Archives for January 2017

Lightweight, Modern, and Bluetooth–Moshi Mythro Air

Selecting a pair of headphones or earphones has never been easy. With dozens of brands out there and even more models introduced year after year, the buyer’s journey has become most difficult as of late. Hopefully, we at Beantown can ease your journey by putting forth quality reviews from respected brands. So without further adieu, let’s take a closer look in this Moshi Mythro Air earphones review.

Moshi Mythro Air Earphones Review – Modern Design

The design of the Mythro Air earphones is one which is lightweight, compact, and easy to operate.

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to hold the Mythro Air, you’ll immediately notice how light the earphones are. They weigh in at a minuscule 0.59 ounce. This light weight is due in part to its aluminum housing. Not only is this lighter than what you’re currently using, but soon after wearing them, you won’t even feel them in your ears. You’ll only notice the music.

These earphones come in three attractive colors: Jet Silver, Gunmetal Gray, and Burgundy Red. We had the pleasure of receiving a Burgundy Red sample for this review. When you pair the Mythro Air to your mobile device, the latter recognizes the color of the earphones. Let’s say you have two pairs of Mythro Air earphones; one is Burgundy Red, the other is Jet Silver. Your mobile device will list both colors and recognize them as individual devices.

The 5 Things You Need To Know for Operating the Mythro Air

1. To power on the Mythro Air, press and hold the (single) button until the blue light appears. It will only take a few seconds for it to appear.
2. To power off the Mythro Air, press and hold the (single) button until the red light appears. Again, it will only take a few seconds for it to appear.
3. To pair the Mythro Air to your mobile device, hold the (single) button until the blinking blue light appears. It will take about 5 seconds for it to appear. Then head to the Bluetooth Settings on your mobile device and pair the earphones.
4. On the volume controls, volume up and down is controlled by pressing the upper and lower silver tabs. The center tab controls answering calls, playing or pausing the track, and forwarding and reversing the track.
5. Play time lasts for 8 hours at 50% volume with a 100 hour standby time. Charging the earphones takes approximately 2 hours. You’ll notice a pulsing red light while charging.

You’ve got to appreciate a pair of earphones (or headphones) when there’s little that you need to know for proper operation. It couldn’t be simpler.

Specifications

Audio Performance

Per Michael Leonhard, President of Moshi, “Mythro Air and Vortex Air are designed to deliver the ideal Bluetooth audio experience for the everyday commuter and traveler. Compact and light, our new Bluetooth audio lines are built with sound quality, ergonomics and battery life in mind to provide a pristine audio experience.”

As we often state when reviewing earphones, the most important performance factor is the quality of sound. I tested the Mythro Air with a broad range of music per the list above. I also tested it against a two other Bluetooth earphones selected from my collection. It should be noted these earphones are not rated for high-resolution audio.

Like the Moshi Avanti headphones, the sound across the 15Hz – 20kHz spectrum was rather good. The earphones were more impressive when I factored the $70 retail price into consideration.

Before I began testing the earphones against the playlist, I would never have guessed that the rock music would perform best. The playback of both Muse and 30 Seconds To Mars was incredible and far outperformed my expectations. The guitar work and vocals kept me fully engaged. I now know what my go-to Bluetooth earphones are when listening to these artists. I can only imagine how much better they would sound if I had accessed an equalizer.

The vocals of all the female artists were sharp and vivid. It’s fair to say the vocals of Lana Del Rey and Lady Gaga were more vivid than anticipated. Bass guitar and lower frequency percussion reproduction, i.e. bass drum, while quite evident, was not as pronounced or defined as I would have liked. The bass sounds appeared to have been stretched out and lessened a bit across the low-frequency range. String work throughout a song like LDR’s Blue Velvet was spot on. Instrument sounds such as trumpet and John Coltrane’s saxophone were good but needed more punch.

Competition

The Mythro Air outperformed the twice more expensive Monster iSport SuperSlim Wireless Bluetooth In-Ear Sport Headphones by a wide margin in terms of sound quality and battery life. Comfort level was about even. Against the $50 more expensive Decibullz Custom-Fit Bluetooth Wireless Earphones, the story is a bit different. Decibullz are custom molded earphones, so the fit should be perfect for all users. With regard to sound, I performed a head-to-head / song-by-song comparison with Ellie Goulding’s Halcyon. While the music sounded good with Decibullz, when compared to the Mythro Air, the former appeared muted. It’s as if there was a physical impediment placed on the music by the sound engineers.

Overall, the pros far outweighed the cons in the audio quality portion of my tests. The Mythro Air outperformed more expensive Bluetooth earphones from Monster and Decibullz.

Moshi Apps

Burn-In Tool App

Moshi takes the earphones/headphones market with a high level of seriousness, so much so that they offer an app which assists with the burn in of their products. The app simply called Burn-in Tool is available via Apple’s iTunes and Google Play Store. We’ve sampled dozens of earphones and have never seen any of these established brands offer such a tool. The closest app that comes to mind is Captune by Sennheiser, but it’s quite different than Moshi’s Burn-in Tool.

I used an Android-based Motorola Moto X Pure mobile phone and had no issue with the app. The one thing I will say about Burn-in Tool is the sound pattern is quite annoying and not meant for your ears. If you plan to use Burn-in Tool, I highly recommend you place your mobile phone and earphones in some other room, close the door, and let them do their thing for at least four hours. If you need your phone at some point, you can always pause the sound pattern and complete the task later.

Bluetooth Audio App

Currently available only on Apple’s iTunes, Moshi offers its Bluetooth Audio app. This app provides customized support for Moshi’s Mythro Air and Vortex Air earphones. According to Moshi, this app allows for the following:

• Use their proprietary DJ4two™ functionality that lets your friend listen to the same music you’re listening to so you can enjoy your commuting and traveling together.
• Lets you adjust and save your preferred equalizer settings for a truly customized listening experience.
• It provides battery level status so know how much power is left in your Bluetooth headset.
• Lets you set the alarm when the battery life is low, lets you change your headset’s device name, enables auto power-off, and shows a list of accessories that are currently paired.

Conclusion

In my testing, the Mythro Air earphones from Moshi performed admirably. The production of strong, clear vocals was a breeze for the Mythro Air, while bass fell a bit short of expectations. Other sounds held their own.

These aren’t sport earphones, so I don’t recommend them while jogging. Even with the handy magnetic clip, the ear tips are likely to fall out your ears from the constant movement. From first-hand experience, there’s no issue when used during weight training. And sound isolation from your surroundings is excellent.

The earphones are quite comfortable even after a few hours of continuous listening. As mentioned above, you won’t notice they’re in your ears after a short while. You can thank a minimalist design approach for this. At $70, the Mythro Air earphones are well-priced in the marketplace.

Have you tried Moshi’s Mythro Air earphones? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis? Let us know in the comment section below or via social media. We’re eager to hear your thoughts.

Don’t hesitate to head over to the Moshi’s Press Page to see their latest announcements. The Mythro Air earphones come with a one-year limited end-user warranty.

FTC Disclosure: Moshi provided Beantown LLC with one (1) Mythro Air Burgundy Red earphones sample for review purposes. This writer’s opinion is 100% his own and not a paid product ambassador.

All photographs are the copyrighted property of Beantown LLC © 2017.