As most of you regular readers know by now, I dedicate most of my nights to writing and administering UsabilityGeek. Running a fully-fledged blog on your own as a side project does require a high degree of commitment. Lucky for me I have always been a night owl, so I can keep my productivity going well into the night and early morning.
That being said, I do have two things that help me focus – caffeine and music. Needless to say, I cannot have Led Zeppelin blasting in my office, so I have always relied on headphones for that.
And this is where these amazing set of headphones come in. I came across Noontec’s latest wireless headset, the Noontec Hammo TV purely by chance as I was not actively searching for a replacement to my trusty headset.
In this article, I will be writing about my experience with the Hammo TV headphones, which the lovely folks at Noontec were kind enough to provide me with one to try out. It is not a technical review – I am definitely not the guy who is professional about audio equipment, and there are quite plenty of technical reviews about this headset anyway.
Packaging and Accessories
The Hammo TV headphones came nicely packaged in a box together with:
- A black plastic disc base station with built-in Bluetooth which acts as a charging station.
- A thick metal wire rack which slots in the base station and which acts as a stand for the headphones.
- 2 x 3.5mm stereo audio jack plug AUX cables.
- 3.5mm stereo female AUX cable mini jack to 2 male RCA plug AUX adapter cord cable.
- 3.5mm AUX audio plug jack to USB 2.0.
- USB to micro USB cable (power cord).
- A felt cloth pouch bag to carry the headphones in it.
- A user manual.
- UK plug and EU plug.
The installation is pretty straightforward, and there is a nice reference diagram on the box itself as well as a more detailed explanation on the user manual.
I spend most of my time in my office, so I connected it to my PC rather than the TV, although I did try it out with my TV as well. To be able to do this, you need to use the following (all of which come with the Hammo TV headset):
- Connect the base station to the mains power supply. You do this by using the cable that has a mini USB at one end and a USB at the other end goes in the slot marked as ‘DC in 5v’ at the back of the docking station.
- Connect the mini AUX cable to your PC / TV audio jack. This means that one end of the cable goes into the AUX slot of the docking station and the other end into your PC or TV. In the case of TV, you can use the supplied RCA connector.
- Connect the charging cable to the base station. This cable consists of a USB 2.0 connection at one end and an RC pin at the other. It is also clearly marked with a yellow sticker ‘Charging Cable’. The USB end goes into the docking station (‘DC out 5v’) while the pin goes into your headphones so that you can charge them. This is not a common process though as you can go for quite a number of hours with a full charge. Noontec claims that the Hammo TV have a 50-hour battery life.
- To start listening to music, all you need to do is to long press the button on the docking station. This causes the green LED on the station to pulse. Then just long press the ‘on’ button on the headphones and you will hear the phrase “power on” coming from the headphones. A second or so later you will hear “headphones are connected” and you will notice that a green pulsating LED appears next to the “on” button on the headphones and the green LED on the docking station no longer pulses but becomes green.
And that is all, really.
Performance
In short, these headphones are awesome. Like I said, even though I connected them to my PC, I did try them out with movies, and the effect is comparable to a home theatre system. They have an excellent sound quality, they look amazing, and the price is very competitive – especially when compared to other headphones in their market.
The headphones are well cushioned with quite large, over-ear cups. At the same time, the Hammo TV are mostly made of black plastic -with two aluminium pieces being used to strengthen the headband, thus making them quite light and very comfortable to wear for an extended period. I tend to use them for at least three hours straight and sometimes even longer and found no discomfort at all. In addition, they are foldable and thus easy to carry with you in the provided pouch.
The control buttons are very comfortably located behind the left ear cup. There are just 3 buttons:
- The power button: also used to pause playing and answer calls through the inbuilt microphone (yes, quite a surprising feature, given that these headphones are being marketed for TV use).
- Volume up and volume down buttons.
Being the non-technical guy where audio is concerned, the nerd in me could not resist researching a bit about the key qualities that are being marketed for the Hammo TV. This is what I found out:
50 Hour Battery Life: The (non-replaceable) rechargeable battery lasts 50 hours on one charge due to its high-capacity, low power consumption and energy-saving technology. I have not managed to verify this yet, but I have only charged it once so far and I have been using the headphones for a week and a half for about 3 hours or so a day and have not charged it again. So I guess, the long battery life claim holds. A full charge takes about 5 hours.
10m Transmission Distance: I have tested this claim, and it is more or less there. The distance is a bit less if the transmission has to pass through walls. That being said, the aim of these headphones is to use them in the same room such as while watching TV. Thus, 10m is way more than is required.
Wireless Digital technology and the aptX Low-Latency Codec: An excellent, innovative move by Noontec, was to use a Bluetooth 4.0 digital connection instead of the older RF standard (that has become synonymous with headphones dedicated for TV). This overcomes the interference that RF headphones tend to be prone to. However, this created a lag problem that is typical of Bluetooth (hence the reason why it is not usually used for video) – a slight lag. Noontec overcame this lag by using a licensed audio codec from CSR called aptX Low-Latency.
The Verdict
Noontec’s Hammo TV headphones restored my faith in wireless audio technology. Yes, I know, wireless does have its mobility advantages. But I was always a sceptic, particularly due to interference. Like I said, I am no audiophile, but I can recognise the quality of a good music track, particularly if it involves a good guitar solo!
The Hammo TV are lightweight, portable, nice to look at, have a lot of great features and are comfortable to wear. The sound quality is amazing and the price is just right. So, yes, these are definitely a recommended purchase!
Where to Buy Noontec’s Hammo TV Wireless Headphones
The Hammo TV headphones can be bought from
Disclaimer: I have not been paid to carry out this recommendation, nor am I involved with the company behind it. I only recommend products or services that I have used personally and which I believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing all of this in accordance with the US Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” and Google’s Guidelines on Affiliate Programs.