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Bob Marley, the Jamaican Reggae star who died in 1981, had a vision of One Love, One World.  This vision inspired the setting up of The House of Marley to develop a range of eco-conscious, innovative products based on the guiding principles of superior quality, sustainably sourced, cause minded and waste conscious.  As a result products undergo a test involving reggae music (not sure how this helps); are made from FSC certified wood plus recycled and recyclable aluminium and plastic; arrives in packaging using pulp or recycled and recyclable material; plus a donation being made to iLove.org.

The first batch of audio electronic products released by The House of Marley consists of three collections of headsets.  These collections are entitled Jammin’, Freedom and Destiny and include ear-bud and over-the-ear style of headsets.  Recently I have had the opportunity to try out the Marley Exodus which forms part of the Freedom collection.

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The Exodus is an over-the-ear style of headset with dimensions of 235 x 221 x 125mm (H x W x D).  Manufactured from eco-responsible material, the Exodus uses FSC birch wood, aluminium, leather, copper snap buttons, ultra soft leather ear pads, durable braided cable and recycled plastic strain relief.  The headset is supplied with its own material carry pouch.

The design of the Exodus is unusual in that it has two headbands rather than the one found on most other headsets that I have seen.  The outer headband is constructed of birch wood and has some flexibility with regards to its width.  However the major element in adjustment is provided by the inner band but more on that a little later.  The birch wood headband has three copper snap buttons at each end.  These snap buttons feature the Marley logo and are mounted on a leather strip.  The soft leather ear-pads are attached to the inner side of the headband and held in place by the middle snap button.  There is enough freedom of movement with the pads to ensure a comfortable fit for different head sizes and shapes.

The second headband, which fits inside the other band, is constructed of an elastic rubber strip that is encased within a soft leather sheaf.   The rubber strip is firmly held in place by the snap buttons attached at each end.  It is this elastic rubber strip that provides the main adjustment capability when the Exodus is used on different head sizes while the soft leather provides a degree of padding comfort where the headset comes in contact with the user.  The “L” and “R” identifiers are located at the appropriate ends of the leather encased strip.

Rather than extend the headband prior to placing the product on your head, as you would will more traditionally designed units, you place the Exodus over your head and then gently pull it down until the pads fit over your ears.  The inner headband expands as you apply pressure.  When you take the headset off, the inner band automatically reverts to its original size and position.  This approach may be different but it does work.

Linking this headset to an audio source is a braided cable in the Jamaican National colours.  A 3.5mm L-shaped jack plug provides the connection.  At the point where the leads from the ear-pads come together to form a single strand, there is a volume control.  Initially I though that this element did not work as it made no difference when I was using the Exodus headset with my Sansa Clip+ MP3 player.  However on checking the unit’s specifications, I realised that this volume control was Apple specific.  Once I had attached the headset to my iPod Classic I was able to adjust the volume level and mute the audio completely with this control.

The Exodus headset was comfortable when wearing it for short periods but I would not like to wear it for more than an hour.  Due to the volume control issue, this headset will have more appeal to those with Apple kit.  The headset’s frequency response of 20Hz-20kHz delivers an audio quality that should satisfy most users.  Supplied with a two-year warranty, the Exodus is priced at £99.99.

http://www.thehouseofmarley.co.uk/headphones/freedom/exodus-headphones.html