Panasonic RB-M600B
Pros
- Clear, balanced sound with Bass Enhancer mode
- Affordable
- Long battery life
Cons
- Average noise-cancellation
- No case or carry pouch
Key Features
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Review Price: £79.99 -
Battery 65 hours with ANC enabled
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XBS Deep Bass Enhancer Adds some extra oomp to the low frequencies
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Bluetooth multi-point Connect to two devices at once
Introduction
While Technics hogs the limelight with its audio products, parent company Panasonic has headphones it wants you to buy too.
It doesn’t operate at the higher end of the market, producing mostly low-cost, value-focused headphones such as the RB-M600B.
This over-ear pair has noise-cancelling, a bass boost mode and long battery life to interest those after affordable ANC headphones. However, this cheap headphone market isn’t short of options with the likes of Soundcore, Sony, Edifier, and EarFun jostling for attention.
Can the Panasonic RB-M600B mix it up with the best headphones? Let’s find out.
Design
- No pouch/carry case
- Black/white options
- Physical buttons
I’ll refrain from calling these headphones bland. Instead, I’ll say the Panasonic RB-M600B looks like any black pair of over-ears. If the RB-M600B were in a line-up, I’d have a hard time identifying which one they were.
There is a beige option but that’s as far as Panasonic goes for colour. The focus is on comfort and in that sense the RB-M600B is a tidy effort.
They weigh 265g with the padding on the earcups is soft and pliable; the headband adds a nice cushion on top which makes the clamping force – the pressure the headphones exert on your head – good to live with.
They’re tight on the head but not uncomfortably so, even after a couple hours use; although the oval shape of the earcups means they sit on my ears instead of enveloping them.
The plastic build quality is a bit creaky when I move my head, but more disappointing is that the RB-M600B doesn’t come with a case or pouch like the Soundcore Space One.
After a couple of trips in my bag, the headphones already have a scratch – and I’ve nowhere to put the 3.5mm and USB-C cables unless they go straight in my bag with the rest of the clutter inside.
There are adjustable sliders to position the headphone but the M600B can’t be collapsed – only folded flat. Like the missing pouch, it’s a shame there isn’t that added portability.
There are no touch buttons, swipes or gestures – just physical buttons for playback/power, volume, ANC and a Bass Boost button. The latter two are tricky to locate at first as my thumb keeps sliding over the 3.5mm/USB-C inputs.
Hold down on the volume buttons and you can skip forwards or backwards, while a double tap on the multi-function button brings up your mobile device’s voice assistant. They don’t feel like the best quality buttons but they get the job done.
Features
- 65-hour battery
- Bluetooth multi-point
- No app
There’s no support for Panasonic’s Headphones App, so the RB-M600B are essentially a pair of ‘dumb’ headphones. What you see is what you get.
They connect to a device over a Bluetooth 5.3 connection, with SBC and AAC streaming. I’ve found the Bluetooth performance to be pretty solid over two weeks of testing. Walking through Waterloo train station and I expected the connection to drop. There wasn’t a single disconnect.
Bluetooth multi-point is supported for linking to two devices at once. The RB-M600B also support Google Fast Pair and Windows Swift Pair for a quick connection to compatible devices.
Battery life is said to be 65 hours on a wireless connection (50 on a wired one), and that’s with noise-cancelling enabled.
I carried out a battery drain and these headphones go on for ages. At 50% volume I played music for seven hours and the headphones still registered 100%. If a boost is ever needed Panasonic says a 15-minute charge provides a six more hours over USB-C.
These headphones are outfitted with the XBS Deep (eXtra Bass System), which can be toggled on with a button to give the low frequencies a boost in a similar manner to Sony’s Ult Wear headphones (here’s hoping the results are better).
For calls there’s a built-in microphone and ENC (Environmental Noise-Cancellation) tech to reduce the effect of outside sounds wrecking your phone call. I’ve found the call performance to be fine for the money.
There’s not much noise-cancelling to block outside sounds, and the performance gets worse in loud environments but for the most part voice clarity is acceptable.
Noise Cancellation
- Hybrid ANC
- Ambient Sound mode
The Panasonic RB-M600B tote Hybrid Noise-Cancellation, which means they block sounds within the earcup along with outside sounds. Hybrid ANC is one of the more powerful solutions, but as this is a low-cost option, like any of the best cheap ANC headphones, quality can be mixed.
And the RB-M600B is decidedly average. The noise-cancellation barely makes a dent to loud sounds – at best it offers a reduction with ambient noise but not much else. On a train to Bristol I could still hear what was happening, including conversations from people around me and the wind rushing past the window.
