[pablohoney]

Anyone have issues with the battery in the left bud dying before the right bud?

 

[nc8000]

Anyone have issues with the battery in the left bud dying before the right bud?

I don’t, and they both last longer than the promissed 4 hours

 

[Andreeas1978]

Me neither. It's not ok, the left earbud has a larger battery as I remember. Less electronics I think. You can find it in specs on the official site. But there are more users with this problem

 

[pablohoney]

I looked at the specs as per the following link (scroll down to the "tech talk in depth" section): https://www.beoplay.com/en/products/accessories/e8earbuds#buy and the battery capacity of each ear bud is different. The capacity on the right earbud is 85 mAh and the left is 60 mAh.

 

[Andreeas1978]

I looked at the specs as per the following link (scroll down to the "tech talk in depth" section): https://www.beoplay.com/en/products/accessories/e8earbuds#buy and the battery capacity of each ear bud is different. The capacity on the right earbud is 85 mAh and the left is 60 mAh.

Yep, I was wrong which is which. That`s good because there are times when I only use the right one simply for calls, like a regular phone headset. This means it is not such a big problem after all, depending of course of how big is the difference as playtime. I never got to completely drain the battery on them, got bored, did not have the time or got sore ears if I say that right..

 

[nc8000]

Yep, I was wrong which is which. That`s good because there are times when I only use the right one simply for calls, like a regular phone headset. This means it is not such a big problem after all, depending of course of how big is the difference as playtime. I never got to completely drain the battery on them, got bored, did not have the time or got sore ears if I say that right..

I had a 4 hour 20 minutes train ride last Saturday and played music all the time plus a short while before and after and hadn’t run out of battery at the end of this

 

[pablohoney]

What soundstage does everyone have on their E8s? I have the max. soundstage as I think it sounds better and more in line with my B&W P7 wireless.

 

[pablohoney]

Also, I notice lip sync issues when watching Netflix/Youtube.

Anyone else?

 

[nc8000]

Haven’t used them much for video but have not noticed any sync issues on my iPhone

 

[FieldingMellish]

Maybe A/B test synch issues with a wired pair versus E8. I've not experienced synch issues, though lately I'm into explosive action fare with minimal dialogue. Nevertheless, I shall be on the lookout for any lag between tripping the explosive and the resulting detonation.

 

[albau]

Hi all! Long time no see . My Westones W4 died for the 2nd time and I needed buds mostly for the gym, jog and TV. So I’ve got E8 and Jabra Elite 65t to compare and choose. That’s my first foray into wireless, glad to report that it turned out better than I expected. I drive both IEMs out of Samsung S8 with the latest Oreo. E8 was upgraded to the latest 5.60 firmware, Jabra suggested no upgrades. First things first – to me they both sound like decent under $100 wired buds, but while Jabras sound like $65 bud E8s sound like a $99.95 bud. Granted I left EQ in both apps on flat, ditto for the phone. Used both interchangeably for a week, mostly indoors but few times jogging along Hudson, but not on a crazy Manhattan Midtown streets with zillion bouncing signals. Strangely didn’t have any connectivity problems with both E8 and Jabras, even on a subway. The other common thing, and another pleasant surprise, was that both sit snugly and comfortably in my ears with good isolation (hate Comply tips, so used medium silicone on both). Also it seems that both last more or less same 4 hours on a single charge. All in all I expected much worse from BT wireless. But these two proved me wrong.

My conclusion after 5 days is that I want Jabras with the E8 sound (even at E8 price)! This of course means that Jabras will go back but with a leaden heart. When it comes to form (app, controls, mics, pairing, price, value) Jabras win hands down except for the charging case, soft touch materials and looks which are all hallmarks of E8 besides its superior SQ of course. Except for the sound the only other place where it feels that Jabra cheapened out is their charging case. Compared to E8 it's made of slippery shiny plastic and doesn't have any magnets - not in the closing lid which really feels insecure, nor inside where you stick buds which makes you fiddle and waste time inserting them. There's no satisfying "click" of the E8 sturdy, nice to hold leather covered case.

