Former Sennheiser engineer Axel Grell made a $200 pair of ANC true wireless earbuds - the TWS/1

[joe75]

I am going to take them as my main on my next trip in a few days the whole shebang and see how it goes this time from
there since i will be leaving the trusrtworthy Sony wf-1000xm3 at home this time (i ll just take another pairbas à backup that have also IPX7 water resistant with me just in case)

The Grell TWS/1 have been sounding really good and are also recongnized in " wavelet" app on android.
The Sound ID app have been updated recently and been working quite reliably even if it s quite a pain to use and slow to upload changes to the Grell -still no offline
mode which means i wont be able to use it during flight or non covered are.

PS : I still dont know if they turn off themselves out of the case if i disconnect them
from my phone might be handy when case is out of juice . also Sometimes i hear "Power on" several times in one of them, not sure what this is

PS2 : Any news or timelines from Qualcomm on their developper kit when they will unlock the multipoint feature for their SOC used with the Grell? This would still be a nkce feature to have
I
Thanks

 

[Evshrug]

I think you are refering to the MTW 1 not the MTW2, are you not?

No; both the MTW2 and grell TWS/1 have a similar sleep mode. The main reason the MTW2’s standby battery lasted longer than the MTW1’s was because the second version used a newer Qualcomm system on a chip that was more power efficient… but it also had a little audible background hiss.

The grell TWS/1 (and others) needs to use some battery while in sleep mode; Axel explained
But here is the explanation: The IC in the battery case is working on a very low power consuming state to provide energy at the right voltage to the earbuds' batteries when their level is below the threshhold value. This process drains the battery cases bttary in about 4 weeks.

The battery delivers 3.7V. The charger in the battery case needs to offer 5V to the ear buds. When it offers 5V and current is taken from the ear buds the battery cases' electronics remains "on" as long as current is flowing. When no current is flowing, the electronics in the charger go to sleep mode and wakes up from time to time to offer energy.
That process consumes energy.

This will suit most owners, who we believe will use the grells more than once a month, and give the case a sip of USB or wireless charge from time to time. Due to the reactive/automatic nature of battery cases recharging true wireless headphones, this ought to usually be the situation, unlike fullsized wireless headphones with larger batteries that don’t need a charging case.

I didn’t see the SpinFits included with the N400NC either on AKG’s product page – but even though I count myself as an audio/headphone enthusiast, I haven’t familiarized myself with every product offering on the market, particularly IEMs which are very numerous!

The Sound ID app have been updated recently and been working quite reliably even if it s quite a pain to use and slow to upload changes to the Grell -still no offline
mode which means i wont be able to use it during flight or non covered are.

Glad the app is working reliably for you!
I’m not sure what you mean by an offline mode… once you complete your listening test and preference test, you can upload this SoundID profile into the grells so you can use the tuning whether you’re on a walk, in a plane, using the Bluetooth from your phone, or Bluetooth from a tablet.

It’s one of the major features of the grell that you can take your customized tuning with you even when you can’t use your phone or the app to perform EQ duties!

Any news or timelines from Qualcomm on their developper kit when they will unlock the multipoint feature for their SOC used with the Grell?

I wish I knew… I believe B&O has the funds to develop multipoint drivers even without Qualcomm officially releasing support yet. But I will definitely make noise here when it becomes available!!

 

[joe75]

Thanks Evshrug for your long and detailed reply, it s really appreciated

First , i have switched from the silicone to the foam tips just a few days ago.
I did not bother to do it before because the MTW2 that i sold before getting the Grell had only silicone tips and were fine for me but
switching to foam seems to have improved both noise isolation and sound. That's Great.



i will try quick to clarify not necessarily in any order of importance



1) by offline mode, it s simple, it means that soundid does not work if i dont have internet connexion (so if i want to change EQ or switch on/off sound id mode i cannot do it ...so that can be an inconvenience ).
But this is a SoundId problem not a Grell audio problem and it s on rare occasions but it should be mentionned anyway

2)

Thanks for confirming that 4 weeks will Kill the battery...I am not in the right demographic since i have a few others TWS i like to come back to so yes some others dont get daily or even weekly usage...

I wont insist again too much again about the MTW2 but I never ever had this battery drain vissue with them and i can tell you than even after 4 weeks they retain both MTW2 case and earbuds à lot of charge ( while they are rated 28 hours total and Grell 45 hours)

There was 2 or 3 occasions, when i put back the Grell earbuds in the case and since there was no battery left in it , the buds would stay connected...and powered on even after i disconnected them from my phone until they run out of battery and with their légendaire hissing sound as a reminder...

3) fingers crossed, for multipoint connectivity that would be a welcome addition!

 

[Evshrug]

1.) Good point, it's possible that Sonarworks needs to check that the app is being used in accordance with their licensing agreement, or needs LTE for some reason. I pretty much only used SoundID to run the hearing test and listening preference test (three times each, for the sake of familiarity and more confidence in the results, it's cool that multiple tests build up on previous results like that... but I admit that I got used to the default tuning with the power of brain burn-in!), and now I only use it when a new firmware is released. I can totally understand frustration when you want to use different EQ's frequently... for example, what is optimal for Rock & Roll may be a bit muffled sounding with a spoken word News report.

2.) I personally empathize; I have over 30 different kinds of headphones at my house, and since grell doesn't make a full-size open headphone I got the green light to review one of those, but on any random day (or depending what is nearby in my house, lol), I might pick up one of many headphones. Managing batteries on a lot of electronics that like to be used can be quite a task (Wireless keyboard and mouse, tablet, a couple DAPs, portable amps, smartphone, smartwatch, etc).

