Going fully Wireless IEMs. Too soon? Or are we there yet?

[helmutcheese]

Creative had Dongles before Nura, the BT3 and before that the BT2

If Nura do not add App support for the Dongle it is kind of pointless IMO.

 

[harpdoc]

Creative had Dongles before Nura, the BT3 and before that the BT2

If Nura do not add App support for the Dongle it is kind of pointless IMO.

Have you found an app that works with the BT-W4? I haven't found one that works for Android. I just use the button.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Creative had Dongles before Nura, the BT3 and before that the BT2

If Nura do not add App support for the Dongle it is kind of pointless IMO.

I don't think the dongles need app support. They just override the BT connection.

 

[helmutcheese]

1) No, the Creative App is for Windows only.

2) I beg to differ, the cheap Chinese Dongle even have a Windows App and it is very handy, you can at least then force the HQ or LL Modes of aptX Adaptive and disable Codec you do not need/want and see the list of paired devices and can switch between them easily added to FW updates etc.

To release a premium high-end model and use it blindly with no App support again IMO is pointless.

 

[clerkpalmer]

1) No, the Creative App is for Windows only.

2) I beg to differ, the cheap Chinese Dongle even have a Windows App and it is very handy, you can at least then force the HQ or LL Modes of aptX Adaptive and disable Codec you do not need/want and see the list of paired devices and can switch between them easily added to FW updates etc.

To release a premium high-end model and use it blindly with no App support again IMO is pointless.

The dongle I used on my iPhone and pi7 from creative worked perfectly fine without any app support. Allowed me to get hi res on my iPhone. Hard to complain for 40 bucks.

 

[helmutcheese]

That is your choice and opinion but not mine and I also would not use an Apple product by choice and the App is more for Windows use.

My Android phone is already Hi-Res without the dongle, just no aptX Adaptive as getting old now, it has aptX HD 24/48 and LDAC 24/96 and 24/192 wired.

 

[clerkpalmer]

That is your choice and opinion but not mine and I also would not use an Apple product by choice and the App is more for Windows use.

I guess we just have different expectations for the product - that is all. For me, it served it's intended purpose of a cheap simple way to improve upon AAC from an iphone.

 

[SynaestheticA]

I guess we just have different expectations for the product - that is all. For me, it served it's intended purpose of a cheap simple way to improve upon AAC from an iphone.

Do they have any effect on max volume output?

 

[clerkpalmer]

Do they have any effect on max volume output?

My recollection is no. The dongle basically takes over the audio out on the phone and then transmits the audio to the earphones. So for me on an iPhone, the phone transmits hi res audio into the dongle. The dongle then transmits aptxhd to the earphones even though an iPhone doesn’t support aptxhd. Pretty brilliant.

 

[Hozay]

Hi folks can anybody offer any opinions on this: Can a wired IEM beat TWS that sell for similar price on sound quality? For example, Final E5000 ($200-$300), against most TWS (most TWS are under $300) Excluding any DAC/AMP, TWS using AAC/Aptx (most common codecs), Final E5000 directly connect to mobilephone/PC.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Can a wired IEM beat TWS that sell for similar price?

Yes.

But can a TWS beat a wired IEM that sell for a similar price?

Yes.

In my experience, in general and subject to exceptions, a wired IEM will beat a similarly priced TWS IEM. But there's a whole of of other things to consider. TWS have a lot of features that wired IEMs don't (portability, battery life, ANC, codecs, multipoint, sweat resistance etc.) . I assume your question is limited to sound quality and in most cases, a wired IEM will sound better than a TWS IEM assuming price is equal. The vast majority of TWS on the market are not focused on pure SQ. Stated differently, they aren't even trying to beat a wired IEM. So I think you are probably comparing apples to oranges unless all you care about is pure sound quality. In that case, you have your answer (subject to exceptions).

 

[Hozay]

Yes.

But can a TWS beat a wired IEM that sell for a similar price?

Yes.

In my experience, in general and subject to exceptions, a wired IEM will beat a similarly priced TWS IEM. But there's a whole of of other things to consider. TWS have a lot of features that wired IEMs don't (portability, battery life, ANC, codecs, multipoint, sweat resistance etc.) . I assume your question is limited to sound quality and in most cases, a wired IEM will sound better than a TWS IEM assuming price is equal. The vast majority of TWS on the market are not focused on pure SQ. Stated differently, they aren't even trying to beat a wired IEM. So I think you are probably comparing apples to oranges unless all you care about is pure sound quality. In that case, you have your answer (subject to exceptions).

Thx for your thoughts, sorry that I did not make it clear, yes I was only asking about the sound quality, not functions. And exclude DAC/AMPs coz that will make the competition pointless as TWS can't use any dac/amps via codec. I was also asking if for example Final E5000 can beat all TWS because most TWS sell for less than $350, but IEM goes way up. So had to narrow the IEM price range down to $300 or less.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Thx for your thoughts, sorry that I did not make it clear, yes I was only asking about the sound quality, not functions. And exclude DAC/AMPs coz that will make the competition pointless as TWS can't use any dac/amps via codec. I was also asking if for example Final E5000 can beat all TWS because most TWS sell for less than $350, but IEM goes way up. So had to narrow the IEM price range down to $300 or less.

Haven’t heard a final e5000 but my guess is there isn’t any tws that could hang with it for sound quality but there are some very good sounding tws. You could also explore tws adapters with higher end iems and get the best of both worlds.

 

[Hozay]

Haven’t heard a final e5000 but my guess is there isn’t any tws that could hang with it for sound quality but there are some very good sounding tws. You could also explore tws adapters with higher end iems and get the best of both worlds.

For "very good sounding tws" are you refering to fokus pro or other premium priced TWS? And TWS adapters only give you better codecs, so to make it simple I just let IEM w/o dac/amp compete against TWS with common codecs. The reason I ask is I was thinking about spend less on TWS coz I tried $350/$300/$200 TWS under same codec and they dont sound very different, beside none of them can beat IEM with similar price, so why not invest more on IEM and get a "middle class" TWS just for exercising. Because $200 TWS do sound lot better than $100 ones, but anything over $250, are flagships of various brands and they all sound just fine. It seems that a wired IEM are more like a mechanical product, and TWS are electrical products which upgrade much often than IEM.

 

[clerkpalmer]

For "very good sounding tws" are you refering to fokus pro or other premium priced TWS? And TWS adapters only give you better codecs, so to make it simple I just let IEM w/o dac/amp compete against TWS with common codecs. The reason I ask is I was thinking about spend less on TWS coz I tried $350/$300/$200 TWS under same codec and they dont sound very different, beside none of them can beat IEM with similar price, so why not invest more on IEM and get a "middle class" TWS just for exercising. Because $200 TWS do sound lot better than $100 ones, but anything over $250, are flagships of various brands and they all sound just fine. It seems that a wired IEM are more like a mechanical product, and TWS are electrical products which upgrade much often than IEM.

I would go with your plan. High end wired IEM for audio listening, and "middle class" TWS for on the go, gym etc. I'd take a look at the Bose QCII in the "middle" price bracket you are looking at.