They’re nice. But...
The packaging only looks good from a distance. (1) the printing seems to be about 6pt type, I needed my phone’s camera to zoom in just to read it. (2) Very basic minimal instructions: you’ll need to click on help in the app to find out how to do almost anything...
@fearlessleader, you can download instructions for the Liberty+ by
clicking here. (If you have the standard Liberty, you can download the instructions by
clicking here.)
...(3) The plastic sheet covering the tips/etc. is the wrong choice since it’s not intended to be re-used, as if you’re going to get the right tips without trying them for hours and changing them...
I just lifted the plastic sheet from the eartips side of the tray, and the adhesive is reusable. I've lifted and re-sealed that sheet several times now. (I haven't tried lifting the other side yet, so I don't know if the adhesive is the same on that side. I just happened to lift the eartips side first and it worked, so the other side is my "hinge.")
...Overall: Quite ok. But several $25-30 wired IEMs sound a LOT better. The sound has almost no bass, and I am definitely NOT a bass head...
I'm guessing you may not have a proper seal, and I've found these can be fit-finicky. Following the instructions in the app, I twisted the earphones back (counter-clockwise in the right ear, and clockwise in the left ear). When I was talking to
@joe and
@AxelCloris about my very first impressions, I (like you) described them as bass-light, and also sharp sounding. However, if you look at the instructions in the link above you'll see there that they recommend to twist it either back
or forward. I tried a
forward twist with a light push in, and,
voila, that was the solution for me -- bass! Treble was no longer sharp. Tonal balance was no longer lean. If anything (depending on the EQ setting you choose -- more on that shortly) I think some here might be more apt to find the ZOLO Liberty+ a touch bass-heavy.
If you get the fit right, you'll know, because the bass comes in. I've found you can also lose bass if you push too far and over-pressurize your canal. You'll know if you've done this if you feel pressure in your canals, and the sound is bass lighter and the sound is muffled. (If you lose seal, you'll likely experience bass loss and a sharper top-end.) Whether you lack seal or over-insert them, just do a quick re-seat as needed to get a proper seal. After a few times, I had it figured out, and proper fit just takes moments now. This may take experimenting with the included eartips and jackets, by the way. I use the medium eartips (that came installed), and I changed the jackets to to the ones with the largest helix locks.
Now, for me to get good sound also required using the ZOLO Life app, and this app is easily my biggest gripe with the ZOLO Liberty+, because though the ZOLO Liberty+ has no problems pairing/connecting to my iPhone and playing, the app doesn't "see" the Liberty+ most of the time. And as far as I can tell, you have to connect to ZOLO Life to access the EQ presets. Those presets are called Pop, Jazz, EDM, Classical, and Balanced. On both of our ZOLO LIberty+ units, the EQ was set to Pop, and none of the three of us at the office liked the Pop setting. Two of us (including me) liked Balanced, and one preferred Classical. If you get your ZOLO Liberty+ and aren't that impressed with its sound, get into the app, play with the EQ settings -- I suggest you start with Balanced. (I also think ZOLO should probably ship the Liberty+ set to Balanced, but that's just one man's opinion.)
Also, the ZOLO Life app doesn't seem to show the correct battery life for either of our Liberty+ units. After a full charge, our iPhone battery indicator for the earphones shows at 100%, but the app always shows something lower (87% today). I have yet to see the app show a 100% charge after even an overnight charge. Right now, my iPhone is showing the Liberty+'s charge at 90%, and the app is showing it at 76%. Finally, whenever I try to read the FAQ in the app, the app crashes.
The ZOLO Life app is in need of an update.
On the positive side, as with the Parrot Zik headphones, your settings applied in the ZOLO Life app appear to stay set in the Liberty+ even when you pair to a different device -- that is, once set, it seems your settings travel with the Liberty+ from device to device (until changed again in the app). I
really like this.
...I’d think the retail price point of these should be $75 max...
