Blue Satellite - Review 2022 - Siciliano Sithered

Combining wireless headphones with dissonance-cancellation circuitry used to be a losing game. Either the headphones would cost far too much, or the noise cancellation would be subpar. This notion began to fade with the release of the Bose QuietComfort 35 last year, and more than manufacturers are giving the combination a whirl. Blue's Satellite heaphones not but offering wireless audio and noise counterfoil, but use a born amplifier to provide a powerful sonic experience. At $399.99 nonetheless, the headphones are priced higher than the excellent QC 35, and have some operational quirks that don't befit the toll.

Pattern

Available in black-and-silver or white-and-brown models, the circumaural (over-the-ear) Satellite headphones are chunky and offer a secure fit. Costly leather earpads and a generously cushioned headband are comfortable, as long equally you fiddle with the headband until you observe a setting that feels right. If you don't, the headphones can exert far more pressure on the jawline and scalp than is typical, feeling like a well-cushioned clamp squeezing your skull.

There's a power push button on the left earcup, along the lesser edge, and a micro USB port for charging with the included USB cable. The outer panel on the left earcup houses controls for activating the noise counterfoil, Bluetooth pairing, and the 280mW analog amplifier that gives the 44mm dynamic drivers some actress push. The amplifier uses no digital indicate processing. It'south all analog, and therefore the dynamics don't get squashed at loftier volumes, which will please audiophiles.

The right earcup houses controls on the outer panel for book up and down, as well as a multifunction button for playback, call management, and track navigation. The volume controls work independently of your mobile device's master book.

Blue Satellite inline The headphones can also be used in passive, wired mode—a cable is included and it connects to the right earcup. You lot can listen in amplified or regular mode with or without the cable, disabling the Bluetooth functionality if you wish. It's a very long cable, which makes it good for home theater use or in a recording studio. Just the full general concept of Bluetooth headphones, too as racket counterfoil, has typically been aimed at mobile usage, and a shorter cablevision would exist more applied for listening through your smartphone. The cablevision also lacks an inline remote control or microphone, and plugging it in disables the headphones' mic, and so you'll demand to reply on your telephone itself if you receive a call.

Blue made a design determination regarding the drivers that is rather interesting. Each ear really has two drivers in information technology—one set for audio playback, and ane for noise cancellation. Blueish's logic is that typical noise cancellation can interfere with music playback. We have tested quite a few-noise canceling pairs at PCMag, and can tell you that information technology is possible for the dissonance cancellation to negatively impact the music, just have encountered this rarely. Still, if Blue deems it wise to have dual 30mm drivers dedicated to the noise counterfoil while the 43mm drivers remain solely dedicated to the music, we're non going to error the company'due south caution. It's a patent-pending design that uses 4 total choice-up mics to eliminate noise. The just potential harm that a more elaborate system like this causes is raising the price tag.

The born mic offers boilerplate intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 6s, we could sympathise every word recorded, only the audio was a bit fuzzy, which is common with Bluetooth headphone mics.

Blue estimates battery life to be anywhere from 8 to 24 hours. Your results volition vary with your book levels, and your mix of using the amplifier, racket cancellation, and wireless features.

Racket Cancellation

Let's tackle noise cancellation first. The circuitry does a solid job of eliminating large swaths of ambient noise, tamping downward sounds like Air-conditioning hum, train rumble, and various other loud distractions to a significant degree. Information technology is slightly less constructive when it comes to voices; ambient churr is unpredictable, and easily i of the hardest sounds to reliably abolish out. Like many racket-canceling headphones, it also introduces a faint, merely audible, loftier frequency hiss. Information technology's like record hiss and not unpleasant, and y'all won't hear it when music is playing. Even with these quirks, the headphones do a solid job of eliminating outside noise, but Bose's technology is still superior in both blocking all forms of sound and limiting any processing hiss.

When you utilize the headphones in wired manner and actuate the noise-cancellation circuitry, the drivers are definitely hampered somewhat. That's non platonic, specially when Blue's telling you it has a system that avoids this problem. It doesn't necessarily sound bad when the sound cablevision is connected, but it definitely sounds different. We reached out to Blue for annotate on this, and the company claims it is a known event that has affected but a minor percent of units and is covered under warranty. Then technically, if this occurs with your headphones, you should be eligible for some sort of repair or replacement. That said, we were non sent a second unit to test, then nosotros can only confirm our test results and Blueish's response.

Music Functioning

Audio performance and noise cancellation are two different things, however, and in the sound category, Blue has an edge. With the amp off, the Satellite'southward drivers deliver a powerful Bluetooth audio experience. Turn the amp on, and the drivers cleave out a more than defined, powerful sound signature. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife'southward "Silent Shout," the headphones deliver some serious thunder without sacrificing the mix's balance, keeping the highs well-represented. The amp pushes out a deeper bass response and crisper, brighter high-mids and highs.

Pecker Callahan'due south "Drover," a rails with far less deep bass in the mix, gives u.s. a better idea of the overall sound signature. The drums have some serious depth and punch, but they never sound fake. Meanwhile, Callahan'south baritone vocals get plenty of low-mid richness, but also an platonic treble edge—the high-mids are sculpted somewhat to give things a piddling more clarity and punch, and information technology also brings out the guitar strumming and the college-pitched percussive attack.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West'south "No Church building in the Wild," the boot drum loop receives an ideal level of high-mid presence, allowing its sharp attack to slice through the layers of the mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat out are delivered with plenty of depth and power, only they're not overly boosted or exaggerated. The focus here is on the high-mids and highs, but when at that place's a deep rumble or thump, you hear it.

On orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel Co-ordinate to the Other Mary, the lower register instrumentation gets a glorious presence. It sounds rich and slightly boosted, but never to an unnatural degree that takes the focus off of the higher register strings, brass, and vocals. Y'all actually get a sense of the space this recording was fabricated in.

One badgerer: Occasionally, using an iPhone 6s every bit the source, we could hear some minor background interference, typically right after pressing play or break. Intermission the music and await several seconds, and it goes away, but you can hear it during tranquility sections of tracks. Activating the noise cancellation merely gives the interference a quieter properties to operate with, then you find even more. Information technology probably isn't a deal breaker if everything else y'all've read so far appeals to you, but it doesn't happen with most other Bluetooth headphones nosotros test, and it certainly shouldn't happen in this toll range. Blue says it recognizes that Bluetooth can introduce a very low, only audible, noise floor, but that its measurements indicate the Satellite's racket flooring is below that of most competitors. All the same, it also acknowledged that it'south currently working on updates to better the noise floor and eliminate any distraction.

Conclusions

Pulling off the Bluetooth/noise cancellation combo is hard plenty. Adding an amplifier and multiple drivers to the equation merely makes things trickier, and at times, Blue's Satellite headphones suffer under the weight of their many listening modes and unique design. With such strong sound performance, it's hard to say the headphones are absurdly overpriced, only they experience a tad expensive, and their audio capabilities far outshine their noise cancellation.

If audio performance is more important to you lot than noise cancellation, even with the interference, the Satellite headphones are worth your attention. If noise cancellation is your number one priority, however, the QuietComfort 35 remain our Editors' Choice. Y'all should also consider the BackBeat PRO 2 headphones from Plantronics, which offer wireless operation and noise counterfoil (though not quite as powerful every bit that from Blue or Bose) at a much lower cost.