A while ago, the folks over at Xiaomi realized a big void that exists in the budget wired earphone segment in India. They found out that the Indian budget earphone market was filled with only bass-heavy earphones. These didn’t do much when it came to the other aspects of a quality music experience. Mid to high-frequency ranges were often undermined by heavily boosted bass. Users who wanted a balanced authentic experience often had to shell out a lot more money. Xiaomi went ahead and spoke to some artists as well, and they too agreed. While everybody was chasing the ‘thump’ in the budget audio segment, authenticity was often lost. To change that, Xiaomi came up with the Mi Dual Driver Earphones.
These wired earphones have a dedicated driver in each earbud for middle to high frequencies. They promise to maintain the bass performance everybody loves while delivering crisp mids and highs. Further, that seems like a killer deal for just Rs 799. We gave the Mi Dual Driver Earphones a shot for about two weeks, and here are our thoughts.
Design, Build
The moment you hold the Mi Dual Driver Earphones in your hands, a few things are clear. Xiaomi has not skipped a good build quality on these earphones while chasing the audio. The earphones feature an angled design and a metallic finish that looks premium. The quality also extends to the wires. The earphones have a braided cable to reduce tangles and bump up strength, However, we would have liked if the braided cables were all the way to the earbuds instead of just till the left and right wire split-point. The earbuds here also have magnetic ends, to help keep them together, further avoiding tangles.
Towards the other end, the Mi Dual Driver Earphones feature an ‘L’ shaped connector. These are much better than regular straight connectors, having a much lower chance of breakage and damage when in the pocket. The Earphones also have a bar with three buttons on the right wire. These are for play/pause and volume control. The middle play/pause button also works well while taking or ending calls. Finally, there are also three sizes of ear tips.
The Mi Dual Driver earphones are comfortable to wear and also look pretty good. The metallic finish on the buds helps these stand out a bit, which is a good thing. Note that the edges on the angular design aren’t very rounded, and maybe slightly uncomfortable on prolonged hours of wear. But on most days, that won’t be an issue. Overall we’re happy with the look and feel of these buds.
Audio Performance
The new layer of depth added by the dual-driver implementation is almost immediately noticeable. The Mi Dual Driver Earphones offer crisp vocals and every detail is clearly heard. The experience is good enough to make you feel like you’re using a premium grade earphone. The earphones offer a fair share of rich depth to every small detail in songs. The regular MP3 files cannot do justice here. We tried the earphones with some FLAC audio files to experience what they’re capable of, and we were not disappointed at all.
Listening to tracks like Walk on Water by Eminem, you hear details you would probably miss on other budget earphones like the faint whispering or scribbling sounds in the background. Meanwhile, vocals remain crisp as ever. Go to a track like It’s Time by Imagine Dragons and the instrument separation is amazing.
The bass is still on the heavier side though. This is evident on tracks like Pray For Me by The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar. On tracks that have an abundance of low and high frequencies, you do end up feeling that the bass is boosted a little bit. Now, if you’re looking for a completely balanced output, there isn’t it. However, if you like your bass taking dominance, the good news is treble performance is not compromised here. For the price you pay, this is some amazing performance.
Mi Dual Driver Earphones: Verdict
The Mi Dual Driver Earphones feature a rich, immersive sound. The dynamic dual-driver performance makes these earphones versatile for pretty much any genre. They also pack in a stylish design, and elements like magnetic earbuds, an L-shaped connector, and a braided cable. The slightly bass-dominated audio output occasionally prevents these earphones from being “balanced, as all things should be”. If you’re looking for some great wired earphones under Rs 1,000, the Mi Dual Driver Earphones don’t do much wrong and are a great bet.