[jeffri]

I tried looking up BlackBird but their site doesn't give much info. Seems they aren't sold many places.

Someone has me sold on the JVC Spiral Dots. That may be my next investment. Comply is amazing, but as anyone here who has had them knows, they degrade fast. The perils of foam I guess . Until then, I have 6 backup pairs of Comply until I either go for the Spiral Dots or find a more recent alternative. Can't do silicone. Not good for the ear.

Umm... Spiral dots is silicon. I'll recommend Dekoni foam if you wanted a foam that is more durable. Though, it doesn't have TWE variant so you possibly had to cut it off a bit.

 

[nerdydaddyo]

Umm... Spiral dots is silicon. I'll recommend Dekoni foam if you wanted a foam that is more durable. Though, it doesn't have TWE variant so you possibly had to cut it off a bit.

Looked up Dekoni. Looks a lot like Comply as well. Did some research on Spinfit, saw a lot of people unhappy with audio quality but happy with seal and fit. I don't typically like silicone since that's usually the included set with IEMs, but I thought the Spiral Dots were made of something other than silicone . Is there any other material out there that can provide the audio quality of foam with the the durability of silicone? I haven't read up on hybrids yet. As much as I love Comply and foam for sound, I need something that can take mowing the lawn more than a handful of times before changing. Washable would be nice.

 

[jeffri]

Dekoni is surely more durable than Comply. Sony made a foam-like eartips, but isn't actually made out of foam. It's called EP-TC50 I think. You wear it like a silicon, no need for squeezing first, but has a foam-like comfort.

 

[nerdydaddyo]

Dekoni is surely more durable than Comply. Sony made a foam-like eartips, but isn't actually made out of foam. It's called EP-TC50 I think. You wear it like a silicon, no need for squeezing first, but has a foam-like comfort.

I'm game. I'll check them out. So setting aside dislike for silicone, are Spiral Dots worth the try? I did like the look of the BlackBird set but yes, UK mainly and I need to make sure the fitment for core and ear are right .I put myself around 13mm for outer diameter, 4mm to 5mm for core. With a lot of ear tips it's hard to confirm that info on their sites .

 

[firewatersun]

Dekoni is surely more durable than Comply. Sony made a foam-like eartips, but isn't actually made out of foam. It's called EP-TC50 I think. You wear it like a silicon, no need for squeezing first, but has a foam-like comfort.

Also called Triple Comfort if you're searching on eBay - first tried them when they came with a WF-1000X, they're possibly the most comfy tips I've used - comfort of foam with the ease of silicone, with none of the ear canal pressure that sometimes comes with hybrids like Symbios.

Only issue is isolation isn't as good as full foams like Complys, but better than silicone. They really are a midway between the two kind of option.

 

[webvan]

So are these the "mushy" and nice smelling tips that come with the WF-1000x.on top of the standard silicone tips? I haven't found them to work well for me for fit and isolation , in fact I put some old Sony hybrids on my WF that I can ram in my canals with little discomfort.

As for Complys I'm done with them, good isolation but sound very muffled and terrible durability.

 

[WesennTony]

To me not all the silicone tips are the same. While I had bad experience with some stock tips, I always find spiral dots, spinfits, and Sony are very comfortable.

 

[WesennTony]

Last couple of days I tried the Sabbat x12 pro for gym use. They sound surprisingly good, neutral and balanced, not harsh at all. But the complete lack of sound isolation annoys me in a noisy gym. So my mw07 still needs to take the job

 

[jeffri]

I'm game. I'll check them out. So setting aside dislike for silicone, are Spiral Dots worth the try? I did like the look of the BlackBird set but yes, UK mainly and I need to make sure the fitment for core and ear are right .I put myself around 13mm for outer diameter, 4mm to 5mm for core. With a lot of ear tips it's hard to confirm that info on their sites .

Spiral dots is fine, it's on the more rigid side instead of soft like Spinfit and doesn't insert too deep. I quite like the sound it produces.

