Sudio Regent Bluetooth Headphones — Australian Review

If you’re a regular commuter, or if you just happen to enjoy your music on the go, then you’ll know the importance of a good pair of headphones to accompany your smartphone. We’ve been lucky enough to review quite a few headphones at Ausdroid, and they range from better than average to $600 and up, with Bluetooth and noise cancelling features. This often brings comments such as “too expensive”, “can’t justify the cost” and “I bet you didn’t pay for them!” … and you’re right, we don’t often pay for the headphones we review. Sometimes we get to hang onto them, sometimes we don’t, but we know that they’re expensive. With this in mind, when Sudio approached us to review their range of headphones at a far more wallet friendly price we jumped at the chance.

The Sudio Regent are a really nicely made set of headphones with Bluetooth (nb. NOT noise cancelling) functionality. What’s really impressive is that I’d happily compare them to the QC35 headphones that I had the pleasure of reviewing this time last year when it comes to comfort. They’re relatively lightweight, nicely padded, fit well with plenty of adjustability for all different shapes and sizes of head. To top all this off they’re really nice looking headphones too. Wwhile there’s not a lot you can really do to headphones, there are some out there that make me wonder what the designers were on when looking at their colours and design.

When we’re talking about wireless anything one of the biggest talking points is always going to be the battery life which I’m really pleased to report is very good. I listen to between 4 and 6 hours of music a day while I’m at work and with the Sudio Regent headphones, I’ve consistently had about 3 days before needing to recharge. For the average commuter who spends 1 – 1.5 hours each way in transit daily, this will be a full week of commuting without needing to recharge your headphones. If you’re in a spot where you can (or need to) plug your headphones into a PC via the supplied 3.5mm cable, that’s obviously going to add a dimension to your experience where you have the convenience of wireless, but capability of wired if your PC doesn’t have Bluetooth.

Onto the main point of looking at audio accessories… the sound. In my experience I’ve seen headphones that are tuned for rock, some that are tuned for bass heavy dance music or others that are tuned for a mix but don’t quite hit the mark. These are inclined towards rock but handle most other genres quite well.

There’s a lot that you can talk about with audio quality but when it boils down to the details that matter, the high range is really clean, without being shrill. The bass is definitely there and can be tuned with your EQ on various apps, more power and and of course the frequency that you’re going to hear most. That being said, I found the bass a touch flat (for my taste at least) which needed a little bit of tuning to correct, but this is part and parcel of owning decent headphones.

What makes me say that these are leaning towards being tuned for rock is the mid range sound, where vocals and those big fat guitar riffs sit in the audio spectrum, is quite brilliant. There’s power and really good clarity in this mid range which makes rock music sound really good.

After a few weeks with the Sudio Regent, I have two concerns I’d like to go through. To start with, they don’t come with a case and the exposed wires into the earpieces, let’s look at these as individual items. The case is easily addressed, buy one! However, if you’re spending $200 on a set of headphones, the manufacturer could supply you with a slip bag at least right? Most other headset manufacturers provide a case of some kind.

The other concern is the fact that the wires out of the overhead band are exposed over the ear adjustment into the earpieces. If you’re super careful this won’t be a major issue, but for those who are using them commuting I have concern that over time the solder where the wires attach may become fractured and compromise the audio quality or the headset functionality outright. Take half a step back, buying a hard case to protect these would be a really good way to prevent this occurring.

All told, what you’re looking at with the Sudio Regent Headphones is a really nice quality set of headphones that are comfy, have really impressive battery life and audio quality that the vast majority of users are going to be more than happy with. They’re not quite in the same league as the Bose QC35 or Sony h.ear Bluetooth headphones, but that’s okay, because they’re far more affordable at less than half the price of $219 vs $500 for the Bose and Sony options.

If this is sounding like the sort of headphones you’ve been looking for, then head over to the Sudio website to check out the options and pricing.