So I narrowed my search down to three TWS that seemed to hit my checklist: good sound, USB-C, good mic for calls, solid connection. Here’s what I wound up at:
- Fiil T1X
- EarFun Air
- Aukey EP-N5
I wound up ordering all three and they showed up today. Here’s some initial impressions if anyone is interested. For reference, my benchmarks for comparison are my Tin Audio T2 for more accurate reference listening, and My Bowers and Wilkins P5 for less accurate, but warm and easy to listen to.
EarFun Air
Right away, I really wanted to like these. Great features like in-ear detection that automatically pauses when you taken one out. Decent plastics and build quality, wireless charging, supposedly good US support.
First impressions were good: surprisingly warm mids with good clarity. Listening to Sotto Voce by The Human Abstract was pleasant, with the plucked acoustic strings sounding nice. However, further listening to other tracks, especially Miracle by CHVRCHES revealed the fatal flaw for me: sibilance. There’s just too much on sharper vocals and this persists with highs in percussion as well. The sibilance ruins the earbuds for me, so back they’ll go.
Aukey EP-N5
These are newly released and I couldn’t find much in the way of reviews or anything for them. The big feature on these is that they have active noise canceling, impressive for the $50 price tag! The noise canceling itself isn’t quite as impressive, however. It works, you can tell the difference with it on or off, but it only seems to be able to handle the deeper hum of an air conditioning unit, not the hum and the fan noise.
Overall sound quality on these are pretty good. First off, sibilance isn’t an issue here. The highs are a bit dull, but it beats sibilance. Bass thumps nicely without being overpowering. Switching back and forth between these and my T2s Does leave me with a bit of an intangible feeling that they’re missing something, however.
On their own, they’re a perfectly competent pair of IEMs that sound pretty good and aren’t fatiguing, which is great. They’re just missing a bit of “wow factor,” I suppose, and the plastics for the earbuds and the case aren’t bad, but you won’t confuse them for a premium product either. That said, for the money I think they’re really solid.
Fiil T1X
When I first popped these in, I wasn’t entirely sure what the fuss was about. They sounded good, but I wasn’t blown away. But, I started to listen to them more and that quickly changed from just warming up to them to being impressed.
Mid-range is really clear without feeling flat, bass thumps nicely on tracks like Billie Eilish’s bad guy, and detail is there. No sibilance on percussion, but maybe a smidge more than my T2s on songs like Miracle where I’m sensitive to the vocals especially. That said, the sibilance is more of “if you’re listening for it” and I don’t think it would be fatiguing at all.
They definitely sound better than the Aukeys, and build quality is better too. The buds themselves look more premium, and the case looks and feels more premium as well. However, this also brings me to what might break them for me First, the fit is a bit off for me with the wings: it takes a lot of fiddling to get them to really tuck into my ear.
But the big issue? The case is fairly large and definitely
thick. As I was walking around testing these, I always felt that damn case in my pocket and it’s very visible. Factor in the hard edges, and it’s really a bit of a pain. Despite these winning for sound and build quality, I may just wind up keeping the Aukeys instead because they’ll be easier to live with in my tight pockets when hiking, walking cities, flying, etc.
I’m going to give the Aukeys a bit more time and see how they perform on calls and I’ll update here again if anyone is interested.
