The Article
ORANGE CREST EDITION MK.II WIRELESS HEADPHONES
20th December 2024
The pro music brand goes lifestyle with wireless ‘phones. Paul Rigby thinks the future is bright
No, I’m not talking about the mobile phone company. Oh no. This Orange has a deeper, longer and more illustrious history as a maker of legendary guitar valve amplifiers running on in-house designed transformers. Running since 1968, founded by Cliff Cooper in the West-End of London off the back of a £50 loan and still run by that very man today. I think he’s in his 80s now. Back then, his amplifiers were used by John Lennon, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, Marc Bolan, Peter Green, Stevie Wonder and more.
If you want to see Orange amps in action? Grab the wonderful DVD box sets devoted to German TV music show, Beat Club with legendary groups performing live and all using Orange amps while they do so.
The worry when any company of this stature dives into the lifestyle HiFi game is that the fans think the company has sold out and plastered its name on cheap tat in order to make a few quick pennies. It has happened before, after all.
And so, before I listened to these headphones, I asked the company about that. Are they producing lifestyle rubbish? And the company rejected that question talking about personal pride and only wanting to release quality onto the market and how they have brought a HiFi man, ex-Harmon Kardon I hear to handle the HiFi side of affairs.
I will be checking out a Bluetooth speaker from Orange soon but wanted to look at these headphones first as a sort of guide to where the company is headed.
A QUICK TOUR
The box itself is stylish, sturdy and well designed. Inside are the over-the-ear headphones, encased in a zippered hard case. Taking the headphones out, I was intrigued by the storage positioning of these headphones. For example, holding the Stax S3 headphones, the ear cups are floppy on their foldaway hinges. Sennheiser’s HD 4.50 BTNC headphones have a gentle resistance before the ear cups are folded but these Orange ear cups have to be pressure snapped before the hinged ear cups will fold for storage. And I quite like that.
There’s a purposeful, rather definite configuration choice here while the headphones retain their structure when being moved around. Some headphones seem to be constructed of blancmange. That is, if you want to fold these Orange headphones for storage, you really have to make an effort to do so.
Construction consists of a blend of metal and rubber with lots of etched art and branding covering the outer band.
You will also find a plug-in cable so you can use the headphones wired if the battery fails. As for the battery? That will last for 40 hours via general use.
One side of the headphone features a touch interface. So you swipe to skip to the next song, change volume or tap to play/pause. You also double-tap the play button to access Apple Siri or Google Assistant via the built-in microphone. Multipoint pairing also means that your headphones will automatically switch to your phone should you receive a phone call.
There is a power button on the same ear cup and a touch interface. That can also be used to start/pause music, redial or reject a call.
Weighing in at 256g, offering charging support via a USB-C socket and supporting Bluetooth 5.0, I was disappointed to hear that the headphones only support basic Bluetooth codecs: SBC and AAC. That needs to be corrected for any possible Mk.III model.
So how do these headphones sound?
SOUND QUALITY
Because of the supported codecs I grabbed my iPhone 15, which supports AAC, and hooked up to Amazon Music and its decent, if lossless, music streaming via its basic service and listened to that delicate, fragile and culturally significant symphonic piece, Tiger Feet by Mud, then a little bit of Burning Love from Elvis and what hit me was the bass emphasis from these headphones. The Elvis track offered a prominent bass guitar and the bass vibes from the lead vocal were given due prominence. This sound envelope is something the company was aiming for. As the company stated when referring to the drivers, “They give richer, nuanced bass response…”
So there is definite colour here from these designs. They are not balanced or neutral in any way. It’s actually refreshing to hear the company warn you from the off about that colour and to actually hear them celebrate the fact. Normally, I have to find out after the fact.
For me? As a guess? That colour comes from the company’s history and that warming 70s presentation. It fits with the history and heritage of the company itself. In many ways, the sound of these headphones reminds me of headphones from the 70s from the likes of Pioneer, Sony, Akai, Koss, Philips and more.
On the other hand, there’s a warming, cuddly, sound here that reminds me of modern amplifiers and CD player releases from the likes of Leak.
VS STAX S3
To provide a bit of context, I brought in the admittedly more expensive and sonically balanced Stax S3 (£329) wireless headphones, just to see where and how these Orange headphones differed.
I then changed the source to my desktop iMac and played Nick Drake’s Pink Moon at 24/44.1Khz. Before the sound test itself, I found the pairing action on the Orange headphones very quick indeed while the Stax took a bit of time to connect.
Soundwise? The Stax S3s provided an open midrange, airy soundstage, plenty of reverb from the strummed acoustic guitar plus a real feeling of hammers hitting their stops on the piano. The Orange’s mids and treble were rather rolled off, bass was pushed forwards but there was still lots of detail on offer. Sure the air and space around the soundstage was gone now, you could still hear the piano hammers in action but there was that overwhelming warmth that again, reminded me of recently-released Leak equipment.
There was also a little bit of the Bluetooth signal leaking into the quiet moments. I could hear that typical wireless signal leakage pushing into the quiet moments between tracks although that never affected the music itself.
VS SENNHEISER HD 4.50 BTNC
Changing the source to my Astell&Kern Kann Alpha DAP, playing the Fleet Foxes and the track Wading in Waist-High Water and moving to the Sennheisers (£99.99) now which lies within a similar price point, I noted that, understandably, these headphones failed to extend the treble or upper mids as far as the Stax headphones. There was a notable ceiling in terms of detail retrieval here with the resonance of the piano and the acoustic guitar strings being chopped a little in terms of the information delivered to the ear. As I say, that’s to be expected when comparing these designs to the more expensive Stax models. There’s no shame in the lower-cost Sennhesiers failing to match the standard of the Stax headphones.
Thing is though, I’m sure that the Orange headphones would suffer in a similar way but you tend to not really notice too much because of the strong bass emphasis. Its a kind of smoke and mirrors thing. The bass emphasis serves to take your attention away from the upper frequency issues. The bass smothers detail issues, casting a veil over any potential problems. That is, rather than note upper frequency problems, rather than focus on midrange problems, rather than criticise the treble, you just concentrate on that warm, golden 70s feel to the Orange designs.
CONCLUSION
The inherent voicing of the Orange headphones is both its inherent weakness and, remarkably, its strength. This is undoubtedly a niche design. The Crest Edition Mk.II headphones are aimed hard at one particular segment of the music-listening audience. Offering a sepia-toned, bass-heavy sound.
The conscious warming direction of the sound is aimed at those who love bass and that vintage presentation. Hence, because the bass emphasis is so dominant, you tend to focus on that and only that which is, is some ways, rather clever and possibly a little devious.
If you love the sounds of the 70s, if you like your music warm and bass heavy, if you love the recently release Leak HiFi kit then give these headphones serious attention.
ORANGE CREST EDITION MK.II WIRELESS HEADPHONES
Price: £95
Website: orangessentials.com
GOOD: bass emphasis, fold-away design, funky lifestyle aesthetic, quick pairing, 70s vintage presentation
BAD: bass emphasis, poor codec selection, detail
