I was recently a guest of EPOS at Integrate 2023, where I had the pleasure to have some one on one time with EPOS ANZ Sales Director, David Sorrell. We spoke at length about various innovations and developments, where EPOS is heading (generally, since, industry edge, secrets and all that) and also the newly launched EPOS IMPACT 1000.
With thanks to David and Chanel for this review opportunity and organising my trip, let’s dive into it.
Meeting with David Sorrell, EPOS ANZ Sales Director
Coming up to Integrate, I had a few burning questions that I wanted to bounce off David. Lucky for me he was happy to indulge, and no I won’t talk about anything that you could not confirm or deny.
My story, I am sure, was nothing new to David. Extended lockdown periods, work from home (and luckily still doing the majority of my work from home), I find myself tuning out of meetings before I even start.
To top things off, I could be already be in a meeting or on the phone during the school run so I start off on the car Bluetooth then transition to the phone, then transition onto my computer as I finish my routine before I sit down properly at my desk. I need to make the transitions as soft as possible with as little interruptions and least obvious as possible. Not much to ask for.
Secondly I wanted to get more thoughts behind the EPOS BrainAdapt Technology, particularly with a neuro-divergent person with ADHD.
First Impressions
First impressions matters, a lot. Personally I have a preference for over the ear type of headsets over the on-ear types. It might sound strange but I am particularly sensitive when it comes to my response to on-ear types.
I was quite surprised when I got to try on the EPOS IMPACT 1000 for size at Integrate. I didn’t hate it immediately, in fact for the brief period I had them on there, it felt different but in a good way. I can’t quite put my finger on it, just that my head did not feel like it was in a vise but you could feel the contact.
As one would expect from EPOS, the design is modern and sleek. It’s all black for the corporate look with very generous cushioning on the ear cups and at the top of the band.
The band itself is fairly skinny, only “fattening” up where it sits on top of your crown. The boom mic swivels in either direction so the IMPACT 1000 can be worn in whichever side preference you have.
The ear cup with the boom mic has the power button and volume rocker, which also doubles up as the pick up and hang up button. The other side has the ANC button as the solitary control.
Cleverly, the wireless charging contact is at the top of the band. This allows you to hang the headset onto the included stand which also doubles as the charging dock. The stand itself has a decent footprint on the desk but it is well build, minimalist and damn it, looks great. A cable with USB-C end snakes out the back of the stand. When you are not using the IMPACT 1000, simply pop it onto the stand where it will get charged up whilst it is on standby. There is no garish indicators, just a single white LED indicates that the headset is charging.
The build quality is nothing to sneeze at. The IMPACT 1000 feels solid, the rotating part is smooth and consistent. There is no slack or wriggle in the movement. As David said, EPOS prides themselves on quality, and they still have headsets out there years after launch that are still working perfectly and supported by the company. How is that for rock solid confidence?
Background
The EPOS BrainAdapt technology is backed by decades of psychoacoustic research. Their mission is to develop solutions that support the brain’s natural way of processing sound and enhances the cognitive performance of professionals in any environment.
The company’s latest scientific research study sought to evaluate the potential benefits of noise attenuation, or noise reduction, in audio devices, while people performed a dual task consisting of understanding speech while reacting to a visual task.
The results of the study indicate that noise attenuation, such as the hybrid adaptive ANC in IMPACT 1000 headsets, provides several benefits for participants when performing a dual task is required, including 67% less listening effort and 48% better recognition of speech in a noisy environment. By minimising the brain effort spent on listening and understanding the elements of a conversation the IMPACT 1000 optimises user efficiency by up to 40%, unlocking new levels of productivity and performance. Leveraging insights such as these, EPOS develops machine learning technologies such as those in the IMPACT 1000 to help end-users’ brains better process and understand audio stimuli.
To give examples of how high the stakes are, NASA (yes the space agency) uses custom developed EPOS headsets on the International Space Station. On the ground, EPOS is well-known for their partnership with the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One team. High pressure, high stakes, life at risk at any given moment where clear lines of communications are critical.
In Use
The way David explained it, BrainAdapt is not a singular technology working the magic. It is a group of pioneering technologies that work together to help improve cognitive performance. In the IMPACT 1000, the core technology at work is hybrid adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) backed by EPOS AI – machine learning technology that is scanning the active environment a staggering 32,000 times per second to suppress disruptive sounds and enhances desirable audio to ensure only the relevant sounds are filtered through to the person the user is talking to. Let’s pause for a moment, a sampling rate of thirty-two THOUSAND times per second.
We wanted to put some of the claims to the test. As I mentioned at the start, I am long past burn out on conference calls. For me to tune in, it takes a conscious and on-going effort to clear out lines of distraction as much as possible. This is easier said than done when I am focusing on the road and the time, or my 5 year old is trying to get my attention for whatever that she feels is important to her at that point in time. Perhaps the cats are taking my legs to task because they are hungry (again). This puts me in a position where I have to work harder to focus on real work tasks.
How did I find the IMPACT 1000? After quite extensive use of them for hours on end, one thing I have noticed is that I start to find them uncomfortable after a few hours of continuous use. By that I am looking at three hours plus of back to back to back calls, issues, conferences and not having any respite to remove the headset for a few minutes. But looking at the context of things, with on-ear type headsets I am generally ready to rip them off in the first 45 minutes of the day so this is quite an achievement.
