Product Reviews: Simply Tech Over Ear Wireless Headphones VS Escape Platinum Hands-Free Stereo Headphones

While working on my PhD research, I liked to listen to music while reading and coding but, due to working in a shared office, I went through a LOT of headphones before I found a pair that worked well. Mostly this was due to them falling off the desktop and breaking or being broken during transport. Eventually I settled on the Escape Platinum headphones shown here.

I got mine at Winners, which sometimes has some surprising bargains, but they are fairly common and can be found in many places. These are great because they have a removable wire rather than a soldered in one. The most common break I encountered was the headphones falling and catching them by the wire while trying to stop them from hitting the floor. That's pretty much guaranteed to break many soldered in wired headphones. They also have a fold in design which makes them durable for transport/storage. My only real issue with the headphones is that they are "on ear" instead of "over ear".

Recently, also at Winners, I came across these headphones (mine are all black instead of grey) which are over-ear and I thought it would be fun to compare the two. For this comparison, I'll be comparing them in terms of advertised features, sound quality, ease of use, and physical design. See the expandable list below for each part of the comparison. If you want just the summary, skip to the Conclusions.

Advertised Features

	Escape Headphones	Maestro Headphones
High definition/fidelity stereo headphones	Called 'High Definition stereo headphones'	Called 'High fidelity stereo headphones with deep bass'
Call function	Yes	Yes
Music control function	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth wireless	Yes	Yes
FM radio	Yes	No
SD card	Yes	No
Aux cable support	Yes	Yes
Noise isolating	No	Yes
Play time	4 Hours per charge at 1/3 volume	6 Hours per charge
Power cable	Yes - Micro USB	Yes - USB C

The two have similar features but a few stand out. Only the Maestro headphones advertise noise isolation (this basically means nothing as I will discuss below) while the Escape has an FM radio and SD card support which are interesting bonus features. The largest potential turn off of these for some users will be the battery life for wireless mode. 4 hours isn't really a large amount of time if you are listening to them while doing routine tasks like data entry, coding, reading, phone calls/meeting sound/mic, etc. The escape headphones also use a micro USB for charging. The battery life and USB cable may be longer/USB C on a newer model but I have not found this information online so maybe not.

Winner: To me this is a toss up since I really prefer to use wired headphones. For extras, its the Escape and for battery life its the Maestro.

Sound Quality

The sound quality of both headphones, in both wired and wireless modes, are very high quality. There is also no real difference in sound that I can notice. This is with both no equalization and with equalization to bring out more bass. When listening to surround sound audio, I found no difference as well. I did find that both models were outperformed by my Philips 1000 series ear buds (see my review here: https://www.geekpantsmedia.com/post/product-review-of-the-philips-1000-series-tat1207-wireless-headphones) when it came to surround sound. The headphones would give a flat "left or right" feel to the sound while the ear buds actually sounded like I could point in a specific direction (like behind and to the left).

When it comes to sound isolation, there is no difference between the two sets of headphones. They faintly dull the background sound in the room but not by much so the advertised "sound isolation" of the Maestro headphones means nothing in this comparison.

When using the wireless feature, the Escape headphones had the better performance when I walked away from my computer. The Maestro headphones started to stutter and crackle when I went into the basement of the house while the Escape headphones stayed crisp and clear. The microphones in both headphones also have a similar performance sound quality wise but the sound captured by the Escape headphones was much lower volume than the Maestro headphones. Due to where the microphone is placed on both units, the sound captured is low volume for both and will need amplification for use as a phone/video call headset.

Winner: Neither for wired. Escape for wireless headphones. Maestro for phone/video call headset

Ease of Use

For use as wired headphones, both are "plug and play". They will even turn off if you plug in the aux cable so you don't waste battery life.

For wireless use, both headphones were literally "turn on and look under the Bluetooth list". The extra features of the Escape headphones are accessed with a button press to cycle through features with a voice stating which mode you were in. These features make operation a bit more complicated:

FM mode - Not intuitive at all. Without the manual you are forced to just try things and see if they work. Added to this, you need to press and hold the play/pause button to scan and memorize the stations, without this step only volume control works and you can't cycle through stations. The built in radio is a very simple one as well so it won't match a proper radio when it comes to lower strength/noisy stations.

SD card mode - This one is fairly straight forward. It's very rudimentary and will simply cycle through songs as you play through them or skip forward/backward. As far as I can tell there is no way to have playlists or a certain order without forcing it in the file names.

Buttons are positioned on the front of the right side of the Escape headphones and on the back of the left side on the Maestro headphones. Personally, I like the buttons on the back because I find it more comfortable to operate with my thumb than trying to use my fingers with buttons on the front. When using the buttons, the volume control for the Maestro headphones use a longer toggle switch like button and the buttons are spaced apart which makes it easier to tell which is which at a touch. The buttons on the Escape headphones are all the same size with no gaps between them which makes it harder to tell them apart and you have to memorize the button order if you want to use them without looking. I'm assuming the button layout on the Escape was intended to keep things compact but it does make using them inconvenient.

When in wireless mode, the default volume of the Escape headphones is a bit too high for comfort and needs to be adjusted (I recommend not wearing them until you have turned them on and lowered the volume). This doesn't affect the ease of use but is something to keep in mind.

Winner: Maestro - The extra features of the Escape are nice but, when it comes to ease of use, simpler is better.

Physical Design

The Escape headphones fold in on themselves while the Maestro headphones twist to make them flatter. Both sets seem equally durable (though I'm not going to do destructive testing to find out) but it seems to me that the fold in design is better for transport. The flat design is useful if you have a desktop headphone hanger. You can try to twist them around and use them as a desktop speaker but it is fairly quiet so you still need to turn the volume up pretty high and, based on the bass 'crackling' I hear when I place my ears close to them at very high volumes, possibly risk damaging the speakers if you do.

The Auxiliary cable that comes with the Maestro headphones is a little short for comfort. Even with a laptop sitting on your lap, the cable pulls if you stretch or lean too far in any direction. The Escape headphones come with a longer cable that you can use comfortably (it's about 1.3 times longer) and I have used it with a laptop on a desk and have been able to lean over and pick things up off the floor without hitting the end of the cable. Of course, both sets of headphones will work with any 3.5mm audio cable but it would be necessary to supply your own, longer cable, with the Maestro set.

The power cable for the Maestro is a newer USB C cable but this is the only advantage to it. My Escape headphones are an older model and the newer models may use USB C so this may not matter with a newer Escape model. Both power cables are power only and will not transfer data but the cable with the Maestro set is 1.3 times longer than the Escape ones. The Maestro cable is a good length for charging on a desktop but both are short enough to be inconvenient if you are using a wall charger and I recommend supplying your own longer one for this purpose.

When it comes to comfort, I would say both headphones are roughly the same. The Escape headphones are on ear so they press your ears against your head but they don't press very hard so they aren't much of a comfort problem. The Maestro headphones are over ear (the reason I decided to try them) but they are a little too small for me and I have to slide them around on my head a little bit to get my ears into the sound chambers. They also press a bit uncomfortably against my head just below my ears but, overall, they aren't much of a comfort problem either.

For appearance, I have the plain black model of both sets of headphones. Aesthetically they look about the same and there is no difference eye candy wise. The boxes are both well made but the Maestro box is better designed for removal/replacement of the headphones so, for storage, the Maestro box is well worth keeping.

Winner: Neither. Personally I lean toward the Escape headphones here though because I prefer the fold in design and the Auxiliary cable that comes with it is a better length. These are a plus because I prefer to use them as wired headphones.

Conclusions

Winner: Escape headphones

Both sets of headphones are a great option. The quality of sound is excellent and they feel well made (again, I refuse to destructively test them to find out which is stronger). Both headphones are good options and the selection of which to buy would be based on intended use and personal preference.

Personally I prefer, and recommend, the Escape headphones. The SD card and FM radio features, if you want to use them, are simple but they are a nice extra. The included Auxiliary cable is also a good length and quality. The fold in design seems to me to be a stronger option for transport and storage (the Maestro box is excellent for this but the box is much larger and inconvenient if space is limited). I prefer using headsets like these as wired headsets so the wireless features aren't really important to me. There is no advantage to either headphone for phone/video calls since the microphone is not particularly sensitive in either model.

For wireless options. The Maestro headphones don't appear to have as good of a range as the Escape headphones but do have a much better battery life and the buttons are easier to use by feel so the Maestro headphones are the better option of the two for wireless use. However, if you want a wireless option, I would say go with the Phillips 1000 series ear buds I reviewed previously (https://www.geekpantsmedia.com/post/product-review-of-the-philips-1000-series-tat1207-wireless-headphones) which have a far greater battery life and better sound quality.