SACKit TOUCHit Headphones Review
The SACKit TOUCHit headphones are a new wireless proposition for us to listen to. Featuring ANC (active noise cancellation) and a new type of on-ear pad design with a distinctive characterful style for £199.
Design, Controls & Comfort
Undoubtedly this is SACKit’s best headphone release yet when in comes to design. A strong structure is assured from hard plastics, vegan leather fabrics and adjustable sliders that are made from metal. Not to neglect to mention how voguish the TOUCHit headphones are, especially in our two toned silver option - but if you prefer, black and gold are offered up as well. The fabric trim exteriors of each ear cup are a fantastic touch in every sense of the word, as the right cup can be depressed to turn the headphones on and off. More obvious buttons are located on the edge of the right cup; to adjust volume if held down, or skip or go back on tracks when pressed once. The left cup has a button to toggle the active noise cancellation, which can be enabled even when the headphones are not actually on.
We’d be the first to admit that on-ear headphone designs aren’t everyone's cup of tea, due to the fact that some people's ears are simply too big and some have valid hesitations about sound leakage. SACKit have made sure the TOUCHit headphones are a premium design, despite being compact, and feel almost soothing to have on the head, with sumptuous padding on each ear cup and the headband. We’ve had them sat on our heads for 4 hour stretches, and that double doughnut ear pad design ensures that our ears don't have a pinned back sensation from prolonged listening. Furthermore, sound is better channelled into the ears and sound isolation is decent even without ANC enabled - but we’ll get into that a bit later.
Battery Life
The quoted 22 hours of battery life isn't quite what we have managed to squeeze out of our pair of TOUCHit headphones with volume generally set in the upper levels and ANC always enabled. Nevertheless, we achieved a respectable 17hrs of playtime, 7hrs more than the previous SACKit WOOFit Bluetooth headphones. This puts them at the very top of the bluetooth headphone tree for total runtime.
How good is the noise cancellation?
ANC works effectively to erase background noises such as the crackling of a fire, heavy wind and rain against windows, but a loud TV or an animated conversion will be overheard at mid volume levels. Notch the volume up to 75%+ levels and you’d be hard pressed to hear the ceiling cave in. To be quite honest, we’re unsure as to why SACKit even made having ANC on or off an option, because the TOUCHit’s sound is so much richer when ANC is enabled.
Performance
The first song we played through the SACKit TOUCHit headphones was ‘Happy That You’re Here’ by Rizzle Kicks, with ANC turned on. This is a quirky Christmas song release with intentionally distorted trumpets, jingle bells and brazen vocals. What we immediately got a taste for was how the depth and detail of instrumentals and the separation within vocal layers had far greater promise than the previously reviewed SACKit WOOFit headphones (which we liked a lot) did. One of the characteristics of the previous WOOFit headphones was that audio had no sensation of travelling around the ears and the overall image of sound was just very direct. The SACKit TOUCHit headphones emit a soundstage, with their stereo performance only complimenting in the mix. ‘Outlands’ by The Orb has a curious introduction featuring planes flying through both ears, rainfall, thunder and a cosmic whimpering from side to side that is far more playful through the TOCUHit’s ear cups and displays just how impressively dynamic this pair of headphones can be.
‘Children of the Moon’ by Ren is a great song to allow us to talk about the bass response. Assured is the right word, impressing all our ears with the track's resonating dark ripples in the chorus and a general low range frequency strength is also obvious throughout. Yet the mid-range is wide and allows the TOUCHit headphones to encompass a neutral sound style. The high range is the only restriction in the makeup of these headphones. Lighter and sharper singer's voices like ‘Oh! Darling’ by The Beatles aren’t served a colossal injustice, but the peaks could be a notch stronger. What’s very important is that, with the advent of Bluetooth 4.0 now being utilised for greater wireless bandwidth, there’s no noticeable difference to speak of when comparing wired vs wireless performance.
Verdict
SACKit TOUCHit headphones are sophisticated and eager ear pleasers with impressive performances across our vast catalogue of genres. For £199 they offer the full potential of wireless Bluetooth 4.0 and a no compromise ANC.
