Pros & Cons
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- Powerful, distortion-free audio performance.
- Handsome, minimalist, washable design.
- Affordable.
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- Could use a little more high-mid presence.
Urbanears Humlan Specs
| Active Noise Cancellation | |
| Boom Mic | |
| Phone Controls | |
| Removable Cable | |
| Type | Supra-aural (on-ear) |
| Wireless |
The understated, modern design of the Urbanears Humlan headphones will appeal to many—this $49 pair from Sweden would look right at home on a mid-century modern side table or chair. But is Humlan's beauty only plastic-deep, or can the drivers deliver quality audio in this affordable price range as well? Luckily, Urbanears didn't skimp on perfomance. And on top of that, you can remove the Humlan's headband and earpads and wash them. That makes it a great value for the price.
Design
Available in a whopping 13 colors, from understated white to electric blue, there's probably a Humlanmodel that suits your tastes. Like other offerings from Urbanears, the Humlan has a simple, single-color design using matte plastic and cloth as the primary materials. Each supra-aural (on-ear) ear cup has removable earpads that can be cleaned in the washing machine, along with the removable headband cover. Both the pads and the headband snap into place easily, and the fit they provide is comfortable and secure.
The cable, too, is clothbound, and has an inline, single-button remote control and mic—you can control playback, answer calls, and navigate tracks depending on how many times you tap the button, but volume can only be adjusted on your actual audio source. 
The right ear cup has a jack that allows a friend to plug any standard 3.5mm headphones in for shared listening. That's a nice feature, but making the actual cable for the Humlan removable—and likely increasing the lifespan of the product in the process—would have been a more useful design choice.
Performance
On tracks with powerful sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the Humlan delivers a strong bass response—and it does so without distorting, even at top, unwise listening levels. That's no small feat for a headphone pair that costs less than $50—and it doesn't avoid distortion by avoiding bass altogether. There's plenty of low-end presence here, even at moderate volume levels.
Tracks with less deep bass presence, like Bill Callahan's "Drover," sound pleasantly full and rich. His baritone vocals could use a bit more in the way of treble edge, but it still gets enough so that things never sound muddy. The drums on this track, which often receive too much bass boosting from other headphone pairs, receive an ideal amount of low frequency attention through the Humlan.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop's attack is slightly dulled compared with what it can sound like on a more high-mid and highs-focused headphone pair. This isn't to say the loop sounds weak—it's just not quite as sharp as it often is, and thus doesn't cut through the layers of the mix with quite as much gusto. The sub-bass synth hits on this track, however, are delivered with more low-end power than one might expect from these seemingly modest drivers.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene in John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, also sound a bit beefier than they would on a flat response pair. The higher register strings, vocals, and brass all still occupy the spotlight through the Humlan, but there's a notable added richness in the lows and low-mids. It adds a decent level of excitement to the mix, but the Humlan could use a bit more of the high-mid presence it seems to have dialed back.
The overall sound signature is definitely a lows and low-mids-focused affair, and sometimes it seems that the high-mids have been sculpted a bit too match. No one will mistake this this for a flat frequency response, and big bass lovers will likely want a little more in the way of lows, but overall, it's a well-balanced sound signature for the price.