But please don’t get me wrong about how Jabras sound. If your reference point is bundled wired buds – iBuds or even AKG-branded stuff Samsung packs in – Jabras are step above almost in every aspect. But all of that is even better on E8, especially wider and deeper, free breathing soundstage, but also clarity, superior separation in mids and detail in highs. This all leads to a more “luxury” feel. Bass is not a cigar on both – thin with Jabras, and boomy with E8. E8 loose a little in highs, which though more detailed also can be harsh and sibilant (but probably this can be cured by EQing and/or different tips). Also Jabras can go a little louder but to me that was E8 deficiency only on a very few vintage non-remastered Classical recordings. Is E8 sound twice as good as Jabras as the price would suggest? Is E8 comparatively a good value? Of course no and no! But if you’re here on Head-fi you already familiar with the law of diminishing returns .

Where E8 border on disaster, at least in my experience on Samsung Android, it’s their app and initial BT pairing. Jabras have a polished, intuitive and stable app. Pairing (with both S8 and iPad) went as good as it gets this side of AirPods. On the other hand damn Beoplay App not only has a totally bizarre and unintuitive interface which doesn’t follow any UI style and usability guidelines, but it was one of a few modern Android apps I remember that managed to crash so badly that I had to reboot the phone! I’m convinced that unpredictable EQ “by feel” that B&O is so proud of is a bug by design. It’s actually a blessing that you need to read help just to find it (who knew you have to tap in the middle of some circle somewhere on a sparse home screen?). On top of that built-in presets lack Flat (or EQ on/off toggle) and have names like “Commute”. And good luck setting it to Flat or resetting to default after you changed anything. But all this is peanuts compared to the initial BT pairing! After unboxing and charging, pairing left and right buds between themselves was seemingly a piece of cake - just push on both for 5 sec and watch for blinking light on a right bud. “Beoplay E8” even appeared on S8 BT screen, though voice prompts promised by the user manual didn’t materialize. After that nothing would help – taping on “Beoplay E8” wouldn’t do anything or result in “Won’t pair” errors. Or Beoplay App would go into infinite “Connecting…” loop eventually crashing and locking the phone. To make long story short, when I was about to throw damn $300 things out of the window I decided as a last resort to pair them to my iPad. Lo and behold, they paired nicely and started working immediately. Maybe it’s because B&O didn’t think of making their terrible app for iPad to crash the thing. After that magic happened – as though no war happened before E8 paired to my Android no questions asked! Apparently iOS somehow cured Android insanity from E8’s already weak brains. And, yeah, firmware update (not download which was almost instant on my home WiFi) took some speedy 26 minutes. I would be very interested to hear other people experiences with BT pairing with Samsung phones.

Maybe it’s subjective but I liked Jabras low-tech control buttons better. At least you know what you get and the response is fast and tactile. E8 touch compounds over-sensitivity with lack of haptic feedback and action delays. It’s easy to start playing by just taking the right bud in your hand. Moreover your delayed taps get queued. You want to start playback? Tap the right bud – nothing happens. Tap again – and again nothing! But look, the player is paused because one tap got stacked on top of the other. What’s worse, delays are not predictable or repeatable, so you’re always guessing. Also in my case double-tap on the right bud almost always works well to skip to next track, but same on the left to rewind is a hit and miss. And don’t get me started on the ridiculous triple-tap to activate voice assistant. Again maybe all this is just some unfortunate Samsung Android artifacts and other Androids and iPhones work better. On the bright side tap-and-hold to control volume works better than trying to find by feel tiny up/down buttons on the left Jabra bud.

Since I’m keeping E8, I hope that sooner than later majority of my whining points B&O will fix in firmware (pairing blues, tap delays, etc.) and by properly redesigning and rewriting from scratch the doomed Beoplay App. At $300 E8 deserve better.

Sorry for the long rant .

