Cooler Master has entered the game earbuds with a sense of modularity with their brand new MasterPulse earphones, or in-ear headphones. They’re actually pretty unique, as this is the first time I’ve ever seen a pair of tiny earphones with a continuous dial that passively changes the low frequency response. Also, no external power required!
Let’s start off with the packaging. Cooler Master made the packaging extra exclusive, with a really hard magnetic cardboard flap that open and reveal all of its important information.
I have to say, Cooler Master did a really good job in documenting everything regarding the the Bass FX. By their word, the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones changes the low frequency response only – from 20Hz to about 5kHz. You know, the frequencies we hear as bass. Of course, we’ll have to try this out and see how it works out.
The box itself clearly shows what’s inside the box itself, and additional features it has. By looking at this alone, I have to give Cooler Master A+ for the packaging.
Anyway, digging all of the contents out reveals the usual accessories that a pair of earphones should have.
You get the rounded hard case, a total of 2 more sizes of eartips, documentations, and the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones itself. Also, that’s once thick piece of foam where the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones are sitting on!
While the contents that came along the box is pretty complete, I do wish to point something out – lack of an audio input/output splitter. As this pair of earphones does have a microphone and thus uses a combo jack, I think that the inclusion of a splitter cable would be nice. Not all computers have this combo jack – especially not desktops. Which makes using this pair of earphones for gaming a little difficult.
[nextpage title=”Design & features”]
The build of the pair of earphones themselves are decent. They’re made out of very lightweight aluminium all around. They’re not made out of typical cheap plastic.
The eartips themselves are made out of silicon as usual, and having the usual S/M/L size is very usual. Then there’s a rather slim flat cable, which is quite typical in today’s standards of earphones.
The other additional feature that it has is the in-line microphone and button. However, what’s special about the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones is the colour-coded left and right channels on the earbuds themselves.
You can also determine which side is the left or right channel by determining where the in-line controls are. Usually these controls will be on the right channel, but Cooler Master did the opposite and put it on the left channel inside – the one with the blue earcup. There’s no right or wrong side to put the audio controls at – just a matter of personal preference.
Speaking of the in-line controls, Cooler Master mentioned on their website that the in-line button can be used to control music. I’d like to point out that your result may vary. There isn’t a clear standard on how Android smartphones handle in-line button inputs, and most of them are controlled via an app anyway.
Personally, I use Spotify – which works for 2/3 of the functions, and Poweramp which worked flawlessly after some app tweaks. Again, it’s software-dependent – so don’t get mad fi it doesn’t work for you.
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To be honest, this is one of the toughest to determine. I thought it’ll be easy. In my mind, I thought of just listening with and without the Bass FX, and proceed thereon with the knowledge that I got. It definitely sounded like a plan in my mind, but because of the Bass FX’s uniqueness, I need a different approach.
The Bass FX isn’t tied in to any software – but it’s actually a physical dial on each of the eartip. I did review some other audio products that has a tuneable bass frequency response like headphones from both the Beyerdynamic CUSTOM series (CUSTOM ONE Pro review here; CUSTOM STREET review here), they do not offer the granular bass control as the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones do.
Bass FX test
I have to compare with Beyerdynamic’s approach to variable frequency response first. Beyerdynamic’s approach was using a 3-level toggle switch – so it’s either level 1, 2, or 3. There’s no level 1.2 or level 2.6 of bass on their method of variable bass frequency response. However for the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones, although the dial range is extremely tiny, it offers a non-binary bass control.
Based on what I can estimate, that tiny selection range is only for about 10mm in circumference. I have to say that it’s compensated by the extremely stiff dial which in a way does compensate for the tiny adjustment range and solve the issue of the dial moving by itself.
Firstly, some pre-test on the Bass FX.
I can safely assume that the graph shown on the box is the minimum and maximum amount of Bass FX. I honestly find that when the Bass FX is turned all the way up, it’s just too overwhelming. The thumping bass is too much and it even muffled the mids and highs. I then tuned the Bass FX to be at around 25%, and it sounded a little more balanced, but still too high for me personally. I tuned Bass FX off, and realized that the earphones themselves don’t really have good mids and highs to begin with. Vocals still sound muffled, in case you’re wondering. It only destroyed the bass response when I turned Bass FX off.
Also, do make sure that both channels have really similar same level of Bass FX. It’s difficult to pinpoint both of them exactly the same, but trust me – listening a song with its left and right channels sounding fundamentally different is not fun.
Music test
Choosing songs to listen through for this test was simple. I chose the usual – and Adventure Time by Rogue is always the first in that list. Its bass can really thump even at just about 25% on the Bass FX. I think I got my personal sweet spot for Bass FX too – as it’s not too heavy on the bass, and still maintains decent mids and highs.
Switching things up (or down), I went over to BBC Big Band’s The Very Thought of You. It sounded really promising and it sets the mellow mood – but still too heavy on the bass. All of its mids and highs sounded okay.
Jumping over to a little more upbeat song – We Got You by Lemaitre and The Knocks – the vocals are prominently bassy, and when the beat drops, it felt like a rave party. The whistling part in this song sounded muffled too, and the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones just couldn’t reproduce the higher pitch that it originally has.
I then turned the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones to maximum Bass FX for the fun of it and re-listen to We Got You. I realized that the most the mids and highs doesn’t really change much from a low- to high-level of Bass FX, but the bass changes dramatically.
Soundstage
The Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones actually is actually quite decent at recreating the soundstage. It’s definitely doesn’t sound like a full-fledged auditorium, but it’s pretty much like standing in a room of instruments distributed inside.
Portability
One small section here – there’s no shirt clip, but noise coming from cable friction is pretty negligible. Also, the hard case that is included in the box is really a value-adder. It has a similar size to my lens cap at 72mm.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]
Honestly speaking, the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones is… quite a bad pair of earphones. It has all of the complete features and accessories for a smartphone to use – but lacking the most crucial audio input/output splitter for PCs and for gaming use. I should probably also mention that the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones is a 20Ω pair of earphones – making it extremely suitable for mobile devices, but the audio quality just doesn’t cut it.
Bass FX on the other hand, is something that I personally will tune it once, and leave it be. For me, I found my sweet spot while learning about the Bass FX, and then never to touch it again. I don’t think it’s a gimmick though, since anyone will surely find their own sweet-spot with this make-it-yours approach.
Overall, the Cooler Master MasterPulse Earphones is great for bassheads and bassheads only, because the mids and highs just aren’t that good. Priced at ~RM 199. Considering the entire package, maybe get a pair of Xiaomi earphones instead.
You can click here to buy the MasterPulse Earphones for RM189 over at Lazada!
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