Review: RHA MA650 Wireless Earbuds – solid earbuds for the price

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Glasgow-based RHA has been creating stylish, well-engineered headphones since 2011. For such a young company, they’ve garnered quite the list of accolades in that time, including some from us here at KnowTechie.

Can they bring that quality to Bluetooth headphones?

What’s in the box?

Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie

Okay, so RHA really throws just about everything you could need in with the purchase. There’s a mesh carrying pouch, four extra sets of regular silicone tips, two sets of flanged tips, and one set of Comply foam tips, all stuck on a fancy metal carrier. Then there’s a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge the headphones (which won’t charge with a USB-C to USB-C cable), and the headphones themselves.

The earbuds have RHA’s signature metal bell shape, which is supposed to help with acoustics but really they just look super cool. The cables and the neckband are all covered in a soft-touch rubbery plastic, which stops them slipping around when worn. All of the ear tips are comfortable, from the dual-material silicone ones to our favorite, the flanged ones.

The MA650 Wireless earbuds are IPX4 rated, perfect for gym use or the occasional time when you get caught outdoors during a storm. There’s a neat trick under the neckband too, they’ll vibrate when you get a text or call.

Now, RHA claims a battery life of 12 hours for the MA650’s. In testing, we found that’s about right, getting just shy of 6 hours of listening before the MA650s showed a 50 percent charge.

So how do they sound?

Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie

I can safely say that RHA’s sound carries well into the wireless MA650’s. The sound signature is well-balanced, almost too balanced for some tastes. If you crave heavy bass, these aren’t the earbuds for you. Then again, if you crave bass you won’t be buying wireless earbuds anyways.

Thanks to support for aptX and Apple AAC the quality of the audio over the Bluetooth connection was great. That’s something not often seen in wireless earbuds at all, let alone at the sub-$100 range. They also shine during voice calls, I’ve been using them for all my phone meetings and nobody had issues understanding me, something that has happened with other sets.

So should I buy them?

Did your smartphone manufacturer remove the headphone jack this generation? Do you need a good pair of wireless buds for the gym? Like your sound more reference than the usual V-curve that overemphasizes the bass and treble to hide bad drivers?

At less than $90, the RHA MA650 Wireless are great sounding, great looking, and come with all the accessories you could want.

A sample unit was provided for the purpose of this review.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.