EDIT:
In the end I kept Elite 65t and sent back E8. Latter better overall SQ (especially clarity and soundstage) and spiffier charging case weren’t to me worth extra $150. In real life usage (gym and walking/jogging) Jabras turned out easier to control and with less connection hiccups. Their SQ is still good enough considering they are pure wireless. At least much cleaner sounding, less congested and with better separation than typical bundled wired smartphone buds. My Jabra minimal wish list: 1) Better charging case with magnetic closure and deeper wells (also magnetic) so you can use more typical taller tips and 2) Saved EQ presets in Sound+ app.

 

[ma2k5]

Hi all! Long time no see . My Westones W4 died for the 2nd time and I needed buds mostly for the gym, jog and TV. So I’ve got E8 and Jabra Elite 65t to compare and choose. That’s my first foray into wireless, glad to report that it turned out better than I expected. I drive both IEMs out of Samsung S8 with the latest Oreo. E8 was upgraded to the latest 5.60 firmware, Jabra suggested no upgrades. First things first – to me they both sound like decent under $100 wired buds, but while Jabras sound like $65 bud E8s sound like a $99.95 bud. Granted I left EQ in both apps on flat, ditto for the phone. Used both interchangeably for a week, mostly indoors but few times jogging along Hudson, but not on a crazy Manhattan Midtown streets with zillion bouncing signals. Strangely didn’t have any connectivity problems with both E8 and Jabras, even on a subway. The other common thing, and another pleasant surprise, was that both sit snugly and comfortably in my ears with good isolation (hate Comply tips, so used medium silicone on both). Also it seems that both last more or less same 4 hours on a single charge. All in all I expected much worse from BT wireless. But these two proved me wrong.

My conclusion after 5 days is that I want Jabras with the E8 sound (even at E8 price)! This of course means that Jabras will go back but with a leaden heart. When it comes to form (app, controls, mics, pairing, price, value) Jabras win hands down except for the charging case, soft touch materials and looks which are all hallmarks of E8 besides its superior SQ of course. Except for the sound the only other place where it feels that Jabra cheapened out is their charging case. Compared to E8 it's made of slippery shiny plastic and doesn't have any magnets - not in the closing lid which really feels insecure, nor inside where you stick buds which makes you fiddle and waste time inserting them. There's no satisfying "click" of the E8 sturdy, nice to hold leather covered case.

But please don’t get me wrong about how Jabras sound. If your reference point is bundled wired buds – iBuds or even AKG-branded stuff Samsung packs in – Jabras are step above almost in every aspect. But all of that is even better on E8, especially wider and deeper, free breathing soundstage, but also clarity, superior separation in mids and detail in highs. This all leads to a more “luxury” feel. Bass is not a cigar on both – thin with Jabras, and boomy with E8. E8 loose a little in highs, which though more detailed also can be harsh and sibilant (but probably this can be cured by EQing and/or different tips). Also Jabras can go a little louder but to me that was E8 deficiency only on a very few vintage non-remastered Classical recordings. Is E8 sound twice as good as Jabras as the price would suggest? Is E8 comparatively a good value? Of course no and no! But if you’re here on Head-fi you already familiar with the law of diminishing returns .

Where E8 border on disaster, at least in my experience on Samsung Android, it’s their app and initial BT pairing. Jabras have a polished, intuitive and stable app. Pairing (with both S8 and iPad) went as good as it gets this side of AirPods. On the other hand damn Beoplay App not only has a totally bizarre and unintuitive interface which doesn’t follow any UI style and usability guidelines, but it was one of a few modern Android apps I remember that managed to crash so badly that I had to reboot the phone! I’m convinced that unpredictable EQ “by feel” that B&O is so proud of is a bug by design. It’s actually a blessing that you need to read help just to find it (who knew you have to tap in the middle of some circle somewhere on a sparse home screen?). On top of that built-in presets lack Flat (or EQ on/off toggle) and have names like “Commute”. And good luck setting it to Flat or resetting to default after you changed anything. But all this is peanuts compared to the initial BT pairing! After unboxing and charging, pairing left and right buds between themselves was seemingly a piece of cake - just push on both for 5 sec and watch for blinking light on a right bud. “Beoplay E8” even appeared on S8 BT screen, though voice prompts promised by the user manual didn’t materialize. After that nothing would help – taping on “Beoplay E8” wouldn’t do anything or result in “Won’t pair” errors. Or Beoplay App would go into infinite “Connecting…” loop eventually crashing and locking the phone. To make long story short, when I was about to throw damn $300 things out of the window I decided as a last resort to pair them to my iPad. Lo and behold, they paired nicely and started working immediately. Maybe it’s because B&O didn’t think of making their terrible app for iPad to crash the thing. After that magic happened – as though no war happened before E8 paired to my Android no questions asked! Apparently iOS somehow cured Android insanity from E8’s already weak brains. And, yeah, firmware update (not download which was almost instant on my home WiFi) took some speedy 26 minutes. I would be very interested to hear other people experiences with BT pairing with Samsung phones.

