Glad to find this thread, it's been interesting reading everyone's opinions. I decided a few weeks ago to replace the Airpod Pros, and it's been helpful. I have tried a few so far...
Beoplay EQ
Just got these in. The metal case feels premium and is very compact. Earbuds themselves also look and feel very premium. First impressions were great. Maybe easier if I bullet the rest of my impressions.
- Volume is low. I need about 80 - 90% volume to equal 50 - 60% volume on the Devialet Gemini.
- Sound is good, feel like there is good separation and detail in the music. But sometimes I feel like maybe these are under amped. Switching back to the Gemini feels like a boost in dynamics or dynamic range. Still, the sound quality with the EQ feels more nuanced and it is intriguing.
- Fit is great. I like that the buds are positioned in my ears with the touch controls facing outward naturally. The Gemini have the touch controls pointing a little towards my back and it's not super natural to find them easily.
- Touch controls are pretty sensitive. Easy to accidentally press them when adjusting the earbuds.
- Stock tips are meh. Using Azla Xlastec for now. Stems are pretty narrow compared to others. The fit doesn't seem to be quite as deep as I'd like it to be, although just going by stem length it should be. For comparison, they don't fit as deep as i can get the XM4s.
- ANC is okay. Below the XM4 and the Gemini. However, the ANC does better than both of those are blocking out wind noise while walking outside. That's pretty cool.
- No skip track control on the buds is stupid. They could easily add more controls than they have now.
- When you resume after pausing, the earbuds don't start at the exact same time. One comes on a split second before the other.
The volume thing may have me return them. Still undecided.
Devialet Gemini
Plastic case and build. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing stand out about it. Fit is great for me, using Final E tips right now. They do fit back in the case with the Final tips but it's tight. Stock tips fit decent as well. These get loud, sound quality is good. Very punchy sound. EQ in app is nice, I have it set flat right now as i find the default sound pretty good. May play with it more later.
ANC was surprisingly great. I go back and forth on this versus the XM4 for who has the better ANC. Controls are okay, but the touch pad is kinda small and hard to hit sometimes. The earbuds sometimes don't auto pause when removing one, but that's not a big deal to me.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds
These went on sale for $199 so I said why not. Out of the box, sound was horrid. Hollow, bizarre sound signature that was just bad. After downloading a firmware update, it added an in app EQ and that helped some. I'd still rank these last in music, but they're not terrible anymore. ANC is very good. Fit on these is kinda weird, the StayHear tips are great in concept, but I feel like the size M is a little big on the hook part, and the size S is a little small on the ear tip part. I may need some kind of size between S and M and I don't think that exists.
Case and earbuds are both large. Earbuds are light weight though and don't move around. These were decent for running, setting a low ANC level to still be aware of traffic but eliminate the internal foot step pounding sound you can get with ANC.
Touch controls are good, I think this is the only one where I can skip track, play/pause, change volume and change ANC. Most others seem to omit one or more of those.
Sony XM4
These also went on sale, so....Out of the box, sound was somewhat muddy or just overly warm. Was not a fan of the stock tips, they just didn't work for me. They didn't work for me with the Z1R either. Final E type and Xlastec both seem to work well, I go back and forth on which I like best. The case is deep enough to fit the Final E tips just fine.
Case and earbuds are plastic, but feel well made. Case is nice and compact, although not quite as compact as the EQs. Comfort is good for me, and I can get a nice deep fit which is great.
After some EQ in the app, the sound is more to my tastes. I put them behind the Gemini, but they're not bad at all and aren't that far behind. But switching back and forth with these and the Gemini, I can tell there is still some congestion in the XM4 despite my best attempts at EQ. ANC is great. Touch controls are good. The XM4 strike me as the all rounder here that can do everything well. Like the Toyota Camry or sensible choice. Gemini could also fill that role, with better SQ and less ergonomics.
When you put these in, they announce Bluetooth Connected and then the battery life for each earbud does, separately. This is handy i guess, but it's also a little annoying to wait a couple seconds each time i put them in.
I didn't have any technical issues with any of these, at least not yet. All connect fast, no dropped connections. PI7 was/is on the list to try, but 4 hours battery life and high price has me on the fence. AZ60 looks interesting too, but I dunno. The Beoplay EQ I feel could be the ones, but the volume thing bugs me. I'm on iPhone, so it could be different with Android I suppose. The smart move would probably be keep the Gemini or XM4 and have those do everything.
All of the above here handily beat the Airpods Pro, but that may be at least partly due to fit with the Airpods. Never sure if i've got a great seal with them, or just an okay seal.
If they dropped connection all the time you would ditch them.
