As more and more of us return to the workplace, we will be faced with something many of us haven’t heard in a long time: noise. Returning to an open workplace with the chatter of colleagues, the hum of printers and air conditioners, we will want to find a way to continue phone calls and video conferences without the distractions of a busy work life.
The latest wireless headphones from Danish company EPOS have just been launched. The IMPACT 1000 Bluetooth headphones are available in other variants, adding ANC (active noise cancellation). The IMPACT 1000 has been designed to ensure that others can remain objective. on your phone calls or Zoom meetings while keeping noisy distractions to a minimum.
The IMPACT 1000 is possibly relatively new, but it has already won a few awards, adding the Red Dot and Gold iF Design awards for its easy-to-use technologies and features. These technologies come with the BrainAdapt generation. Developed through EPOS, BrainAdapt is an organization of technologies that combine with the cognitive functionality of other people who use the headset. It uses a combination of hybrid adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC) and complex EPOS AI-powered voice pickup generation.
EPOS says that the IMPACT 1000 is the first headset that adequately addresses the demanding situations posed by our modern hybrid art environments. Drawing on decades of cutting-edge psychoacoustic research, the most recent EPOS study attempted to assess the benefits of noise relief in audio devices. can offer when subjects have to multitask.
The experiment involved subjects taking on two speech understanding responsibilities while performing a visual task. This happens in thousands of call centers, when workers pay attention to phone calls while entering data into a computer. The study found that noise attenuation, such as the hybrid adaptive ANC used in the IMPACT 1000 headphones, presented several benefits when other people had to multitask.
The experiment showed that ANC reduced attentional effort by 67% and enabled users to better recognize speech in a noisy environment by 48%. By minimizing the effort required by the brain to pay attention and perceive elements of a conversation, EPOS claims that IMPACT 1000 can increase the user’s power by up to 40%, representing a significant increase in productivity and performance.
The IMPACT 1000 features 360° illumination to alert your colleagues when they are busy with a call.
To provide a clearer listening environment, the EPOS AI used in IMPACT 1000 uses the device’s learning generation that scans the user’s environment up to 32,000 times at any given time to eliminate distracting sounds and sound the user wants to hear. Another advantage of this feature is that the caller on the other end only hears the corresponding sounds, and the noise from call center activity is largely filtered out.
The other main aspect of design in producing a complex headset is to make sure that it is comfortable to wear, especially for long periods of time. The IMPACT 1000 is very light and also looks well-made. The comfortable ear cushions and padded headband make putting on the headphones comfortable even after several hours. The folding arm has 4 MEM pickups and can be gently folded down. The user can decide whether the microphone is used on the left or right side.
EPOS offers 3 tactics to connect the IMPACT 1000 to your host device, be it a smartphone, tablet or computer. First, a broadband USB dongle plugs into any computer and appears as an audio input and output source. The dongle offers excellent low latency audio and is probably the most productive and convenient way to connect.
Alternatively, the headset can be connected to a computer or smartphone via the Bluetooth formula on a chip built into the headset. It’s the best way to connect it to a smartphone or tablet. You can even connect two devices to connect a home and paint phone simultaneously. Finally, a stressed USB connection is the last means of connection. This provides very low latency and a high-resolution connection and would be suitable for gamers.
In addition to the ANC function, the EPOS IMPACT 1000 also offers a Talk Through function that allows users to talk to colleagues without cutting off the headphones. A 360° busy light indicates when the user is busy on a call. Each earbud comes with a charging stand that helps keep the earbuds fully charged and in usable condition.
To check out the IMPACT 1000, I borrowed an IMPACT 1060 ANC variant with all the certification features of Microsoft Teams. The first thing I noticed about the earbuds was how lightweight they were and how comfortable they were to wear, even for long periods of time. Secondly, ANC works very well and removes a lot of unwanted sounds. However, it is perhaps even more impressive with the noise-canceling generation used in the captured speech. Even in a busy environment, it turns out that you can chat from a quiet room in the house.
The EPOS IMPACT 1000 headset can connect a USB Bluetooth key, Bluetooth or a USB-C cable to a host device.
The sound quality of the speakers used in the IMPACT 1000 is excellent. These headphones are as smart for listening to music or watching a movie as they are for taking phone calls or participating in video conferences. I’ve reviewed EPOS devices since the company spun off from Sennheiser. The road has been littered with obstacles, but the IMPACT 1000 is a triumph for EPOS because everything is in order. The sound, comfort, speaking ability, and connectivity are perfect. They may be expensive headphones, but they’re fantastic.
Now we come to a bit of negativity. In my opinion, the headphones could use a little more volume. I found myself turning the volume all the way up, so that’s something EPOS could fix in a long-term firmware update.
Verdict: The EPOS IMPACT 1000 ANC Bluetooth headphones are a triumph. This is the most productive EPOS headset to date in almost every way. It is convenient to use, the ANC works wonderfully, the handset clearly picks up the user’s voice, and the connectivity features are very convenient and hassle-free. The only drawbacks are the software and low volume, which are fixed without any problems. If you need noise-canceling headphones for phone calls and video conferences, the EPOS IMPACT 1000 deserves to be among the best on your list along with the high-end models from Jabra, another Danish company.
Price and availability: The EPOS IMPACT 1000 ANC Bluetooth headphones are now available in other variants. The basic edition of the EPOS IMPACT 1000 costs $289 / £220 / €269. The ANC edition I tested (IMPACT 1060 ANC) costs $429 / £365 / €415.
More information: eposaudio. com