest EP, Transitions, is extremely futuristic and funky with the low-end and high-end aspects of this track being split across the song and rarely layered. This split allows the bass of the Uplift to shine through without drowning out other elements of the tracks.
The inline controls of the Uplift aren’t fully functional on an Android device although you get around 80% functionality. Everything but the volume rocker works, including the track skipping functionality. Admittedly, it isn’t hard or arguably any different to reach into your pocket and use the rocker there but it is still worth noting.
