RHA CL750 review: Premium earphones for those who really appreciate good sound

RHA, a specialist headphones company based out of Scotland, makes premium in-ear earphones with aesthetic appeal, precision engineering using aircraft grade aluminum and stainless steel components. These “Aston Martin of Headphones” company sent us their flagship RHA - CL750 earphones for a listen. Here’s how they fared. Build and Design: 9/10 The build and design of RHA CL750 earphone is quite impressive. As soon as you open the package you know you are in for a treat. The packaging itself is quite unlike what you normally see. A slide-able cover with the pair of earphones carefully tucked in-between the black foam. [caption id=“attachment_4210857” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] The packaging itself quite nice[/caption] In the box, you have a lot of options, seven pairs of silicon ear tips, two pairs of Comply ear tips, protector case and a shirt clip. [caption id=“attachment_4210847” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  All the ear tips that you can have[/caption] The earphones itself are made of stainless steel. They are marketed as “ Aerophonic” meaning the sound is produced by the movement of air inside the earphones. [caption id=“attachment_4210859” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Ooh, lots of tech that most of us don’t understand, but pretty[/caption] There are hard to see markings of right and left on the earphones. Though you cannot go wrong in the fitting as they can be worn only one way owing it to the over-the-ear design. [caption id=“attachment_4210855” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Fitting can get a little tricky at first[/caption] The OFC cable (oxygen-free) with the exposed copper wire styling is interesting. It actually reminded me of my old speaker OFC copper cables. The twisted wire doesn’t entangle as much, however, the wire close to the ear cups are certainly prone to it; probably due to the non-braided and hook-like design. [caption id=“attachment_4210849” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] The oxygen free cables show the wiring inside[/caption] A lot of jargon There is a lot of tech supposedly thrown into RHA CL750, such as aerophonic design, OFC cables for high-resolution signal transmission and Ultra-wideband transducer technology for high purity, true-to-life sound reproduction across an extended frequency range. We’ll see what all this really means when listening to the earphones. Performance: 8/10 The RHA CL750 was tested with an Android phone and Windows 10 Desktop with FiiQ Q1 DAC. Objectively The earphones have a very clean, clear and crisp sound. The low frequency (bass) is tight although lacks the low bass. The high-frequency treble is a little over energetic, harsh at times, and sibilant no doubt. These earphones are not at all easy to drive, meaning your smartphone will not have enough power to power these properly. These are 150 ohms earphones which will require an amp to drive them. Without an amp, you’ll get lower volume even when your phone is on max volume. Subjectively The sound was interestingly clean with a tight bass but overall I personally didn’t like the sound as much without a few tweaks in place. Don’t get me wrong, the earphones made acoustic guitars sound awesome and voice sound good but for everything else, you will need further EQ tweaking. In pop tracks, you’ll miss the boomy punch and in heavy metal tracks, the highs will hurt your ears. Thankfully, both these can be tamed via the EQ. [caption id=“attachment_4210891” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] RHA CL750 packaging[/caption] After playing around with the EQ, the RHA CL750 earphones sounded just right. I liked the balanced sound and clean crisp output they gave. However, as far as earphones go, I personally use them on the go and not at home. To drive these I’d need to carry my amp as an additional accessory which can be cumbersome (imagine doing that in the Mumbai trains). Also, I personally wouldn’t want to get such high-end earphones as these are products that always gets banged around, wires get pulled, they get lost, etc. as it is used for portable music. Plus in a noisy environment when travelling, even with passive noise cancellation you won’t be able to hear music as clearly. Verdict and Price in India These earphones are meant for serious music listeners. These have no mic, are meant to be driven by an amp for its full potential and have a sound that will only please audiophiles looking for a really good replacement for their existing not-so-good earphones. These cost Rs 11,999 and come with 3-year manufacturer’s warranty which is quite unusual as most manufacturers give maximum of 1 to 2 years of warranty. At this price, you get superb sound quality no doubt and its worth every penny if you are into this kind of sound and have the sufficient equipment to support it. Go for RHA CL750 for - No nonsense clear, clean accurate sound - Supreme build quality - 3 years warranty Don’t go for RHA CL750 if - You want an earphone mic - You don’t want to get an amplifier