[webvan]

Thanks for your science check

When I got the SSF I thought how cool it would be if in 2 years they could fit QC20 level ANC in there ... I never had a problem with the slightly bulky form factor, but I enjoyed the semi open style.
And now they have a smaller sport model without ANC and a bulky 'no-run' model with ANC ...

Saved 279$ ... hooray!

Yeah I don't know if you can run with the Bose Sports without getting the dreaded "thump" ?

 

[BigZ12]

I really love my Senn' MTW2s with the new "High-End Sound Tuning" and these EQ settings.

 

[go0gle]

So I have yet again gone back to my Anker L2Ps after a brief outing with the Klipsch T5 II which whilst very nice, I found that I preferred the signature of the L2Ps in particular vocals and low end presence. The L2Ps have remained my staple earphone and have seen off the Bose QCs, M&D MW07+, Sennheiser TW and Jabra 75Ts. There are specific aspects of other earphones that eclipse the L2Ps but in terms of the overall package I am yet to come across a TW earphone that surpasses these. I find that quite staggering considering the price difference on some of these sets, these can be picked up at just over £100 these days. I am keen to hear the Jabra 85Ts as I did love the 75Ts. Am also keen to know if anyone else who has owned the L2Ps have gone on to find an earphone even better than these?

the L2P were a tad over engineered at launch, which is why they are aging so well.

I see no reason to buy another pair until next gen hardware becomes available.

All currently available headphones seem more or less clones of each other with no significant improvement over the L2P.

 

[jant71]

Listen to the Cleer Goal for the second day now and I like the way they sound. Ate with them with no chewing issue. The big open stage of an open earphone with some quality bass and nice extension. This earpod style is more earbud and fit is key so they can be more bassy or less bassy with the particular fit. Issue might be the soft ear fins for comfort don't push in with much force so if your ear needs that for them to sound the best. I might contact them with a little feed back to maybe make a firmer set as an option. They can use earpod style covers with their shape but some research should be done to confirm they would fit in the case. Something like this should still work even with the stock slicones on which don't cover the driver part at all.

or Earhoox style with a fin

More of potential fit differences but perhaps some aftermarket options. I, myself do add some bass EQ to these since the fit on me could benefit from a bit more force pushing the driver in closer.

They didn't give that extra charge for the goal like the manual download I found earlier. So, it is 20 hour and not 24 hours of charge but still is only five minutes for the one hour quick charge. They also changed the controls. Said to be no single press functions I guess to avoid accidental presses(JVC is better here as the Goal sensor area is bigger and easier to hit unintentionally) but now play pause is single press on either side and double press is FF on right or RR on the left. Volume is tap and tap/hold on the second tap. The auto pause on removal works quick and well but it is not a smart sensor so no auto resume when you put back in and you can get the play upon removal if you are paused.

Connection almost instant and nice and strong. No issues detected here yet but I have yet to test the range.

Windy day today and they were okay. A bit of a muted roar but not a bad one or wind whistle. Not the JVC handling of wind with the Aero fit design. Bigger and stick out more to catch the wind.

Some will like the more muted red/white LEDs that are behind housing so enough to see but not bright in a dark room.

I have the JVC ambient tips on there. JVC still seals more in and has a bit more satisfying low end punch while the Goal is bigger sounding and more spaced out. No real comparison just yet but those two differences stand out. Of course the JVC has the on board bass boost so I enable that when going ambient and that is a nice difference. JVC talks more a bout the Bass or Off sound or power on and etc. Cleer just seems to talk when pairing or looking for device and nothing else I have heard yet. No connected or power messages.

The case for the Cleer is a bit bigger and not shaped to fit the shape of a closed hand like the JVC is.

Both plastic top and rubber style bottom but the smooth plastic matte rubber imitation is not the same real rubber of the JVC designed to grip and not slide...

Cleer case slide along the plastic cover here while the JVC doesn't move and can hang off the edge. Cleer case is not like the JVC design to avoid fingerprints but the top of the case does have the window to see through and monitor the LEDs. The Goal case would be the better looking one while the JVC the better sports design.

