Coloud The Boom Over-Ear Headphones Review
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Simple, clean and modern have been in the forefront of gadget designs for a while now and has gained popularity amongst the current generation so quickly that manufacturers are hustling to out newer and simpler products as soon as possible. Coloud Headphones are the epitome of simple design; sacrificing everything but the essentials seems to be their direction. By creating a beautifully crafted pair of headphones with the bare minimum, we give you The Boom. See if The Boom truly earned its name down below in the full review.
Coming out of this uniquely shaped triangular box, you'll find the Coloud to be pretty light on contents. Along with the headphones themselves, there is some literature and a Coloud logo sticker. Picking The Boom headphones out of the box, you instantly notice how lightweight they are, but at the same time, they feel slightly on the cheaper side. This is mainly due to the cheap plastic material used for the overall construction. However, the finish is soft and smooth, allowing it to be easily cleaned with a quick wipe-down.
When Coloud said simple, they really meant simple. There are no bells or whistles on these pair of cans as they only have the essentials; the headband and the ear cups themselves with a tangle-free cable. Along with these awesome cables, there is a microphone attached. However, there is only center button and a mic without any volume buttons. It seems rather odd that Coloud would leave those out, but they did include a tiny cable management system called the "Zound Lasso". More on that in a little while.
The simplicity of The Boom is impressing on paper, but when it comes down to real world use, we found it to be lacking in some crucial areas. The headband's edges has a sharp ridge that makes carrying it a bit annoying, if not painful. You don't realize it once it's on your head, but you can definitely feel the less-than-awesome quality. We would have enjoyed some more padding on the headband itself, but with the headphones being so lightweight, it wasn't a huge deal-breaker.
What did became a noticeable bother was the ear cups. Perhaps it would have better fit someone with smaller ears, but for us, it was uncomfortable after just a short period of use. People with big heads and big ears should definitely look elsewhere. The circular cups didn't sit well on our ears, which created an unpleasant experience.
While you may not enjoy wearing The Booms, it will definitely store itself nicely inside your drawer or closet. Coloud developed an unique cord management system called the Zound Lasso that allows you to wrap your cable around the flexible rubber end where the headphone jack is and to secure your cable through a loop. This is the first time that we've seen anything like this. The other headphone companies should take notes.
The Boom doesn't deserve its name if it can't perform to standards now can it? Here's what we think. The boom is definitely there. Once you crank the audio up, there's very little distortion and it pumps out sound at quite a loud level. However, the overall sound quality leaves much to be desired. Through normal use, the sound can be muddy and sometimes just sound muffled. There aren't as much distinction between the highs and the mids as we would have liked nor is there a hearty bass to boot. However, at the price you pay, you shouldn't be looking for studio quality performance either.
The Boom by Coloud has both its strong suits and some blaring downsides, but as a pair of headphones that gets the job done at a nice and affordable price, these could be it. With an extremely minimalistic design and the exciting cable management system, $40 seems like a steal. They're simple, lightweight, and cheap. If those are what you are looking for, then we definitely recommend giving Coloud's The Boom a try. If you're not a huge fan of the grey color scheme, they offer a wide variety of much more vibrant flavors too that should match just about anybody's fashion sense. While it may not be perfect for audiophile quality sound, it does well fitting in with the urban scene.