The second really noticeable difference is the Active Noise Cancellation. In the past three weeks I have looked after a sick child during the work day, school holidays, the usual with the cats having the zoomies or fighting. The children loves to come up to me when I am on a call because the chances of me saying yes to something to get them away is high. With the IMPACT 1000 on my head, I have my little isolation bubble and I genuinely can’t hear the kids in the background. There’s no child neglect going on, they have figured out that they can shove a note in my face to get my attention, particularly the little one who has figured out quickly that her older brother’s note says “can I have a snack” and is holding onto that piece of paper to break out at the most inconvenient moments (for me).
What is great is that on the other side of my call, the listeners have zero ideas on what is really going on in my background. The adaptive noise cancelling that is happening on the 32,000 times of sampling per second is actively cancelling everything other than what I am saying directly into the microphone. There is some serious magic happening and it is good. The hybrid noise cancelling is not done at the expense of voice quality as the other side has consistently provided feedback that I am still coming through loud and clear.
Wrapping up my own testing, the IMPACT 1000 fulfilled one of my core requirements when I was talking to David Sorrell – I wanted a call experience that is as seamless as possible when I transition from mobile to computer, in the sense that I prefer the other party not to be aware that my surroundings is changing as I speak to them.
The IMPACT 1000 can be connected to three devices concurrently. It comes with a Bluetooth dongle (BTD 800a) which I have permanently plugged into my work laptop. This is an easy one to move around when I need to swap machines. I can also pair the IMPACT 1000 to my two phones so no matter which device I am working with, I have the same audio headset. This also means the same consistent voice quality and hybrid noise cancelling regardless of environment, device or conferencing software.
Changing up the tester, I really wanted to see how BrainAdapt Technology help in the case of a neuro-divergent teenager with attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder. One of his neuro-divergent traits is that he picks up all the subtle cues and chords in music, as well as all the random noises which rapidly becomes a distraction and closely followed by overload due to noise sensitivity.
The brief was simple, “take the IMPACT 1000 and everything you are doing on the computer speaker or the other random headphones, do it through the IMPACT 1000.”
There were some well, expected I suppose, results. He stopped hearing me call for him unless I stick my head in his door. God I am going to have to find a way to trigger the TalkThrough mode via Home Assistant.
As a bit of a test, I gave little instructions on how to get things working. The getting going was easy enough, after all he is the son of a gadget tester. It took a little longer to get used to the controls and it really did not take long for him to come out raving on about the sound quality, and how much more nuances he was picking up in his music compared to whatever he had on hand to use before.
What I was really curious was whether the IMPACT 1000 will help him focus better when listening to his podcasts. It is not a case of him not picking up the information, the boy soaks that up like a sponge. In essence I wanted to see if the EPOS technology is doing what they claim – being able to enhance cognitive performance without the penalty overhead of fatigue and cognitive overload.
This is far from being a scientific study. But based on observations alone in the second week of using the IMPACT 1000, I could determine his energy levels at the end of the day. There were less talk of him feeling tired and exhausted at the same sustained level of his usual audio diet. Obviously there are a lot of environmental factors also happening to help with his mental well-being, but overall the introducing of the IMPACT 1000 seems positive.
His direct feedback was that he found it easier to concentrate on the information presented to him, because it is coming through clearer and with less peripheral noise that has been problematic for his cognitive load. I would attribute a lot of this to the hybrid ANC. It is really that effective at cutting out background noises which is usually a primary factor for him to drain his battery. The need to adapt, adjust, mask and create his own noise has an energy cost. With the IMPACT 1000 doing the heavy lifting, it became an ally and a weapon in his arsenal for coping.
Battery Life
The IMPACT 1000 has a rated battery life of 19 hours.
With the wireless charging stand, it would be hard pressed to go that long between drinks when all you have to do is to pop the headset onto the stand when not in use.
There is the option of charging via USB-C if you are on the road, but given the battery life, it would have to be a very long day to run out of charge.
Gripes
The IMPACT 1000 tends to be a little on the softer side for volume levels. Something that you need to compensate for by increasing the volume.
Tonally it is tuned for speech but it is no slouch for music. Whilst the clarity is top notch and the sound is well-rounded, it does not really excel and excite as other headsets geared for music enjoyment. At the end of the day, EPOS’ focus is corporate so this is hardly a surprise.
Lastly I tested the triple concurrent connection to death and spoke to the support team as I ran into some issues. I ran a lot of tests with the dongle on one new Windows computer, BT to mobile and BT to an older Lenovo X1, and I got some odd audio loop when I was in meetings. After more testing and swapping of devices, the conclusion is that with full desktop OS it is best to use a dongle for connection.
Conclusions
The EPOS IMPACT 1000 fulfilled the brief I had with David Sorrell when we met up at Integrate 2023. He was confident in the product and what it can deliver, and after a solid month of heavy usage I have to agree with him. The EPOS BrainAdapt Technology genuinely delivers a difference, and the best part is that it works in the background as the quiet achiever. There is nothing for the end user to do but to just use it, trust in it, and allow it to adapt to your needs over time.
The IMPACT 1000 comes in mono, stereo and with or without the charging stand. The review unit is an EPOS IMPACT 1061 which is stereo and with the wireless charging stand, and has a RRP of AUD$735. On face value it is not a cheap unit, but I think the end results justifies it. If you shop around there are cheaper deals around by a couple of hundo.
The IMPACT 1000 is certified for Microsoft Teams and meets the Open Office requirements, and in recognition of it’s intuitive, innovative, and customer-led design, it has been awarded iF Design Award Gold as well as a Red Dot Design Award. These prestigious and globally renowned accolades are awarded to products of the highest calibre and represent outstanding examples of design excellence and innovation.
DRN would like to thank EPOS for providing the review unit, and to David Sorrell for his time at Integrate 2023.
