Wireless bluetooth EAR BUDS recommendations

[caesium2108]

Anyone using klipsch t5 II ? The mclaren version looks nice as hell!

 

[Vulpix]

https://sg.e1personalaudio.com/products/astell-kern-ak-uw100-true-wireless-earphones
Any comments?

 

[ParkJinYoung]

Anyone pre order QCY T18 ? dual-device connectivity. Quite tempted to get. QCY has always been cheap and good

 

[peaceheart]

Anyone pre order QCY T18 ? dual-device connectivity. Quite tempted to get. QCY has always been cheap and good

Dun like tws with stem

Price like ok though

 

[peaceheart]

https://sg.e1personalaudio.com/products/astell-kern-ak-uw100-true-wireless-earphones
Any comments?

Wah so ex. Imo, tws no need get so expensive... After a year or 2 will spoil or battery dead.
For wired earphones, headphones though.... That is a different story

 

[Hailgod]

bought a kz az09 to use with my old kz as10.
at 25$ dont think there is a better value for money choice.
as10 with wavelet autoeq removes the muddy bass, makes it a very nice iem to use.
theres a minor hiss at low volume, got used to it after a min or so of listening.

 

[Honeydewz]

the new type of earbud tips is better than the old one????

bought enacfire earbud they give the "new" and "old" earbud tips I'm clueless as to use which tips


new

Old

 

[DigDub]

Got the beats studio buds. Was intrigued by it after volume control was implemented in a firmware update.

Surprisingly good sound from beats which used to be known for their boomy muddy bass sound signature of old. The beats studio has punchy bass which doesn't muddy the overall sound. Mids are prominent which brings vocals to the fore. There's a small spike in mid-highs which makes higher pitched vocals and cymbals sound a tad dry and over sparkly, turning down the 4khz band on my Samsung phone fixes this and makes the mid-highs sound more natural.

Noise cancelling is not very strong. Voices such as announcements can still be heard. Low constant humming like engine sounds are muted effectively. Ambient mode sounds natural. There's no option to adjust the level of noise cancelling or ambient mode.

The buds are very comfortable and do not cause any sore spots when wearing them. They have physical buttons instead of touch for controls. So adjusting the buds do not result in accidental operations. A downside to this is it is not good for sleeping sideways as the buttons will be pressed. The buds can be used independently, but unlike most other implementations, the music stops playing whenever one of the buds is put into the case, so I have to press the button on the bud that I'm still using to resume playback.

Firmware update implementation is Apple's way. Like on iOS, there is no option to manually force an update on Android devices using the beats app. You have to wait for the beats app to notify you that there's an update available, which can be quite random. The update transfer to the buds took a few minutes. The buds will then update on it's own, which may take up to an hour and there is no indication of the update progress. I feel beats can do better on it's firmware update process to keep users informed of the progress.

Overall, I feel the beats studio buds are well worth the money. They are not super expensive and competes with the Samsung galaxy buds 2 in terms of feature and price. I prefer the beats studio over the galaxy buds 2, mainly because the beats studio has a better sound quality over the buds 2.

 

[bluerr]

Is the QCY t17 a better fit for normal size ears? It's quite cheap but also wondering if worth to spend a bit more for Fiil t1 lite.

 

[ParkJinYoung]

Is the QCY t17 a better fit for normal size ears? It's quite cheap but also wondering if worth to spend a bit more for Fiil t1 lite.

I always have issue with Fiil fit
Imho i prefer QCY fit

 

[Gadgetfreakloh]

https://sg.e1personalaudio.com/products/astell-kern-ak-uw100-true-wireless-earphones
Any comments?

TK photo got demo set. Bigger than XM4. Fit might be a issue for some people. Passive NC only. Basically is dependent on the fit. Passive NC not much different from others buds.

Sound quality difficult to judge as too noisy at the shop.

 

[Vulpix]

TK photo got demo set. Bigger than XM4. Fit might be a issue for some people. Passive NC only. Basically is dependent on the fit. Passive NC not much different from others buds.

Sound quality difficult to judge as too noisy at the shop.

I also tried it out that's why never comment further. It's just a more expensive worse version of the Sony.

 

[Gadgetfreakloh]

I also tried it out that's why never comment further. It's just a more expensive worse version of the Sony.

LOL. Without ANC Version on Sony.

 

[Henabi]

recently I have been testing a pair of wireless gaming semi-in-ear earphones from Plextone, it is called 4GAME

Basic features

• Dimensions: (L) 66mm x (W) 31mm x (H) 35mm
• Weight: Charging case: 32g. Earbuds: 6g
• Touch controls on earphone head.
• Earphone: Up to 4 hours (non Gaming Mode). Charging case: 12 hours.
• Micro-USB port
• Bluetooth 5.0
• 10mm Dynamic driver
• No proper IPX rating.

