Review: iFrogz Coda Forte Bluetooth Headset

iFrogz Coda Forte Wireless Bluetooth Headset by ZAGG

$99.99 MSRP

I am perhaps among the toughest of critics Dave and the team could have possibly sampled a set of headphones to. An audiophile? No. My music tastes however, have varied a lot as I’ve grown up (and I hope they continue to!) but of those songs that have stayed close to my heart – very few of them fit the soundstage of today’s popular music – most notably, the heavy bassline. So these cans from iFrogz have quite a task ahead of them. Let’s see how they stack up!

Introducing the Coda Forte Bluetooth Stereo Headset, from hereon in referred to as the Forte’s. iFrogz are a brand of ZAGG, the very same guys and girls that bring us the InvisibleShield protective skins for our favourite toys, amongst many other goodies. The iFrogz brand has, as the name suggests, largely been associated with accessories for Apple’s iPhone devices in the past. They do however boast a large range of earbuds and headphones, and as this is a Bluetooth headset it is compatible with any device capable of streaming audio over the Bluetooth A2DP protocol (namely, pretty much everything mobile and electronic these days).

The Forte’s ship in a classy black and silver retail box adorned with iFrogz logos, a feature listing, a nice big product render on the back, and a transparent window along one side of the front, allowing a glimpse of the product itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening the box, the phones sit in a plastic brace that keeps them stationary during transit. Also in this brace you will find an instruction leaflet to assist you with pairing the headset to your device and outlining controls, a USB to microUSB cable for charging the in-built battery and a 1.2 metre 3.5mm to right-angle 3.5mm cable to enable use as a wired headset. Additionally, behind the brace is a large black velour carry bag – definitely a nice touch in the retail package. There is no charging adapter included, however the phones charge via a regular microUSB port, so will work with most non-Apple phone and tablet chargers, or can also be charged from a PC.

Removing the headset from the brace, the first thing that struck me was the weight – or lack thereof. These are very light phones, and iFrogz have finished them in good ol’ soft-touch paint, lending a nice grippy feel. They will show scratches and grease clearly, but the velour bag will help you buff those out when necessary.

Moving around the headset for a look, the bottom and perimeter of the earcups house the jacks and controls. The bottom of the right cup hosts the microUSB charging port, while the bottom of the left cup houses the 3.5mm jack, charging/pairing indicator LED and microphone pinhole. Yes, iFrogz have included handsfree functionality to boot. Just up from these, on the rear of the left cup, are buttons for volume/seek up/down and power/pairing. The buttons are small, but easily found and the volume rocker has a good solid feel. The 40mm Neodymium drivers are covered in thin material, patterned with iFrogz’s stylised frog foot logo. Branding is present on the stems of the cups also, as well as prominently displayed over the comfy, pleather-cushioned headband. It is present, without being overdone for headphones – definitely an appreciated touch.

Charging is a quick and easy affair – plug them in, wait a couple of hours and you’re good to go. Pairing also couldn’t be simpler – hold the power button until the phones turn on, hold it for another five seconds or so, and the in-built LED flicks between red/blue, signalling the set can be discovered. Look for them on your phone or tablet, select ‘pair’ and you’re done. Protocols and handshakes are negotiated automatically – Bluetooth has come quite a way in simplicity since the early days. Once you’re paired, your device’s audio will be automatically routed to the headset. If you don’t wish to use the Forte’s wireless capabilities, they will function as a regular headset with the included 3.5mm cable – and this is a smart inclusion by iFrogz, as your hundred-dollar cans won’t become useless once the battery wears out. Someone obviously put some thought into these, and it pays off. You don’t have to charge the phones, or even turn them on, to use them like this. When playing tracks, a short-press of the volume buttons will skip tracks, while a long press will control the volume. The phones give a high-pitched tone as the track is changed or as they top out in volume – and are perfectly loud enough at this setting.

Music is always a good place to start when putting cans through their paces, and as my tastes are varied, my library lends itself well to discovering where the strong- and weak-points of a headset lie. Because a large number of people enjoy their bass, that’s where we’ll start. The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Under the Influence’ contains an excellent and quite wide bass drop, ideal for showing us weakpoints in low-level response. A weak headset will be unable to produce the entire frequency response – no such issues for iFrogz here. The Forte’s handled it beautifully, right up there with far more expensive headphones. The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’ also has a pretty peppy bassline, and here the Forte’s once again did well. Another song worth putting in a bass check is The Isley Brothers’ ‘Between the Sheets’. Not the sort of song you play to your kids of course, but it does have a very low synthesised bassline – and once again the Forte’s did well. No muddying of the low frequencies, whether plucked or synthesised – all good so far.

