Riwbox WB5

The WB5 are Bluetooth wireless stereo headphones manufactured by the Riwbox Corporation in China. They have built-in microphone, memory card slot for playing MP3 files, and a jack socket to make a wired connection. The ear pads use memory foam, and the outer material is protein type material to provide additional comfort. They usually come in white/gold or black/gold finish.

Review

From the number of errors on the packaging literature and their website, this looks like a product from a Chinese manufacturer. On the box they mention that the headphones were designed in the US and manufactured in China. As all singing and dancing headphones go, these ones have a plethora of useful features. You can use these headphones wirelessly or with a wire which is a very useful feature if you are unable to charge the internal battery. There is also a built-in MP3 player, and one simply has to install a memory card in the slot, which again is a very useful feature. These headphones are also foldable and therefore take less space when you pack them with you on travel.

They were very comfortable to wear and the memory foam protein ear pads certainly make a huge difference to the comfort compared to other designs without this feature. The 40 mm 32-Ω drivers produce a fairly decent sound as wireless designs go and there is plenty of bass and treble in the range, with slightly more emphasis on the bass. One down side was that the specs mentioned virtually all the parameters except the most important one, frequency response of the drivers.

Pairing the headphone with my Smartphone was very simple and quick and the Bluetooth range is decent. There also has a voice output feature, which is a bit of a gimmick. This is where a female voice announces the Bluetooth mode, or when you power OFF the unit. For many of the other controls and modes it simply beeps. Even so, it is a useful feature as it helps the user to better understand what is happening.

One clear advantage of these headphones is the easy way one can change the ear pads. In this design, they use a plastic frame that first installs into the seam of the ear pad, and the frame then attaches to the cup. I thought the overall design, electronic engineering, and build quality, were excellent.

Price/eBay

RIWBOX is a fairly new name in the UK and consequently the price of these headphones can vary greatly online. I managed to get a broken pair on eBay for a few pounds and decided to buy them as the fault was with a broken hinge on one side. I simply used some hot melt glue to fix the hinge so I could test them for this review. In the following pages of this multi-page article you can see the inside view showing the drivers and circuit board.

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