Link to my review and measurement index thread where one can also find a full review overview, more information about myself as well as my general-ish audio and review manifesto:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/956208/
I only give full stars. My ranking/scoring system does not necessarily follow the norm and is about as follows:
5 stars: The product is
very good and received the "
highly recommended" award from me.
4 stars: The product is
very good and received the "
recommended" award from me.
3 stars: The product is
good/very good, but not outstanding/special enough to get any of my two awards. ["Thumbs Up"]
2 stars: The product is
only about average or even somewhat below that and
somewhat flawed/flawed in some areas. [neither "Thumbs Up" nor "Thumbs Down"]
1 star: The product is
bad/severely flawed to
outright bad. ["Thumbs Down"]
EarFun Free 2
Source:
Review sample.
Miscellaneous:
Decently designed packaging/unboxing experience but sparse set of accessories (charging case, charging cable, in-ear phones, three pairs of silicone ear tips).
Additional aptX support, unlike the previous generation; definitely nice at this price point, along with the newly introduced touch and volume control.
Charging case supports USB-C and wireless charging.
Looks nice and is compact. Small LED on the front to indicate the battery status upon pressing the button located on the back or when the lid is opened; unfortunately it doesn’t change its colour/status above 30% of charge, so one only knows when the battery is drained by already 70%.
What’s very nice is that the lid doesn’t fall shut unintentionally but is held in place in any position that it is opened.
The in-ear pieces are securely held in place by magnets.
The ear pieces themselves look neither too generic nor are they especially recognisable, nonetheless they have somewhat more of a unique design when compared to the first generation, and also feel somewhat more premium thanks to ditching the rubber-covered buttons in favour of touch-sensitive plastic surfaces.
Build quality is definitely okay for the price.
While the touch control commands are a very nice addition and while they are
thankfully not nearly as sensitive to unwanted activation as on the JadeAudio EW1, the EarFun Free 2 are sometimes even somewhat too insensitive since multi-touch gestures aren’t always recognised at such (which isn’t ideal, but still a much better behaviour than constantly unwanted accidental touch activation as it is the case with the EW1). But ultimately they work and are clearly an improvement over the first generation Frees’ buttons, wherefore I am using the Free 2s’ touch control (whereas I did not use the Frees’ buttons) surprisingly more often than I thought I would.
Very good fit and seal.
Insertion depth is surprisingly rather deep and therefore very securely held in place.
The Free 2 turn on and off automatically when they are taken out of the charging case respectively back in.
The signal stability is very good when used with my Apple iPhone 4 or BlackBerry Classic – no dropouts or the like.
One 6 mm dynamic driver per side.
Sound:
Largest included silicone ear tips.
Bluetooth sources used for listening to music: ZOTAC ZBOX CI547 nano running Windows 10 (SBC), Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G running Windows 7 (SBC), BlackBerry Classic (aptX), Apple iPhone 4 (AAC). (Bluetooth sound quality with the EarFun Free 2: BlackBerry Classic ≳ iPhone >> all of the others.)
Thankfully the Free 2 are nicely close to being hiss-free even in quiet passages.
Volume Control:
Volume control through touch gestures (single tap on the left or right faceplate). Followed by a soft and thankfully not too loud beep on the corresponding side.
16 volume steps in total and synced with the playback device’s volume control (not with my Acer laptop though which allows for individual Windows volume control (100 steps) plus the Free 2s’ 16 steps). Finer adjustment steps possible on the source device if supported (supported on my ZOTAC and iPhone but not my BlackBerry).
Quietest possible listening level above mute nicely quiet on my Windows 7 laptop thanks to the individual volume control; still rather acceptable on my Windows 10 desktop and iPhone 4, and unfortunately definitely louder my regular listening level on my BlackBerry. Generally I wouldn’t mind if listening more quietly were possible when used with my iPhone or BlackBerry, and that’s unfortunately a thing that most wireless in-ears suffer from.
The status reports (“connected”, “disconnected”) are unfortunately really loud and cannot be attenuated. Unlike on the first generation Free, they are played through both of the Free 2s’ sides.
Tonality:
W-shaped consumer-oriented tuning with strong accentuation of the low bass and upper treble.
Heavy bass elevation that peaks at 30 Hz in the true sub-bass with a quantity of around 15 dB over the central midrange at 1 kHz.
The upper bass at 100 kHz is already elevated by ca. 10 dB.
The root at 300 Hz is elevated by ca. 5 dB over the central midrange.
The bass elevation starts to climb at around 600 Hz, with already some warmth in the area between 400 Hz and 100 Hz.
So while there is undeniably some lower midrange/fundamental range warmth and bleed, it isn’t excessive. What’s noteworthy is that the Free 2 are slightly less warm in the lower fundamental range than the first generation Free that I had.
Therefore the lower mids have got some warmth but aren’t overly thick (they are a little less elevated compared to the first generation), without any irregularities above that in the central midrange. Above that, one can find a slight relaxation dip in the presence range which is a quite common thing and is responsible for placing voices a little less intimately to the listener. What follows is a moderate peak at 3 kHz that leads the midrange to being ultimately slightly on the brighter and leaner side, but just not coloured enough to appear too unnatural (no t shouty or intrusive) or unpleasant. Nonetheless the midrange timbre therefore appears not entirely right, and is also a slight step back compared the first generation that was tuned with less 3 kHz presence.
No dips follow after that upper midrange peak, but instead the Fun 2 have got two more elevations in the highs, a strong one at 7.75 kHz that starts to climb around 6 kHz and drops a bit after the climax, just to be followed by another, even stronger elevation just barely above 9 kHz.
Above 14 kHz, level rolls off gently.
Unfortunately those two treble peaks are the in-ears biggest flaws, as since the lows are tuned well and the midrange is mostly fine as well, the upper highs are just too bright and therefore not natural sounding at all, with a quite artificial timbre, and also noticeably brighter when compared to the first generation Free whose peak was already bright and strong but still fitted into the exaggerated consumer oriented tuning, whereas the Free 2 exaggerate this peak even more, to the point of the elevation just being annoying; that the treble appears quite soft helps somewhat with making the brightness more tolerable than it would have been with a harder treble character, but ultimately it’s still just too much brightness that also leads to sibilants being accentuated to some degree, which is something that many modern budget in-ears have nicely avoided in their tuning, but not so the EarFun Free 2.
While the Free were tuned well for exaggerated consumer tuning standards, the Free 2 just overdo it in the highs and are therefore quite a bit away from being “refined”.
Frequency Response:
ER-4S-Compensation
ProPhile 8-Compensation
Resolution:
Best sound quality with my BlackBerry that transmits audio with the aptX codec; slightly inferior with my iPhone (slightly higher treble compression and compression in general, sometimes slight artefacts; slightly less defined and softer bass).
Generally quite good for true wireless standards (average-ish for most parts when judged by low-priced wired in-ear standards) and this price range.
Can compete with wired in-ears (not too far from my Shure SE215m+SPE in terms of resolution) and beat models such as my SoundMAGIC E10, but definitely don’t reach the technical performance of really good dynamic driver in-ears such as the Fidue A65, Etymotic ER2XR, Fostex TE-02 or iBasso IT01, and are also behind my Moondrop Starfield.
Therefore, the Free 2s’ technical performance seems to be pretty much identical to the first generation Free.
The bass’ control is surprisingly good given the very strong elevation. While it has got some “typical” dynamic driver softness, it isn’t muddy and feels still rather controlled with more complex tracks.
The midrange resolution is decent for the price and doesn’t show any weakness either.
The highs are reproduced in a quite soft way wherefore one shouldn’t expect the cleanest separation, but in return this helps somewhat with making the strong elevation more acceptable. Nonetheless the definition and transients could and should be better, and sometimes one can also hear slight treble artefacts.
Soundstage:
Quite normal.
Expands a bit wider than the base between my ears and has got a rather decent front projection as well, as it could be expected from a v-shaped tuning like this.
Subjectively, there is about as much depth as much spatial width wherefore the presentation appears circular.
Imaging capabilities are just okay and average for the price range; the soft transients from the highs also carry over to the instrument placement as well as separation, and while the soundstage doesn’t collapse overly with dense, fast and complex material, it is generally on the softer/less precise side, so pin-point imaging should not be expected.
Conclusion:
Definitely improved features and functionality compared to the first generation while maintaining the same low price and a highly comparable, for most parts well-done bass and midrange tuning (for customer tuning standards), but unfortunately with a treble tuning that is flawed and unnatural (brighter upper highs compared to the first generation Free) wherefore it makes the treble timbre and realism appear overly unnatural.
Technical qualities are average for the price and performance range – no real glaring flaws but nothing that’s particularly outstanding either.
Photos:
