The House of Marley’s Liberate XLBT Bluetooth Wireless Headphones never ceased to amaze. I’ve used them over the past couple weeks and expected something to go wrong, something to break, or discover a feature that I didn’t like. But despite some minor earache after using them for over six hours, the Liberate XLBT consistently impressed me with its heavy bass, Bluetooth ability and battery life.
The Liberate XLBT’s heavy bass is the headphones’ defining feature, excluding the Bob Marley-inspired wood paneling design. The bass gets so loud it can hurt at times, and it means adjusting the volume dynamically on both the headphones and your iPhone to get it just right. But if you enjoy dubstep and hip-hop, or if you have bought into the Beats mythology about bass, you’ll be a fan of these headphones.
On the topic of messing around with the volume, the controls for the Liberate XLBT are located on the left headphone shell. Not only does the power button has a tiny braille-like bump, the button is also isolated from the volume up, volume down, skip and rewind buttons, which are clustered together and have no marked physical features.
Can’t you just learn the order of the buttons? Yes, you can, but it’s called computational kindness and it’s the one kink the headphones have. You have to count from either the top or the bottom of the buttons, and worse yet remember the order, an irritation of thousand cuts. The other button that exists is the Bluetooth button.
Thankfully, you never need to actually use the Bluetooth button because the Liberate XLBT does a great job of connecting with your iPhone. The Liberate XLBT will automatically connect when you turn them on, done by holding down the play/pause button.
The headphones’ battery life is impressive. It lasts for hours and can get me through two to three workdays of heavy use without a recharge. When it’s time for a recharge, it charges fast. However, the analog connection with the auxiliary cable doesn’t work when the battery is dead. You also need this cable if you plan on using the microphone.
The only other thing I didn’t like about the headphones is the earache after a long set of hours. Not because of the loudness, but the way the headphones sit on your physical ear can be a little uncomfortable. The thing is, they feel great until it’s hit that hours plus mark, so this may be a human design flaw and not a headphone one.
If you’re looking to buy some Bluetooth Headphones, the Liberate XLBT is a great purchase that’s worth the money, especially considering how its competitors, such as the Beats Studio Wireless ($379.95) or the Bose Soundlink Wireless Headphones ($249.95), are almost double the price.
The Liberate XLBT are priced at $179.99 on the official website, but can be found for $150 on Amazon. The XLBT come in two colors: Saddle (Brown/Grey) and Midnight (Black/Grey). Both colors come with wooden paneling on the earshell sides.