#1: Battery Life

• Let’s talk about the 1st major thing to consider about the 4Game is BATTERY LIFE
• The battery sizes of both casing and the earbuds are 350mAh and 38mAh respectively.
• The company claimed that the earbuds can last Up to 4 hours on non-gaming mode
• Up to 3 hrs on gaming mode
• The casing can provide an additional 12 hours, giving the user a total of 16 hours.
• On my testing, the earphones lasted around 4.5 hours on music at 100% volume.
• Talktime on the 4Game was around 4 hours
• For Mobile Gaming, the earphones lasted around 2 hrs at 100% volume.
• For mixed usage, it lasted 2.5 hours (1-hour Music, 1 hours Talktime & 30mins gaming).
• The case was able to provide 4 charges to both earphones.
• The case takes around 1.5 hr to charge the earbuds 0-100
• When you put the earphones back into the case, the LED lights on the earbuds will turn red to indicate charging. When 100%, it will turn blue.
• The 4 blue LED lights on the front will light up accordingly. 4 lights < 75%. 3 lights < 50%. 2 lights > 50%. 1 light = you need to juice it up
• To juice them up, you plug in the Micro-USB cable into the port.
• The blue LED lights on front & back will light up to indicate charging.
• All 4 blue lights will remain on when fully charged.
• It takes around 1.5 hrs via cable
• Overall, the battery life performance is quite on-par with what the company advertised.

#2 Functionality & COMFORT

• Now, let’s move on to the 2nd major thing to consider. It’s day-to-day Functionality & comfort.
• Initial BT pairing experience with my Apple iPhone 12 Mini was an absolute delight.
• Once you open the lid, take out the earbuds and you will see “BT” pop up on the BlueTooth profile screen.
• Tap on it and it only takes 2 seconds to complete pairing. Easy!
• Now, subsequent Bluetooth reconnection is almost Instant with your devices whenever you open the lid.
• The bluetooth connection is very stable. I did not experience any intermittent disconnection.
• It is quite easy to take out the earphones from the case, as they lay flat.
• The only issue I have is when I put them back into the case, i will always mix up the L & R. You need to put L on the right side and R on the left side.
• For comfort, Once you put the earphones on, it is easy to forget you have them on as they feel almost weightless.
• 4Game doesn’t trap heat. so I do not feel any ear fatigue even if I wear them for 4 hours straight.
• Just like the Apple Airpods Gen 2, 4Game doesn’t go into your ear canals, which is excellent for people who don’t like things going into their ears.
• In terms of controls, 4Game comes pre-installed with a few touch commands, namely:
  • For music/video
    • 1x tap Play/pause
    • 2x tap Next track
    • 3x tap L previous track
  • For calls
    • 1x tap Answer call
    • Long press 2s hang up
  • Others
    • 2x L Activate Voice Assistant (Google/Siri)
    • Long press 5 sec power on/off
    • 4x tap game mode
• The touch controls are very responsive. Since the touch controls are located on the earphone heads, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally skipping a track or ending a call if you grab the stem to make some adjustments.
• Too bad Plextone did not include any commands for vol control.
• For those of you who want more control, there is no apps for 4Game.
• When it comes to gyming, working out, jogging, the 4Game do not have proper IPX rating.
• I won’t really recommend them for workouts or exercises.

#3 Sound quality

• Now, Moving on to the 3rd major thing to consider is Sound quality.
• The 4Game uses 10mm drivers. It supports SBC and AAC.
• During my listening, the lack of proper seal and fit, means I can hear the music and all the outside noises like it’s nobody’s business. And this has a direct impact on the sound enjoyment level. It is fine at home or in quiet places such as library or an empty cafe. But its difficult, if you are in a bus or train or noisy environment.
• Good thing is that the volume output is very loud and powerful
• The company did not give much information about the 10mm drivers.
• But how does it perform in the Real World?
• Vocals are clear
• Bass is good.
• Overall, music quality for 4Game is one of the best I have tested thus far.
• When it comes to watching videos through Youtube and Netflix. there is almost no sound delay.
• For gaming, the sound latency is almost unnoticeable, thanks to the gaming mode. Here is a sample of the sound latency for Gaming mode, Non Gaming mode.

Mic quality

• The 4Game built-in microphone is surprisingly good. The person on the other end was able to hear me pretty clearly a variety of sound clips to demonstrate the Mic quality of these. Remember to put on your headphones.

Final Verdict

• Are they worth it? Should you buy the Plextone 4Game or get something else? Well, putting aside the only major drawback is that it lacks IPX waterproof rating, I personally feel the Plextone 4Game is a far cheaper alternative to the Apple AirPods, not only for music and videos but also for gaming too! And people who don’t want things sticking into their ears.
• The microphone quality is also loud and clear enough for calls and video conferencing.

