Venture Electronics Audio Products Impression
Venture Electronics (VE) is an up-and-coming China-based audio peripheral manufacturer with a growing line of devices in their catalogue from earphones to adapters. Their products are competitively priced and are geared towards serious audiophiles with options to choose plug type and impedance. What’s interesting is that even if they are not particularly gaming-oriented peripherals, the team behind it are very much gamers. In fact, they are the ones who developed Anbernic’s official website. So when they sent over standard versions of their devices to test, I was quite intrigued to see how they perform for gaming and general audio use. Let’s take a look!
Odyssey HD
First off, we have the Odyssey HD, a 14.5cm-long USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter. This is not just an adapter to have the coveted 3.5mm headphone jack back on new smartphones but it improves the sound output compared to what you would hear without it. Indeed, if you plug a headphone through it, you’ll instantly hear the difference in audio as with the Odyssey HD, the audio is clearer and more crisp. For example, with Venture Electronics’ own Bonus IE earphones (more about it below), audio is not particularly remarkable as-is but with this adapter, what you hear is much more pleasant. This way, you can “upgrade” your existing earphones/headphones. It also comes with a USB 3.0 adapter to use with a laptop.
I used it with the Switch and it’s a plug-and-play affair through the USB-C port. It’s also compatible with PS4, although I did not test it myself as I don’t own the console. The way it instantly improves the console audio experience can be appreciated by anyone who gives it a try.
It’s also of pretty good quality, with aluminum ends and braided cables with a plastic covering. It’s even made of Oyaide 102 SSC Copper Cable which is some sort of premium copper from Japan.
While it’s rather short, it doesn’t matter much as your earphones/headphones that plug through it will provide most of the cable length. For $10, the Odyssey HD offers quite a compelling experience. If you are looking for a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter or want to “upgrade” your earphones without spending much, this accessory will do the trick.
MONK LITE
If you want earphones that are bass-focused but won’t cost you an arm and a leg, then the MONK LITE is for you. At only $6, these deliver clear audio that’s leaning on the bass. It’s also able to reproduce the mids and highs adequately, much more than I would expect out of a $6 pair of earphones. With its focus on the bass, the MONK LITE might even give you a slight advantage in shooty and battle games as you can detect the minute explosions and steps and the directions they are coming from. In fact, they might be comparable to some higher-end, over-the-ear headphones but on top of the quality audio, they have the bonus of being highly pocketable.
However, these miss a volume wheel which isn’t optimal for an audio peripheral. But at that price and the quality of audio it outputs, I’m not complaining much. On the plus side, there are colored covers for each earpiece so you can color-code them for each ear. If you are looking for some bass-y audio peripheral and don’t want to spend much, these are definitely a steal.
MONK PLUS
I was frankly blown away by what these $7 earphones deliver. The MONK PLUS might not look like much, bearing a rather run-of-the-mill earphones look with a clear shell but once plugged into your device, it’s definitely not run-of-the-mill audio that you’ll hear. It’s balanced between the bass and treble and outputs crisp audio across the spectrum. With these, you can even hear the finer audio cues as you would in high-end headphones but in a much much much lower-priced device. This was the one I most enjoyed using to listen to music to and gaming from the lot. All the sounds I’ve been used to expecting in single-player games from headphones I’ve used like the Creative SXFI GAMER (minus the SXFI effect) are there. And it has the added advantage of being compact and less intrusive.
My gripe with the MONK PLUS is that with the price, compromises have evidently been made, especially on the comfort and build quality. As much of a good sound as these produce, they aren’t the best to wear for extended periods. And again, the volume wheel is MIA. But for $7, it’s hard to find a better value-for-money pair of earphones. You can just buy one, or a couple, and throw into your bag, handbag and pockets and listen to quality music/soundtrack on-the-go.
Bonus IE
As a final item from Venture Electronics, we have the Bonus IE or BIE. These $20 earphones have a classy look to them and are definitely the best-looking one among this bunch; but even with its looks, it’s my least favorite of the VE earphones I’ve tried. It’s a bit shy on treble and delivers okay audio, but nothing exceptional really. It’s easy to mix which earpiece goes into which ear at a glance as they both look similar and there are no color-coded covers to help. You’ll have to squint a bit to see where the ‘R’ and ‘L’ is engraved and the volume control is also missing here. It’s rather pricey for the audio quality it offers and especially in comparison to what other, cheaper VE earphones deliver.
Most of Venture Electronics’ products won’t impress on the hardware and build side of things; even the packaging isn't anything fancy, unless you consider modified memes as fancy. But that’s the compromise considering their low cost. The crisp, high-quality audio output is well worth what you are paying for. My personal recommendation would be to get the MONK PLUS and Odyssey HD combo, or just the MONK PLUS alone. Whether it’s for gaming or listening to music, it’ll offer quality audio that you won’t get at the price.
Venture Electronics Official Website
