I agree, the WF-SP800N sound quality is very good for sure, but the quirks have me seriously questioning whether to keep them. With my T1X, at least with different tips the driver flex is improved 90% such that for $49 they are worth keeping. But the Sony WF-SP800N cost 4x as much as the T1X for a slight improvement in sound and a lot of new features, but 5x more when you add tax and a 2 year extended warranty (Although I'm not sure I want any TWS that doesn't have ambient pass thru now).
The WF-SP800N have all the features that I want such as ANC, Ambient sound pass thru, auto-pause/play when removed/inserted, and good EQ; and some neat feature I have not seen elsewhere, such as automatic location based audio adjustments and the sound enhancer for Tidal based on your ear shape. Tidal on my iPhone sounds very good after the app analyzed pictures of my ears, but I hadn't thought to try Tidal before letting the app set everything up (just went through the setup hitting "next" at every step (declined to share personal info though).
But the fit when using any of the hooks will not allow a tight seal, so I can't benefit from ANC when using the hooks. Without the hooks, then the second from largest tips wont hang onto my ears or seal as tight as needed for the best ANC or retention, and the largest tips will seal and work with ANC but over time they still slowly work loose, and when they are loose the tips start to tickle my ears. The issues resulting from their slipping fit with the largest tips and no hooks is the same issue that I have with my Air Pods Pro.
With the hooks and a poor seal, it doesn't matter that I have ambient mode either, since almost everything leaks in anyway, although ambient does very slightly improve vocal clarity of what sound does leak in around the tips. With the hooks and a poor seal I might as well be using my Powerbeats Pro, although the Sony with a semi-poor seal do sound better than the Powerbeats Pro which NEVER seal in my ears. Even with the hooks, I have to adjust the WF-SP800N regularly to get the bass to come back as they slide out about even 0.5 mm, at which point they sound about the same as the Powerbeats, not better (lose bass). I would NOT ride a bicycle with the Sony in my ears, but I do it all the time with the Powerbeats Pro (I have retired my older AirPods 2 because they simply fall out every time I turn my head).
I hear a brief crinkly sound from the drivers when I press the Sony into my ears, but if it's driver flex it doesn't make the driver stick and bind up like with the FIIL T1X, since the ear canals don't stay pressurized. So, the sound doesn't get affected at all.
BUGS, bugs, bugs with my iPhone 11 Pro Max. The app will sometimes disconnect from the earbuds, and reconnect. And, sometimes if I've got them in my ears for 10-30 minutes without playing music, then when I hit the play button it only get partial sound and cut-outs, and I have to remove them from my ears and put them back in to play. Sometimes when that happens I have to actually go into BT settings disconnect them from BT and reconnect to get them back and working. I don't have confidence that if I go to walk the dog and night and have an emergency that they will be ready for me to use handsfree, or that when my hands are full I wont have to drop everything to reconnect to answer a call.
Just this morning I put them in my ears and both earpieces holds me I was connected, but when I hit play on the iTunes widget on my lock screen I got no sound while it said it was playing. I unlocked my iPhone and went into the control panel to select the Sony, but they were not listed as available, even BT settings said they were connected. I had to take them out of my ears and put them back in to get sound.
So, where am I right now?
The
Sony WF-SP800N have a 97.3% chance of being returned, and I'll use the money to by the MTW2. I only bought them because I could get them right away, and have them brought out to my car in the Target parking lot. The poor fit is the biggest issue, followed closely by the software bugs (firmware could fix that). The sound is great, and if the other issues were gone, even if only the fit issues, then I would love them - maybe even put them as #1, despite them sticking out of the ears like a weird growth in my ears.
My
Air Pods Pro still give me the best ANC and Ambient modes, with a fit that isn't terrible and sound that is above average - I mostly use these when I'm at home during the day and need to hear what is going on around me while not bothering my family while I watch YouTube videos. Transparency mode is the most transparent, and ANC puts me on the surface of the moon (except for the deepest low bass rumbles). They still worked great on an airplane last December.
My
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless have a nice laid back punchy sound with good detail, space, and soundstage despite slightly recessed treble, while being very comfortable - I use these in many of the same situations as the Air Pods Pro and I want to do more critical listening, but not when I'm walking the dog as I still hear my footsteps thumping inside my head. I like the auto-pause when one is removed, and like having the option to set it to pause the music when I engage transparency mode, or to set it to leave the music playing with transparency. Transparency could be a little louder though, as it's not as good for conversations while wearing them as the APP or Jabra 75t. And, despite no ANC they worked well for me on a couple of airplane flights last year.
