Sometimes you want high end sound with no wires. I recently bought a set of Monarch MKIII as a rash decision at a local Can Jam, but realized that splitting time between them and my Empire Ears Odin was pointless. I really just need one IEM to be satisfied for when I get the in-ear hankering. I considered selling one, but instead decided to turn my Monarchs into my wireless set for on-the-go.

I had bought the KZ TWS adapter a while back and returned it because it was a terrible piece of tech (seriously, KZ, you can't even get the word "connected" right?) I didn't want to waste money on something similar so I skipped the FiiO and went straight for the iFi Go Pods. I've had the Go Pod for a couple months now hooked up to my Monarch MKIIIs, and unfortunately I'll be the first one to say that unfortunately, no, these are not the be all, end all true wireless solution. My Monarchs sound the same wired to my Astell&kern SP3000 as they do on the Go Pod just running off of Bluetooth from iPhone. There is no latency, no dropouts, cutting audio between earbuds, and it seamlessly switches between AAC, LDAC or whatever codec my device uses. The case looks nice (more on this later) and the two ear hooks is a nice touch. While these sound absolutely elite, they just miss the mark in every other category, keeping me from recommending them.

A couple years ago, I purchased the Sennheiser Momentum TWS. My wife has AirPod Pros. Both of which were so convenient, automatically connected when you popped the earbuds out of their case, and have a handy app that syncs everything well. Both don't sound great, but the functionality aspect is amazing, and when I'm using Bluetooth headphones on the go, that's usually what I'm looking for. Now, I bring this up because the Go Pod absolutely does not have anywhere near that functionality. It's a miserable user experience. When I got them out of the box, I went searching for the app, which is not unique to iFi, it is a generic Bluetooth driver app called GAIA. Supposedly GAIA will let you set up Bluetooth-LE on these so that they just connect immediately when you wake them up, but it does not work. Furthermore, GAIA wants a firmware update on the Go Pods but to do that you have to go to iFi's site and download the firmware and then point GAIA to that. No thanks. I'm used to 'building a better mouse trap' (I use Arch Linux, btw) but that level of effort for a firmware update, what is this 2004? And even after I did update it, I still can not get LE working. So I gave up and now just use regular Bluetooth AAC from my iPhone.

Which, barely works. In theory, once I pair them (which took me forever to actually get these damn things in pairing mode because of the physical buttons, more on that later) I should not have to connect and reconnect these every. time. But I do. Inevitably, my iPhone won't find these, and I spend a good five minutes fiddling with them before I hear the hallowed words of 'AAC' finally through my earbuds. It's not my phone that's the issue, as the same issue occurs on just about every device I own, and my iPhone connects fine to every other Bluetooth device. This is an incredible pain point, as often I have to take these out of my ears--because iFi didn't put transparency mode in these--and they'll sit out for a couple of minutes before my coworkers leave and stop bothering me. I pop them back in, and sometimes they'll still be connected, sometimes not...a couple minutes later, 'AAC' will buzz through and-bam-I'm back jamming to Darkthrone.

Get ready to be doing this...a LOT:


I'm almost done ranting about connectivity, as I have one more bone to pick with these $300 TWS. They love to disconnect when exercising. The overly large awful physical buttons tend to bounce around and disconnect when I'm jogging. I'm pretty sure it's because the physical controls are so large and poorly built so bounce, plus the ear hook is so tight and shallow, that the controls don't sit behind my ear like they're supposed to. It could also be that these act strangely when they get sweaty.

Picture for posterity:


The case looks nice at first, as it is fancy looking. It has USB C, with an indicator, and charges in a hurry. When you open the case, two LED lights turn on and overall, it's a nice looking package. Except the fact that the case is absolutely massive, and it's that kind of cheap matted plastic which accumulates micro-scratches when jiggling around in my purse. It protects your earbuds well at least. The battery life on the earhooks ranges about 5-7 hours or so, I've never actually had them die on me, I set them in the case when not using, so never have any issues with that, but the case is still...odd.





HOWEVER, I use these every day. The reason why is that, these make my Monarchs sing. I'm serious, I think they sound better on Bluetooth than directly wired into my SP3000, and as a benefit, I don't have to get that monolith out of my purse and carry it around because women's pants don't have pockets. I usually run these in AAC Bluetooth off of my iPhone playing Roon Arc, and it's a joy to listen to them...once you've fought with the connection. Plenty of power on sensitive IEMs to get the audio to tinnitus-inducing levels. Fast, thick, and absolutely black background. The sound sounds so punchy and deep, where it has more of analytical twang on the SP3000. The Monarchs are known for their bass, and these will push enough power to make the bass on the Monarchs rattle your brain stem. No hiss or electrical noise, either.

Overall, iFi knocked it out of the park on the sound quality of these. If this is the future of TWS and IEMs, I think we'll all be okay in a cableless future. But in making sure these are the best sounding earhooks, they skimped on every other possible thing, creating an entirely frustrating product that I wouldn't recommend to even my most die-hard audiophile friends because the functionality is just not there. I'm not returning them, because they sometimes do what I ask, but I certainly wouldn't buy them again, especially not for the high asking price.