Review: Blaupunkt Style

Blaupunkt has been around for a long time and is more popular with their automotive audio product line, but they also have a line of personal audio devices. Let’s take a look at their latest pair of on-ear headphones, the Blaupunkt Style. Here are my impressions…

Design

The folks at Germany really spent a lot of time designing this product and it looks really cool. You can immediately tell that this is a premium product based on Blaupunkt Style’s packaging. The box is sturdy and once you pull out the cover, you’ll see the really sleek minimalist looking headphones embedded in rubberized foam. 

And in the lower level of the box we've got a lot of nice accessories that come with the headphones.

The Blaupunkt Style feels super smooth with its rubberized surface. The unique headband design is also interesting because it’s made of flexible and thick rubber like material. It could be really flexible plastic that feels like rubber because of the rubberized coating. At the bottom of the headband, we can find a rubber stopper. This rubber stopper prevents the headband from sliding forward or backward as we move about and it also provides a little bit of cushion.

The left and right earpieces can be pulled down to adjust the headband for a better fit. Adjusting the headband will reveal metal bars that look like some kind of aluminum alloy.

A hinge is also incorporated into the metal bars that allow the Blaupunkt Style to be folded and stowed away inside the included pouch or transport bag. The only catch is that the hinges make the headband a little misaligned and might be more noticeable over time.

The ear pads are very comfortable and soft; soft leatherette is used to cover the pads. To remove the pads, we’ll have to hold on to the only thing that we can, the padding itself, as we turn the ear pads. That shouldn't be so bad except that the leatherette is so soft and feels like it might tear apart as you grip and turn to remove pads. Fortunately, it held up well when I tried replacing the pads...but I’d still recommend taking extra care while doing this.

You might also think that it would be easy to mix up the left and right ear pads while replacing them. Well, Blaupunkt got that covered because the left and right ear pads detach using different directions.

The colors of the alternate ear pads really punch you in the eye with neon pink and neon orange color schemes; luckily we won’t be seeing them while wearing the headphones.

L and R marking are hidden inside the ear pad where we have a thin blue foam layer with the embossed letter L and R respectively. A quick and easy way to identify the left and right sides would be to assign one different colored ear pad to the left or the right.

One highlight of the Blaupunkt Style is that we can share our music (or whatever we’re listening to) by connecting another pair of headphones, earphones, or even speakers.

Blaupunkt does this by having an extra 3.5mm port on the Blaupunkt Style. The 3.5mm ports are located at the bottom of the earpieces, one on each side. Curiously, it will not matter which port is used to connect to the audio device or used to daisy-chain and share a connection. Another design curiosity is a blue ring found on one of the ports…I’m guessing this might be another way to differentiate left from right?

The package includes 2 audio cables that we can alternately use on the Blaupunkt Style. The cable with the integrated controller works well with the iPhone or other Apple devices, while the audio cable without the controller will work on virtually any audio or mobile device with a 3.5mm port. If you’re rocking an audio device with the large 6.35mm port, just use the adapter that comes with the package.

Note that the controller is probably the least premium feeling part of the whole package. I wish they added markings and used higher quality materials to make it look and feel better.

Here’s a list of the things you get aside from the headphones when you pick up the Blaupunkt Style:

• 2 sets of alternate ear pad
• 1x 1.4 meter gold tipped 3.5mm audio cable
• 1x 1.4 meter gold tipped 3.5mm audio cable with integrated headset unit
• 1x draw-string soft case pouch
• 1x transport bag
• 1x airplane adapter
• 1x 3.5mm to 6.35mm step-up adapter
• 1x cleaning cloth

Sound Quality

Vocals and trebles are emphasized by the headphones giving it a live vibe to the music. Bass is present, but the emphasis on the trebles and midrange is quite clear. Another characteristic that I noticed was that these headphones can deliver a louder volume than other headphones…it’s almost like it has an amplifier built-in to boost the loudness. I do not know if the extra volume contributes to the battery drain on mobile devices, maybe someone can confirm this for us.

Noise cancellation is not a  feature you can find on these headphones, but the extra volume that these cans produce can drown out the outside world. Also, sound does leak at high volumes so using these in a quiet location like a library at high volumes will attract evil eyes.

Oddly enough, different music genres will sound different on the Blaupunkt Style. These headphones seem to sound better on genres that are heavy on acoustics compared to genres that are heavy on bass. For some weird reason, bassy music doesn't seem to sound right on these headphones. Also, I found that these are really great for watching movies or TV shows that have a lot of talkies since the Blaupunkt Style boost vocals really well.

Specifications

• Speaker Size – 40 mm
• Cable Length – 1.4 m
• Frequency Response – 20-22,000 Hz
• Sound Pressure Level (SPL) - 112 ±3 dB
• Impedance – 32 ohms
• Weight – 230 g

Comparisons

Let’s compare this to another on-ear headphone, the Sony MDR-XB400. The Sony will cost you less than what the Blaupunkt Style is commanding, but the Blaupunkt Style has a more accessories to offer.

Design wise, it is always nice to have the option to replace ear pads, because ear pads are easily the quickest part to wear out. I haven’t seen a Sony headphone with replaceable ear pads. The leatherette used on both cans is equally soft, but the foam padding used by Sony is much softer.

The headband on the Blaupunkt pair is also more durable compared to the plastic headband on the Sony pair. Consequently, durability comes with a little more weight…I prefer the lighter Sony MDR-XB400. Also, the Sony pair puts less pressure on the ear compared to the Blaupunkt Style…the amount of pressure on the Blaupunkt Style is a little too much for me. On the flip side, the extra pressure provide extra grip on the head to help it stay on if you move about a lot.

Another feature that the Blaupunkt has that the MDR-XB400 doesn’t is the ability to share music with a friend without resorting to a 3^rd party splitter. Moreover, the cables on the MDR-XB400 connect to both left and right ear pieces while the Blaupunkt Style just connects to an ear piece.

On the sound quality department, the MDR-XB400 emphasizes bass while the Style emphasizes treble and midrange. Does the Style have more bass than the MDR-XB400? Nope. We’ll have to boost the bass on the Blaupunkt Style by adjusting the equalizer. Does the Sony MDR-XB400 provide that crisp percussion sound? Nope, and this is where the Blaupunkt Style really shines.

The Blaupunkt Style is also louder than the Sony MDR-XB400…interestingly, the loudness on the Blaupunkt Style is reduced when I connect the Sony MDR-XB400. Maybe the extra bass sucks more power or something. How much louder is the Blaupunkt Style against the Sony MDR-XB400? I would say approximately 20% to 30% louder.

So overall, there are pros and cons to the Blaupunkt Style and the most important one for me is the value for money. How much is this pair?

Conclusion

Here in Manila, these are available for PHP14,500 in black or white color schemes (didn’t have a chance to sample the white one), and you can pick this up from Egghead or Mobile 1. I can’t seem to find this pair on Amazon…not sure if it’s available in North America yet so I can’t give you folks a price range. And in case you are wondering, the colors of the replaceable ear pads are the same for the black and white variants.

With all the bells and whistles that are included in the Blaupunkt Style package, I personally feel that it’s too pricey. And if you primarily use your headphones on the computer…this might not be worth it for you. But, if you’re constantly travelling and have a very active lifestyle, all the included accessories actually make a lot of sense.