In-Depth Review of the B&B PURE Customizable Headphones

Choosing headphones is a multiple choice test. Do you want to listen inside, or outside? Do you want noise isolation features, or do you want more open-sounding audio? These questions are a matter of striking a balance between sound quality, comfort, and listening location. That’s because the best pair of sports headphones aren’t necessarily going to be good for watching TV on the couch, and vice versa.

One way to solve this problem is to buy half a dozen pairs of different headphones, one for each circumstance. That’s certainly an attractive option for people who have the budget, and don’t mind having to manage a couple extra devices. But what if you’re looking to get the most you can out of a single pair of headphones?

Many of the differences between various styles of headphones actually can be reduced to fairly small physical changes. For example, think about over-ear headphones versus on-ear headphones. There are substantive differences between the two, but those differences are brought about by only slight variations in padding!

B&B PURE Customizable Headphones

So shouldn’t you be able to swap out the padding on your headphones, to make them be whatever you need them to be at the time? That’s the idea behind the B&B PURE Customizable Headphones. They’re intended to provide the utility of several distinct pairs of headphones, without the cost or storage issues of having to manage such a mess.

But they’re not simply about comfort and convenience, after all, plenty of headphones can offer those things. B&B PURE Customizable Headphones are constructed with knowledge that people hear things differently.

In other words, they’re made to adapt what you listen to in such a way that it better matches your ability to hear. The sound you get is made specifically for you, just as customized as highly customizable comfort. The result is a chameleon-like pair of headphones which are, in many ways, unmatched by virtually any other non-audiophile headphones on the market.

Build & Design

Holding them in your hands, the first thing to notice about B&B PURE Customizable Headphones are the nigh indestructible nature of their design. The headband is highly flexible, allowing you to flex and bend it repeatedly without concern. It quickly snaps back into shape, no worse for wear, which is ideal for protection during transportation. You can generally toss them in your bag and not have to worry about what happens as you move.

Internally, the B&B Pure Customizable Headphones are constructed with high quality 40mm drivers. The 40mm size is on the lower end of average for over-ear headphone drivers, but is more characteristic of on-ear headphone drivers. The maximum volume output isn’t quite the same as many larger over-ear headphones, but the B&B Customizable Headphones are still certainly capable of being louder than you should listen to your music.

Along the top of the headband runs a hidden integrated charging cable. That cable terminates in a common USB Type-A connection, making it quite easy to start charging the B&B PURE headphones from anywhere. Moreover, the 3.5mm aux port can be used for charging as well, making these headphones even more adaptable. Just about the only thing that could extend this principle further would be allowing you to eject and replace the batteries.

What does happen to be removable are the memory foam ear cups. Popping them off leaves the B&B Pure Customizable Headphones in an on-ear configuration, which is better for staying in-tune with your environment, and listening while in warmer environments. Being able to remove the ear cups also makes them much easier to clean.

Beneath the soft memory foam, each ear-cup is attached with a durable metal arm. At the base of the right ear cup, is the previously mentioned 3.5mm line-in port for audio signals or charging. And on the outside of the left ear cup, there’s a touch panel that you can use for analogue control of your digital audio.

Unique Approach to Sound Design

Everyone hears things a little bit differently. Part of this is due to how the human brain is wired. For example, a Westerner can listen to a pair of tones which sound distinct to a Mandarin speaker, but sound like identical tones to the Westerner.

That’s because some sounds used specifically in languages like Mandarin may be absent from languages like English, and vice versa. When infant brains are learning to understand the world around them, they become wired to hear the sounds which are being used in the languages around them. From the time we’re infants, our hearing is already somewhat individualistic and unique.

As we grow and age, our hearing continues to change. Some of it is natural changes, and some of it is caused by hearing damage. In either case, by the time you’re 20 years old, the way you hear music will be distinct from the people around you. And if a song happens to use many frequencies which aren’t part of your personal hearing spectrum, that music isn’t going to sound as good as it could. In fact, it might sound faded in ways you’re not even perceiving.

That’s why the B&B PURE headphones operate with this new approach to sound design. It works by issuing a simple hearing test before configuring the headphones for your personal use, allowing the headphones to create a sound profile specific to your hearing profile.

When your next song is brought to life by the B&B Pure Customizable Headphone drivers, what comes out of your headphones is a closer match to what you’re actually capable of hearing. And it may be worth noting, this hearing test feature can be saved to individual profiles, so your friend would have no problem setting up a profile all their own.

