Mpow H19 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones Review

Mpow H19 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones Review

Buy it at Amazon: Mpow H19 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Lightweight, decent sound, effective noise cancelling at a budget price.

You’ll receive the headphones in a leatherette drawstring bag, a microUSB charging cable, a flat gold-plated audio cable, and an instruction manual. The earcups on these headphones fold inward for compact storage, and the frame is made from a light-weight plastic. The Mpow brand is shown on the outside of both earcups. On the bottom of the left earcup you’ll find the AUX input port, the switch to toggle on and off active noise canceling, and the ANC status LED. On the bottom of the right earcup you’ll find the pin hole mic, microUSB charging port, status LED, power button, and volume control keys.

The headphones are lightweight at just under 11 oz have earcups that swivel about 90°. The headband can be expanded 1-1/8” on either side revealing a steel over plastic core, which feels fairly durable and flexible. The underside of the headband is lined with a soft plushy hollow silicone pad. The earcups are lined with a soft leatherette and have about ¾” of memory foam cushion making them super soft and comfortable on the ear. The pads are 3.5”H x 3”W overall and have a cavity of 2.5”H x 1.5”W. The padding on the earcups don’t appear to be removable, so this means you can’t replace them if they wear out.

Before first use, be sure to charge the headphones. When the unit is charging, the status light will be red and turns blue when the unit is fully charged. With rapid charge, a 10 minute charge can provide up to 2 hrs of playtime over Bluetooth, without noise-cancelling. Full charging takes several hours and the unit can play for up to 35 hours depending on volume level and whether or not noise canceling is enabled. To turn the unit on, press and hold the power button for several seconds, until you hear the power on prompt through the headphones. Then in your phone’s Bluetooth devices, select ‘MPOW H19.’

As for fit, I thought these headphones were decently comfortable with their soft ear cups, though the clamping force was just a tiny bit on the snug side for me and the texture and weight of the silicone headband was a smidge hard for my liking. With that said, I did wear them for several hours before I felt a bit fatigued and had to take them off. To increase or decrease the volume, short press the ‘+’ or ‘-‘ keys and to skip tracks forward or back, long press these keys. Because these are physical buttons, you may hear an audible click through the earcups when using them. The max volume is very loud and generally free of distortion, even if you push them past the safe listening volume indicated by your phone.

The sound from the headphones is a bit on the soft side when listening without active noise cancelling enabled. Even without ANC the passive noise reduction is quite good and there’s very little noise bleeding. However, it’s very closed sounding and the sound stage is placed just a tad farther away than I’m used to. That and the mid-ranges tend to experience a moderate amount of clipping, surprisingly at any volume, and at times, the sound quality can be muffled and muddy with a slight overemphasis on the upper registers that adds extra sibilance to the trebles.

The experience changes when you switch on ANC, and the difference is stark. The sound opens up, the music is brought in a little closer to the listener, and you’ll swear it’s got completely different sound sculpting applied. Clarity increases and the far away softness is lessened, though not completely eliminated. I was somewhat surprised by the decent bass performance and while it’s not body shaking, there’s enough support in the lower ranges that you don’t feel like the bottom has dropped out.

When nothing is playing and you have ANC enabled you do hear a little bit of white noise, like a breeze on a calm beach. But the noise dampening is pretty good and small sounds like typing on a keyboard almost completely disappear. Conversations in the background also become a bit more muted but are still audible until you start playing some music.

In general, with ANC on, the sound was more crisp and open than without, and if you’ve got it fully charged and aren’t worried about the battery running out, I’d say there’s no reason not to turn it on. Now if you’re running low on battery, you can still use the headphones using the AUX cable, with or without ANC enabled. I felt the sound quality was a little better using the cable than with Bluetooth because even though it’s using the 5.0 standard and has zero input lag, I can still hear the compression artifacts when using Bluetooth. You can also do hands-free calling via the built-in mic and activate a voice assistant like Google, Alexa, or Siri by double-clicking the power button.

Overall, the H19s are decent sounding and offer the convenience of wireless headphones with active noise cancelling and a long battery life at a budget price. The sound for me was boxed in a little, but the quality is more than adequate for a commute, watching movies, or enjoying your playlist in a crowded and noisy space. You won’t get an audiophile listening experience out of these, but for a super affordable budget price set of headphones with active noise canceling? The experience was actually really nice.

Buy it at Amazon: Mpow H19 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones [Affiliate Link]