V-MODA Crossfade 3 Wireless Headphones Review

Looking quite a bit like the previous V-MODA Crossfade 2 Wireless, the newer V-MODA Crossfade 3 continues on the brand's sleek, foldable, and geometric design. A combination of metal, plastic, and exposed wiring lends the headphones a somewhat aggressive style, which looks like the opposite of Apple AirPods Max Wireless' rounded, cheerful minimalism. They come in three base colors, 'Matte Black,' 'Gunmetal Black,' and 'Bronze Black.' You can also further customize your set by getting custom printing or laser engraving plates on the earcups.

These headphones feel good to wear. Their ear pads are plush and soft, and the faux leather feels nice. The standard ear pads can fit too tightly if your ears are larger. Fortunately, you can buy XL ear pads from the manufacturer at an extra cost if the included ear pads don't fit around your ears comfortably. On small to medium-sized heads, the weight distribution feels top-heavy along your crown. If you wear glasses, the arms can get in the way and feel less comfortable. In that case, you might want to consider headphones that don't break the seal with glasses, like the Pioneer DJ HDJ-CUE1BT Wireless, which are comfortable for on-ears, have similar connectivity, and have bass-heavy tuning.

The V-MODA Crossfade 3's controls are alright. Towards the top of the outer-facing side of the right ear cup's housing, you'll find two buttons for volume (up and down) and a multi-function button. At the bottom, there's a switch to handle power and pairing. The buttons click when you press and chime when you turn the headphones on or set them to pair, giving you good overall feedback. Despite the embossing on the controls, differentiating the three top-row buttons is difficult, as the symbols don't stick out very much.

Power switch:

• Push switch to center: Power on.
• Push to the right and hold for three seconds: Enter pairing mode.
• Push switch left: Power off.

Multi-function button:

• One press: Play/pause, or answer/end call.
• Double press: Skips to the next track.
• Triple press: Skips to the previous track.
• Press and hold for three seconds: Activate voice assistant.

The V-MODA Crossfade 3 are passably portable. Their hinges make it easier to quickly stow the headphones away. They still have the yokes sticking out, adding to the needed space. Otherwise, the headphones collapse, but the ear cups don't rotate to lay flat, which means they can get in the way if you wear them around your neck.

Their hardshell case is excellent. It's sturdy and reasonably sized compared to the headphones. The folded-up headphones fit snugly inside the fabric-lined case, and it zips shut. You can fit all of the accessories with straps to hold them in. On the top of the case, a carabiner clip is attached so you can clip the case to your backpack, for example.

The build quality of the headphones is impressive. They're lightweight and feel robust with metal used for the yokes and outer ear cup plates. The headband has a good amount of padding that's covered in faux leather and appears durable. You can remove the memory foam ear pads and replace them. The hinges are sturdy, and the exposed wiring does not get in the way. The included audio cable seems pretty average compared to the over-engineered frame of the headphones.

The previous V-MODA Crossfade 2 Wireless were certified to meet Military-Level Quality MIL-STD-810G Test Standards. Although this updated model doesn't appear to have that, they don't come across as less sturdy. You get a one-year warranty and an 'Immortal Life Program,' which basically means you get discounts on replacement parts through the manufacturer.

They have good stability. You can easily walk around, and the headphones will stay on for light movements. If you try more intense movements like headbanging or taking the headphones to the gym and performing dynamic exercises, they will fall off or at least come loose.

• V-MODA Crossfade 3 headphones
• Hard shell case
• 1/4" Adapter
• 1/8" TRRS to 1/8" TRS audio cable (with in-line mic)
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Sticker
• Quick start guide
• Warranty and safety papers

The V-MODA Crossfade 3 sound bass-heavy by default. They exaggerate bass frequencies throughout the range, but especially the mid and high-bass. This adds a lot of boominess, which works for hip-hop and EDM. The high-bass exaggeration carries into the low-mids, making busy songs sound muddy. The mid-mids are scooped, imparting vocals and lead instruments with a thin or hollow character. In the high mids, a peak adds slight presence while the low treble is fairly even, so high notes of guitars and synths sound audible if pushed back in the mix because of the bass response. A significant de-emphasis in the mid-treble dulls the details of the harmonic content of cymbals and sibilants like S and T, contributing to the bassy voicing overall. The treble peaks back up to add some airiness to the top end.

In the app, you can adjust the EQ presets, but they're very alike, as you can see. The Jazz preset perhaps gets you a slightly more neutral sound, if that's your preference, but the five-band custom EQ will really help you shape their sound far more than the presets.

The headphones sound different when you plug in their 1/8" audio cable and work passively only. You can compare the Bluetooth and analog sound profiles. When used passively, their high-mid and treble sound profile is even warmer and duller, which leaves vocals and bright instruments pushed further down in the mix. In passive mode, they sound broadly similar to the analog-only AIAIAI TMA-2 DJ if you really just want simple bassy headphones without Bluetooth.

The V-MODA Crossfade 3 have an okay frequency response consistency. Due to their unusually shaped ear cups and padding, the bass frequencies are impacted if you wear glasses. The arm of the glasses frame breaks the over-ear seal at the top of the ear cushion, leading to a significant drop in the bass volume. At the same time, if you don't wear glasses, you'll experience a more consistent bass and midrange, and glasses impact treble, but so do head shape and size.

The overall bass accuracy is decent. Through the vast majority of the range, the response exaggerates the bass, particularly in the high-bass. This adds ample boom and punch but can make your music sound bloated when a kick drum and bassline buries a slick mid-range synth part.