Again, try to get a good fit -- and play with the EQ presets -- and reassess it then. I think you'll be a lot more impressed than you've been so far.
I think it's one of the better sounding fully wireless earphones I've used, and I want to do more direct comparisons with the Sony WF-1000X, which I've also been using and enjoying a lot.
...Seal / isolation: about the best they’ll do is block out a tv in the same room. Can’t listen to anything with them in a restaurant: not even close to enough isolation...
This is another indicator that you may not have a seal. I find the Liberty+'s level of passive isolation about par for the course (similar to the passive isolation of the WF-1000X), which I'd describe as good.
...Functionalities: every other BT I have has more! The refurbed Bragi I got at $99 have lots more functionality and same or better sound. But that price isn’t really a good comparison...
I agree it's not the most full-featured such product out there, but it does most of what I need from this type of earphone and, most importantly (for me), it sounds good for the category.
I do like the ZOLO Liberty+'s "Transparency' function (ambient feed from the mics). At first I was worried it was too aggressive, too loud -- then I sneezed and it muted the sneeze! Clapping my hands in front of each ear with Transparency on shows that the instant-attenuation circuit works left-right independently -- i.e., clap in front of my right ear, and only the right ear mutes. The Liberty+ will also mute if you talk very loudly, though the attenuation is handled less gracefully (more abruptly) with talking than with more transient sounds (like a clap, a sneeze, or something falling loudly to the ground).
Again, it's pretty aggressive, and I don't know how to turn it down. I was wearing them in a shopping center the other day, and with the Transparency function turned on (and no music playing) I could hear distant conversations perhaps a bit more clearly than I was expecting to.
Overall, though, Transparency is a very cool function, and the auto-attenuation makes the Liberty+'s more aggressive ambient feed more useful and user-friendly.
...More later or elsewhere.
@fearlessleader, I hope you're able to get a better fit and better sound, and am looking forward to seeing how your experience progresses with the Liberty+.
Thanks for the indepth info. Couple of questions:
1. There's a ton of reports on the Amazon reviews of terrible lag, which is fine for music but makes them unusable for video. Can you confirm?
2. How are they from a connection stability perspective? Again, people on Amazon mention regular dropouts. Obviously the BT5 on the Pluses may improve this though.
1. Having looked at Youtube today, there is a noticeable lag. I can see this being a problem if you want to watch a lot of video.
2. On pairing out of the case, the left side has a couple of drops before it fixes itself. This is for no more than a few seconds, then all is well. It's pretty good for BT 4.2. I carry my phone in my right pocket and have had no issues at all. Distance wise, the range indoors (incl walls) is around 10m (so, as expected). The left tends to lose connectivity first, but it's marginally faster.
While there is always some latency with Bluetooth headphones and video, the ZOLO Liberty+ is, in my opinion, actually very good with respect to lag (or the relative lack of it). To demonstrate, I paired the Liberty+ with my iPad and played a Netflix video. I video-recorded the iPad playback with my iPhone, holding one of the Liberty+ earpieces to the iPhone's microphone. Here's the result:
Latency-free? No. But for me it's perfectly acceptable for the category, and the latency is shorter than I'm experiencing with the Sony WF-1000X and many other Bluetooth headphones. I understand the accounts you're referring to are regarding use with the Liberty (not the Liberty+), so this may explain the difference between their experiences and mine. We don't have the standard Liberty model here at this time.
As for dropouts, I will get the occasional dropout, but nothing that is out of the ordinary in this category (in terms of frequency, and recovery time) -- it happens rarely, and so far the episodes have been very brief, quickly returning to normal operation.
I'll say more about the Liberty+'s sound in the Buying Guide entry I write for it, especially vis-à-vis the Sony WF-1000X, which is the fully wireless I've been spending the most time with. So far I really like the ZOLO Liberty+.
Note to readers: I haven't tried the Liberty+ with Android yet, only iOS devices. I will try it with Android later.
Note to ZOLO: Please update and fix the ZOLO Life mobile app on iOS!