Where we diverge is that when it comes to True Wireless in-ears, personally I only have a few and I always reach for the best sounding one before I go on a walk to wake up for the day (or take with me to add a soundtrack to my grocery shopping, haha). Since the grell is my favorite, I keep an eye on it; I sometimes set it on my wireless charger in the morning while I get dressed or during a shower, and usually that's enough, but if I see it's on it's last LED indicator of charge I'll plug the case in while I leave on my walk, and by the time I'm back the charge will often be full again or nearly there.

3.) Multipoint will indeed come one day! It will be nice for office users who are listening to music on one device, but need to immediately take a call on their phone. It will be nice for me as I work from home! It doesn't improve connection stability, though, or allow simultaneous playback from multiple devices.

 

[Markttp]

(deleted)

 

[joe75]

https://www.soundguys.com/grell-audio-tws-1-review-72300/

 

[Evshrug]

Just a little company update: while we’re temporarily letting our Head-Fi sponsorship revert back to Member of the Trade (I can’t resist teasing that we’re working on something in a different form factor to add to our lineup), I can’t advertise but I can still answer questions

 

[Ichos]

Just a little company update: while we’re temporarily letting our Head-Fi sponsorship revert back to Member of the Trade (I can’t resist teasing that we’re working on something in a different form factor to add to our lineup), I can’t advertise but I can still answer questions

Subscribed!

 

[moorashj]

Just picked up a pair. So far very nice!

 

[Evshrug]

Just picked up a pair. So far very nice!

Hope you love them!
I think now is another good time to share a playlist of about 10 of the songs Axel used to check that the default tuning sounded exciting and not bad (like… no pain from Nickleback), then a few songs from me that I thought sounded great, and then Axel’s partner from Iceland contributed some tracks:

Spotify

Tidal

Qobuz

Please share if you discover some tracks you think sound awesome on the TWS/1!

 

[moorashj]

update…this morning they connected. I’m shocked but will see what happens….can someone post the pic of the drop+Grell bud? Thanks

Hello all,
My right bud is totally dead....the charge on the case is full. No music from right. Tried resetting them twice but to avail. The right bud is totally unresponsive. Any assistance would be great.
I also notice that the drop + Grell is in tiny writing on the side of bud not big like the pics I have seen. I have tried more times trying to reset but the right bud won’t do a thing.
is it too much to ask for something to work right?
Thanks
Jason

 

[Evshrug]

update…this morning they connected. I’m shocked but will see what happens….can someone post the pic of the drop+Grell bud? Thanks

Hey Moorashj,
I would recommend contacting grell audio directly for support: support@grellaudio.com
It was probably a connection issue between the left and right buds... this "mute" would happen sometimes with the older firmware, I would recommend updating to 2.8.0 if you haven't yet. A more general tech support/bluetooth tip, if it seems like the bluetooth "computer" is frozen, and you can't switch off the headphones (buds in this case) manually, then you could wait for it to turn off by the battery running out.

There were two silk-screened versions of the DROP + grell buds (two different versions of printing). I only have one pair, like this:

I was told that this (more common) version of the DROP + grell TWS1X was chosen because the simpler look was more appealing; there is no writing on the rim surrounding the touch field. On my space gray grell TWS/1, there is writing on the gray ring (it just says TWS/1 HIGH PRECISION DYNAMIC DRIVER). I will point out, though, that this silver ring (and the corresponding black ring on the TWS1X) is where the capacitance field for the touch controls ends (aka if we grab the bud by the edge, it won't register touches by accident as long as the pad of our fingers don't overlap past this ring).

 

[Evshrug]

As a separate note... thread regulars may notice that I no longer have grell audio or member of the trade tags on my profile. As of the end of July, grell audio is no longer my client (Hey, anyone know of a job opening?). I'll leave them to explain (it may show up on grellaudio.com, because they currently aren't Head-Fi sponsors, as much as they would like to be), but I'm still fond of Axel and grateful for the time I had with them so far, and hopeful for the possibility of returning some day

For me, well... I miss doing headphone reviews, honestly. And now that I'm not a member of the trade... I'm free to do headphone reviews again! So, as long as it doesn't take up too much time from job hunting, I may pick up reviewing again!

 

[moorashj]

As a separate note... thread regulars may notice that I no longer have grell audio or member of the trade tags on my profile. As of the end of July, grell audio is no longer my client (Hey, anyone know of a job opening?). I'll leave them to explain (it may show up on grellaudio.com, because they currently aren't Head-Fi sponsors, as much as they would like to be), but I'm still fond of Axel and grateful for the time I had with them so far, and hopeful for the possibility of returning some day

For me, well... I miss doing headphone reviews, honestly. And now that I'm not a member of the trade... I'm free to do headphone reviews again! So, as long as it doesn't take up too much time from job hunting, I may pick up reviewing again!

I will post pics tomorrow. Mine are different than the pics you posted.

 

[moorashj]

Well, after using these for a few weeks, return they went. I couldn't keep the case charged for more than one day, the buds would be dead every time I took them from the case or one bud would work and the other dead. I had the most up to date firmware but did not seem to matter.
Loved the sound but they were too much of a headache. Hopefully, in the future, they will get it right and I will try again.
Thanks all on here for their support.
J