These headphones' mid-accuracy is good overall. Their curve produces present-sounding high vocal parts in the high-mids. Unfortunately, their low mids give unnatural and muddy exaggeration to toms in a track like There There by Radiohead. Meanwhile, the scoop in the center of the midrange means that rhythm guitars sound less punchy.

Their treble accuracy is sub-par. Through most of the low-treble, the headphones sound fairly even but under-emphasized. The dip that bottoms out in the mid-treble dulls the details of cymbals and diminishes the harmonic content in vocals. The peak towards the high end of the mid-treble adds some airiness to the headphones' tuning, but it's a not very balanced-sounding treble overall.

These headphones have mediocre peaks and dips performance and control over their sound profile. The low bass is fairly even, but the rest of the sound profile's output has notable peaks and dips. In the mid-bass through low mids, a sizeable peak adds a boomy and muddy sound. Following the peak, a large dip in the mids thins out vocals and lead instruments. A steep peak in the high mids that tapers off in the low treble adds an exaggerated presence to higher registers. Another dip in the mid-treble dulls sibilants like S and T, while another peak towards the uppermost frequencies adds some airiness to the harmonic content of trebly instruments.

The imaging performance is decent overall. Their group delay stays below the audibility threshold for reasonably tight bass through clear treble. While on the whole, they're fairly well-matched in phase, they aren't well-matched in amplitude, and you can hear the midrange mismatch push vocals (for instance) to sound shifted over to the right ear cup. This varies from unit to unit, but compared to our other models by the manufacturer we've tested, our unit is an outlier because the brand's quality control and ergonomics are usually very good.

These are closed-back headphones, so their passive soundstage is poor. They don't interact with your environment the way open-backs do to create an immersive sound, as if you're in the room with tiny speakers. They do have a slightly open sound (for closed-backs), but audio still sounds like it's coming from inside your head. Because of their over-ear fit, they interact a bit with your outer ear to locate somewhat where an instrument resides in the soundstage. Overall, though, these aren't the ones you want if a big soundstage is your aim.

Their weighted harmonic distortion levels are fair. You can hear the distortion in the treble, which is more obvious when listening to podcasts that don't have complicated mixes to partly mask the distortion. Since the sound profile emphasizes the high bass and low mids, which muddy your music, the bloat better veils the distortion in the trebly regions. Still, the distortion doesn't pose an issue in the midrange.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this way.

Overall, the noise isolation performance is poor. In fairness to the headphones, they only have passive isolation, so you can't expect them to filter out the low rumble of bus engines because they don't have active noise cancelling. They also don't meaningfully block mid-range environmental noise like ambient chatter particularly well, either. Like most passive isolating headphones, these do best at blocking high-pitched noises like screeching brakes on a subway.

These have adequate leakage performance. Assuming you've got a good seal, most bass content that escapes won't be very audible unless you're in a very serene and quiet location. However, a fairly midrange-y and trebly version of your music is audible if you're listening to music at home, and in notably quiet offices, your coworkers could possibly hear your audio too. It really depends on how high you set your volume because if you listen at a low volume, the sound that leaks will also be quieter.

The headphones have two mic systems. The mic system is integrated into the ear cups, and a second mic is placed in the audio cable when using them wired.

The headphones' ear cups have integrated mics, which sound sub-par. Voices have a slightly nasal tone, and sibilants like S come across as exaggerated. Low-end frequencies sound comparatively quiet as well. You can listen to how the in-line microphone performs too, which sounds worse with the higher frequencies rolled off.

The integrated microphone system's noise handling is unremarkable. Although your speech will still be understandable, the microphone doesn't cut out much background noise. Background voices aren't filtered out, and sudden loud sounds can obscure your speech altogether. You can hear how the in-line mic performs with pink noise and subway noise under the same test conditions, which isn't any better because the initial sound quality is already worse than the mics in the ear cups.

The V-MODA Crossfade 3's battery life is great. The 25.5 hours you get is more than double that of the previous model. It's certainly enough for traveling and working for a few days or more. However, if battery life is your priority, you can find many other products with longer-lasting batteries, some of which have the battery hog, active noise cancellation (ANC). For example, the Anker Soundcore Life Q30 Wireless are budget-oriented headphones with nearly twice the battery life plus ANC.

When their battery is drained, they use an updated USB-C port to charge. You can't listen over Bluetooth while they charge (or over USB-C at all). However, in a pinch, you can technically use them passively with their audio cable while they charge if your audio source has a headphone jack.

The V-MODA Crossfade 3's app is satisfactory. The features include a five-band EQ and EQ presets, although the presets sound quite similar to each other. You can adjust the auto-off timer function, monitor the battery levels, check which Bluetooth codec you're connected with, and get firmware updates. Here's a quick tour. If you choose to multi-pair, the EQ settings will only change if you're playing music from the device the app is open on, as shown here.

These have outstanding wired connectivity. For analog connections, you can use the detachable 1/8" TRRS to 1/8" TRS cable with an in-line mic. They also include a 1/4" adapter. The USB-A to USB-C cable is for charging only.

These have great Bluetooth connectivity. You can pair with two devices simultaneously using their multi-pair function. Your Bluetooth codec options span aptX HD, AAC, and SBC. With aptX HD, you gain an upgrade over the previous model's standard aptX codec, which is great for high-quality audio. If you want to game wirelessly with these, they don't have any adaptive or gaming modes to reduce latency. However, some video streaming apps can compensate for latency, and your results can vary depending on your device.

You can connect these to your PC using either a Bluetooth connection or their analog cable for full audio and microphone support.

You can connect the analog cable from the headphones to your PlayStation controller's headphone jack. This allows you full microphone and audio support.

You can connect your Xbox controller for microphone and audio support using the included analog cable.