NOX Audio’s Scout Portable Headset (Review)

We can say we’re very curious about NOX Audio’s Admiral headset that we saw at Comic Con last year, but while they’re still working on finalizing that beast, we wanted to take a look at NOX Audio’s Scout Portable Headset. While they appear to be earphones more than a headset, the compact design offers more than a few surprises.

Find out if you’re worth picking up in our review after the jump.

Time and again I’ve said that my recommendation to check out a given pair of headphones, earphones, or a headset boils down to design. Most of the products we’ve checked out with few exceptions have you covered in the technical department, and the Scouts are no different as you’ll enjoy a rich range of sound, but it’s in the design department that the Scout Portable Headset does a lot of things right.

I love the thick, flat cabling that doesn’t tangle and is sturdy enough to handle a lifestyle on the go. The flanges on the ear take some getting used to, but they work wonders at keeping the earbuds placed firmly in your ear canals when you’re idling listening, talking on the phone, or doing your daily exercise (the packaging says you can run a marathon with these, and I’d believe it). Even with my favorite earbuds, the Ultimate Ear 700s, I had to constantly reach up to re-insert them into my ears, but never had this problem with the Scouts.

From there, moving down along the cable, you come to the discreet in-line microphone. That effectively makes these a ‘headset’ geared towards cellphone use, portable gaming with chat, and with the NOX Audio Negotiator adaptor, for your Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well. Further down is a small rubber button that can be pressed once to pause, say, a track on your iPod, or pressed twice in rapid succession to skip to the next track. I love this feature, although it made me wish there was one more button for volume control.

While the Scout Portable Headset had me impressed at every turn in terms of sound quality and design, my single complaint is the lack of snazzy presentation. While these do come with a small elastic carrying case, I found it to be rather bulky and too small to comfortable fit the headset. Also, pouch doesn’t have any sort of mechanism to keep your headset sheltered from other items in your pocket, like keys for example. Given that this is a portable headset, I was hoping for a more sturdy transportation mechanism.

Still, that’s a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things. I’d recommend picking these up to people with an active lifestyle or those who are constantly on the go and want a sturdy headset. You can always come up with an alternate carrying case, after all. The MSRP is $79.99, and the fact that these are either sold out or sold at full price nearly everywhere I’ve looked seems to be a good indicator that they’re worth the asking price.

Let us know what your favorite headset/earphones are. Is NOX Audio currently on your radar?