Baseus Inspire XH1 Review: There's One Major Flaw Holding These Headphones Back

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One of the advantages of my job is I get exposure to a lot of over-ear headphones. Very often those headphones cost upwards of $300 or more. One recent example is the Nothing Headphone (1) that just launched a few weeks ago. So, when a set of fine-looking over-ear headphones comes along for a price that's half that of most of its competition, I tend to notice.

Baseus is a company that's had its finger in a lot of pies. The company sells everything from security cameras to power banks, but one area where it's really earned its stripes is in audio. When it comes to the models we (SlashGear's reviewers, collective) have tested, Baseus earbuds have always been of decent quality at a great price point. Those attributes extend to its over-ear offerings, including the Inspire XH1 (wireless headphones with Bluetooth 6.1).

I saw the Inspire XH1 headphones get launched at IFA in Berlin, and Baseus provided me a set for testing. I have been testing them out for the past couple of weeks, including two plane rides between the United States and Germany. I've had a chance to log some serious listening time and I'm ready to collect my thoughts.

The Baseus Inspire XH1 have hardware that is probably best described as "cost effective." The earcups are largely plastic, which is perfectly fine, but also a little cheap. The earbuds pads are quite deep and very soft, which makes another aspect of the headphones a tad surprising, which I will get to in a little bit.

The headband is a soft vegan leather which feels great. These headphones are great for long listening sessions, either at your PC or watching movies on a trans-Atlantic flight.

You get the standard complement of buttons and ports on the headphones. The left side has your ANC button and power button along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C charging port. On the right side, you get a volume rocker and a play/pause button. Each of these buttons are easy to identify by feel, though the power and ANC button are similarly sized — the power button has a dimple on it that can be hard to feel at times. Overall, the hardware is pretty solid, though not easily mistaken for something made with far higher-end materials.

These headphones have sound that was tuned in part by Bose, which should give the headphones a fair bit of street cred. Bose is perhaps best known for its noise-cancellation. When it comes to great sound, I'll take a set of Sony cans, personally, but it's hard to beat ANC on a set of Bose headphones.

The sound profile on the Baseus headphones is a bit on the bassy side, and it detracts from the rest of the spectrum. It's not terrible, but it's definitely noticeable. Songs like "Roundtable Rival" by Lindsey Stirling and "Alien Nation" by Scorpions really emphasize this point. Others, like "Monsters" from Shinedown feel that effect as well, but to a lesser extent.

Some of this is correctable by installing the Baseus app and adjusting the equalizer, but not all of it. It's not egregious, but it's certainly not a sound profile I prefer.

One thing Baseus did not inherit from its Bose collaborators is the ANC. That is pretty clear, because while the headphones can eliminate some noise, they definitely don't eliminate all of it. Most midrange tones get eliminated, which is great, but on the aforementioned transatlantic flight, I frequently had trouble hearing dialogue from movies I was trying to watch due to the engine noise.

Engine noise is, of course, the primary thing ANC earbuds are supposed to eliminate which is why ANC headphones are so popular on flights. These headphones just don't do the job in that respect. Even something like a clothes dryer running near my office manages to cut through.

Properly-employed ANC has gotten surprisingly good over the last few years. It used to be that you could count on ANC to cut out droning noise, but sudden noises like someone calling your name, or even a movie playing nearby would cut through easily. That is no longer the case. The ANC system in this pair of Baseus headphones is OK — but it feels more on-par with decent ANC in a pair of headphones from a few years ago. When I'm using these headphones at home in my basement, I can still hear a movie playing in a different room, or even someone calling my name from upstairs. Baseus needs to catch up in this regard.

What I found interesting about the headphones — and not in a good way — was how these headphones basically have no passive isolation at all. In a high-quality pair of over-ear headphones, ANC is only one component of noise reduction; the other is passive isolation. It's best described as the amount of sound that is reduced just by putting the headphones on. Given how deep and soft the earcups are, I expected them to do quite a good job. I was disappointed.

Transparency mode is a similar challenge. There's a lot of side-tone when you speak. Side tone is the amount of your own voice you hear in your head when you speak with headphones on — and the Inspire XH1 has a lot of it. Also, rather than allowing sounds through in transparency mode, the headphones actually amplify sound to an annoying degree. It's likely that all of these issues are related. A better set of microphones to pick up and eliminate sounds might be a good idea for the next generation. In the meantime, these headphones fall short.

The app for Baseus is very easy to use, which is nice. Buttons are well laid up and clearly labeled. You can switch between different modes of ANC, enable Dolby Audio, and adjust your equalizer from the app. The app even has an Advance audio setting called "Bass boost" — which does not actually do a whole lot, considering it has its own setting. The equalizer has seven presets, including the default mode "Sound by Bose." You can also create up to three additional equalizer settings.

The other notable setting is Sleep mode. You can set sleep mode to five, ten, fifteen, or thirty minutes, or you can set it to not turn off at all. Then you can play one of four preset sounds to help you sleep. There's a campfire, ocean waves, a rainy day, or insects chirping. Just set the playback duration, tap your preset, and lay back to go to sleep.

The sounds are fine, and I could see how they might help one sleep — if one can sleep with a set of headphones on that is. The sounds do not loop seamlessly. There's about two minutes of each sound before it fades and bit and restarts. I found that to be a little jarring to be perfectly honest.

The Inspire XH1 headphones clock in at $149.99 and are available in 4 different colorways: Twilight Blue, Cosmic Black, Starlight Off-White, and Sunset Coral. My review device was in Cosmic Black, but I dig the Twilight Blue. You can buy the headphones from Baseus' website or from Amazon.

Overall, these headphones are fine, but I was left wanting much better ANC. For a frequent traveler like me, being able to drown out airplane engine noise is table stakes, and these headphones don't clear that bar.

If you don't find yourself in need of really killer ANC, then these headphones could work pretty well for you. They're comfortable, and lightweight, and fold up nicely. They come with all the cables you'll need including the 3.5mm cable for hard-wired audio. The sound isn't bad, but the isolation and ANC are not up to par at all and that's where these headphones start to show their weakness. If you don't need those, however, maybe they'll be a good pickup for you.