1More SonoFlow Pro HQ51 review: Budget headphones worth every penny

Great quality doesn’t have to come at a high price; a mantra 1More continues to perpetuate each time it releases new headphones or wireless earbuds. What makes this all the more compelling is that the company doesn’t skimp out along the way.

The SonoFlow Pro HQ51 are a prime example of that. It's a pair of over-ear headphones following up on the previous SonoFlow, which proved themselves as serious upstarts in their own right as one of the best headphones under $100. You do make sacrifices when paying less than $100 but you stretch out every dollar here toward some real value each time you use them.

The company already had a strong foundation to work with from the previous SonoFlow, which explains why the Pro HQ51 bears such a strong resemblance. Aside from color variances, everything else is in the same place, from the hinges to button placement. They fold up exactly the same way, though these prove easier to lay into the included case because there are no indents inside. There’s more room for cables, too.

Keeping it familiar

On the headphones themselves, 1More uses what feels like the same leather for the ear cushions and headband. This is a good idea, given how soft and comfortable it was the first time around. The memory foam inside also feels plush without constraining your head over longer listening sessions. It also helps that the headphones are lightweight, with good hinges for the ear cups. Fit is so subjective, but these should feel great.

Granted, they may not come off as all that exciting just looking at them. The company chose not to make any aesthetic changes apart from the black and blue color variants. The SonoFlow Pro HQ51 aren't flashy, though that hardly makes them ugly. They just don't have a particular design trademark, unless you count the Louboutin-style red inner ear fabric a nice touch.

I will say, off the bat, that I would be careful about using these headphones for runs or workouts. They don't have an IP rating, so without any official water resistance, you're taking a chance every time you sweat while wearing them.

If you're willing to do that, you may like that there are physical buttons for all controls here. The NC button cycles between active noise cancelation (ANC), transparency, and turning both off. Volume buttons do the obvious, but you can also hold Vol+ to go back a track or Vol– to skip one. Press the power button once to play/pause or answer/hang up a call. Double-press it, and your phone's voice assistant will wake up.

Sounding above their weight

I found it interesting that 1More went into launching these headphones with some boastful claims. Merely suggesting that a pair of sub-$100 cans could deliver lower total harmonic distortion than Sony's WH-1000XM5 is a reach. The general idea for any pair of headphones is higher THD means more distortion in the audio signal, which affects sound quality.

Slight variances are hard to measure for most ears, so don't look into that too much here. I have no real way of verifying 1More's claim other than testing both headphones and coming to the conclusion that I can't detect any audible difference when it comes to distortion levels, specifically.

This claim comes mainly from the new 40mm diamond-like carbon drivers 1More put in the SonoFlow Pro HQ51. It also has something to do with the fact they support the LDAC hi-res Bluetooth codec.

Overall, sound quality is superb—better than the previous SonoFlow. The biggest difference to my ears is the mids, reflecting a balance that does right by the solid bass and treble you get from the Pro HQ51. You'll hear this just a little more with hi-res tracks from streaming services like Tidal, Amazon Music, and Qobuz, though you'll also catch the improvement with more compressed audio from Spotify and other sources.

LDAC support isn't there by default since you need to turn it on in the app under the Shortcuts menu. Note that doing so means you can't have spatial audio on, so you're forced to choose between them each time.

Despite throwing some shade at Sony, 1More's best move is delivering the kind of sound many will probably agree with. Resonant, with good bass and crisp highs, their performance out of the box still doesn't tell the full story.

As before, the 1More app gives you an EQ with 12 presets plus the option to create your own. The Studio preset is a flat curve, which represents 1More's default tuning for these headphones. You can get pretty creative here because it's a 10-band EQ for more precise tuning adjustments — something not typical for cheaper headphones. Testing both the presets and your own custom ones is worth your time because they can really change what kind of sound you get.

ANC and transparency have a role to play here as well. You may find that turning both off (in a quiet place) allows a little more of the mids and highs to come out. I didn't notice right away but my ears sensed a difference. Not that using noise-cancelation is bad. Audio sounds great with it engaged.

As for the act of actually canceling background noise, don't expect Sony or Bose-level silence here. That wouldn't be a fair expectation anyway but I can tell you these do a solid job dealing with low-frequency sounds. Nothing groundbreaking, mind you, just better than you might expect for headphones in this price range.

It's actually the passive isolation you get from the snug fit that helps a lot. ANC augments that and makes for a nice combination when you're trying not to hear what's going on around you. Transparency is fine when you do, even if there's nothing all that surprising about it compared to the previous SonoFlow headphones.

Calls and other features

Wired playback is an option if you need it. 1More includes a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm cable for such a purpose. You lose out on the ancillary features when you do, and you may have to raise the volume more often while listening that way. It feels like a miss given that other budget-friendly headphones have managed to at least leave some access.

For phone calls, you can use the headphones either way because the cable has an inline microphone. Again, you'll need to stick to Bluetooth if you want extras while talking, like the onboard mics drowning out some of the background noise to hear callers better. In my tests, callers didn't point out any major issues, though they also didn't lavish praise on call quality, for what that's worth.

The SonoFlow Pro HQ51 support multipoint connections to stay paired with two devices simultaneously. Here, too, you'll need to enable the feature first under the "Experimental Features" menu under Settings. Toggling it on reboots the headphones, so keep that in mind when you need it.

Unbelievable battery life

The SonoFlow Pro HQ51 are rated at up to 100 hours with ANC off. Leave ANC on, and you can go up to 65 hours. Both figures are just ridiculous in a good way. While they are based on default volume levels and without some other notable elements thrown in, like LDAC or spatial audio, you can rest assured these cans will play for a long time before you hear a low battery warning.

I had them for weeks before writing this review and only had to charge them once. I could listen for hours and barely see the battery percentage drop. Regardless of what features you use or volume you prefer, power consumption isn't something you need to worry about here.

And if you do, a five-minute quick charge can give you up to 10 hours of playback (ANC off), which feels kind of mind-boggling.

Headphones worth every dollar

The 1More SonoFlow Pro HQ51 feel like a bargain, plain and simple. For $100 (or less, given 1More's routine discounts), you get over-ear headphones that not only outperform their price but also serve notice against some that cost double the price. You're not getting over-ears capable of unseating the flagships among the best wireless headphones, but that's not the point.

These headphones are a big value proposition in that they deliver more than you might otherwise expect. Great sound complements the solid feature set and seemingly endless battery life. When you're simply looking to get the basics right, the SonoFlow Pro HQ51 will give you all those and more.