URBANEARS Kransen – Review

Hey, dear readers! It’s review time once again… This time we’ll be unboxing and reviewing the URBANEARS Kransen.

URBANEARS is a headphone brand that’s quite popular with the younger market nowadays. The Kransen model is the latest pair of earphones released by this company.

Let’s get down to it, then…

As you can see, Kransen’s packaging is similar to most URBANEARS products. Simple and clean. I actually like the minimalist appearance of the box.

All the features and specs of the URBANEARS Kransen can easily been seen at the back of its box. Pretty straightforward. Gives you an immediate idea of what you’re getting should you consider purchasing one.

I like how the Kransen is neatly snug inside its box. Very clean. No clutter. But of course, ultimately, it still all boils down to performance. We’ll get to that in a bit.

As with most earphones, the URBANEARS Kransen comes with 2 more rubber earbuds – a smaller sized pair and another one that’s way bigger.

The package contains the usual things you’d pretty much expect – warranty, a catalog of URBANEARS’ other products (a fairly thick one), and a cool URBANEARS logo sticker.

Let’s check out the features of this baby…

Cable Loop

One unique feature the URBANEARS Kransen boasts of is their patent-pending “Cable Loop”. According to them, the Cable Loop allows you to wrap your cord and secure it into place, never having to spend another minute untangling headphones after they’ve been in your bag ever again.

True enough, URBANEARS’ Cable Loop feature does make wrapping earphone cables more pleasant. It isn’t some novelty feature that just coaxes you to buy it out of interest and curiosity. It does serve its purpose very well.

SnapConstruction

The SnapConstruction feature of the URBANEARS Kransen is similar to the Lego toys we used to play with as kids. When you aren’t using your Kransen, you can easily snap together both earbuds and wrap them around your neck. That way, you can easily find them and continue enjoying your music whenever you’re ready.

It’s actually pretty cool that you can conveniently connect both earbuds and wear it like a necklace instead of letting it hang down your shirt when you aren’t using ’em.

Microphone & Remote

Most earphones, especially those designed for smartphones, are designed with built-in microphones and a remote to pick up calls, or fast forward or rewind your music. All of URBANEARS’ headphones have this feature.

Not much to say about this since most of you guys already know how the built-in mic and remote works.

Audio

Of course, all of Kransen’s features would be utterly meaningless if the audio of URBANEARS’ latest pair of earphones fall short in terms of performance.

Using different kinds of music (from instrumentals & acoustic to rock & disco) to test drive the pair of earphones, I meticulously listened to every nuance and studied how faithful the Kransen would reproduce each musical material.

Being a sound engineer for quite sometime now, I am always very critical when it comes to accurate audio/frequency reproduction.

First thing I noticed when I used the earphones is that the rubber earbuds of the Kransen impressively blocks out noise. That’s a plus.

Based on my tests, the URBANEARS Kransen kind of leans towards the “bassy” side providing extra body and ooomph to any track you play. I also noticed that these earphones have a heavy mid-range section, making vocals more prominent and “in-your-face”.

URBANEARS may have intentionally tweaked the Kransen for this kind of audio reproduction. Given that the market for these earphones are usually the younger ones, it would make sense for the Kransen to go the “bassy-and-heavy-mids” route. Why? Simply because most kids want their music pumpin’ almost all the time!

If you love listening to hip-hop, rock, rap and the like… then the Kransen is for you. There’s no shortage of bass and deep rich vocals when using this pair of earphones.

Verdict

The URBANEARS Kransen will not disappoint. It delivers rich audio and hardly produces any distortion when the volume is cranked all the way up. But, as good as it is, this particular model isn’t for everyone either. The older (and more laid-back) market may prefer something with a little more crispness rather than extra pounding bass and up-front vocals. For that, you may also check out other URBANEARS headphone models.

The URBANEARS Kransen is priced at Php 1,950.00 which I personally think is fair considering this product’s superb quality and features.

The URBANEARS Kransen as well as their other headphone models are sold in all Beyond The Box, Digital Hub and Digital Walker branches all over Metro Manila.

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