Now there’s a lot more to music than bassline and, to be fair, most modern cans won’t struggle with it too badly. Very cheap phones or phones unable to handle their power properly will ‘muddy’ the bass a bit – you’ll hear the start and end of each note ‘fuzz’ (static) out, and the notes just sound off. Most headsets tuned for bass however, handle all this at the cost of some mid- and high-range frequency response – and this is the tradeoff iFrogz have made in the Forte’s. Out-of-the-box, these headphones are built for low- to mid-level response. That means that if you enjoy music where the bassline, the drum track and the vocals are the song, or music where there’s not much else going on – these are going to sound perfectly fine to you. It’s when you get into music where mids and highs play a bit more of a part that the Forte’s start to show their shortcomings. That said, it is pretty easy to get these cans to open up a bit more, provided you know what they are missing.

Most devices used for music playback these days employ some sort of software equaliser to allow you to tailor the output to your own tastes a little. With a bit of tweaking in here, the Forte’s began to make me feel all sorts of tingly, and came into their element much, much more. Remember, a lot of modern headphones are tuned for better bass, at the expense of the rest of the soundstage. Knowing this, giving a little more emphasis to the mids and highs in your music gives the Forte’s a cleaner and more balanced output, and gives back some of that definition lost from the top-end. Keep in mind these are hundred-dollar cans (seventy if you factor in the ‘wireless tax’). They aren’t going to allow you to hear everything, or clearly define every instrument playing at once. With a bit of fiddling though, they do provide a solid and balanced output. For me, this meant tuning the equaliser on my Galaxy Mega to ‘Classical’. You don’t just want to hit ‘Treble Boost’ and call it a day – you will go top-heavy that way. You want settings (or a preset) that distributes the sound a bit better over the entire frequency range. An Orchestra still has low-frequency response – Cello, Tuba, Timpani – but also needs a lot of mids and highs for the woodwind and strings. As such, it’s going to give you a more rounded response. Jazz is actually very similar.

So, with my equaliser set to ‘Classical’ (somewhere it has never been before, mind you) off I went once more. And the difference is marked. The bass calms down (just a bit, it’s still there in droves) and the vocals and guitar gain the much-needed definition. I put the Forte’s through their paces properly – Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit in the Sky’ to start – a muddy, noisy song that actually came together really well on the Forte’s. No music test is complete without the vocals and arrangement of Prince, so ‘Little Red Corvette’ and ‘1999’ got a guernsey too. And all the while, the Forte’s really grew on me. Even Charlie Daniels’ wailing violin in ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’ passed muster! Softer music such as Alicia Keys plays well, but again limits the detail heard in the highs a bit – all perfectly normal and more than acceptable at this price point. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet – once you equalise them, they’re pretty capable.

In the end, I got carried away and sat on the bed for about four hours just going through my library and feeling pretty damn content that a hundred-buck pair of wireless headphones could give my five-hundred dollar Grado’s a run for their money on a few songs. We really have come a long way. All the while the iFrogz set remained comfy – no doubt aided by the light weight and well-padded headband. My total usage time for this review was around seven hours, and I didn’t encounter the low-power cutout during this time – on the battery’s first cycle. I’d say that after a couple more cycles, the twelve-hour figure quoted by iFrogz wouldn’t be far off the money.

Movies also sounded good through the Forte’s, although I found the low-end a bit overpowering again. You will miss tiny things like footsteps in the background – the drivers just aren’t sensitive enough up-top for that. Dialog, action scenes and scores however – you know, the stuff normal people care about – no worries. Gaming also suits these phones, although again they are bottom-heavy without some sort of equalisation. Metro: Last Light sounded great, and these would make a perfect addition to your gaming setup – mobile or otherwise.

The microphone seems sensitive enough, and voice playback through the headphones was completely normal – as you’d expect. I wasn’t asked to repeat myself at any point during testing, although I wasn’t exactly using a chainsaw or vacuuming at the time either. The handsfree functionality worked in wired mode without hassles, too. This functionality is a worthy inclusion by iFrogz, especially if you plan on pairing these up with your phone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has been a long review, so I’ll do the Cliffsnotes version for the time-strapped amongst us – these are perfectly good phones for today’s music straight out-of-the-box. Give them a little extra balance through software equalisation, and they become a compelling buy for those seeking balanced, good-sounding, lightweight wireless headphones at this price range. You get handsfree functionality to boot.

Pros:

- Stylish and functional
- Generous retail package
- Lightweight and comfortable
- Sound great with some equalisation
- Easy to operate and logical control positions/buttons

Cons:

- Drivers lack some definition in mids and highs

The iFrogz Coda Forte Bluetooth Stereo Headset has an MSRP of $99.99, excluding taxes. It is available directly from ZAGG, or at online retailers such as Amazon.

Sincere thanks to ZAGG for providing our review sample.