Status Audio HD One - Status Audio's Gateway Into Audio

[jiyeon]

 

Small-time, newbie audio company Status Audio located in Brookyln, New York, entered the audio scene with the idea that high-end audio shouldn't be expensive. That's when their headphones, the Status Audio HD One revealed itself to the world in 2014.

I bought my pair back in 2015 after watching a couple of videos on these particular pair of headphones and being curious as to what the hype was about, considering I didn't have any proper audio gear back in the day. I picked my pair up for £35.99 from Amazon UK, however today in 2020, Status have since discontinued their HD One in favor of their newer products such as the CB-1 and BT One.

 

I've now owned these headphones for five years, and I've been through a lot of other headphones and earphones such as the Roccat Cross, Audio-Technica ATH-M50x, Jaybird X3, and of course, my FiiO FH5, which are my favorite in-ear monitors to this day. You can read my review of the FiiO FH5 here on the forum!

 

The limelight today is on my Status Audio HD One, which as I alluded to earlier, are a discontinued product from Status Audio. Having used this on and off with my other audio gear for a good five years, I thought it would be nice to give it a run for its money and see how it holds up in 2020, six years after Status Audio's inception into the audio landscape.

 

 

The headphones' design almost 1:1 mirrors Beats' products, bar the logo, of course. They're like if you painted any Beats headphones in a matte black coating, and it looks very stylish. The HD One also came in a red as well as red-accented, but my version is the all-black for the minimalistic and sleek design. The material itself is a rubberized plastic, which is nice for minimising fingerprints, dirt, scratches.

 

 

You might have noticed they have no cable. The Status Audio HD One uses detachable 3.5mm-to-3.5mm headphone jacks, one in red which is a direct connection, which I use since I have no use for the other cable.

 

 

The other cable is a black cable with an in-line microphone in it. I've personally never needed to use this cable as I use my headphones purely for listening. Both cables are flat-style to minimise tangling, and I can attest to that.

 

 

The headphones also fold inward to make it nice and compact for travel. I absolutely love when headphones are able to fold in as it saves space when taking them around.

 

 

 

Highs:

Highs are fairly sibilant on these headphones. Nicki Minaj's 'Starships' and its Summery tones can be a bit hissy or missing high tones at times which flattens the whole height of the highs in the song. The highs are very weak, soft, and not very potent. I am someone who favours highs so I'm very disappointed that the Status Audio HD One falls flat when it comes to the ceiling of the highs. In a more controlled environment such as Olly Murs' 'Please Don't Let Me Go', the highs are very pleasant, albeit they are still very soft and cold which again can be fatiguing similar to the mids, and that can partly be blamed to the closed-back nature of these headphones.

 

Mids:

Mids are in my opinion the Status Audio HD One's specialty frequency range. Ariana Grande's 'no tears left to cry' and its warm subtones in the instrumentals are vibrant, clear, and colorful, and are a great representation of the mids potential of the HD Ones. The mids are strong and outstanding, however since the HD Ones are closed-back, there's a lot left to desire in terms of soundstage and sound depth. While the mids are certainly the headphones' best aspect, the claustrophobia from how closed these headphones are can be fatiguing after long listening sessions.

 

Lows:

Lows are clear on the HD Ones, Gorillaz's 'Feel Good Inc.' is a great example of great lows, the bassline throughout the song is clear and doesn't muddle the other frequencies too much. The lows aren't too shaky or deep, but there is enough definition that the bass and other lows frequencies are prominent enough. I have definitely heard better, but the fact that the lows don't intrude and overpower the other frequencies is good enough of a listening experience for me for listening to genres such as hip-hop where lows are the key frequency.

 

 

Cold and hissy highs, warm and colorful mids, and average lows, Status Audio's venture into the audio landscape with the HD Ones, clearly don't stand up to my other peripherals. As a person who enjoys high frequencies the most, the amount of hiss and weak potential to reach the highs I desired make the Status Audio an easy pass. The mids are prominent and colorful, but there's not enough in the lows to compensate for the highs being way off my preference.

 

I would say these headphones are suited for the hip-hop genre, as there is a lot of bias towards the lower frequencies, as evident by the fact that the highs don't reach... Well, very high. Bassheads won't be astounded by these either as while the bass is clean, it's not very punchy. I did however use an EQ to adjust the lows and the lows didn't muddle which is a good sign to the engineering of the low frequencies for these heaphones.

 

While these are a nice pair of on-the-ear, foldable, sleek, understated headphones with a convenient detachable cable, the audio qualtiy doesn't match the physical build.