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

[helmutcheese]

I had a set of Shure SE535-CL-EFS in 2016, I did not really rate them and never keep them and Bluetooth be it the original wire round back of neck or full neckband or TWS are more convenient.
I am pretty sure with advancements in tech the FiiO FH7's I keep wired have better SQ and I use the FH3's on my FiiO Neckband.

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[audionooby]

I've been using the Meze Alba for walks and whatnot, a $149 wired IEM, and they absolutely walk over my APP2 for soun. I don't think tws will get to SE846 in the foreseeable lol.

You can use an adapter to make it a TWS right? Although I’m not sure what the best adapter is these days.

 

[maegnificant]

You can use an adapter to make it a TWS right? Although I’m not sure what the best adapter is these days.

I can, but it significantly increases noise because those adapters get rubbed by the ears and blown on by the wind. I just have to keep buying phones with 3.5mm adapters.

 

[mainguy]

You can use an adapter to make it a TWS right? Although I’m not sure what the best adapter is these days.

I use it wired, I did try utsw5 and its nice but you lose a lot of SQ even over LDAC sadly. Maybe iFi Go Pods? apparently they get v close to wired

 

[Killedkella]

You can use an adapter to make it a TWS right? Although I’m not sure what the best adapter is these days.

There’s a ton of great and extremely powerful wireless adapters these days, I use my FiiO BTR7 with my iems but they can easily drive the HD600s to deafening volume.

However as good as they are, I still find the cable itself is bothersome, nothing will beat having zero wires for complete comfort.

 

[Killedkella]

Okay so I finally got to try a bunch of wireless earbuds, directly against my AirPods Pro 2s and I’m not sure what to think.

The Pi8s were pretty good but it honestly just felt like they went for a more reserved V shape style tuning, I did feel some sibilance in things like cymbals , and the bass was fairly well extended too. However it lacked that natural mid- and vocal range the pro 2s deliver. It also felt like some low guitar notes had a sort of “bloat” to them which I didint really enjoy.

The Gemini 2s in my opinion are just e-waste, horrendous and thunderous boomy sub bass that overshadows everything, I have no idea how any audio engineer thought this was acceptable!

The ones that impressed me the most were the Technics EAH-AZ80 and the Momentum 4 true wireless, the Technics felt incredibly natural but with a much more extended low end compared to the pro 2s, and the momentum 4 whilst not having as punchy mid bass as the AirPods, did come across more detailed and immersive. My only issue with these two models were the fit, both felt a bit large and intrusive in the ear canal, the biggest offender being the Momentum 4

Overall, while I greatly enjoyed the sonic performance of the last two, I don’t think I’ll be upgrading any time soon. The AirPods Pro 2 fit incredibly well, have great anc, and sound just natural enough without introducing any unwanted sibilance or bloat.

 

[audionooby]

The ones that impressed me the most were the Technics EAH-AZ80 and the Momentum 4 true wireless

When the AZ80 has three way multipoint enabled does the SQ degrade? Like is it different from two device or one device pairing (with all devices in range)?

 

[Killedkella]

When the AZ80 has three way multipoint enabled does the SQ degrade? Like is it different from two device or one device pairing (with all devices in range)?

I have not tested that, only tested them side by side with the AirPods Pro 2. I don’t think the sound quality would degrade either way, as it’s only playing back from one device at a time.

 

[audionooby]

I have not tested that, only tested them side by side with the AirPods Pro 2. I don’t think the sound quality would degrade either way, as it’s only playing back from one device at a time.

I think I recall reading that some amount of bandwidth in the Bluetooth communication is lost to maintaining multipoint. Not sure what the implications are sonically, if any.

 

[helmutcheese]

The bandwidth is lower in Multipoint for any earbuds even if the 2nd device is basically idle and the reason aptX Lossless drops to Adaptive unless you only connect to one device.

I had the AZ80 and the three way Multipoint worked fine (only 2 devices can be connected via LDAC, the 3rd a lesser codec) again due to bandwidth.

 

[subguy812]

The B&W's arrived. Listening and getting used to them. Anyone find their favorite EQ they wish to share?

