Hi Guys,
in the "world" of wireless iem, at the moment what do you consider a Top 5...Give priority to sound quality....
I can only go with what I own.
1. Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro - these have the best over all sound signature of any TWS I have owned. The bass goes deep and yet is controlled, the mids are neutral and detailed, the treble has sparkle without crossing the line into sibilance. Sound stage is decently open and has as good a 3D presentation as my TWS I have owned. The only thing missing is a bit less detail in the treble as the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro. Weaknesses are no ability to set your own EQ relying on a small set of preset EQ's . I personally love the default sound and find the dynamic preset to be a nice alternative but not everyone will be so happy. I also have a newer Samsung device so get to take advantage of the 24 bit codec.
2. Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro - this TWS has very good sound once you apply the Hear ID function and can be tweaked like crazy due to the amount of presets available and the ability to just tweak the EQ to what ever you want. It supports LDAC, AAC, SBC so will work with just about any phone or computer. This TWS is an amazing bang for buck being half the price or less of most of the flagships out there from Sony, Bose, Samsung while offering arguably similar or more features, as good as or potentially better sound, and more. (If you like a stem style Soundcore has also just released the Liberty 4 which may be a contender but I can not speak from experience as it is not available in Canada yet). Signature is a bit heaver in the bass compared to the GB2P and has slightly less prominent mids, treble is articulate and detailed crossing over into being sharp and potentially sibilant unless you dial it back.
3. Technics AZ60 - this IEM offers a decent bag of tricks for features only missing auto detect in ear. It also looks really nice but lacks in comfort compared to the GB2P and Linkbuds S, and even slightly behind the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro. Setting that aside it signature is a bit mid-bass heavy that can mask the sub-bass a bit, nice warm mids, and decent treble detail. When on sale this is a decent performer that even offers multi-point while using LDAC, something no else has been able to accomplish.
4. Sony Linkbuds S - I have owned the WF-1000XM3 as well as the Linkbuds S and prefer the S over the XM3. In reading I am comfortable the XM4 would be less to my liking as I found the XM3 to dark sounding and the XM4 are apparently even darker sounding. So I was very happy with the Linkbuds S until I bought the SB2P and realized what I was missing sonically speaking. The S has a warm signature with a nice lush midrange but lack sub-bass depth and like all Sony BT headphones of the past few years is missing treble sparkle and detail. This is a great TWS for anyone who struggle with to much treble but for a 58 year old with hearing loss in that range these are just to polite. But they do have a great app and if you can train the AI to control ANC, no ANC, and ambient modes for you thse offer relatively OK battery life. But if you insist on LDAC, ANC, and DSEE to be enabled exported extremely short battery life of potentially only a couple of hours of use.
5. Soundcore Space A40 - this is smaller yet great battery performer than the L3P with only a single dynamic driver. It fits better and is arguably more a more balance sound. The signature is great if you don't want a lot of bass. I liked the bass mostly but do miss more sub-bass. The midrange is a bit dry and airy and treble is not as detailed as the L3P but also less harsh. This TWS has significant battery life as compared to the rest of the TWS on this list.
Battery life is pretty similar for most of these TWS except the Linkbuds S and Space A40. The S just is hampered unless you turn of LDAC and more importantly DSEE and then use the app to auto adjust settings in the fly. I find I can only get semi decent battery life if I use ANC only when really needed. If I turn on ANC when wearing these to bed for example the battery warning will wake me up way before I have slept for the night. The A40 on the other hand just clobbers everything on the list for battery life. If you really want a long battery life it's hard to beat and it's also almost as comfortable as the Sony and Samsung which are the best TWS for comfort with Samsung getting the nod for most comfortable.