Maybe it’s subjective but I liked Jabras low-tech control buttons better. At least you know what you get and the response is fast and tactile. E8 touch compounds over-sensitivity with lack of haptic feedback and action delays. It’s easy to start playing by just taking the right bud in your hand. Moreover your delayed taps get queued. You want to start playback? Tap the right bud – nothing happens. Tap again – and again nothing! But look, the player is paused because one tap got stacked on top of the other. What’s worse, delays are not predictable or repeatable, so you’re always guessing. Also in my case double-tap on the right bud almost always works well to skip to next track, but same on the left to rewind is a hit and miss. And don’t get me started on the ridiculous triple-tap to activate voice assistant. Again maybe all this is just some unfortunate Samsung Android artifacts and other Androids and iPhones work better. On the bright side tap-and-hold to control volume works better than trying to find by feel tiny up/down buttons on the left Jabra bud.

Since I’m keeping E8, I hope that sooner than later majority of my whining points B&O will fix in firmware (pairing blues, tap delays, etc.) and by properly redesigning and rewriting from scratch the doomed Beoplay App. At $300 E8 deserve better.

Sorry for the long rant .

Good review, thanks.

I wouldn't trust B&O software team to develop me a clock. They are incompotent², every product I've had with them (which I paid a pretty penny for) are plagued with software issues, issues on features that products 1/3 of the price do not suffer. They will probably fix it by the time you no longer use the E8. Do they use offshore developers? It happens with every product of theirs. You can agure no product is perfect, but no product is so far away from perfect like the E8 on the software front.

 

[nc8000]

Good review, thanks.

I wouldn't trust B&O software team to develop me a clock. They are incompotent², every product I've had with them (which I paid a pretty penny for) are plagued with software issues, issues on features that products 1/3 of the price do not suffer. They will probably fix it by the time you no longer use the E8. Do they use offshore developers? It happens with every product of theirs. You can agure no product is perfect, but no product is so far away from perfect like the E8 on the software front.

Apart from the now very occasional ultra short left unit drop out I don’t have any issues with the E8 or the iPhone app. Sound is fine for on the go use with Tidal on the iPhone and I can’t see what else one would want. Now B&O is never going to have a high value for money factor but that is a well known factor.

 

[krh7]

I returned mine in March, as the unbalanced left/right sound was too frustrating. At first I thought it was the Comply tips expanding differently in each ear, creating odd seals. I switched to the silicone tips/different sizes and nothing worked. They were great from January to February, then problems for the final month. I returned in my credit card's 90 day window. Now, if multiple people are saying the latest software update solves the left/right balance issue AND makes them louder, I'm willing to give them another shot. I never had many problems with drop-outs walking around Chicago - only when I walked into a store that had electronic theft deterrent posts near the doors.

Those on the latest update - has it solved all the little problems?

 

[albau]

Those on the latest update - has it solved all the little problems?

I have them just for a week or so and didn't notice any left-right balance problems. They updated to the latest FW just right when I first time ran the app. Yesterday evening walked in them around crazy Manhattan Midtown for an hour. Left bud momentary lost and recovered contact a few times, usually crossing the narrow street shadowed by skyscrapers, but nothing really annoying. But delayed touch action drives me mad sometimes.