It starts with the packaging. These in-ear earphones are in a box that looks like a classic book or maybe a box of dark chocolate. But what it turns out to be is the 1MORE Triple Driver in-ears, a product as surprising as its packaging.

When you open the unusual box, on the left you’ll see a diagram of all the parts and pieces. It’s done like an illustration and the cursive writing all around adds to the book-ish feel. The earphones themselves are immediately nestled on top, but when you lift them out, you’ll find you can lift off a segment of the package to find more goodies inside. And each of these is pretty unusual as well.

In the box, you get a pale gold shirt pin so you can secure the cable when wearing the earphones, you get an aircraft adaptor, and a very classy leather case. In another section, you see an entire collection of ear-tips, some in foam, which will expand to fill your ear, and some in silicone which will be better to use if you’re prone to sweating. And they look like chocolate bits. It’s impossible not to marvel at the whole package for a good long while before you even look at the earphones.

The 1MORE Triple Driver seems to be targeted at the audiophile. They aren’t Bluetooth because that is known to degrade the sound quality. Instead, the cable that the earphones use is rounded fabric near the lower half and the more usual rubber towards the top. If they tangle, they can be de-tangled quite quickly.

It’s a challenge for a little thing like a pair of ear-buds to look classy, but these manage it with ease. Each ear-bud is encased in anodised aluminium with pale gold accents, which are echoed on the little remote fixed to the cable. That’s made of plastic and there are some complaints by reviewers on that count, but I don’t find them impacting the look of the product — just as long as it’s durable, which of course I won’t know with the short-term experience I’ve had. It does feel flimsier than the rest of the product. The quad driver version of these earphones apparently have a metal one. The remote has three little buttons for music on/off, track navigation and volume up and down. These can be used for taking phone calls too.

The attention to detail is very evident in the design of the ear-buds themselves. Slightly angled, they fit in just perfectly and can be worn for hours and hours. Depending on which ear-tips you use from the collection, there’s enough passive noise muffling to tune out the world. In fact, active noise cancellation also impacts music quality so its absence is welcome when the focus is quality.

And coming to that, the sound on this pair of earphones is superb. Crystal clarity separates each instrument and voice making you hear detail that you otherwise miss. The sound is extremely clean and balanced. The bass is full-blooded but still balanced. The sound quality of these earphones comes into its own when you listen to hi-resolution music — if you can get hold of it. In that sense, the 1MORE earphones are ideal with a music player dedicated to quality music rather than just any phone that gives ordinary output. There are two balanced armatures and a separate dynamic driver fitted into the earphones to deliver a powerful yet ‘intimate’ listening experience.

While you may sorely miss Bluetooth portability, its absence means better quality sound. There’s also no worrying about battery life and recharging and pairing with one device or the other. There are variants that use a USB-C or Lightning instead of the usual 3.5 mm jack. A quad driver variant is also launching soon.

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