 

[Hailgod]

bro your own test shows ~500ms sound delay. impossible to not notice it.
with SBC + low latency modes, some bluetooth earpiece can achieve ~200ms and even then its still noticeable by any experienced gamers. it causes a disconnect between what u see and what u hear.

 

[Henabi]

bro your own test shows ~500ms sound delay. impossible to not notice it.
with SBC + low latency modes, some bluetooth earpiece can achieve ~200ms and even then its still noticeable by any experienced gamers. it causes a disconnect between what u see and what u hear.

Thanks for pointing this out

 

[Henabi]

Quite excited to be able to unbox a pair of ANC wireless earbuds from SonicGear.

Here's the Earpump TWS 12 ANC

Pretty easy to unbox

Box contents: (Clockwise direction)
Earbuds Charging Case (earbuds inside), Charging cable, User Manual, extra seals, Packaging

earbuds

Eartip

Pretty easy to pair via Bluetooth even though it do not have "Quick pairing"

 

[noobiee]

wah got MTW 3 sia

 

[C32B]

wah got MTW 3 sia

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/sennheiser-momentum-true-wireless-3-review/


Read HWZ Forum Rules!

 

[Henabi]

Recently I have been testing a pair of wireless earbuds, constructed from Aluminium. Both Red Dot Winner 2022 and iF Design Award 2022 and come in a host of exciting colours. But it’s only half the price of Apple Airpods.
Here it is the Free Nod True Wireless earbuds by Studio NOD.

A big shout out to Studio Nod for sending me these to test and review a couple of weeks ago.

Basic features

• Retails 79USD
• comes in four attractive colours, Orange, Pink, Blue and Grey.
• Case Dimensions: (L) 60mm x (W) 46mm x (H) 22.5mm
• Weight: Charging case: 39.3g. Earbuds: 4.3g
• Touch controls on earphone head.
• Battery Life: Earbuds Up to 4 hours. Charging case: Up to 32 hours.
• USB-C port
• Bluetooth 5.0
• 13mm Custom-built Titanium Dynamic driver
• Bass tube, Air vent system
• High SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) mics
• Motion-detecting sensors
• IP54 water & dust proof rating.

URL link is below if you wish to check it out
https://bit.ly/3u4mV1c
Let’s talk about the Design

• The Shape of the case stands out from what’s currently available.
• Rectangular, smooth rounded corners. Compact, small.
• Most earbuds case designs are unvaried and characterless.
• Constructed outta Aluminum.
• When you hold the case in your hand, it feels solid, sturdy and premium.
• Unlike Most earbuds cases which are made of plastic. Some are so thin, I don’t wanna drop them.
• The case surface is anodized aluminum, so it is more resistant to daily wear and tear, scratches and scuffs.
• And the matt finishing means that you don’t need to worry about awful finger prints,
• Besides the company name on the back and the USB-C port at the bottom, there’s nothing else except for the shiny hinge
• The case interior and the earbuds come in four bright, attractive colours.
• Neon Orange, Dusty Pink, Classic Blue and Charcoal Grey. The one I have with me is the Blue.
• Most earbuds are either white or black or white.
• When you open the case, the earbuds lay vertically.
• Between the earbuds are the LED light indicator and the Reset/Pairing button
• The earbuds adopt a similar design and shape to the Apple Airpods Gen 2 but when you inspect closer, you will see that FreeNod has a thicker stem compared to Airpods and the underside is flat as well.
• This offers a better finger grip, especially for people like me who have big, fat fingers XD
• The curve part on the top end of the stem is the touch control area

Battery Life

• The battery size for the case is 500mAh but there is no mention of the earbuds battery size.
• Thou the company claimed that the earbuds can last Up to 4 hours on a single charge
• The case provides an additional 32 hours, giving the user up to 36 hours.
• On my testing, the earbuds lasted around 4 hours on music at 100% volume.
• Talktime on the FreeNod was around 3.5 hours as well
• For mixed usage, it lasted 3 hours (2-hour Music 100% and 1 hour Talktime).
• The case was able to provide 6-7 full charges to both earphones.
• A 15-min quick-charge in the case provides 1 hour of music. Otherwise the case takes around 1 hr to charge the earbuds 0-100
• When you put the earphones back into the case, the case LED light will show blinking green to indicate the case is charging the earbuds.
• If it shows Orange, it means the case has around 50% battery left.
• If it shows solid red, it means the case battery is less than 10% and requires re-charging
• To juice them up, you plug in USB-C cable and the LED light will show solid red
• When fully charged, the light will turn solid green.
• It takes around 1.5 hrs via cable.
• Overall, the battery life performance is quite on-par with what the company advertised.

