There are hundreds of headphone companies out there, and most of them aren’t as well known as the likes of Beats, Sony, and Bose. One such company has been selling its headphones on Amazon for some time now — iXCC. The company offers a few different headphones, and the ones we’re looking at today are the iXCC iX-BT1 wireless in-ear headphones.
The headphones come in pretty cheap at $20, but are they worth the cash? We put them to the test to find out.
Design
The iXCC iX-BT1 headphones offer an interesting design, and it’s one we don’t see on many other headphones. They connect to your device via Bluetooth, and they feature a cable that snakes around the back of your neck. Unlike many other headphones that have small battery and control modules part-way down the cable, the controls and battery packs are built right into the in-ear units. That means that you’ll find a little extra bulk on each unit, but thankfully it doesn’t add too much extra weight.
Of course, design isn’t just about weight, and we don’t really like the look of that extra bulk — but it’s not terrible. It’s certainly not much worse than other, similarly-built headphones we’ve seen.
Then there’s build-quality. We mentioned the headphones are relatively light, right? Well, they’re also built almost entirely out of plastic, and it’s not overly strong plastic either. If you stepped on these, they would probably break immediately. On top of that, the headphones don’t come with a case, so there’s little opportunity to protect them when they’re in your bag or pocket.
In the box, you will find the headphones themselves, a microUSB charging cable, and an extra pair of ear tips.
In general, the iXCC iX-BT1’s look fine — but they’re hampered by a sub-par build quality and a lack of accessories — namely a case or carry pouch.
Comfort
Thankfully, the iXCC iX-BT1 headphones regain some points in the comfort department. Generally speaking, all in-ear headphones suffer some level of discomfort just because of their form-factor, but iXCC has managed to cut down on discomfort drastically.
Part of that is because of the fact that the headphones don’t really sit all that far in your ear, but the trade-off is that outside noise is pretty easily let in.
One issue you might run into when it comes to comfort is the fact that the headphones only come with two pairs of ear-tips — so you may have trouble finding the right size for you. We recommend experimenting between the two to see which pair is best,
In general, the iXCC iX-BT1 wireless in-ear headphones are comfortable, but they could use more pairs of ear tips.
Sound
Sound is perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind if you’re looking at a pair of headphones, but unfortunately it’s the weakest point for the iXCC iX-BT1 headphones.
Let’s start with the bass, which is relatively weak. The bass could most certainly be both more powerful and more wide-spread than it is — that’s to say, it sounds almost as if there’s a high-pass filter applied to the bass, cutting out many of the lower frequencies.
The mid-range isn’t very well-tuned. The low-mids are boosted quite a bit — in fact, they’re boosted too much. The high-mids, on the other hand, have gotten quite a cut, getting rid of much of the clarity to things like vocals and guitars.
The high-end, like the low-end, is almost non-existent. Cymbals fail to cut through the mix, vocals aren’t as clear as they should be, and the sound is overall quite boring.
On top of that, as mentioned, the headphones fail to cut out outside noise, and stereo separation isn’t all that good. Thankfully, they don’t distort too easily, so that helps them redeem some points in the sound section.
Performance
Unfortunately, things aren’t much better in the performance department. The headphones connect through Bluetooth 4.1, and they’ll offer a range of around 10m or 33ft.
When it comes to battery life, however, things go downhill. The headphones offer a battery life of around 5 hours of listening time, which is really sub-par — that’s a figure out might expect from true wireless headphones, or headphones that don’t connect with a cable.
Conclusions
The iXCC iX-BT1 in-ear wireless headphones are a little bit disappointing, but they’re also extremely cheap. In fact, they did achieve the best score for wireless headphones at $20 that we’ve given so far — but we’ve reviewed plenty of headphones, like the Fiio F3 headphones or Ziofen Sport-Borne headphones, that aren’t wireless and scored a lot better.
In general, we don’t recommend the iXCC iX-BT1 headphones. The sound-quality is sub-par, the battery life isn’t great, and they’re quite cheaply built. If you insist on buying them, however, you can find a link below.
| Store | Price |
|---|---|
 |
$19.95 |
| Frequency response | Unknown | Active noise cancellation |
No |
| Driver size | Unknown | Noise attenuation | Unknown |
| Driver type |
Dynamic | On-ear controls | Yes |
| Design |
Closed | Microphone | Yes |
| Sensitivity | Unknown | Eartip material | Gel |
| Rated impedance |
Unknown | Magnet material | Unknown |
| Total harmonic distortion |
Unknown | Water resistance | No |
| Rated input power |
Unknown | Battery life | 5 hours playback |
| Maximum input power |
Unknown | Wireless distance | 10m (33ft) |
| Wireless connection |
Bluetooth 4.1 | Cable length | N/A |
| Wired connection |
No | Case type | N/A |
| Detachable cable |
No | In-the-box |
|
| Weight | Unknown | Colors | Black, white |