 

[WesennTony]

Hello all, so I got both the Mavin Air-X and the Mifo O5 (Balanced armature version). The Mavin Air-X is priced around 129USD and I got the Mifo O5 at a very cheap price of HK$160 (20.50USD) due to coupon discounts I got for a local store here in Hong Kong, their original price is HK$599 (US$76.70) which is cheaper than Aliexpress.



My preferred sound signature is warm neutral or neutral with slight bass boost (I’m very sensitive to treble so warm sound signature is a plus for me). Think of the Earin M2 as an example to describe the sound signature I prefer on a TWS (I have the Earin M2 in my collection of TWS IEMs). There are also times I prefer warm and bassy sounding IEMS like the UMPro50 or the FAD E5000 which I both have in my collection of wired IEMs.

I’ve been using both the Air-X and O5 for a few weeks now and both connected on my iPhone X (with AAC codec – More on that later), below are my short impressions about them using all default eartips that came in the box:

Mavin Air-X:
Sound Signature – They are a V shaped sounding TWS with emphasis on treble. The soundstage is not that wide but at the same time not narrow. You still have a sense of stage and can distinguish the placement of instruments in the music but not that much compared on neckband Bluetooth IEMs or IEMs connected in Bluetooth receivers like BTR3 or ES100.

Bass – They are deep and linear; however, they are overpowered by the treble so some people may find the bass lacking on treble specific music (mostly electronic music). Sub bass is present and deep but not much elevated, bass is good and does not bleed in the mids, they are thumphy and when called upon, can hit hard.

Mids – The mids are a bit recessed and can be lacking at times, vocals can sound distant but not much. Using a pair of foam eartips or at least stuffing the silicone eartip with some Polyurethane foam can attenuate the treble a bit bringing the mids back up and can also boost the bass and sub bass by a good margin.

Treble – They are present and can be over powering at times. EDM can easily be fatiguing on people like me who are sensitive to treble. There are also times that music sound very sibilant like sounding from a low bitrate music, making the treble sound more unatural (more on this later). One solution I found to attenuate the treble on comfortable levels is by placing Polyurethane foam in the silicone nozzle. Using a foam eartips can also help with the trebled but I prefer on using silicone eartips as they are very comfortable to my ears.



Battery life – They lasted me around 6 to 7 hours connected on my iPhone X and at 60% volume. They are great considering a lot of TWS does not even last more than 5 hours. Charging them in the case is quick. Only took around 40 to 45 minutes from dead to fully charged.

Connection – They use Bluetooth 5.0 and are have a very stable connection between the buds and my phone. I don’t get any dropouts during my commute. These TWS uses Bluetooth connection for both buds, they don’t have this NFMI (Near-field magnetic induction communication) to communicate with the master and slave like the ones on Earin, Jabra, B&O, Sennheiser and etc. I will consider this as an advantage as the implementation of NFMI are different meaning that the slave earbud actually plays the sound as SBC while the master is AAC (or aptX if supported), this is why some TWS may sound imbalanced (Jabra Elite 65T had this problem in past) when the connection is poor or susceptible to electromagnetic interference. Another advantage of Bluetooth to Bluetooth connection is you can share the other earbud with someone, even when they are a few meters away. Pairing processes is as simple as opening the case and pressing the pairing button at the left side of the charging case, you’ll see AirX_L in your Bluetooth list, then connect to it. Once paired, all you have to do is to take out the buds and place them in your ears, and they’ll connect automatically in less than 2 seconds.

The earbuds use the new QCC3026 chipset; Bluetooth to Bluetooth connection in between the earbuds are actually better that the old CSR chipset, and even better than NFMI at most times. According to Qualcomm, when paired on a device running a Snapdragon 845, both buds will be connected on the phone, but since I’m running an iPhone, the Air-X paired the traditional way, where the left side is the master and the right side is the slave, however this will depend on which side you take out of the charging case first. When already paired, taking out the right side will make it the master and the left side as the slave.

Mic and call quality – The mics of the Air-X are okay, especially if you are in a silent room, or an office with aircon noise, taking them out the streets the other party in a call will not hear you. 65T mics are better at handling outside noise.