 

[audionooby]

Do Apple buds

The bandwidth is lower in Multipoint for any earbuds even if the 2nd device is basically idle and the reason aptX Lossless drops to Adaptive unless you only connect to one device.

I had the AZ80 and the three way Multipoint worked fine (only 2 devices can be connected via LDAC, the 3rd a lesser codec) again due to bandwidth.

Do Apple buds have this issue? I feel like I have paired AirPods to several devices and not seen any reduction in quality.

 

[dasadab]

Okay so I finally got to try a bunch of wireless earbuds, directly against my AirPods Pro 2s and I’m not sure what to think.

The Pi8s were pretty good but it honestly just felt like they went for a more reserved V shape style tuning, I did feel some sibilance in things like cymbals , and the bass was fairly well extended too. However it lacked that natural mid- and vocal range the pro 2s deliver. It also felt like some low guitar notes had a sort of “bloat” to them which I didint really enjoy.

The Gemini 2s in my opinion are just e-waste, horrendous and thunderous boomy sub bass that overshadows everything, I have no idea how any audio engineer thought this was acceptable!


The ones that impressed me the most were the Technics EAH-AZ80 and the Momentum 4 true wireless, the Technics felt incredibly natural but with a much more extended low end compared to the pro 2s, and the momentum 4 whilst not having as punchy mid bass as the AirPods, did come across more detailed and immersive. My only issue with these two models were the fit, both felt a bit large and intrusive in the ear canal, the biggest offender being the Momentum 4


Overall, while I greatly enjoyed the sonic performance of the last two, I don’t think I’ll be upgrading any time soon. The AirPods Pro 2 fit incredibly well, have great anc, and sound just natural enough without introducing any unwanted sibilance or bloat.

The APP2 have great ANC, but I found the sound to be just adequate. My Denon Pearl Pros sound much fuller, richer, and just plain enjoyable. But the form factor is not as comfortable for me and the ANC is marginal for me. It's interesting that new B&W offering is getting so much praise, but you are not quite there with that praise. Sorry for the long lead in, I am wondering how the Technic's ANC compares to your APP2s? Thanks!! And Thanks for the comparisons.

 

[audionooby]

The APP2 have great ANC, but I found the sound to be just adequate. My Denon Pearl Pros sound much fuller, richer, and just plain enjoyable. But the form factor is not as comfortable for me and the ANC is marginal for me. It's interesting that new B&W offering is getting so much praise, but you are not quite there with that praise. Sorry for the long lead in, I am wondering how the Technic's ANC compares to your APP2s? Thanks!! And Thanks for the comparisons.

With so many conflicting opinions, I am not sure if I should buy any more TWS. I have tried so many and have not really found sound quality differences that are compelling enough or consistent enough to choose one over the other definitely. I basically end up liking the AirPods for ease of connections and Sony or Bose for ANC.

Given all the different opinions from reviewers and people here, I wonder if that other poster had the right idea choosing the Shure 846 after all. With a BT ear hook adapter it might be the best way to get better sound quality with some TWS like convenience. Does anyone feel like any TWS can compete on sound quality with those?

 

[Killedkella]

The APP2 have great ANC, but I found the sound to be just adequate. My Denon Pearl Pros sound much fuller, richer, and just plain enjoyable. But the form factor is not as comfortable for me and the ANC is marginal for me. It's interesting that new B&W offering is getting so much praise, but you are not quite there with that praise. Sorry for the long lead in, I am wondering how the Technic's ANC compares to your APP2s? Thanks!! And Thanks for the comparisons.

I think the ANC on all of these were serviceable, the technics isolated the outside noise in the store pretty well, but I did find that the pro 2s performed the best out of all of them.

And yeah the Pi8s aren’t a bad sounding earbud by any measure, but I just didn’t find anything to be that great about them that I would be willing to spend $500 cad on. Another gripe I had with it is how cheap the case felt, I noticed this with the wf-xm5 too, where the top hinge just felt thin and less robust. The case on the Pi8s just didint feel like a small sturdy stone, which is something I love about the AirPods.

I may give it another go, I listened to all of these within an hour so these are just my very raw first impressions. But yeah so far the sennheiser and the Technics sounded the best to me so far, sounded less like a consumer wireless earbud and more like a competently tuned IEM.