WeSC Chambers by RZA Premium Review

In addition to impressive sound, the WeSC Chambers by RZA Premium headphones offer lots of extras such as active noise cancellation and an inline remote/mic, as well as several other features. Not bad for $275. But how do they stack up to other headphones endorsed by rappers?

Design

The Chambers by RZA Premium cans have an understated street elegance, with a matte black finish and gold "RZA" script on the earcups. The oval-shaped padding on the Chambers Premium earcups easily encircled our ears and is comfortably soft. But the hard silicone "padding" on the folding headband make the cans uncomfortable on top, even after as little as 15 minutes of listening. We like the included hard case, which provides good protection.

Each earcup has an input jack, so you can use one of the two included cables (one with an inline mic/remote and one without) on either side, leaving one jack free to plug in a friend's headphones and share music. The battery compartment is in the left earcup, which also houses a switch that activates an LED level monitor on the back of the earcup that responds to the music.

You press the faceplate of the right earcup to mute your smartphone, or twist it to turn the active noise cancellation on or off. The faceplate on our unit was difficult to twist and it wound up being a two-handed job; we'd prefer a simple switch or button.

Performance

The sound quality offered by the Chambers by RZA Premium was well-balanced, with satisfying bass and sparkling highs. The piano samples and vocals on Wu Tang Clan's "Clan In Da Front" came through very clear, and the low bass on "How Low Can You Go" by Ludacris had plenty of depth and impact. In fact, all the tracks we listened to across multiple genres sounded very good, without the bass getting in the way of the clarity. The sound quality suffers only slightly with the active noise cancellation turned off.

In general, the Chambers by RZA Premium have better detail and have a more pronounced high end than the Soul by Ludacris SL300, which makes for a livelier sound.

The noise cancellation and inline mic worked very well in our testing. However, they didn't perform as well as the SL300s, which have less hiss and slightly better noise cancellation. According to the manufacturer, you can expect the two AAA batteries (included) to last about 30 to 35 hours.

Verdict

Delivering well-balanced audio, the $275 Chambers by RZA Premium headphones are great for listening to all genres of music. If they were more comfortable and easier to operate, these could have usurped the Soul by Ludacris SL300 as our favorite pair of rapper-inspired headphones. Still, the Chambers Premium cans are ones to reckon with.