Evidson Audiowear R5 earphones: Good budget headset that doesn’t disappoint

Evidson, a Kochi-based company is the one of the few that is an all-out Indian company actively making in-roads in the consumer market. We had reviewed their Evidson Audiosport W6 which had good sound but weren’t very impressed with the design. We hope the Audiowear R5 is a different story.

Build and Design: 7/10
The earphones are made of aluminium alloy which helps to keep the weight down (14gm) and also looks pretty. Since it’s made of metal, you’ll feel the outer body reflect the weather outside, in winters (at the time of this review), the outer body of the ear casing was certainly cooler.

Funnily when inserting the earphones, they made a weird clicking sound when pressed against the ear. This must be the ear tips compressing when pressed against the ear.

The cable is surprisingly thin and durable at the same time. The marketing is bang on in saying, “The ultra-durable flat cable decreases nasty tangles”, it isn’t tangle-free and yet it is resistant to tangles.

The three-button remote with clear indentations is sleek allowing you to control music via play/pause, switch songs and volume controls.

What’s in the box?
The packaging of the Evidson R5 is barebones which is of no complain whatsoever, however, weirdly the earphones don’t come at all with a plastic zip lock pouch to keep the ear tips in. As soon as I opened the box, an ear tip or two fell out as they are just dumped in the box. I know everyone wants to keep the costs down, but come on, a small zip lock pouch at least like their very own similarly priced Audiosport W6 earphones would’ve been nice.

Performance: 7/10
The Evidson Audiowear R5 earphones were tested with an Android phone and Windows 10 Desktop with FiiO Q1 DAC.

Objectively: The sound of Evidson R5 earphones is bassy with what sounds like recessed mids. The sounds coming off it is similar to the sound that the Equaliser (EQ) is set to at the Rock setting with the bass enhanced, mids recessed and the highs amped up.

The marketing of these earphones says, “Powerful bass, natural vocals, and precision highs”,while the first is true, can’t say the same for the natural vocals and precision highs, though. Over exaggerations is so common in marketing, makes one wonder why companies even try.

Subjectively: The sound was enjoyable overall though I kept feeling it lacked the balance. Of course, a few EQ corrections later it sounded better to my ear. Interestingly the sound was closer to Cowon EM1’s than I predicted, though Cowon EM1’s do have better balance in the mids than the R5’s of Evidson.

Most people would love the sound due to the “enhanced” bass, thankfully the bass isn’t ridiculously enhanced like Sennheiser’s CX 3.00. These are your typical consumer grade earphones at this price and aimed at that audience to please. Don’t look for refinement of sound in these, though it would be a significant upgrade from low quality bundled earphones.

Call Quality: 7/10
Fairly average call quality, absolutely nothing to complain about. The ear tips have a good seal, ambient noise is therefore reduced, mic pickups up the voice well.

Verdict and Price in India
For the street price of Rs 899, the Evidson R5’s are typical in the representation of an earphone in this price range. They won’t blow your socks off but are ten times better than bundled earphones that came with your phone or MP3 player. The R5’s are a definite recommend for earphones with mic under Rs 1,000.

Go for Evidson R5 if you want
– Good sound for the price
– Simple, elegant styling
– Really light and sleek

Don’t go for Evidson R5, if you want
– Recessed Mids