The 1More Sonoflow headphones are our pick of the best noise-cancelling headphones for budget shoppers, despite their name being very close to that of toilet and macerator maker Saniflo. And now there’s a sequel: the Sonoflow Pro HQ51. As before, they’re exceptionally affordable for noise-cancelling: the list price is $90 (around £70 / AU$135), and there’s a $20 discount for early birds.
The new Sonoflow HQ51 looks pretty similar to the current model, but the ear pads are leather this time around. The main changes, however, are internal, including better battery life and noise cancellation that 1More says outperform the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700. That’s a bold claim, considering Bose’s headphones are really good—and cost over four times as much (when they were new).
Sonoflow HQ51: Main features and specifications
The Sonoflow’s battery life was already impressive at 50 hours, but now it’s even longer: a claimed 65 hours with ANC on and 100 hours with ANC off. That’s even more than the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 or Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, which both reached 60 hours and received high praise from us for that. Oh, and again: they cost several times what the 1More does.
Sound quality is also said to have been improved. There are new 40mm diamond-like carbon drivers that 1More says deliver a lower total harmonic distortion rate than the mighty Sony WH-1000XM5, and like Sony’s headphones, the HQ51s support the high-resolution LDAC codec for wireless music.
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that the 1More headphones won’t be better headphones than Sony’s. We didn’t find the current version to be outstanding in terms of sound quality, and while the new drivers probably sound better, I’m guessing we’re still getting “good” rather than “amazing.”
I find it telling that the metric used in marketing is total harmonic distortion: this is something that is largely meaningless to the average listener. THD is a measure of signal accuracy, but once you get to the tiny distortion levels found in headphones like the WH-1000XM5, the distortion is no longer audible. The extra cost of the Sony headphones is felt in other areas.
But we’re still really excited about 1More’s new headphones. The current Sonoflow headphones are a bargain, so getting improved ANC and audio quality for the same money – or even less if you buy early – is even better. As we said in our Sonoflow review, “You’ll find better ANC and better sound, but that’s not what matters at this price.”
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