EPOS Adapt 560 Review - Remote work companion?

EPOS has officially entered the Philippines and we share our experience with the new EPOS Adapt 560 wireless headphones.

Lightweight and portable

Let's see if the new EPOS Adapt 560 wireless headphones performs in real-world scenarios.

Let's dive into the review!

Unboxing/Accessories

Box

The Adapt 560 arrives in a cardboard box with the EPOS branding, regulatory information, and key specs and features.

Quick Start instructions

Upon opening, the top flap of the box has the quick start guide printed on the inner side. It depicts how to turn on the headphones and how to connect them to other devices. It also has the different functions of the buttons on the Adapt 560.

Case and manual

Inside the box is the carrying case and the documentation.

Box inclusions

Inside the carrying case are the headphones, USB-C cable, and USB dongle.

Build Quality/Design

Outer side

The headphone's outer parts are made of a combination of different textured polycarbonate, rubber, and synthetic/faux leather. This makes the headphones flexible, lightweight, and portable. 

Inner sides

The cups that cover the ears are soft and plush. These cups are not large enough to entirely cover our ear lobes which means that it is not completely sealed. This may affect the Active Noise Cancellation performance depending on the size of the person's ear lobes.

Headband

Left and side

The EPOS logo can be seen on both sides. On the left side of the cup is a single microphone for ANC while on the right side is the built-in vocal microphone and two more microphone ports for the ANC feature.

Left and Right bottom sides

At the bottom of the left earcup is a smooth surface while on the right ear cup is the USB-C port, power button, Active Noise Cancellation button, and volume rocker. Some of the buttons double as the play and pause as well as the backward and next keys.

Retracting headband

The headphones are adjustable wherein earcups retract and expand to accommodate the unique size of the user's head.

Comfort/Isolation

Sits on your head comfortably

The headphones are on-ear headphones which means they are supposed to rest on the top of your ear. The clamping force of the earphones is strong enough to keep in place but not enough to hurt. It was easy to wear this for hours.

Easy to wear for hours!

The polycarbonate material allows the headphones to just weigh 8 ounces or 229 grams which makes the headphones surprisingly light. In fact, even after 5 hours of back-to-back video calls, we only felt minimal tiredness where the headphones were sitting on our head.

The cups are soft but as mentioned earlier do not cover all of our earlobes. The cups are made of faux leather which traps heat which results in sweat accumulation on the cups after several hours of use.

Features

The Adapt 500 can be connected in 3 different ways: Bluetooth, USB-C and via the BTD 800 USB Dongle. Each one has its own pros and cons. 

Many ways to connect!

Bluetooth is the most flexible. The Adapt 560 does allow two devices to be connected at the same time so a phone or tablet can be attached via Bluetooth. There is some lag while being on Bluetooth. 

The second is the included BTD 800 USB Dongle. It comes paired out of the box so attach it to your PC to start listening to music. The last one is direct to connect via USB-C. This allows you to charge and use the headphones at the same time. If you download the optional software you can also update the headphone’s firmware via USB. 

Two devices can be connected at the same time like a PC and a phone. The PC audio can be prioritized using the EPOS Connect software. 

The headphones are smart in a way. It will interrupt the playback of the secondary device makes noise like a notification or if you suddenly start scrolling through social media. It will also continue the audio playback when the other device’s audio ends. This is not quite seamless as it takes a second but it's much faster than manually pausing every time.

Can cancel out most continuous background noise

As for the noise cancellation. It pretty much cancels out most continuous background noise like electric fans or distant cars. Human conversations can still be heard somewhat but weaker cafe-like noises are weakened. Turning on the ANC makes the soundstage sound narrower almost like faux isolation.

EPOS software suite

The downloadable software is called EPOS Connect. Here, updates can be installed for the wireless BTD 800 Dongle and the headphones as well as changing the settings. There are various settings like prioritizing the PC’s audio, reducing the Auto-off

In our tests of running Spotify, the Adapt 560 lasted 22 hours with ANC on and around 40 hours without it. Enough to get a lot of work done. ANC nearly cuts the battery in half, because of that, users on the go should only use it sparingly. 

Full charging should be completed within 2-3 hours. It can be used while charging, especially with a PC, so there’s no downtime if you do need to charge.

Audio

Retracting microphone

For the EPOS Adapt 560, we listened through our usual playlists during work as well as games after work. The EPOS were office headphones so we also listened to podcasts that simulate people speaking. 

The Adapt 560 are productivity headphones and are tuned as such. Vocals are clear and crisp. While it can reproduce decent trebles and bass due to its use of the aptX codec and decent audio driver, both trebles and Bass feel compressed and lack energy.

EPOS Adapt 560 Specs

Transducers: Dynamic, Closed

Impedance: 32 Ohms

Speaker Frequency Response: 20 - 20,000Hz

Microphones: 4 microphones for ANC

Microphone Frequency Response: 100 - 10,000Hz

Battery: Up to 24 hours with ANC turned on, up to 46 hours with ANC turned off

Connectivity: Bluetooth (SBC, AAC, aptX) up to 82 feet, USB-C

Others: Active Noise Cancellation, Microsoft Teams certified

Weight: 229 g

Price: PHP 16,500

Verdict

Ready for remote work!

With its portability, comfort, ANC, and battery life, The EPOS Adapt 560 is a great pair of headphones for productivity. Especially for those who need a built-in microphone for voice calls.

Those who are looking for an EDC capable headphones that are paired to their phone and laptop at the same time can consider the EPOS Adapt 560 as a potential buy. 

The price we were told was 16,500 Pesos which is in the high end. It faces stiff competition from the likes of the Sony WH1000XM4. 

Otherwise, the EPOS Adapt 560 is great for people who are looking for headphones with active noise cancellation and a built-in microphone for voice calls.

Build/Design - 4.5

Comfort/Isolation - 4

Features - 4.5

Sound - 4.3

Average - 4.3/5

Do you agree with us?

What do you guys think?