Defunc Go Hybrid Earphones Review - How bad could a £10 pair of earphones possibly be?

AlTech · November 19, 2017

What if you could buy cheap earphones from a media related store which offered cross-platform compatibility, a comfortable design and a mic for less awkward calls?

Defunc seems to have created an answer to this with their Go Hybrid earphones.

Full disclosure: I paid for the product myself. This isn't sponsored and I most certainly didn't get it for free.

The earphones are somewhat comfortable but I'm not a huge fan of almost all earphones due to how they feel when in my ear. Headphones feel substantially more comfortable. Especially my HD 518s.

In terms of audio quality, the hybrid is actually pretty solid and delivers OK sounding audio. I've tested it on more base heavy songs and it doesn't sound bad. While I can tell there is some difference in audio quality between my HD 518s and the Hybrid, there's more of a sound signature difference than inherent audio quality difference imho.

But this is a pair of earphones with a mic, you probably bought it to Skype people or call people or talk to people on the go.

In my testing, Calling was easy to setup and worked well. I've had no complaints about how it sounds and frankly I don't think the mic sounds bad.

Testing the mic with Cortana definitely yielded OK results. For testing I got Cortana to be able to respond only when I say "Hey Cortana" and it worked when I was loud enough. I have a tendency of not speaking loud enough when talking to digital assistants .

Hearing calls through the earphones is a lot nicer than through the ear piece of my 650. I was able to hear the person I was calling a lot more easily and it just felt more natural not having to hold my phone up to my ear to receive calls.

The biggest issue with these is the same issue almost every pair of earphones I've owned had. They weren't as comfortable as headphones. They were an inferior and subpar experience.

But to be fair, the earphones are a lot more portable than my headphones. I find myself always having my earphones in my backpack whenever I go outside or in my pocket because of the versatility.

In this use case when it is a secondary listening device then it works quite well. But as a primary listening device, I could not use it alone due to how uncomfortable I find most earphones to be.

Noise bleed when listening to music at 50% volume is somewhat noticeable. Unless you're cranking it up past 50% though, people are unlikely to be terribly bothered.

The hybrid definitely benefits from better sound cards/sound processing although the Hybrid isn't aimed at being an amazing music listening device. When listening on my Surface Pro 4 it sounded better than on my Lumia 650. Then again, for a lot of audio equipment it's like that.

Overall I'm not sure what to make of this product. It's one of the best earphones I've ever had except in the comfort department. It's just that I don't specifically recommend earphones to people.

The biggest downside besides comfort is the lack of direct volume control on the earphones themselves. Typically on other earphones, volume up or volume down buttons are found near where the 2 wires separate and go into each ear. This isn't the case on this unit.

If you pick one up, you'll have to control the volume on your device but this shouldn't be a huge deal if you're using it with a PC. On a phone this can be a little more of a problem but by no means is it a deal breaker.

The packaging was not earth shattering but at this price point I didn't expect it to be. It got the job done and that's what matters.

The hybrid is mostly made of plastic with the earphone tips which make contact with your ear being made out of a rubbery material.

In conclusion, If you already own a pair of headphones and needed something with a mic for whatever reason then this is pretty good choice for those on a tight budget. One of the other seemingly few reviews on this seemed to indicate that they thought the Hybrid audio quality was acceptable but not great. Honestly, I can tell there is a difference but it's not as huge as some other reviews are making it out to be.

While these won't replace my Sennheisers, I'll still use them as a secondary listening device and for when I need to make calls.

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Picture of packaging: