Freshly coming off the review of the incredibly strong performance of the Dudios Zeus, comes a similar product from their sister company Soundpeats and their true wireless Q32 model. This product, I thought, was just going to be a copy of the Zeus model minus the cable but nope. This is most certainly its own trail blazer and what better time to test an iem and put it through its paces than the 2 weeks of training I had recently? So without further adieu, allow me to share my thoughts on my time with the Soundpeats Q32 true wireless iems.
A little about me
I would like to say that first and foremost I am NOT an “audiophile” but rather an audio enthusiast. I listen to music to enjoy it. Do I prefer a lossless source? Yes, of course. But I can still be very happy streaming from Pandora or even my YouTube “My Mix” playlist. I also prefer equipment that sounds the best to me personally regardless of what frequency response it has or rather or not it's “sonically accurate” and I always have and shall continue to encourage others to do the same.
I'm a firefighter for both the civilian and military sector and the cliché of wanting to do this since I was born couldn't be more present with me. I've worked hard over the last several years to earn this position and now it's time for me to work even harder to keep it.
My interests/hobbies are powerlifting, fishing and relaxing to audio products and reviewing them to help other decide on what products would work for them. Few things make me as an audio enthusiast/review feel more accomplished than when someone tells me that I helped them find the type of sound they've always been looking for.
Now, the sound signature I personally favor is a relaxing, warm and sensual sound that just drifts me away in the emotional experience of the music being performed. Yes, accuracy is still important but I will happily sacrifice some of that if I'm presented with a clean, warm sound that can wisp me away into an experience that makes me yearn for more.
My ideal signature are that of respectably forward mids and upper bass range with the bass being controlled but with some slight decay. I like my treble to have nice extension and detail reveal with a smooth roll off up top as to not become harsh in the least. Examples of products that have given me chills and keep giving me the yearning for more feels are the (in no particular order) Bowers & Wilkins P7, Oppo PM-1/2, Empire Ears Hermes VI & Zeus XIV, Audeze LCD-XC, Meze Headphones 99 Classics.
I would like to say that first and foremost I am NOT an “audiophile” but rather an audio enthusiast. I listen to music to enjoy it. Do I prefer a lossless source? Yes, of course. But I can still be very happy streaming from Pandora or even my YouTube “My Mix” playlist. I also prefer equipment that sounds the best to me personally regardless of what frequency response it has or rather or not it's “sonically accurate” and I always have and shall continue to encourage others to do the same.
I'm a firefighter for both the civilian and military sector and the cliché of wanting to do this since I was born couldn't be more present with me. I've worked hard over the last several years to earn this position and now it's time for me to work even harder to keep it.
My interests/hobbies are powerlifting, fishing and relaxing to audio products and reviewing them to help other decide on what products would work for them. Few things make me as an audio enthusiast/review feel more accomplished than when someone tells me that I helped them find the type of sound they've always been looking for.
Now, the sound signature I personally favor is a relaxing, warm and sensual sound that just drifts me away in the emotional experience of the music being performed. Yes, accuracy is still important but I will happily sacrifice some of that if I'm presented with a clean, warm sound that can wisp me away into an experience that makes me yearn for more.
My ideal signature are that of respectably forward mids and upper bass range with the bass being controlled but with some slight decay. I like my treble to have nice extension and detail reveal with a smooth roll off up top as to not become harsh in the least. Examples of products that have given me chills and keep giving me the yearning for more feels are the (in no particular order) Bowers & Wilkins P7, Oppo PM-1/2, Empire Ears Hermes VI & Zeus XIV, Audeze LCD-XC, Meze Headphones 99 Classics.
Equipment used at least some point during the review
-Sources
-LG V20/HP Pavilion
-Playing Pandora, YouTube, and various format personal music
-Sources
-LG V20/HP Pavilion
-Playing Pandora, YouTube, and various format personal music
Disclaimer
I am by no means sponsored by this company or any of its affiliates. They were kind enough to send me a product for an arranged amount of time in exchange for my honest opinion. I am making no monetary compensation for this review.
The following is my take on the product being reviewed. It is to be taken “with a grain of salt” per say and as I always tell people, it is YOUR opinion that matters. So regardless of my take or view on said product, I highly recommend you listen to it yourself and gauge your own opinion.
I am by no means sponsored by this company or any of its affiliates. They were kind enough to send me a product for an arranged amount of time in exchange for my honest opinion. I am making no monetary compensation for this review.
The following is my take on the product being reviewed. It is to be taken “with a grain of salt” per say and as I always tell people, it is YOUR opinion that matters. So regardless of my take or view on said product, I highly recommend you listen to it yourself and gauge your own opinion.
The Opening Experience
Why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience
Please allow me to explain why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience with a product. Maybe it’s due to my southern roots in the hills of eastern Kentucky, but I’ve always been raised under the pretense of when you introduce yourself to someone for the first time you present yourself with confidence, class, character, pride, and competence. You greet the other person with a true warm smile, eye contact and a firm handshake. Anything less or short implies to other person that you either don’t care about them, are too full of yourself, too busy to be bothered by the likes of them, or worse, just generally disrespectful.
As a consumer, I take this same belief to when I open a new product. Why? Because think about it this way. How else can a company introduce themselves to their customers? How do they present their products? Are they packaged with pride and presented in such a way that makes the listener eager to listen to them? Or maybe they’re just wrapped up and placed in an available space. How about the box itself? Is it bogged down with jargon that says look at this, look what I can do. I’m better than anything on the market and here’s why read this and check out that. Or, is the package clean, simplistic and classy? As if saying to the customer ‘Good day, pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Please give me a listen and allow me to show you what I can do and allow my actions to speak louder than my words.’
This is why I feel so strongly about the initial presentation of a product, and I feel it’s truly a shame more people don’t. But with all that aside, let’s discuss how this products introduced itself shall we?
Please allow me to explain why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience with a product. Maybe it’s due to my southern roots in the hills of eastern Kentucky, but I’ve always been raised under the pretense of when you introduce yourself to someone for the first time you present yourself with confidence, class, character, pride, and competence. You greet the other person with a true warm smile, eye contact and a firm handshake. Anything less or short implies to other person that you either don’t care about them, are too full of yourself, too busy to be bothered by the likes of them, or worse, just generally disrespectful.
As a consumer, I take this same belief to when I open a new product. Why? Because think about it this way. How else can a company introduce themselves to their customers? How do they present their products? Are they packaged with pride and presented in such a way that makes the listener eager to listen to them? Or maybe they’re just wrapped up and placed in an available space. How about the box itself? Is it bogged down with jargon that says look at this, look what I can do. I’m better than anything on the market and here’s why read this and check out that. Or, is the package clean, simplistic and classy? As if saying to the customer ‘Good day, pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Please give me a listen and allow me to show you what I can do and allow my actions to speak louder than my words.’
This is why I feel so strongly about the initial presentation of a product, and I feel it’s truly a shame more people don’t. But with all that aside, let’s discuss how this products introduced itself shall we?
For a product in this price range, sub $50 (if purchased through Amazon), I must say I found myself quite impressed with the care given to the welcome handshake the Q32 provided. The outer shell if very simplistic with only a little marketing jargon on the back (and by little, I mine little [especially for this price range]) and an overall very nice build being strong cardboard. The package itself slides down, similar to that of a drawer where you’re presented the Q32 inside of its VERY nice charging case, a Soundpeats branded pouch, a plethora of ear tip and wing sizes and the micro USB charging cable (no type C sadly). As you look inside the charging case, you’ll find the Q32 true wireless iems sitting snugly inside their slotted area in the case. Now, in order to fit inside the case, you either must have no tips equipped or the standard tip equipped. With the wings on, they will NOT be able to fit inside the case, this is rather unfortunate because I really enjoyed the wings (which I’ll talk on later).
So overall, I am very pleased with the welcome handshake Soundpeats gave me. Though this, like their Zeus sister, is a respectably inexpensive product, they took great care in ensuring it’s presented as if it were one costing several multiples more, and from a consumer's standpoint, I respect that.
Construction
So going from the nice and welcoming handshake I’m not left with the product itself. So how well is it made? The overall construction is that of basic plastic, both the Q32 iems and the hard charging case. The iems are made surprisingly small, at least compared to what I was expecting them to be. I can even, to a degree, lay on my side while listening to them. I do have to kinda adjust my pillow a little bit but overall they are quite flush.
The horn is that of the standard size (again, I’ve no idea the exact measurements but it’s the size I see on the vast majority of iems I come across) so you shouldn’t have any isses getting aftermarket tips for it if you so choose. Speaking of tips, these come with a very impressive supply of different sizes and wings. As I said in the previous section, when using the wings the Q32 will not fit inside the charging case, which is unfortunate, and what more is that the wing tips don’t snap into place on the horn, they just kinda sit there. Though I personally didn’t have any issue with them falling out or off they did never feel fully secure because of this.
Features
Though there’s not a whole lot of special features that come with the Q32 I didn’t really know where else to put these remarks I have about them. The first impressive thing that I REALLY like about what comes with the Q32 is the charging case that magnetically secures the iems in place, so long as you don’t have the wing tips equipped. The charging cases battery supply is absolutely ridiculous! I went my entire 2 weeks of training, while having to charge a dead Q32 at LEAST once each day, without having to once charge the charging case, and it charges the iems pretty quickly as well.
The battery life on the iems however is, disappointing. The website claims 3 hours working time but I consistently only got just over 2 hours with them which granted is likely going to be plenty for the average user to use for a workout session of commute but I tend to listen to A LOT of music for a large amount of time, especially when doing a review on a product so I did have a problem with that but it’s only a minor one.
A big problem I do have is the connectivity and lack of AptX. Though the Q32 is SUPER easy to connect to your device it’s always cutting in and out for about a second every few minutes or so (on my PC, it only occasionally did this on my mobile). It’s kinda annoying when I’m listening to something and it cuts out and fades back in one ear at a time (which is how it connects).
My other issue, which is something I find more of an irritation, is that there’s no AptX. This makes it HORRIBLE to watch anything other than some animes with. The latency is, in best case scenarios, a half second off, but it has been as bad as a full second. This has caused me to just completely stop watching anything when listening through the Q32, it’s just unpleasant.
Comfort
I have absolutely zero issues or complaints about the comfort of the Soundpeats Q32. I was able to lay on my side with them (after adjusting my pillow a little bit) and pretty much always listened to them until their battery died (which was quite often during my study sessions). I kinda just forget they’re in my ear truthfully. They don’t weight much of nothing and even those with teeny weeny ears (like my wife [you can tell her I said that too]) can comfortably wear them. So I really have nothing but positivity to say about the comfort, even the wings are fantastic, if only they could have fit in their case and snapped on the horn.
Sound
Coming into this I was under the pretense that this was going to sound very similar to the of it’s Dudios sister; similar price range and style just the removal of the cable and addition of a charging case. Nope. Not the case at all. The Soundpeats Q32 is a more universal sounding iem whereas the Zeus had a much stronger bass presence. The soundstage is quite small, for an iem or not, and not once did I think I wasn’t listening to earphones so imaging is alright. The Q32 I wouldn’t consider an audiophile product whereas it’s a general use product. They’re made, my opinion, to be a grab and go to listen to something while working out or commuting to and from work etc…, something you’ll hear as background music as opposed to fully listening to what’s being played. Now, this doesn’t mean what’s being played isn’t good, for with respect to its sub $50 price point (if bought on amazon) it sounds pretty decent. But allow me to talk more individually so that I can hopefully better express my opinions.
Treble
The highs on the Q32, for a product with a V Shaped sound curve, I will be honest, I wasn’t too impressed. While listening to “Ballad No. 1 in G Minor, op 23” by Chopin, nothing sounded overly impressive. This particular piece has become a favorite of mine for it’s emotion that’s present throughout (and the AMV/anime it’s attached to makes it worse) really doesn’t come through that well through the Q32. Also, this piece, towards the end, pretty much maxes out the Q32’s drivers abilities (things begin not sounding right until it calms down again). The best way I can explain the highs on these iems is that they’re subdued without being recessed.
Mids
Haha, so I’m going to start off this section by posting a song I’m listening to that does a really good job at showing the vocal performance of the Q32, and give a good laugh at the same time (say what you will but I enjoy the song ). But “True Survivor” by David Hasselhoff (yes, THE David Hasselhoff) really gives him the front stage and shows that, though the Q32 overall is a V Shaped sound sig, it can do a fantastic job and cleanly showcasing the vocal performance.
Bass
Oh the heartbeat of the music, and a strong heartbeat the Q32 has indeed. Though I still wouldn’t call these a “bass heavy” iem they, at least for me, were quite satisfactory. For their price range the bass had a fairly impressive impact and speed but there was a fair amount of decay. As I’m writing this I’m listening to the song “They Don’t Care About Us” by 2CELLOS and though the piece isn’t really a bass forward piece the parts where they hit their Cellos resonate quite well. At the same time, continuing on the giving yourself a good laugh while showcasing a given section, “RASPUTIN” by Boney M. Consistent bass hits are present throughout and will give you a fantastic sense of the Q32’s speed, impact, and decay (and it’s just fun to watch).
Conclusion
My final thoughts on the Soundpeats Q32 is that it makes a great on the go pair. They’re not, in my personal opinion, an audiophile product but instead something one puts in to have some background music going as they’re doing something else. They’re comfortable to wear and stay in your ears during a good workout session, running included. I do wish the battery life on the iems were longer but the quick charging case does a fine job at supplementing that.
Also, make sure to check out my unboxing and review videos. They’re pretty awesome AND you getta put a face to the Army-Firedawg name. If this review helped you out at all please hit that thumbs up button for it really helps me out a lot. Till next time my friends, stay safe.