Today we will look at a device with an uncomplicated name in which the manufacturer tries to reflect the main features of the product. Lamax HighComfort ANC is a closed-back headphone equipped with an active noise cancellation system. Are they comfortable to use and is the level of comfort really so high that it is loudly proclaimed in the model name? Let’s find out.
Who are Lamax?
The first question you probably have is what kind of company is Lamax? Where did this manufacturer come from? I also found this interesting, so I started looking into it. And here’s what I found out: Lamax is a young European brand with its headquarters and central warehouse in the Czech Republic. The products are sold in many EU countries. The products are manufactured, of course, in China. The main goal of the brand is to provide European consumers with high-quality gadgets for everyday use at an affordable price. In addition to headphones, the manufacturer also offers potential customers speakers, gaming accessories, action cameras, car recorders, power banks, and even electric scooters.
Lamax HighComfort ANC main specifications and features
To begin with, before reviewing the headphones in detail, let’s traditionally take a look at the main parameters of the product to understand what we are dealing with.
- Headphone type: over-ear with active noise cancellation
- Wired connection and ports: USB-C, 3.5 mm jack
- Wireless connection: Bluetooth 5.1 up to 10 metres
- Connection profiles: HFP 1.7, HSP 1.2, A2DP 1.3, AVRCP 1.6, SPP 1.2
- Codec support: aptX, aptX HD, AAC, SBC
- Speakers: 40 mm
- Frequency range: 20 Hz – 20 kHz
- Active noise cancellation: 28-30 dB noise reduction, hybrid active noise cancellation, AMS chip
- Battery: 1050 mAh
- Autonomy: 50 hours in standard mode, 25 hours with active noise cancellation
- Charging: 2.5 hours, up to 5 hours of music playback in 15 minutes of charging
- Headset: 3 integrated microphones
- Button controls: track switching, answering calls, rejecting and ending calls, volume control, activating Siri or Google Assistant, activating noise cancellation
- Weight: 320 g
The main points that I noticed are that Lamax HighComfort ANC headphones comply with the Hi-Res Audio standard, which means that you can expect good sound when listening to music and watching videos. We also have support for all possible Bluetooth profiles and codecs, which guarantees maximum compatibility with all iOS, Android, Windows devices. And besides, you can fully control the functions of the headphones and headset using the buttons on the case. Just the way we like it.
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Positioning and price
If you look at the line of Lamax headphones and headsets, you can see that the HighComfort ANC model is the flagship, as it has the highest price among all products – 117 EUR. It turns out that this is not a cheap product, but on the other hand, if you look at the market situation, the price roughly corresponds to the declared equipment and functions of the product. In this category, competitors offer headphones with similar characteristics for about the same price. So let’s check how it all works in real life.
What’s in the box?
Lamax HighComfort ANCs are supplied in a large thick cardboard box with a picture of the product and all the main features and specifications.
Inside we find a high-quality hard transport case, which houses the headphones in the folded state.
The buyer also receives documents, an instruction manual, a USB-A/C charging cable and a wire to connect the headphones to devices via a standard 3.5 mm coaxial jack.
Design, materials, build quality
Lamax HighComfort ANC headphones have a classic design. It features a height-adjustable headband arc and two massive driver bowls with soft ear cushions that rotate along the vertical axis.
At the joints between the headband and the loudspeakers, we have hinges that allow the loudspeakers to fold inside the headband to ensure a compact design for transport.
The main material of the headphones is high-quality matte plastic with a titanium finish, reinforced with metal elements in critical places. For example, the base of the headband is a plate made of elastic steel, which becomes the base of the hinges for folding the speakers.
The power axis on which the loudspeaker cabinets rotate is also made of metal in a plastic case. The outer part of the second swivel joint, to which the loudspeaker cups are directly attached, is also decorated with a metal plate with the manufacturer’s logo.
The outer parts of the speaker cabinets are decorated with metal mesh. Usually such elements can be found on open type headphones, with which users can freely feel external sounds while listening to music. But in this case, the headphones are still of the closed type, and the mesh is just a decorative element.
The headband is completely covered with soft but dense artificial leather with foam filling.
The ear cushions are made of the same material and have memory foam inside. The internal parts of the speakers are covered with a soft sound-permeable fabric with a foam backing.
The overall design of the headphones feels sturdy and reliable. The build quality is also excellent, and I have no complaints about the product as a whole. It feels like the headphones were designed and manufactured for a European consumer, so the quality is appropriate.
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Placement of elements
On the left side of the headphone there is a button for activating the noise cancellation mode, a green LED indicator and a 3.5 mm jack for wired connection to an audio source.
On the right side of the headset are three control buttons, a USB-C port for charging the headphones and a blue LED status indicator that blinks rapidly during the pairing process and at long intervals when the headphones are connected to the main device via Bluetooth. There is also a hole under the headset’s main microphone for voice communication.
In addition, on the top of each speaker cabinet there are two noise-cancelling microphones in oval holes covered with metal grilles.
Connecting and control
The procedure for pairing the headphones with a smartphone or tablet is standard. Simply turn on the headphones with the centre button on the right earbud and keep holding it down. First, the speakers will play a power-up tone, and then a second sonar-like tone will be heard to indicate that they are in pairing mode. Find the headphones in the list of available Bluetooth devices and tap on the name. The headphones will notify you with the message “Device Paired” when the procedure is successful.