JVC is almost $40 more, $129 vs. $89.99 and it has 9 hour battery vs. 6 and 27 vs. 20 including the case. A bit better sports design while the Goal is trying to be the most barely there as far as feel yet be stable for sports and be able to hear your surroundings. Goal is solid for the $90. Plastics are strong and the finish is quality. Case is sturdy with a good hinge and magnet. Earpieces are quality with great fit on the buds. Handsome, comfortable, nice sound, solid build. Nice presentation and packaging and nice quality stationary paper for the manual.

I still want to work with the fit and burn them in. Have to choose between the medium and large wings. Only things I would have liked to see would be a bass boost function and Qi charging. I have no complaints though at $90 shipped. If I don't wok out the optimal fit with the wings then I might complain about them a bit but the jury is still out. Cleer seems to have done a solid job here.

EDIT: I have found some Senn earfins do the trick on the Goal for my ears...

 

[FYLegend]

Hey, thanks for checking this for me. I picked up an A to C adapter, and it does work, but only with the adapter end plugged into the power bank, and even then it takes a try or two to get the juice flowing. No dice at all with the Apple 30W adapter, which has no problem charging the power bank interestingly enough. Apple must be a bit more strict in making sure devices ID properly before it opens up the power flow.

Honestly this is an absolutely huge flaw and if I weren’t flying out on Tuesday and planning on backpacking for a year, this would be a dealbreaker and they’d be going back. Major ****-up by FIIL, having a non-compliant USB-C port is actually worse than having a Micro USB port on the back.

Yeah, this wasn't much of a problem a few years ago when many brands were still pushing out USB-A power bricks, but nearly every brand now uses Type-C PD chargers. It would be understandable for smaller brands but if I recall FIIL is under Mijia/Xiaomi which just makes it more disappointing. I wonder if T1 Pro solves this issue, I doubt it though.

Of the TWS I have used, Anbes 359, Jabees Firefly Pro, Astrotec S60 and Muzili EA10 have "faux" USB-C ports. RHA TrueConnect did in its initial runs but they rectified this issue future batches. Customers reported receiving replacements/repairs that were able to charge C2C, so it might be worth complaining to them lol

Here's a teardown solution to the issue:

 

[hmscott]

So yeah the Xelastecs don't go well with Galaxy Buds. They stick out too much, just enough to be uncomfortable (but you can still force them on your ears).
Anyone tried the airpods pro version with galaxy buds?

ALZA has 2 models of "short" tips that work better with TWS's and fit in TWS cases, so far they've worked in all but the smallest case - Haylou GT1 Plus.

Here they are, I've only tried the first one:

AZLA SednaEarfitLight Short
https://www.amazon.com/AZLA-SednaEarfitLight-Short-Pairs-Size/dp/B083XQM2YP

AZLA SednaEarfit Short
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083XNX1V1

As far as ear fit that will be a matter of the design - and as I recall the Buds+ were very much a short form fitting eartip - the AZLA Short might be better than the full sized Xelastecs, but even so the Short still might be too big.

The core "tube" of the AZLA is strong / firm and that might be where the fit of designed fit of the Bud's could work against each other.

 

[duo8]

ALZA has 2 models of "short" tips that work better with TWS's and fit in TWS cases, so far they've worked in all but the smallest case - Haylou GT1 Plus.

Here they are, I've only tried the first one:

AZLA SednaEarfitLight Short
https://www.amazon.com/AZLA-SednaEarfitLight-Short-Pairs-Size/dp/B083XQM2YP

AZLA SednaEarfit Short
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083XNX1V1

As far as ear fit that will be a matter of the design - and as I recall the Buds+ were very much a short form fitting eartip - the AZLA Short might be better than the full sized Xelastecs, but even so the Short still might be too big.

The core "tube" of the AZLA is strong / firm and that might be where the fit of designed fit of the Bud's could work against each other.

They both measure the same as Xelastec.
I might be able to try the APP Xelastec later today, see if it fits on the galaxy buds.

