TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 Wireless  Headphones Review

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 are fairly low-profile over-ears due to their all-black design. They don’t particularly stand out, and they look like most standard headphones. The cups are dense, and the padding is thick. The headphones are made out of matte black plastic and look fairly good but won’t be as flashy as other headphones.

The TaoTronics TT-BH060 are comfortable, and you can wear them for a while without feeling any fatigue. The padding on the cups and headband is good and plushy. They fit well on the head, but they're a bit tight, which can be more uncomfortable for people with wider heads. Also, while the cups are big, the room for the ears isn’t very large as the padding is thick, which may not suit all ear sizes and shapes.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60's control scheme is decent and will be easy to use for most. They have a simple button layout with a volume rocker that acts as a track skipper, and the power button is also what you use to play/pause your music and manage calls. You also have a separate switch to enable/disable the ANC feature. However, it stays on even when turning the headphones off, so be sure to switch it off when you’re done using the headphones.

The TaoTronics TT-BH060 aren't very breathable. They get very hot in a short amount of time because they seal very well on our test rig. They trap a lot of heat inside the ear cups and won’t be suitable for sports as you will sweat more than usual. On the upside, they aren’t that bad for casual listening, especially if you take them off from time to time, letting your ears cool off a bit.

Like most over-ear headphones, they aren’t very portable. They have a bulky design, but at least you can fold them in a more compact format, and the cups swivel to lay flat, which makes it easier to carry them around your neck or slide them inside a bag. When folded, they also fit in their carrying case.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 come with a nice hard case that protects the headphones well against water exposure, scratches, and physical damage from falls. It also doesn’t add too much bulk to the design and is easy to put inside a bag.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 are fairly well-built headphones. The plastic used for the ear cups is dense and should handle a few drops without getting damaged. The headband is decently flexible and has a metal frame to reinforce the build, making them a bit more durable. However, they still have a lot of plastic in their design, which is decently durable but feels a bit cheap. They're built similarly to the Bose QuietComfort 35 II/QC35 II Wireless 2018 but are more affordable.

These headphones are decently stable since they're tight on the head. However, the cups can move around a bit and are susceptible to fall off during more intense physical activity. Nevertheless, you shouldn't use these for sports because of their breathability issues. On the upside, they're wireless, and you won’t have to worry about a cable getting hooked on something and yanking the headphones off your head. This shouldn’t be an issue for casual listening.

• TaoTronics TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 headphones
• 1/8" TRS audio cable
• USB to micro-USB charging cable
• Carrying case
• Manuals

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60's frequency consistency is okay. The left driver is actually consistent and is probably using the ANC feature to deliver consistent bass, but the right driver of our unit is noticeably inconsistent, with maximum variation going over 15dB in the bass range. On the upside, they're consistent in the treble range under 10kHz.

The TaoTronics TT-BH060's bass performance is satisfactory, but there's a significant mismatch between the drivers, which is taken into account in our imaging test. Their LFE (low-frequency extension) is down to about 10Hz, which is excellent. However, their low bass is lacking by over 7dB under our target curve, which means they're very light on thump and rumble. Mid-bass, responsible for the punch of bass guitars and kick of drums, and high-bass, responsible for warmth, are overdone and about 3dB over our neutral target curve. This will add a lot of boominess and muddiness to the mix.

The mid-range performance is mediocre. There is still a driver mismatch in this range, and it's slightly overemphasized in low and mid-mid. This makes vocals and lead instruments sound a bit thick and forward in your mixes. However, the deep drop in high-mid also negatively affects the projection and intensity of vocals and leads.

The TaoTronics TT-BH060's treble performance is terrible. Most of the response through the range is under our target curve, with a maximum dip of about 11dB. This will be very noticeable and will make vocals, leads, and sibilants lacking in detail and brightness.

The stereo imaging is bad. Our unit had very mismatched drivers in amplitude, frequency, and phase. Especially in the bass range, the two drivers were acting differently, with the right one having practically no bass. The GD graph also shows that the group delay of the right driver surpasses the audibility threshold under 100Hz, which will result in a loose bass. The audio sounds skewed to one side with holes in the stereo image. These results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently, but it shows poor quality control.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 have a poor soundstage. The PRTF graph shows that the response doesn't follow our reference at all. There’s not a lot of pinna activation, and it isn’t accurate. Therefore, their soundstage will most likely be perceived to be small and not speaker-like. Their closed-back design also makes their soundstage feel less open than that of open-back headphones.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 have a great isolation performance. With their ANC (active noise cancelling) enabled, these headphones achieved more than 15dB of isolation in the bass range, which is good. This means they can cancel out the low rumbling noises like airplane and bus engines to a great degree. In the mid-range, important for blocking out speech, they isolate by 17dB, which is also good. In the treble range, occupied by sharp sounds like S and Ts and air conditioning systems, they achieved about 37dB of isolation, which is very good.

The leakage performance is great. A significant portion of the leakage is spread between 400Hz and 1kHz, which is a narrow range. The overall level of the leakage is relatively quiet too. With the music at 100dB SPL, the leakage at one foot away averages around 33dB SPL and peaks at 49dB SPL, which is just under the noise floor of an average office.

The integrated microphone has a mediocre recording quality. The LFE (low-frequency extension) of 226Hz results in a recorded/transmitted speech that sounds a little thin. The HFE (high-frequency extension) of 2.6kHz means speech will sound noticeably muffled and lacking in detail. It will still be understandable in quiet environments.

In our SpNR test, the mic achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of about 19dB, which suggests this microphone is well-suited for quiet and moderately loud environments. However, it may still struggle to fully separate speech from ambient noise in louder places.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 have about 30 hours of battery life with their ANC on. It should be more than enough for a few normal workdays, and they won’t need daily charging, which is great. On top of this, they take less than an hour to charge fully. However, they don’t have any power-saving features, and you have to turn their ANC switch off, even if you power off the headphones. On the upside, if the battery is dead, you can also use them passively with the included 1/8” TRS cable.

The TaoTronics TT-BH060 don’t have a companion app for customization options.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 are Bluetooth-compatible, but they can only connect to a single device at a time, which is disappointing if you often want to switch between your work computer and your phone. They also don’t support NFC for a quicker and easier pairing procedure.

These headphones have low latency on iOS and Android devices, making them a suitable choice for streaming video. However, their high latency on PCs may cause issues with the syncing of your audio and visuals. Some people may not notice the delay, as some devices and apps offer some compensation. They won’t be the ideal choice for video content and gaming, but you can nullify these issues by using the audio cable.

You can use the TaoTronics TT-BH060 passively with the included 1/8” TRS cable. However, that cable doesn’t have an in-line remote or microphone, so you’ll only have audio support on consoles and PCs. Also, when plugging in the audio cable, the headphones turn off, meaning you can't use the on-cup controls, but you can still enable/disable ANC.

The TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 don't have a dock.