Thanks!
My hopes are high, lots of people seem to really like the AZ60.
What mostly has been holding be back from buying any TWS for a long time has been the inability to listen to them before buying, and most shops here in Sweden don't allow TWS returns at all, so you are stuck with what you buy.
There are lots of reviews and people try to explain what they sound like which is hard and very subjective, and frequency response curves only says so much (and I don't know what I prefer anyway, just comparing stuff to a harman curve might not help me much in the end).
Sometimes people compare to other TWS which is a good data point (especially after having watched/read maaany reviews and forum comments) but most of the time doesn't directly help me as I havn't heard those other TWS either...
This is hard, I don't like buying things without knowing if it is something that I will like and enjoy using.
From what I've understood the sound is good (ofc not everyone likes the same thing) and that is of high importance, my list preferences goes something like this:
- Good sound quality (very subjective) that doesn't need an insane amount of EQ tweaking before sounding decent.
- Built-in EQ (that isn't too limited) so that multiple sources can be used easily while retaining the same experience.
- Volume and playback controls on the buds.
- No constant white noise, can be acceptable in transparency mode only.
- ANC, doesn't have to be the best as long as it does something decent and more importantly doesn't change the sound signature a whole lot (my current set of TWS is horrible at this).
- Transparency that is loud and clear enough to easily be able to hold a conversation (with music paused).
- Multipoint for when switching between work laptop and phone.
- In-ear sensor is convenient but not a must have.
- Wireless charging isn't very important, we mainly use cables anyway, wireless results in heat and batteries don't like heat. I don't use TWS so much that I need to charge the case all the time anyway.
- Low phantom battery drain (my current TWS has some, at least I have to charge the case more often than I should have to based on the little amount of time I'm using them)
My current TWS is a chi-fi set, Tronsmart Apollo Bold aren't very good, I'm sort-of certain that many of these areas are implemented better in the AZ60:
- They have waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much sub-bass but if you EQ that down (in the source) an insane amount then they start to become decent, especially if high-mids and treble is boosted a bit (and then you switch source and have to do it all over again, if even possible).
- The in-device presets destroy treble (sounds like it is resampled at a lower sample rate), this also occurs in ANC and transparency modes so I don't use those modes much, there is no in-device EQ available other than the presets.
- ANC also destroys the sound signature by boosting the sub-bass even more while also reducing mids
- There is white noise all the time (different amount in different modes).
- And some phantom battery drain.
- Fit isn't very good.
- In-ear detection works quite well.
In short, I'm tired of them and want something much better while at the same time not repeating past buying mistakes, which is hard.
Best audio purchase recently has been the Soundcore Life Q30 (not a "premium" product but quite decent due to having EQ that responds well), default EQ is horrible, some presets are decent'ish (at least when compared to default), but they also change sound signature a lot when ANC is enabled (not very good ANC), I mostly use them without ANC.
