[section_title title=Closer Look]Closer Look
The package that the XBA-H3 ship doesn’t really give much away about their performance on the outside. As you can see, hurts adorn the front. Aesthetically the box looks quite classic if not serious.
The rear of the package goes someway to describe the headline hybrid design of the XBA-H3 along with highlighting the detachable cord, silicon ear buds and special housing that holds the driver and tweeter.
The box itself continues with the understated look.
With the box opened you’re presented with the XBA-H3 off the bat. no need to fight through packaging or plastic to see what you’ve paid for. As you can see, the actual size of the modules are quite large as Sony have somehow managed to squeeze a 16mm driver in there as well as their double BA design.
As I mentioned in the intro, Sony do offer a decent selection of accessories in the box including a rather nice leather carry pouch, cable clip and winder so you can keep everything in place, a selection of ear bud sizes and materials and finally a 4 ring conductor cable that allows you to use the XBA-H3 with voice applications and mobile phones where supported.
The internals of the carry case. The cable in view here is the 4 ring one.
The earphones themselves hang over your ears and are extremely light. The silicon sleeved area between the earphones and the main part of the cable mold around your easy enough and don’t feel although any extended shaping would cause issues. Sony have also employed a ‘flat’ cable which should avoid any tangles, of course, you could always use the included clip and winder, too.
The image below shows off the exposed cable should you wish to swap the actual modules between the voice capable cable or your standard audio cable. Which clicking the the modules into place they feel secure enough, but I couldn’t knock the sense of worry that it would be easy to break the modules themselves by applying too much force during swap overs. Ideally, if there was a screw-in system deployed instead it would fill me at least with confidence.
Initial impressions from the overall package is one that oozes quality although not readily apparent that the price tag is warranted, of course, the proof is in the pudding and with that in mind let’s see how they performed.