Build quality – They are made of plastic, the one I got is Piano black. The earbuds themselves feel cheap and are also made of plastic. The charging case does squeak a bit when you squeeze the case but not that much.

Mifo O5:
Sound Signature – They are warm sounding TWS. They remind me of the Earin M2 in the sound signature and in fact they sound almost the same although the Mifo O5 has much clearer treble and wider soundstage, bass is clear and sub bass is present and thumphy, mids are lush, treble is smooth and clear and not fatiguing. Soundstage is better than the Air-X, they are not that wide compared to neckband IEMs but they are definitely better.

Bass – The bass and sub bass are very clear, they are not dynamic driver level of bass, but they are fun to listen to, there are times however that it can be lacking, especially when I use them in the subway. The Air-X has much more bass and sub bass but not by a large margin.

Mids – The mids are lush and clear, as expected on balanced armature drivers, they produce mids very clear and natural, the instrument separation is spot on and you can easily find the instruments in the music. Vocals sound natural for both male and female.

Treble – The treble is smooth and clear without overpowering. Cymbals and hi-hats sound natural. People who are used to treble boosted IEMs may find them lacking.

Battery life – They claimed about 7 hours of battery life and I got 6 to 7 hours battery life at 60% volume connected to my iPhone X. They also charge fast too, similar to the Air-X. The charging case however does not provide any battery level indicator, so you won’t be able to know the battery level of the charging case. The case does provide a 100-hour total charge on the earbuds so all I have to do is just charge the case every three to four days.

Connection – The O5 uses Bluetooth 5.0 as well, they are very stable and does not dropout during my commute. The O5 also uses Bluetooth to Bluetooth connection, the pairing process is as simple as taking out the right side earbud and selecting “mifo_O5” in your Bluetooth list, once paired, it will remember the last connected device and all you have to do is take out the buds and place them to your ears, they will connect automatically in less than two seconds. One disadvantage is you cannot use the right side as the slave, if you try to connect the left side to your phone, the right side will not connect. The chipset information of the O5 are unknown. Using Bluetooth explorer while the buds are connected to the Mac shows “Unknown Manufacturer”.

UPDATE: After hours of analysing RF data, the chipset being used by the O5 is the Realtek RTL8763B, it seems to be a direct competitor with Qualcomm's QCC3026 as it boast long battery life and very efficient power consumption. The only downside is lack of Aptx support which obviously is a Qualcomm specific and chipset dependant feature.

The voice prompts too are one of the disadvantages as its only available in Chinese and have no way to change to English. Unless of course Mifo releases an app to control, configure and update the earbuds but I doubt that will happen.

Mic and call quality – The shape of the O5 has similarities with the 65T where the mic sticks out a little bit. The sensitivity is actually a lot better than the Air-X, however when also used outside the streets, the other party can hardly make the words I’m speaking.

Build quality – The charging case is made of aluminum. It built like a tank and does not flex or squeak when I squeeze it, the buds themselves are made of plastic but are coated in this matte rubbery texture, the outer face is then coated with a silver matte reflective coating, all in all they feel premium despite the very cheap original price of HK$599 (US$76.70)

Codec quality of both the O5 and Air-X:
So, I was curious if the two TWS earbuds are actually using AAC on my iPhone, so I connected my phone to my Mac and opened up console. I also wanted to check the realtime bitrate when I place my phone in my right pocket of my pants. Both of them do support AAC. The O5 has a max bitrate of 221kbps while the Air-X has a max bitrate of 256kbps. I was expecting the Mifo O5 to perform the worse but to my surprise, the Air-X actually performed the worse. The Air-X while having a maximum bitrate of 256kbps AAC, it actually dropped around 192kbps AAC and jumping around 244kbps AAC, this is when the phone in my right pocket and the buds in both of my ears with the right side as the master and left side as the slave. This probably explains why some music sounded sibilant and unatural

The O5 on the other hand has a maximum bitrate of 221kbps AAC and amazingly, it maintained the 221kbps bitrate with the phone in my right pocket, and the right earbud the master, and the left earbud the slave.

