Ant Audio Treble 900 Review

Affordable wireless headphones never looked this good.

By Ali Pardiwala | Updated: 20 June 2019 11:55 IST

This is the best looking wireless headset at this price point

Highlights

The Ant Audio Treble 900 is priced at Rs. 1,399
These on-ear headphones have a metal frame and soft padding
Sound quality is decent for the price, with a bass-heavy sonic signature

We've reviewed a bunch of affordable earphones recently, but decent affordable headphones with an on-ear fit are still hard to find. While brands such as Boat are well known in the affordable audio segment, there's a relatively new player looking to shake things up in the space: Ant Audio. We've had a chance to try out one of the newest products from this company in the affordable wireless headphones space, the Ant Audio Treble 900.

Priced at Rs. 1,399, the Ant Audio Treble 900 features a modern design, an on-ear fit, and the convenience of wireless connectivity. We're going to review this pair of wireless headphones from Ant Audio to see if we have a new affordable on-ear champion.

Ant Audio Treble 900 design and specifications

While we haven't typically seen good design on affordable headphones, the Ant Audio Treble 900 bucks this trend. It's a good-looking pair of headphones in our opinion, and is built fairly well for the price. The plastic ear cups feature a matte black finish, which we quite liked, while the headband and ear pads have a leather-like texture and look. The frame is metal, and gives the headset a fair amount of durability.

Ant Audio's logos can be found on each ear cup as well as at the top of the headband. The ear cups have a bit of flexibility to make the Treble 900 easier to put on and take off, but the device doesn't fold into a more compact shape for easy storage. The left ear cup has the power and volume buttons, a Micro-USB port for charging, a 3.5mm jack for wired audio input, and a microphone. The sales package includes a Micro-USB cable for charging the headphones as well as a stereo cable for wired connectivity.

The padding is sufficient and makes for a decent on-ear fit and satisfactory noise isolation. The headband is adjustable. We did need to give our ears a breather every 25-30 minutes due to heat building up on our ears, which made the headphones a bit uncomfortable. That aside, we were largely impressed with the look and feel of the Ant Audio Treble 900, particularly considering the price of Rs. 1,399. However, we can't be sure of how it will hold up over time, with most headphones going through some amount of degradation in the materials.

The Ant Audio Treble 900 headphones use Bluetooth 5 for connectivity, with support for only the SBC Bluetooth codec. Each earcup has a 40mm dynamic driver with a frequency response range of 20-20,000Hz. The headset has a 300mAh battery that gave us about 8 hours, 30 minutes of use on a single charge.

Ant Audio Treble 900 performance

The name of the product — Treble 900 — makes it seem as though this headset is tuned to emphasise the higher range of the audio spectrum, but we found the sound to be consumer-friendly with strong bass and some sparkle in the high end. While we weren't expecting excellent sound given the price of the Ant Audio Treble 900, we were pleasantly surprised with the audio performance of this headset. We listened to a variety of tracks on Spotify and our own high-quality music files using a Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Review) as the source device.

Starting with Hurting by Friendly Fires, we were immediately greeted by generous thump in the low-end, along with sparkle in the high-hats that make up a part of the beat of the track. Although the bass wasn't as tight as what we've heard with more premium options, we were impressed with the quality of the bass on these headphones. Similarly, the highs had character that was surprisingly good for an affordable pair of headphones.

Moving to Eminence Front by The Who, we heard a fair amount of detail, impressive stereo imaging, and a comfortably wide soundstage from the Ant Audio Treble 900. The sound was clean, sharp, and very well defined for a budget product, and also got quite loud when we turned up the volume.

While the sound remained relatively clean with very little distortion at high volumes, the highs did tend to get amplified disproportionately, making them a bit shrill. At moderate volumes, the sound was comfortable and could be termed as consumer-friendly; the headphones produced a sonic signature that works with most popular genres.

The Ant Audio Treble 900 is a hands-free headset, and can be used for voice calls thanks to its built-in microphone. Call quality in quiet spaces was decent, but we had a sub-par experience when using it for calls in crowded or noisy environments. However, the Bluetooth connection was stable, and we had no such issues with music or calls.

Verdict
We don't usually expect a lot from affordable wireless headphones, and products such as the Boat Rockerz 400 have so far been the norm for what to expect from wireless on-ear headphones priced below Rs. 2,000. The Ant Audio Treble 900 sets a new standard for what to expect at this price when it comes to design, build quality, and audio quality.

With clean, driven, and punchy sound, good looks, and good build quality, the Treble 900 is, in our opinion, the best pair of headphones you can buy for its price. At Rs. 1,399, this product is a no-brainer for anyone looking for a good pair of affordable wireless headphones. It's a great entry-level wireless product that costs less than what many wired options go for, and wins our recommendation largely for the value you get for your money.

Price: Rs. 1,399

Pros

Good design and build quality
Clean sound, strong bass and treble
Loud
Stable Bluetooth connection
Superb value for money

Cons

Not very comfortable to wear for long
Shrill sound at high volumes

Ratings (out of 5)

Design/ comfort: 4
Audio quality: 3
Battery life: 3
Value for money: 5
Overall: 3.5

Which are the best budget Bluetooth earphones and headphones in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

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