In the same way, you can connect the headphones to a second device, such as a laptop. By the way, parallel work with two devices is flawless. For example, I’m listening to music or watching a video on my Windows laptop and then I receive a phone call on my smartphone. The media playback is automatically paused, I answer the call, talk through the headset, and when the call is over, playback from the laptop resumes automatically. So, if such scenarios are a priority for you when using headphones, then I can confidently recommend Lamax HighComfort ANC for parallel work with a smartphone and a laptop.
What else is worth noting is the full-fledged control of all headphone and headset functions using buttons. There is a separate button for ANC mode on the left speaker and three buttons on the right speaker, which allow you to pause and resume music playback, switch tracks, adjust the volume, accept and reject incoming phone calls and end a call, as well as activate the mobile voice assistant on your smartphone. For a complete list of button actions and control scheme, please refer to the headphones user manual.
Sound
I can’t say that I’m directly impressed with the sound of the headphones, but on the other hand, I can’t say anything bad about the sound. The sound of music is balanced, quite detailed, and when using the aptX or AAC codec and activating Dolby Atmos effects on a smartphone, the necessary volume even appears.
The main disadvantage of the headphones, in my opinion, is the limitation of high frequencies – up to 20 kHz. At the same time, many competitive headphone models with 40 mm drivers and Hi-Res Audio support offer an extension of the upper frequency threshold to 40 kHz. As for me, it is the high-frequency details of the sound that are not clear and loud enough in Lamax HighComfort ANC. This makes the music sound a bit dull, especially when you switch from other headphones with a higher treble threshold.
Undoubtedly, there are competitive models on the market with better sound for the money. A simple example: I tested the OneOdio A10 model in parallel, which impressed me more in terms of music, but in other aspects was clearly inferior to the Lamax HighComfort ANC, which turned out to be a more versatile option (better microphones, a wider range of codecs, higher connection reliability in difficult conditions). Therefore, in the end, I still kept the Lamax headphones for personal use, and this fact says a lot about the hero of my review.
Noise reduction
It is worth noting that due to the closed design and high-quality ear cushions, the headphones have good passive noise isolation, so it is not necessary to use the active noise reduction function in normal conditions of an apartment, house or office.
But on the street or in transport, activating ANC helps to get rid of unnecessary noise and immerse yourself in listening to music. Noise cancellation works as standard, there are no drawbacks, and the noise reduction effect is clearly visible.
Unfortunately, there is no sound transmission function in the headphones, which is a disadvantage of Lamax HighComfort ANC compared to some competitors. For example, OneOdio A10 has this feature. It is very strange why Lamax engineers did not implement this feature, since the necessary equipment, namely, external microphones, is already installed in the headphones. On the other hand, this function is not a priority for me personally, I have never had a need to hear the surrounding sounds when using headphones, so I would rather give preference to the quality of microphones for voice communication when choosing such a gadget. And that’s what we’ll talk about in the next section.
Microphones and headset function
Another thing that pleasantly surprised me was the high quality of voice transmission through the built-in microphones. The headphones work perfectly as a headset for communication – in telephone conversations or in voice Internet chats. In a room with a low noise level (an aquarium compressor, an open window through which you can hear the street), the voice quality is very good – the voice is clear and saturated with all frequencies.
In noisy environments, the voice tone deteriorates slightly, as active noise cancellation cuts off some frequencies. But in general, the voice quality remains very good, and your interlocutor will hear exactly what you are saying.
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Connection quality and latency
Everything is very good in this section. The connection between the headphones and the smartphone is very reliable, compliant with the Bluetooth standard – it’s 10-15 metres in the line of sight. Also, tests have shown that the connection is not lost even through several reinforced concrete walls at a distance of about 5 metres (I could not move further away from the signal source in the apartment) from the smartphone, and even the quality of music streaming does not deteriorate, as it seemed to me. Although the connection with the laptop is lost in this case. No delays were detected when watching videos and playing games paired with Huawei P40 Pro, realme GT2 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphones and ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 and realme Book laptops, and the headphones work perfectly.
Battery life
Very nice! To be honest, during the testing of the headphones (more than a week), I was able to discharge the battery only by 80%. Therefore, I will just take the data provided by the manufacturer at face value – autonomy of 50 hours with noise cancellation turned off and 25 hours with the active function. This is very similar to the truth. If you actively use the headphones for several hours a day, you will have to charge the device every 2-3 weeks.
Conclusions
If you’re looking for a versatile over-the-ear headphone for music and communication, the Lamax HighComfort ANC is the right choice. The product has a premium look due to its design and high-quality materials. The device fully justifies its name, because the level of comfort when using the headphones is really high due to the soft headband and high-quality memory ear cushions that completely cover the ear and do not press or rub. In general, the headphones sit on the head very comfortably.
Other advantages: support for all popular codecs, acceptable music playback quality, high-quality microphones and excellent performance as a headset for voice communication. In addition, it can be connected via a cable to devices with a 3.5 mm jack, has high-quality active noise cancellation, and good battery life.
Among the conditional disadvantages of the headphones, I can note the limited frequency range of the speakers in the high frequency spectrum, and the lack of sound transparency, which some competitors offer. In addition, the manufacturer does not offer a mobile application for personalised device settings and firmware updates. As an excuse, I can note that all the available functions are well thought out and work perfectly out of the box, so there is no need to tweak anything.
In general, I believe that the advantages of Lamax HighComfort ANC outweigh the disadvantages, so I continue to use the headphones with pleasure and can recommend this product to anyone.