Mifo O5 realtime bitrate

Mifo O5 max bitrate


Mavin Air-X realtime bitrate


Mavin Air-X max bitrate (also shows a bunch of errors)


Conclusion
All in all, I like the Mifo O5 and would recommend it than the Air-X, not only it is cheap, it’s actually a good pair of TWS. Good signal connection quality and easy pairing, great sound, very good build quality, decent battery life and a choice of driver between a balanced armature and a dynamic driver for people who love their bass and sound of a dynamic driver. I still think the Mavin Air-X is great TWS only flawed by bad implementation of the QCC3026, its a kickstarter project and I will assume they've rushed things to meet the demands of their backers.

I'm interested in Mifo O5 now. Great comparison! Could you tell me which version (standard or pro ) is using dynamic driver? I googled it and found different answers. Some also refer to a Sports edition, which I assume is the standard one? And how can I tell which version I have without opening the box?

 

[TYATYA]

MTW is f**king sound from Sennh.
I cant stand its sound.
It will break my hearing capability with its bass+sub bass. Have almost zero upper bass.

If you eat to much sugar, any apple will be tasteless.

P.S I heard someone in local forum said that MTW needs 100hour for correctly responds. Any one can confirm this?

Sennh momentium wireless is a very bad cans too. My best correction eq for it is below. Acceptable the sound, but most daps wont active eq on blutooth headphone (while all smartphone does)

 

[ocalderon]

@hifi80sman - decided to take a crack at the Mpow T5. Despite some shady reviews (one claims to have been using them for a year despite that these were seemingly released in Aug and another that claimed the pair was < $20...) there was a recent positive review by "worshipPastor" that actually sounded like the guy knew what he was talking about and he confirmed AAC so I'm assuming it does have aptX. The product page mentions that it utilizes Qualcomm's 3026 chip which on the data sheet (https://www.qualcomm.com/media/documents/files/qcc30xx-series-product-brief.pdf) confirms aptX feature as well as cVc. Should get it on the 2nd and will report back after I've had some time with them.

Looking forward to read your review! I bought the Jabra Elite Active 65t from ebay but were stolen or lost by USPS so i ran out of money to buy another pair. I was searching in aliexpress or gearbest and i found a couple of interesting and cheap earbuds. At first i found blitzwolf BW-FYE4 which have realtek chipset, but reading a little bit i can see they don't support Apt-X. Then i found that MPOW have the T2, T3, T5, T6 and T7. It's overwhelming the number of TWEs they have. From these, i can see T5 support Apt-X and CvC 8, while T6 and T7 doesn't (I could confirm this on facebook chat with somebody from MPOW). So it seems T5 are the best candidates if you're looking for Apt-X support and CvC.

Where is that review from worshipPastor you're talking about? I'm interested in read it.

 

[nerdydaddyo]

MTW is f**king sound from Sennh.
I cant stand its sound.
It will break my hearing capability with its bass+sub bass. Have almost zero upper bass.

If you eat to much sugar, any apple will be tasteless.

P.S I heard someone in local forum said that MTW needs 100hour for correctly responds. Any one can confirm this?

Sennh momentium wireless is a very bad cans too. My best correction eq for it is below. Acceptable the sound, but most daps wont active eq on blutooth headphone (while all smartphone does)

MTW? Is that a brand or an acronym for a saying?

Any opinions on Noble Audio? Their IEMs are too rich for my blood, but I'm really interested in their BTS receiver.

 

[korefuji]

MTW? Is that a brand or an acronym for a saying?

Any opinions on Noble Audio? Their IEMs are too rich for my blood, but I'm really interested in their BTS receiver.

Acronym for Momentum True Wireless by Sennheiser

 

[TYATYA]

MTW? Is that a brand or an acronym for a saying?

Any opinions on Noble Audio? Their IEMs are too rich for my blood, but I'm really interested in their BTS receiver.

MTW stands for Sennheiser momentium true wireless inear.
It is most high but too bad sq (Nuheara at $700 but I havent listen yet)

P.S sorry gymmer guys and weighlifting guys, I think they love it