Functionality

• Initial BT pairing experience with my Apple iPhone 12 Mini was an absolute delight.
• FreeNod features Fast-pairing. Once you open the lid, you will see “FreeNod” pop up on the BT profile screen.
• Tap on it and it only takes 2 seconds to complete pairing. Easy!
• Now, subsequent Bluetooth reconnection is almost Instant with your devices whenever you open the lid.
• Unless most earbuds, it is super easy to take out FreeNod from the case.
• Because the earbuds stem “sit” pretty shallow in the case.
• So its pretty easy to slide the earbuds out sideways from the case with little strength.
• Even though it is easy to take out the earbuds but the magnetic charging pins connecting the earbuds are surprisingly strong. To dislodge the earbuds from the pins, you will need to use a lot of swing force, as you can see from the test i did.
• so you don’t need to worry about the earbuds dropping out if you accidentally drop the case.
• Since the earbuds just sit right outside your ear canal, it doesn’t trap heat. so I do not feel any ear fatigue even if I wear them for 4 hours straight.
• And this is also excellent for people who don’t like things going into their ears.
• The bluetooth connection is very stable. I did not experience any intermittent disconnection.
• The earbuds also has built-in “motion sensors” which will automatically pause the music, when you take one earbud out and resume when you put it back.
• In terms of controls, FreeNod comes pre-installed with a few touch commands, namely:
  • For music
    • 2x R Play/pause
  • For calls
    • 2x L/R Answer or hang up the call
  • Others
  • 3x Activate Voice Assistant (Google/Siri)
• The touch controls are very responsive. And since the touch controls are located on the earphone heads, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally skipping a track or ending a call if you grab the stem to make some adjustments.
• The touch commands might seem a little too barebone in today’s context. But from my own POV, these are the commands I utilize like 99% of the time on any wireless earbuds.
• Commands such as Volume up/ Volume down, next track, previous track… these are things I can do easily directly from my phone
• For rejecting calls… Well, would you prefer the earbuds to slowly read out the phone number to you or you rather take a quick glance on your phone screen and then press the Red Reject call button? I think most would do the latter, as it's way quicker.

• When it comes to gyming, working out, jogging, the IP54 water & dust proof rating is really handy. As this means that you don’t need to worry about some water and dust damaging your earphones if they drop out.
• But seriously, Will they drop out? Well, they didn’t move at all when I was jogging, doing jumping jacks etc. Still, you can consider getting OEM earhooks or earwings.

#3 Sound quality

• Inside these earbuds are huge 13mm Custom-built Titanium Dynamic drivers, coupled with bass reflex enclosure and anti-occlusion air vents.
• It supports SBC and AAC audio codecs.
• Sounds fancy right? But how do they really perform in the Real World?
• During my listening, the lack of proper seal and fit, means I can hear the music and all the outside noises like it’s nobody’s business. And this has a direct impact on the sound enjoyment level. It is fine at home or in quiet places such as library or an empty cafe. But its difficult, if you are in a bus or train or noisy environment.
• Good thing is that the volume output is very loud.
• But Don’t expect a single thing for sound isolation
• For Hip-hop and Pop music, Vocals are really rich and the Bass is pretty ok if you are listening at home or in a quiet place. In noisy places, trains, buses, you will need to up the volume to be able to feel the bass.
• When it comes to EDMs and Electro, Vocals again are clear and I can hear the lows.
• Listening Instrumentals and Classicals are passable. Vocals shine brightly but it is quite obvious that FreeNod is not really suitable for instrumentals and Classicals.
• Overall for music, it feels like FreeNod is going for stronger vocals & bass, and is suited for general listening.
• Though the lack of proper seal means that I always need to set the volume around 70-80%
• But still, even at max volume, the overall sound doesn’t crack and maintain the quality throughout.

• For gaming, there is some slight Sound effect delay. But I feel it is still ok for casual & non competitive gaming.

Mic quality

• The microphone is surprisingly clear even when I was in a noisy cafe or walking along a busy road.
• The microphone was able to reduce the background noise to a mumble the moment I started talking, which is very important
• The only issue is on the MRT platform, which I feel is a rather common issue among most earbuds I have tested. The microphone was unable to reduce the PA announcement because the frequency is similar to a real human voice.

Final Verdict

• Are they worth it? Should you buy the FreeNod by Studio Nod or get something else? Well, I personally feel if you wish to spend a little bit more for premium and looking for fuss-free wireless earbuds which is not APPLE, then the FreeNod is definitely worth some serious considerations.
• Solid aluminum chassis, small compact case. Good overall battery life. Works right outta box.
• microphone quality is loud and clear for calls and video conferencing even in noisy places.