With London Drugs being one of our favourite places to browse, every so often we find sale or clearance items for a great value. The Panasonic Drops 360 earbuds caught our eye on a recent visit. Going for a reasonable $29.99 from its original $59.99 price point, we were curious to see how these held up. What stood out to us was the fairly large 12mm dynamic driver and the advertised “bass & power” emphasis.
in the box.
The fairly modest packaging contains:
- small and large ear pieces (medium is pre-installed)
- carrying pouch
- warranty information
- manual
details.
The earbuds themselves are of a mixed plastic and metal build, mainly plastic to be honest, with exception to its aluminum diaphragm. Although much larger, the soft and rounded edges or the earbuds allow for a comfortable fit; there is no design over comfort compromise here. The Drops 360 is available in: silver, red, and blue.
The strain relief on the ear buds don’t extend too far allowing for comfortable over-ear wearing of the cable should you prefer to wear it this way. The jack is L-shaped, which is great for bottom mounted headset jacks on most devices these days. The thicker, weighted feel, and smooth finish of the 1.2m cable distinguishes these earbuds from Panasonic’s more budget oriented offerings. There is not much memory to this cable, cord noise was not a problem either (it can be even further minimized by over-ear wearing).
sound.
Despite the “bass & power” emphasis, we were pleasantly surprised by the versatility of the Drops 360. There is a wide soundstage on these, meaning orchestras and live recordings sound fantastic.
The very warm and deep bass is definitely the star here, we feel the large driver allows for this very full sound. We never found the bass to be bloated or muddy sounding, details were never lost in favour of the bass.
The mids are still very much present, both male and female vocals are rendered beautifully. The vocals are never overpowered by either the treble or bass. One observation is that female vocals seem to be more of its strong point.
The treble on these never came across as harsh or sharp sounding. Cymbals don’t have the same crisp-ness, although slightly tweaking the equalizer settings can improve this. These may not be what you’re looking for if you like a bright sound signature with a very crisp treble.
conclusion.
In terms of bang for buck and Canadian availability, we can’t say anything else compares (at least for now). At just $29.99, the highly recommend the Panasonic Drops 360 earbuds to those limited by budget but are wanting to upgrade their music listening experience.
Tech Applied 