Powerful sound, low price: the Baseus Inspire XH1’s a surprise package
12.12.2025
Translation: Megan Cornish
Pictures: Florian Bodoky
The affordable Baseus Inspire XH1 offers features similar to expensive over-ear headphones: powerful sound, long battery life and ANC. Bose tuning means it also sounds significantly better than expected – but the manufacturer’s cut corners on the finish.
The new Baseus Inspire XH1 over-ear headphones aim to replicate the features of expensive, high-end models: powerful sound, long battery life and ANC – all at a significantly lower price. The manufacturer even enlisted Bose’s help for sound tuning. I tested the headphones for everyday use, and this is my assessment of how they perform and the compromises you have to make for the lower price.
Sound: warm, powerful and bass-oriented
Deep, deeper, deepest: The XH1 has a warm, full sound signature. The bass is significantly more powerful than on many other headphones in this price range. It reaches deep down and delivers audible punch without the lower frequencies sounding fuzzy. This benefits electronic music and modern pop productions especially. This is clear, for example, in James Blake’s Limit to Your Love, where the sub-bass is incredibly deep. Through the XH1, I can clearly feel the bass without it overpowering the other frequencies. The song showcases the headphones’ powerful, confident low end.
Centred and neutral – the Switzerland of headphones: The mids are clear and well-defined in the space. Vocals and instruments retain their shape. I can easily distinguish vocals from the rest of the mix, and acoustic guitars sound clean and intelligible despite the warm tuning. The headphones don’t artificially push anything forward – they position the mids pretty neutrally, giving the sound a natural centre.
The major compromise: The treble’s more subdued in comparison. I can hear all the details, but without that last touch of brilliance. The XH1 is still good even at higher volumes. If you have a very analytical listening style or you’re looking for particularly airy trebles, you’ll notice some issues here.
I listened to Breathe by The Cinematic Orchestra. The delicate, shimmering percussion elements and strings clearly show how the XH1 handles the upper frequency range. The details are still audible, but they lack that final spark of airiness. The song’s perfectly suited to showing this restraint. Overall, I find the sound pleasant, but not outstanding. The micro-dynamics are a bit lacking, but they’re pop headphones for the masses that should suit plenty of listeners.
For such an affordable over-ear headphone, the XH1 packs in a surprising number of codecs and features, with support for SBC, AAC and LDAC. With LDAC, music sounds noticeably more detailed and open. The headphones also support multipoint, allowing you to connect to both your laptop and phone at the same time. You can reliably switch between the two devices. The app also includes a sleep mode with nature sounds, a voice filter you can activate for phone calls and Dolby Spatial Audio for immersive sound. There’s also an equaliser. I used it to boost the treble slightly, which noticeably improved the headphones. One thing I didn’t find was auto-detection. The headphones don’t automatically pause the music when you take them off.
Battery life: a relentless marathon
The XH1’s battery life really surprised me. When I first saw the manufacturer’s claim – a whopping 70 hours – I assumed it was just a marketing ploy. But – without ANC at least – you could easily get several days of continuous use. In my tests, I got a good 70 hours depending on volume. This drops significantly with ANC activated, but I still manage around 55 hours.
Quick charge is also available, with a 10-minute charge being enough for around four more hours of use. If you travel a lot or just don’t want to charge frequently, this could be a major advantage.
Finish: here’s the compromise
The Inspire XH1 is mostly made of plastic. This makes it feel light, but not particularly premium. The hinges that attach the earcups to the headband feel loose when you hold them. The earcups are foldable – but they also fold in on their own without any pressure. If you often wear the headphones around your neck – like I do – this gets annoying and might end up pinching the skin on your neck in the hinge (as it did to me). What’s more, the plastic occasionally creaks, which makes me question its durability.
However, I really like the ear cushions: soft synthetic leather, soft memory foam ear cushions and a comfortably padded headband. They’re really comfortable and remind me of Bose headphones. The combination of lightweight and good padding means I can wear them for two or three hours without any pressure building. But the material does have its drawbacks: if you move around, they creak occasionally. There’s also slight noise leakage when you briefly take the headphones off (sound escaping from the headphones and being audible to people nearby).
Find the small keys
I like mechanical buttons with a crisp click, especially for volume control. The XH1 only uses physical buttons, so there are no touch controls. You get a volume rocker, multifunction button, ANC switch and power button. They’re pretty comfortable to use every day. However, Baseus hasn’t optimised everything: for example, there’s no dedicated button to skip tracks or return to the previous one – something I use quite often. Instead, skip/search is integrated as a secondary function on the volume button. You activate it by pressing and holding it. This not only leads to accidental presses; it also takes a long time each time.
There’s a dedicated button for the ANC modes. A secondary function for another button – such as the power button – would’ve been ideal. It’s a shame, but you can’t change it. While you can assign additional functions to the play/pause button in the app (double, triple and long press) and select different modes (Dolby Audio, bass boost, mobile assistant), there’s no way to skip tracks. What’s more, all the buttons – except for the noise control button – are the same length. This is particularly confusing and frustrating at first. In fact, it bothers me more than I expected with everyday use.
ANC and transparency mode: no more monotone
The active noise cancellation’s reliable, albeit not spectacular. It’s pretty good at removing monotonous background noise such as steady traffic or PC fans. However, the ANC audibly struggles if you’re on a really loud train or walking along a busy street. The app allows you to react to «extreme» situations and increase the ANC strength (between 1 and 5). This means that if the noise around you’s particularly loud, you can set it to 5 and boost the ANC – and drain the battery faster. The problem is that the ANC (like other headphones) always reacts to sudden noises with a slight delay, although the manufacturer doesn’t provide any specific figures. The built-in wind noise reduction’s a nice feature. However, I couldn’t really test this because there was hardly any wind – and I don’t wear headphones while cycling for safety reasons.
The transparency mode sounds clear enough for you to hear conversations or traffic, but it’s not as natural as on significantly more expensive premium models. The built-in microphone makes things sound almost too natural, and I also notice some background noise, which is occasionally a bit annoying. However, the microphone does a good job during phone calls. The person I was talking to had no complaints.
In a nutshell
Overall, the price makes it worth it
The Baseus Inspire XH1 surprised me in several ways. The sound’s decent, the battery life’s among the longest I’ve experienced with everyday use and the app offers a number of useful features. It’s also worth mentioning that they’re comfortable – as with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 I tested recently – as long as you’re wearing them.
Of course, the headphones aren’t without their flaws. The highs could sound more open, the ANC could be more powerful and some corners have been cut on the finish. Nevertheless, the XH1 delivers a very good overall package for the price. If you’re looking for versatile, affordable over-ear headphones, the Baseus Inspire XH1 is a good choice.
Pro
- Excellent features and app for the price
- Good sound for the price
- Amazing battery
Contra
- The small, hard-to-distinguish keys are somewhat annoying
- The plastic casing’s a bit flimsy
- The highs sound subdued and some details are partially lost
Header image: Florian Bodoky
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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