Cowin Philippines recently entered the Philippines through their online store in Lazada, but do take note that they aren’t a new brand in the headphones market. Cowin is a brand more prominent in other parts of the world like even the US and European markets. In their entry to the Philippines, they are fronting several Active noise-canceling headphones and we gave two of their ANC headphones a spin if they are good for everyday use, music, and even work at home.
First is the Cowin E8, premiered as their large capacity headphones ideal for music listening, noise-canceling, and its large battery for an advertised 20 hours. The E8 has 45mm audio drivers with a 90° rotation axis for a better snug fit.
Inside the Cowin E8 box is a hard case with its dedicated branded cables for the micro USB, 3.5mm audio jack, airline seat jack, and a 5.5mm audio jack. Not to mention all accessories are gold plated, small attention which we appreciated.
The hard case isn’t small using the Cowin E8, with a mesh net for the pouch carrying all the wires and adapter. Overall this is pretty standard for large ANC headphones since you want to store them carefully after every use if possible.
The large earcups that are padded welcome your ears, with a thick headband for the overall padded feel. We appreciate the premium feel and soft texture the E8 provides. They aren’t that heavy as they look like at only 0.99lbs / 450 grams.
The headband is padded in a leather-like material with gold accent grips for the adjustment bands. It can be twisted in some certain levels, similar to durable headphones from Sony but we don’t really reco as the leather material integrity might be affected.
The front of each ear cup is the Cowin branding, 3/4 of the cap is a matte finished plastic while the lower part is a glossy black piano finish. Along with the dedicated holes for the microphones for noise cancellation.
At the right earcup are all the controls such as the toggle for the active noise canceling coated in gold and its own indicator light. While below are the power button and volume up and down toggle.
The volume controls are pretty direct, but we find it weird that holding each for a long time enables the forward and next track. Perhaps it might get some learning curve as most headphones we used holding the volume gradually decreases the volume.
The overall look of the E8 looks tough with a hint of gold makes everything unique. We just wished for a better quality of the glossy plastics to avoid the body being cheap looking when up-close. Also, the loud Cowin branding isn’t really that of favor for us, since ANC headphones make you escape the attention of others and not really call for it.
The ANC on the E8 is adequate, it’s able to cancel out far fetch noises, noisy electric fans, and even barking dogs afar. Something we appreciate on an ANC, all without the annoying ringing sound in your ears, unlike other strong ANC headphones. While the cancellation of the E8 is up to decent levels only, don’t expect subpar cancellation from expensive ones like Bose and Sony.
The audio experience is overall average when the noise cancellation is activated. Somehow when the ANC is activated, overall soundstage and volume losses to around 20% compared when the ANC is deactivated. But still, vocals are clear, treble is right for mostly acoustic and EDM music but slightly finding for more bass in our preference.
But when the ANC is deactivated, the overall soundstage is loud, even the bass is powerful with the right rumbling sensation in your ear. Additionally, what we like about the E8 is the provided padding is already enough for noise isolation even without the ANC activated.
The Bluetooth AptX mode helped for low latency music and movie playback, a great factor to consider since ANC headphones can sometimes have latency issues due to the noise isolation processing. Fortunately, in our 2 weeks of using the E8, we didn’t encounter this problem at all using a smartphone and laptop to connect with the device.
Calling using the E8 is okay, but do mind noisy environments that it can overpower your voice. Ultimately, we’re only recommending it if you’re indoors, otherwise it’s better to just use the earpiece of the smartphone for calls.
The E8 can last 2-3 days per charge with us on average one week of use for work. So it translates to around 5-7 hours of use per day mixed with music and conference calls. Pretty good for a battery life concerning work and charging are fairly easy with the provided Micro USB.
While some might request the USB Type-C already, we think it’s still okay for today for the Micro USB since we even charge our other devices via Micro USB. Charging time is 2 hours average in our experience since it’s only via 5V/1A current.
The Cowin SE8 is more of a minimalist approach to the E8, with softer paddings. It can even be folded away to an egg shape similar to the earcup shape and case, so you can store in a more compact way compared to the E8.
The SE8 has 36mm audio drivers, battery life of up to 30 hours (750mAh). Also included is Bluetooth 5.0 with AptX connection and of course ANC technology.
One the hard box can be the pouch to carry the Micro USB Cable, 3.5mm Audio Cablem, Airline Adapter, and the 5.5mm Audio Adapter. But do take note that these aren’t braided protected compared to the E8. More or less Cowin made the calbles more fit to the look of the SE8 with a more black leather style.
Once again all the buttons are at the right side of the earcup, but no more toggles. The power button sits in the middle of the volume buttons with a hump as indicator. Dedicated indicator lights for the noise cancellation and power / pairing.
The earcups are softer on the SE8 similar to the sony wh-1000xm2, the paddings are flushed and fits nicely to your ears. Thanks to the inverted egg shape, the flush on this one to the ears is noticeably better as well.
Overall weight is also good, the smaller form factor is ideal for minimalis headphone users or even ladies thanks to its non-masculine look. The earcups outside are flushed with a matte metal finih that takes resemblancec to the shape olf the overall headphones. It feels premioum and not flimsy to the overall feel.
Honestly the SE8 is more comfortable that we were able to sleep with the headphones while on the desk for a power nap. The smaller form factor made this possible and the soft cussions made it even pleasant.
While there is a Cowin branding on both sides, this time it’s not that prominent as compared to the E8.
Interestingly the SE8 has 2 levels of ANC, one moderate and one aggressive in our observation. The aggressive one can be for those when you’re in a flight or inside a car trying to zone out. While the moderate can be inside an office or home where audio levels aren’t that strong.
We prefer the moderate ANC mode as the audio levels are just canceled right. There aren’t annoying ringing sounds into the ears with too much cancellation going on, and you can still hear very important sounds like people talking to you.
As for the Audio experience, we felt the SE8 more isolated compared to the E8. So even with the smaller 36mm drivers, the overall music experience is powerful and with punchier bass. Though overall treble and vocals are slightly getting drowned if you vamp the volume from 80% and above. This is prominent to EDM, House, and even some pop music.
Then again, when you activate the ANC for both moderate and aggressive. We find the overall volume decreasing to around 25%. This is really the first time we encountered such especially when ANC is activated, usually its the other way around in our past experiences.
Calls are also clear in medium noise levels, just don’t go head to head in a noisy environment and you can enjoy ANC conference calls indoors. We just wished the microphones have certain sensitivity levels, but since Cowin doesn’t have an app this isn’t possible.
The SE8 was able to stretch to around 4 days of no charging in our experience averaging 6 hours per day of music or calls. Interestingly the SE8 has a bigger battery while the body is smaller. But ultimately it’s nice that endurance is long ideal for long-haul flights.
No app here to adjust the ANC settings, or even customizing the controls. But, both Cowin E8 and SE8 does thier job properly. But hope this is the next step for the company to set itself apart from other ANC brands with similar price range.
For the Cowin E8 and SE8, they offer good Active Noise Cancelling and slightly above average audio experience. At their price point Php5,999 for both in Lazada, the choice would be if you want a bigger driver for better bass and soundstage then go for the E8. Or if ANC and portability is your choose the SE8 for travelers and always on the go.
Either way, the price of Php5,999 isn’t bad anymore for what the Cowin E8 and SE8 are offering, it’s just that Cowin needs to improve their presence more in the country, and avoid the cheap-looking packaging to veer away from being “Just another China headphone”.