On-Ear vs. Over-Ear

B&B PURE Customizable Headphones can be swapped between two settings, on-ear and around-ear. The on-ear is good for avoiding heat, but it’s less comfortable for long-term listening because it compresses the ear against the head. On-ear is also generally the better choice for staying in-touch with your environment, but conversely, what you listen to will also be more audibly broadcast into your environment.

Over-ear provides the best long-term comfort. Each ear cup is made with memory foam, but the real source of the comfort is a combination of the fabric-wrapping, and the even distribution of pressure along the sides of your head. Notably, the fabric wrapped around the memory foam is sweat resistant, which prevents your headphones from getting disgusting after a few dozen uses. Of course, you’ll still need to wipe-down the pads from time to time.

Battery Life

As previously mentioned, B&B PURE Customizable Headphones can be powered through the integrated charging cable. It pops-up from the topside of the headband, and uses a short 3-inch connection to attach to a USB port. It takes about half an hour for half charge, or 2.5 hours for a full charge. You can follow along the progress of the charge by monitoring the four LEDs near the control panel, indicating 25% charge per LED.

The battery life provides an impressive 20-hours of playtime, and you can get a quick-charge from a low battery in only a few minutes. If you don’t feel like waiting around, you can swap over to the cable mode, which doesn’t use any battery power at all. And don’t forget, you can also charge through the 3.5mm aux jack.

Sound Quality

If you’re not willing to spend $500 on equipment, then getting the best sound is mostly about matching features up with your environment. For example, if you’re in a noisy area, then the best sound will require some kind of feature to help you block out the noise. Great sound isn’t even possible until these basic requirements are out of the way.

And therein lies the strength of the B&B Customizable Headphones. They’re adaptable, allowing them to offer the strengths of several different types of headphones, depending on your circumstances. Whether you’re in a quiet environment, a noisy environment, whether you need to hear your surroundings or you don’t. It’s hard to underestimate how much these factors ultimately contribute to sound presentation.

But obviously, the real strength of the B&B Pure Customizable Headphones is their ability to adjust their sound profile to your perceptions of sound. The best headphones in the world for one person will not necessarily be the same headphones for another person, but you’re far more likely to find what you’re looking for from a product that can adapt to you.

Connectivity

B&B PURE Customizable Headphones are constructed with Bluetooth 5.0 for their wireless support, the latest Bluetooth standard. It offers 33 feet of connectivity, and is backwards compatible with all previous versions of Bluetooth. That’s the same expansive feature set which allows you to connect two devices to these headphones at the same time.

Other Considerations

They also provide an automatic pause function with motion tracking to know when to pause. The automatic pause is triggered by you taking your headphones off, and resume when you put them back on. This motion tracking feature needs to be turned off if you plan on wearing your headphones while laying down, for what should be obvious reasons. Fortunately, turning it off is quite simple.

Even More Big Features

As if the B&B PURE Customizable Headphones didn’t already have enough going for them, they’ve also decided to make use of active noise cancellation (ANC) technology. Most Nosie cancelling works by creating a physical barrier between your ear canal and noise. ANC works by creating soundwaves which counteract the soundwaves in your environment, actively cancelling noise around you.

It’s a technology that works great for bass tones, but only fades-out mid-tones, and does nothing for high frequencies. The ANC can be turned on or off, depending on your needs. If you don’t need it, you’ll want to switch it off because it eats up about as much battery as a Bluetooth connection.

Finally, B&B PURE headphones are carrying a pair of microphones, providing what they’ve decided to name “Clear Voice Cancelling”. This basically just means the microphones are good at filtering background noise because one mic is dedicated to filtering disturbing sounds, while the other is intently listening for your voice.

Who Should Choose B&B PURE Customizable Headphones?

The B&B Pure Customizable Headphones are a good choice for someone who’s looking for highly adaptive headphones. They’re comfortable for both warm and cool rooms. They can be used while allowing you to remain attentive to your environment, or used to tune-out your environment with ANC. And they provide a totally unique approach to sound design that could be a game-changer for some people.

Do you listen to your headphones for 7-hours on one day, and then only in 30-minute intervals on the next day? That being the case, you’re better suited by headphones that can adapt to varied circumstances. And unless you want to start shopping around for half-a-dozen separate headphones, B&B Pure provide a fairly simple solution to the problem.

In short, they’re a great choice for anyone who doesn’t want to invest at least $500 for audiophile equipment, which will end up being less adaptable, or for several pairs of headphones, which will require more work to manage.