 

[eiraku]

the L2P were a tad over engineered at launch, which is why they are aging so well.

I see no reason to buy another pair until next gen hardware becomes available.

All currently available headphones seem more or less clones of each other with no significant improvement over the L2P.

Besides nice extras like Ambient/Transparency mode and ANC (and actually working TWS+ coz I can never make it work on mine), not much can touch the L2P TBH (at least SQ wise).

Maybe the 1More ANC TWS, but the sound sig is a tad diff, there is no in-app EQ (though it's pretty hard to top SoundCore's class leading custom EQ implementation) and the earbuds aren't IP rated.

 

[dwells]

Yeah, this wasn't much of a problem a few years ago when many brands were still pushing out USB-A power bricks, but nearly every brand now uses Type-C PD chargers. It would be understandable for smaller brands but if I recall FIIL is under Mijia/Xiaomi which just makes it more disappointing. I wonder if T1 Pro solves this issue, I doubt it though.

Of the TWS I have used, Anbes 359, Jabees Firefly Pro, Astrotec S60 and Muzili EA10 have "faux" USB-C ports. RHA TrueConnect did in its initial runs but they rectified this issue future batches. Customers reported receiving replacements/repairs that were able to charge C2C, so it might be worth complaining to them lol

Here's a teardown solution to the issue:

Having been locked into the Apple ecosystem (by choice, I do love their stuff), the ZMI dual USB-C only power bank and then Apple 30W adapter and Lightning to USB-C cable I picked up three months ago were my first exposure to USB-C. So to me at least it's a new standard, so that video was actually super interesting to see what's going on.

I managed to get the T1 XS case apart non-destructively with some plastic phone pry tools, and it looks like you'd have to Dremel out the center of the grey plastic inside to make room for the resistors, and even then it's gonna be a tight fit and tougher soldering than I'd like to attempt given that my iron has been in storage with a lot of my other stuff and it's been a couple years since I soldered anything. I suppose you could follow the traces a bit and see if there's other points to solder onto, but it's pretty dense in there - the bottom side of the board sits directly on top of the battery so you can't do anything from the bottom of the PCB, and up top you've got that grey plastic piece responsible for holding the buds sitting on top.

Wound up ordering the Earfun Air Pro (the rebranded Edifier TWS NB2) - looks like I can get them here on time if I leave for Ukraine a day later than I planned and I didn't book my ticket yet so I guess I'm doing that. Try the Earfuns out for a while, see if they're comfortable despite the stems, and see if the sound quality downgrade is tolerable enough - and if they support proper USB-C to USB-C charging!

If anyone here owns the Edifier TWS NB2 (@regancipher ?) and can test for me in advance so I can cancel the Earfun order if need be, that would be wonderful!

 

[BigZ12]

Maybe a stupid question, but;
Can a TWS/BT headset sound better on the new iPhone 12 Pro vs my 3 year old iPhone X?

 

[SenorChang8]

Maybe a stupid question, but;
Can a TWS/BT headset sound better on the new iPhone 12 Pro vs my 3 year old iPhone X?

The bottle neck is the AAC codec. However the BT signal should be better than the X.

Apple’s refusal to improve upon AAC is making me seriously consider switching to Android for the first time.

 

[BigZ12]

The bottle neck is the AAC codec. However the BT signal should be better than the X.

Apple’s refusal to improve upon AAC is making me seriously consider switching to Android for the first time.

Thanks.
So just better range then?

 

[Kalli]

Apple’s refusal to improve upon AAC is making me seriously consider switching to Android for the first time.

Do it!

 

[SenorChang8]

Thanks.
So just better range then?

Yeah, if Apple did make significant improvements they’ll be showing it off.

 

[assassin10000]

Thanks.
So just better range then?

If your old device was BT 4.2 and now you're 5.0 or higher, you could have both improved range and a higher effective bitrate. A better antenna could have a part to play as well.

If the signal is weaker your older device could have been throttling the bitrate to improve connectivity at the expense of detail. So you might have been getting 192kb or 256kb vs max of 320kb.