The CA200 is the entry level headphone from Glasgow based company, RHA (Reid Heath Acoustics). At £30 the CA200 is priced in a range that I've not covered so far. I do regret this, because there are some real gems to be found here. Given the budget price it's especially interesting that RHA are based here in the UK. I'm always interested in reviewing products from my home country, but there really aren't that many, if I was reviewing speakers it would be a different story.
Without further ado let's see how what £30 gets you these days...
SOUND
The CA200 has a crisp, clean and dynamic sound. It's presentation is somewhere between being a little bright and a touch 'V-shaped'. This goes against the grain of most modern portable headphones, which tend to opt for a darker sound. The upper mid-range and treble are most prominent on the CA200, it can get harsh with some tracks if the volume is pushed, but this also brings with it some nice sparkle and energy.
The bass is very respectable, it has real weight, and it sounds good. When amplified it's really too good for it's price range, but then the price of the amplification will take care of that. Dynamic Electronic music (especially Dubstep) sounds highly enjoyable here, it reminds me of a better Denon AH-D1100, which I liked. I have just finished playing with the Beats Solo, for it's review, and that comparison is so far from close it's humourous, the CA200 is infinitely better and it costs less than 1/4 of the price!
Overall the midrange is only moderately recessed compared to the upper ranges, as long as you don't push the volume too far this won't bug you much, vocal performances are still very enjoyable and instruments come off with a healthy dose of realism. Detail retrieval is impressive for it's class, managing to impress hugely with the fast paced sounds from Rodrigo Y Gabriela's edgy guitar. Soundstage / imaging is also capable with decent width, but much more three dimensional than that would be asking too much. Isolation and sound leakage is decent, as long as you don't wear glasses, otherwise there are too many issues for a headphone of this size and weight.
I do have to keep reminding myself that what I'm listening to only costs £30! Please forgive my ignorance, but I'm just used to a very different animal and this can be very difficult to adjust to, especially in this direction. Considering this, I must say that I have been extremely impressed with the CA200 in general, I was expecting something with nowhere near this level of performance and enjoyment.
Realistically, for the price of the CA200, people will only really be plugging them into a portable player, maybe a computer/laptop. There won't be a great deal of difference here, both sources will have no issues with volume. My smartphone gave a little more enjoyment than my laptop, but that's not saying a lot (my laptop's audio is rubbish).
I'm really hesitating to mention better amplification here. Normally I would be reviewing headphones considerably more expensive than the CA200. In that case the prospect of adding a USB DAC and/or headphone amplifier would make more sense, but here the cheapest one that I normally recommend is more than three times the cost of the headphones and of course that's a difficult sell. The reason that I can't go without mentioning better amplification is because these headphones performed so well while connected to them. The Fiio E17 for example (£100) did wonderful things to the CA200, tightening bass but also massively increasing the kick making it highly enjoyable for Electronic music (as mentioned above). The treble was also much less bothersome here too, still a little bright, but much less brittle sounding. The midrange and soundstage got a little clearer too. All this was without touching the bass and treble controls of the E17. I actually went even more crazy and connected the CA200 to an Audiolab M-DAC and I was extremely impressed. In all sanity I can't recommend this pairing based on budget, but it was a shockingly entertaining experience.
COMPARISONS
I already touched on the Denon AH-D1100 a bit, this was one of my favourites for Bass heavy Electronic music for a while. I got it for about £50 (originally £120) before it was discontinued. I haven't had this one for a few months now, so it's a bit difficult to compare properly, but the CA200 is impressing me a seemingly more and not just because of the price.
The CA200 is far, far superior to the £120 Beats Solo, but then again, so is everything else.
MUSIC
Here are some individual music tracks and how I felt the CA200 coped with them. Most were listened to in lossless format through a USB DAC, all of them were also tested on Spotify, which is compressed at 320kbps.
- Johnny Cash: "Hurt" - This song showed some exciting, detailed guitar and great vocals through the CA200.
- Daft Punk: "Something About Us" - There was some real weight to the bass here, a little too flabby and large in general, but not much to complain about at this price point. The E17 DAC really greatly improved the bass issues .
- Adele: "Rolling In The Deep" - The highs on female vocals can get easily overwhelmed at higher volumes, while the body can feel a little too distant / recessed. Overall this was still a good performance, but perhaps not as overly impressive as most of the other features have been.
- Ramin Djawadi (Mr. Brooks): "Unwelcome Partner" - This is surprisingly dynamic soundtrack. Like the Daft Punk track, the bass was better with the E17, but had a tendency to get overblown, although this again is too picky for the price and if you like big bass it will probably be very appreciated.
- Thomas Newman (American Beauty): "Dead Already" - This was another track that felt quite bold with the CA200. It's a little unnaturally forward in the bass and treble, but it's also enjoyable and I appreciate the guts these headphones have to be bold rather than safe at this level.
- Deftones: "Romantic Dreams" - Instrument separation is decent with some of the other tracks because they're quite simple and bold in general and things can get rather muddled when there's more going on. Bass body and vocals got a little left behind here as well, but this is a tough track to get right.
At first the build quality of the CA200 felt below average, even for this low price, but this feeling it almost solely based on the loosely connected ear-cups and this is a feature. The 'easy' rotation is great for conforming to your head, they just feel precariously attached when picked up. This is probably not a true reflection of the build quality, just a loose joint to work under the light clamping force. Since all RHA products come with a 3 year warranty I wouldn't be too worried. Adjusting the ear-cups up and down (for fitting) requires too much pressure. Considering they feel held on by a thread already, any adjustment felt dangerous, although I had no issues.
The plastic is rough around the edges and scratches easily. Straight out of the box the materials look pretty cheap and after a few minutes they'll be covered in finger-prints. The plastic also feels pretty fragile, but it is very light and that's also a great feature. The little silver accent around the cups is a nice touch, but it's not quite enough to draw your attention away from the cheap looking materials. The go-faster-stripe along the top of the headband is particularly horrible to my eyes, but that's a bit subjective.
COMFORT
The light weight of the CA200 means the headband doesn't need much cushioning to feel reasonably comfortable. The padding on the ear-cups and headband are pretty much the same material, although the headband feels more spongy. The harder feeling ear-cups are not quite big enough to sit completely around the ear, so there could be some comfort issues after a while, but the light weight and clamping force are very friendly there. The cups rotate in every axis with ease, which makes them great for comfort and getting a good seal for isolation. However, I would advise people wearing glasses to rest the arms on top of the ear-pads, rather than inside them (the cups don't easily adapt to fitting around the arms of glasses).
FINAL THOUGHTSStyling and materials are a little underwhelming, but at this price it's perfectly forgiveable and if you're more interested in sound quality anyway it's almost a good sign. Comfort and isolation are good as long as you don't wear glasses. If you're not sensitive to a little brightness in the high frequencies and you like a clear, detailed, vibrant sound with full bodied bass then I highly recommend the RHA CA200.
Now I would say that for £30 they're a steal... and they are, but I've just seen them on Amazon UK for only £16.95! At nearly half the price that I first thought they were, it seems really picky to be as negative as I was. Of course I don't know how long they will stay at this price. I could say "if you had concerns about build quality, now you can buy two", but with a 3 year warranty that seems rather unnecessary, so I will simply say "wow"!
Additionally, if you fancy dabbling with a budget DAC & headphone amplifier somewhere down the line the CA200 will give you even more value for your money because they respond very well to a good source.
EQUIPMENT USED
Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Arcam rPAC, Audiolab M-DAC, Fiio E17, Noontec Zoro, Beats Solo
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