My
Powerbeats Pro give me the best retention for when I am active, and don't sound terrible when used with a poor seal that lets me hear what's going on around me (actually, I can never get a seal) - these are my goto TW for when walking the dog and riding my bike, especially at times when I just want a handsfree headset for phone calls while walking or sitting around.
My
Nuarl N6 Pro give me better passive sound isolation and sound quality, at the expense of comfort because they hit my ears in the wrong places - I miss them having a transparency mode, so I only use these late at night when I don't have to hear what is around me and want to do even more critical listening. I hate using them for phone calls due to lack of ambient/hear-thru/side-tone mode, so late at night is the only time I can enjoy them. These might be the best without ANC for use on an airplane.
My
Jabra 75t are pretty close to what I need and I plan to use them more for the next few days - so far they are extremely comfortable and the transparency mode is louder for letting me hear my surroundings than the MTW although with noticeably more white noise than transparency on the APP, MTW, or WF-SP800N. They are a bit bass heavy or boomy at medium to high volumes without EQ, but they sound great when using the application to EQ the bass down (for which they remember the settings). I either turn down the low bass manually, or use the preset "speech" EQ, or "treble boost" EQ which also lowers the bass.
I like that the Jabra will pause the music when I take one out and resume when I replace it. I like that they remember which settings I used last, even when the app is closed. Also, I love the "soundscapes" in the Jabra app where you can pipe in thunderstorms, waves, or rain in the background when you are just wearing them to block sound and wait for phone calls to come in. And, phone calls are great with Jabra because you can activate side-tone, which is basically hear through or transparency mode during a call so that you hear your voice more naturally despite the occlusion of your ear canal. Passive isolation without hear through turned on is about as good as APP and MTW, maybe even as good as N6P.
I like having three "Moments" in the Jabra app for quickly changing several settings at one time - such a "My Moment" where I have hear through set at medium, with bass turned down manually, "Commute" where I have a high hear through setting and bass and treble are slightly down using "speech" EQ, and "Focus" where I have hear through off and no EQ, for quiet listening when I might have used a "loudness" setting (neutral with no EQ is like having a v-shaped loudness control).
What I don't like - white noise in hear through mode when not playing music, no ANC, need for bass lowering EQ if listening at higher volumes BUT this is improving noticeably with burn-in.
My
FIIL T1X sound more "audiophile" than my Pamu Scroll, and are actually hard to fault the sound. So they are a huge bang for the buck if you can solve the "driver flex" issue, where your pressurized ear canal after insertion causes the driver to bind up and not want to move and distort - on the right more than left for me. My left one is so much better than the right that I wonder if I should do a warranty claim on mine, but it took 4 weeks to get them here the 1st time. I'm not sure that I have a use for these, since they are so bothersome to use with the driver flex. I considered returning them, but for the price it might be nice to keep as a spare since I did find tips that reduce the driver flex a bit.
I posted a picture and link to the tips that I am using which work better than the FIIL tips, but I still can't just jam them deeply into my ears to get good isolation and seal without having to fiddle a bit with the right to get the driver to unfreeze. At that point some of the isolation on the right is lost. But they don't sound terrible without a seal, esp with bass EQ on in the app; so you can wear them loosely for hearing things around you and talking phone calls with good comfort. They are a little more comfortable than the N6P, and much more comfortable than the WF-SP800N; but when triggering the touch pad I hear the taps amplified inside my ears if I have a tight seal (my MTW don't seem to resonate the thump of touch-pad taps into my ears as much).
My
PaMu Scroll are a comfortable and laid back but spacious TWS with good mids and bass, and slightly recessed treble that doesn't hurt detail - they are like a lower end version of the MTW, without the same refinement, auto pause and transparency mode, and no app for EQ like the MTW. I bought the APP and MTW to replace these, but not because I didn't like the sound but rather I wanted more features. I don't regret owning these, but they've been pushed to the back burner.
The
Nuprime Audio prototype TWS - nice engaging fun sound with good soundstage and bass - being tweaked and suspect will sound close to FIIL T1X in the end but with much better comfort and without the driver flex - currently a more v-shaped freq response than T1X. Also a tiny case as small as the Jabra 75T, making them worth more to me than the T1X. The buds are also about the same size as the Jabra 75t but with touch buttons that I don't accidentally trigger (smaller touch surface than the T1X). They're also as comfortable as the Jabra 75t and MTW, but with a little less passive isolation, which helps since there is no ambience mode. Either bud can be used as master or by itself, like the the N6P.
