IpodHappy
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2008
- Posts
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The BeoPlay E8 at V5.4.0 has lots of Codec artifacts:
I purchased the BeoPlay E8 from Amazon to compare to my one day old Sony WF1000x set that I find a bit muddy in the low mid to upper bass regions. My goal is to find a truly wireless set that can compete with at least my UE700s or Klipsch x10s. To date, the E8 is the fifth set of wireless IEMs I’ve picked up. The others are:
- Bragi Dash: Too many drop-outs, too mid centric audio presentation
- SOL Republic Amps Air: Too harsh a high end, too physically heavy
- Jabra Elite Sport True Wireless: I couldn’t fit them in my ears
- Sony WF1000x: Somewhat muddy low mids, drop-outs, a bit concerned with battery life.
I spent the first two hours with the BeoPlay E8s just listening to various songs and was quite impressed with the sub bass and high extension. I took them for a walk outside and found a fair amount of drop-outs when turning my head to the right, iPhone 7+ in my left pants pocket, so I decided to update to version 5.4.0 of the operating system and tried out some other songs. (V5.4.0 improved but didn’t eliminate the drop-out issue.)
Then I started noticing tons of Codec artifacts. First was a song that makes extensive use of the Korg Kronos II stock sound, “Thriller,” which is basically a pulse width modulated square wave with chorusing and reverb. The artifact sounded like a flat tire going down the road mixed in with the music. More listening revealed the sound of frying bacon mixed into soft piano music on the right earbud. Frying bacon shows up when listening to soft electric piano sounds from the DX7 and acoustic guitar music. I verified these artifacts weren’t present on my other wireless IEMs, a Bose QC35, a Sennheiser Momentum 2, as well as with the Shure SE846 and Westone W4. My source gear is an iPhone 7+ at version 11.1.2 of IOS. It’s also present with the BeoPlay E8 paired to a Macbook Air. Of course, I kicked myself for not listening to a wider range of music before updating; I don’t know if V5.2.0 was having this problem.
Here are some tracks that demonstrate the issues:
“Shards of Heart” by Daniel Ketchum on Spotify (frying bacon in the right bud)
(frying bacon during the beginning guitar and Rhodes piano sound at 1:00)
At least one other reviewer on Amazon mentioned these artifacts. He got his first set in the first batch, returned them, then ordered a second pair in late November. The problem was still there. (The flat tire sound isn't reproduced on the Spotify MP3 track, only on the iTunes AAC ripped at 196 kbs VBR.)
I hope B&O straightens out their Codec before my return window with Amazon starts to close. It's quite possible the flat tire effect and sizzling bacon issues are two separate problems.
I purchased the BeoPlay E8 from Amazon to compare to my one day old Sony WF1000x set that I find a bit muddy in the low mid to upper bass regions. My goal is to find a truly wireless set that can compete with at least my UE700s or Klipsch x10s. To date, the E8 is the fifth set of wireless IEMs I’ve picked up. The others are:
- Bragi Dash: Too many drop-outs, too mid centric audio presentation
- SOL Republic Amps Air: Too harsh a high end, too physically heavy
- Jabra Elite Sport True Wireless: I couldn’t fit them in my ears
- Sony WF1000x: Somewhat muddy low mids, drop-outs, a bit concerned with battery life.
I spent the first two hours with the BeoPlay E8s just listening to various songs and was quite impressed with the sub bass and high extension. I took them for a walk outside and found a fair amount of drop-outs when turning my head to the right, iPhone 7+ in my left pants pocket, so I decided to update to version 5.4.0 of the operating system and tried out some other songs. (V5.4.0 improved but didn’t eliminate the drop-out issue.)
Then I started noticing tons of Codec artifacts. First was a song that makes extensive use of the Korg Kronos II stock sound, “Thriller,” which is basically a pulse width modulated square wave with chorusing and reverb. The artifact sounded like a flat tire going down the road mixed in with the music. More listening revealed the sound of frying bacon mixed into soft piano music on the right earbud. Frying bacon shows up when listening to soft electric piano sounds from the DX7 and acoustic guitar music. I verified these artifacts weren’t present on my other wireless IEMs, a Bose QC35, a Sennheiser Momentum 2, as well as with the Shure SE846 and Westone W4. My source gear is an iPhone 7+ at version 11.1.2 of IOS. It’s also present with the BeoPlay E8 paired to a Macbook Air. Of course, I kicked myself for not listening to a wider range of music before updating; I don’t know if V5.2.0 was having this problem.
Here are some tracks that demonstrate the issues:
“Shards of Heart” by Daniel Ketchum on Spotify (frying bacon in the right bud)
(frying bacon during the beginning guitar and Rhodes piano sound at 1:00)
At least one other reviewer on Amazon mentioned these artifacts. He got his first set in the first batch, returned them, then ordered a second pair in late November. The problem was still there. (The flat tire sound isn't reproduced on the Spotify MP3 track, only on the iTunes AAC ripped at 196 kbs VBR.)
I hope B&O straightens out their Codec before my return window with Amazon starts to close. It's quite possible the flat tire effect and sizzling bacon issues are two separate problems.