On the Circle and Victoria line it couldn’t suppress sounds enough that I could listen to music without raising the volume up, and the same was the case on a bus. The ANC isn’t strong enough to combat external noise on its own, and raising the volume is only way, and even that is not always effective.
Wind noise affects the ANC too. That said, I don’t find the Panasonic’s noise-cancellation to be noticeably worse than the Soundcore Space One or the Sony WH-CH720N. Like those headphones it seems better suited to quiet environments. If you often find yourself in loud surroundings, consider jumping up in price to a better ANC pair.
There’s an Ambient Sound mode that lets sound in and provides more awareness of nearby action, but it doesn’t sound the clearest or detailed. Turning it on also thins out the music, making it less detailed in the process.
Noise-cancellation at this price rarely edges above solid, and for the money and expectations, the Panasonic RB-M600B are average.
Sound Quality
- Bass Enhance mode
- Clear, detailed and balanced sound
These headphones aren’t the most feature-packed – at least compared to rivals – and the noise-cancellation is average. Can the sound give the Panasonic a notable boost?
First off, turn the Bass Enhancer on. Without this mode, the RB-M600B sound thin. It’s not a bad sound by any means – it’s got decent levels of clarity and detail, vocals are handled well and the overall balance is likable. But I’m left with the feeling of wanting more.
The Bass Enhancer provides more weight, which is helpful when listening to genres like rock or similar that teeter on sounding thin. The headphones display a better grasp of detail and sound ‘fuller’, too.
Turning on the Bass Enhancer doesn’t make the soundstage wider (unfortunately) but it does affect the tonal balance in a positive way (thankfully).
With a track like Labrinth’s All For Us, it offers more weight and presence not just to the bass but to Labrinth’s and Zendaya’s vocals too. The thinness I heard before is gone and their voices sound more natural. With the Bass Enhancer on, it’s the sound the headphones should have had from the get go.
There’s not much actual bass added – I wouldn’t be listening to Fred Again much with these headphones – but low frequencies have more presence.
With the Bass Enhancer on, the bass performance isn’t all that different from the Sony WH-CH720N when listening to Easy Life’s skeletons – in fact the overall performance of the two headphones are closer than I expected in terms of detail and clarity. The Panasonic sounds better with vocals – clearer and more natural.
At the top of frequency range the Panasonic handles it with decent clarity, sharpness and brightness – the treble doesn’t sound as dull or as hoary as on the WH-CH720N with GoGo Penguin’s Atomised or Greg Foat’s Symphonie Pacifique. To my ears the Panasonic is the better-sounding of the two, which is a surprise.
With the wired input you can plug them into a device of your choosing, and the sound is along similar lines to its wireless performance but with greater detail and clarity – especially if you’re listening to higher quality files. The headphones only work with a wired connection when powered on though.
Should you buy it?
They sound good for the money
So long as you turn on the Bass Enhancer mode from the get go, the Panasonic headphones wring a better tune from music than the rest of the competition.
No carry case
The Panasonic continues a trend of cheaper headphones omitting a case or a pouch, which gets annoying when they pick up scratches or you have to find somewhere to keep the cables.
Final Thoughts
The Panasonic RB-M600B over-ear headphones are solid. They’re not without compromises but at this price which headphone isn’t?
The noise-cancellation is average but no worse than the Sony WH-CH720N or Soundcore Space One, although the Soundcore deals with wind noise better than the Panasonic.
The battery life is higher those two options and better in my tests than the similarly priced EarFun Wave Pro too and Edifier W830NB. What it lacks is smarts: no app support, not much customisation or updates. It lacks the convenience of the aforementioned headphones.
But, at least with the Bass Enhancer mode on, these are one of the best cheap headphones, offering good balance, detail and clarity.
I’m surprised by the Panasonic RB-M600B. While there’s plenty of competition, there’s enough that’s good about these headphones to recommend them.
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every pair of headphones we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
- Tested with real world use
- Tested over two weeks
- Battery drain carried out
FAQs
You get 65 hours with noise-cancelling turned on and 50 hours on a wired connection.
Full Specs
| Panasonic RB-M600B | |
|---|---|
| UK RRP | £79.99 |
| USA RRP | Unavailable |
| EU RRP | €89.99 |
| Manufacturer | Panasonic |
| IP rating | No |
| Battery Hours | 65 |
| Fast Charging | No |
| Weight | 265 G |
| ASIN | B0DJFNG9SJ |
| Release Date | 2024 |
| Model Number | RB-M600BE-K |
| Audio Resolution | SBC, AAC |
| Driver (s) | 30mm neodymium |
| Noise Cancellation? | No |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Colours | Black, Beige |
| Frequency Range | 20 20000 – Hz |
| Headphone Type | Over-ear |
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