[nekonhime]

I actually did a 21K run with them today and after some initial struggle (unseal noise on each foot fall) once I somehow reached the perfect fit / seal, they became surprisingly low-thud (there’s actually an Amazon review describing pretty much the same. Lemme see if I can find again) Maybe my ears and or the silicone warmed up and bonded, guess milage greatly varies with fit. But I was very happy. No connection issues whatsoever. Brilliant & dynamic sound. Guess that’s my TotL for a good while. I might grab the APP2 when I get to North America next year. At current prices here (or EU) they are a no no.
Wonder if Sony will have an XM5 in the pipeline.

With the xm5 headphone have gotten better from the xm4 except for the pads, I can't wait for the wf xm5 improvements.

 

[tiagopinto]

It's been a while, so I can't really say too much about sound. I did like the FWD-02 better. I returned the ZNE, but have the FWD here. They don't have ANC, no volume controls and no wireless charging. The ZNE has wireless charging. I had bt issues with the ZNE but not the FWD. I preferred the fit of the buds and the case of the FWD. It has a strange cloth removable lid, but it's very thin and fits in your pocket great. The buds are made by Zound Industries who also make the Marshall TWS buds. Their tuning sounds great to me. If you can get them cheap, not a bad deal at all. I got mine for under 100 USD.

From memory, if you please, how do the adidas FWD and ZEN compare to the CA MT? Thx.

 

[Not so fat head]

I actually did a 21K run with them today and after some initial struggle (unseal noise on each foot fall) once I somehow reached the perfect fit / seal, they became surprisingly low-thud (there’s actually an Amazon review describing pretty much the same. Lemme see if I can find again) Maybe my ears and or the silicone warmed up and bonded, guess milage greatly varies with fit. But I was very happy. No connection issues whatsoever. Brilliant & dynamic sound. Guess that’s my TotL for a good while. I might grab the APP2 when I get to North America next year. At current prices here (or EU) they are a no no.
Wonder if Sony will have an XM5 in the pipeline.



And while I really enjoy the new Bose, I can totally understand how the white noise could be a deal breaker for ppl (or the reported call quality, which i cannot comment on, I don’t do calls)

You ran how far??
Wow!!

 

[SilverEars]

Just got the Bose QCEB2, and I like it. Not the best in terms fidelity, but I don't expect it from BT earphones. I don't know how they achieve it, but it has large sound stage. I was so impressed with the original QCEB sound stage, and it seems like this one has more or less the same large sound stage. There's lots of bass, but I consider QCEB series bass to be the best of TWS bass. Bass actually rumbles!

As for ANC. Damn! Much much better than Gaxy Buds Pro 2. Probably best ANC next to Apple. It might be the best ANC there is for TWS at the moment. It's really quiet. With the Samsung I can hear the high frequencies, but it's very minute high frequencies with this one.

It's not highly technical, but very fun sound. The way the sound space imaged is very spacious (space sound 3D, not flat). That's what's so impressive about Bose! Got damn sound stage!

I'm keeping these and Samsung is going back.

 

[C_Lindbergh]

Do the new Bose have any ambient mode and/or quick attention mode?

 

[erockg]

but you DO hear the white noise? Maybe also not much bothered by it?




Also a few minor bugs in that direction .. especially now that I have included my mac in the device list ... it connected fine just now, but somehow only one side .. and the ANC would not go on ... few kinks they hopefully work out with FW updates

If I really concentrate I can hear ANC white noise but nothing that is distracting to me. I haven't had any issues with switching between my iPhone, Android phone, iPad and Apple TV yet. I haven't used them with my Mac. I'll try that soon and report back.

 

[erockg]

From memory, if you please, how do the adidas FWD and ZEN compare to the CA MT? Thx.

Oh, I did love the sound on the CA MT very much, but they are plagued by bugs. Bluetooth issues and more. I'd personally stay away. I had a few different pairs and wound up returning both before and after the major firmware updates. That's just my experience. Others may feel differently. That said, depending on what you're looking for, you can also do better than the Adidas at that price. As you know, soooooo many options out there. What exactly are you looking for?

 

[Caipirina]

You ran how far??
Wow!!

I do one of those at least once a week, was supposed to be 32K/20Mi though
Hence most of my TWS use happens while running.

 

[Caipirina]

Good news for the "thud" that works for you but what about the wind 'noise? Even when walking you can hear it so when running it's really bad. Did you find a setting that cancels it? There "running" mode is just ANC set to 50% AFAICT.

yeah, those different mode labels are only diff levels of ANC ... frankly I had no issue with wind noise .. yet .. maybe something else that only really bothers when paying too much attention ... or only when running at Kipchoge sub3 min/km pace

 

[SilverEars]

There is something accurate the way Bose sounds, but I can't pinpoint what it is. I know it's not high resolution, but it's sufficient solution, but there is such realism how the sound is presented I don't find with majority of TWS out there. The way the sound decays is unlike other TWS.

I'm sure there are going to folks that thinks there's a lot of bass, but It's not the kind that masks sounds, but rumbles. Also, it's not super punchy, but some softness to it's impact. It's very engaging how it presents music. I think it's partially the sense space it presents the music. I don't find this with majority of TWS.

The TWS has to make me want to listen to music, and this does that unlike other TWS.

I'm very curious how the FR looks.

 

[Not so fat head]

There is something accurate the way Bose sounds, but I can't pinpoint what it is. I know it's not high resolution, but it's sufficient solution, but there is such realism how the sound is presented I don't find with majority of TWS out there. The way the sound decays is unlike other TWS.

I'm sure there are going to folks that thinks there's a lot of bass, but It's not the kind that masks sounds, but rumbles. Also, it's not super punchy, but some softness to it's impact. It's very engaging how it presents music. I think it's partially the sense space it presents the music. I don't find this with majority of TWS.

The TWS has to make me want to listen to music, and this does that unlike other TWS.

I'm very curious how the FR looks.

Probably many people don't know it, but BOSE is owned by MIT.,. So, I would say they have deep Engineering talent at hand.

 

[SilverEars]

Probably many people don't know it, but BOSE is owned by MIT.,. So, I would say they have deep Engineering talent at hand.

They are known for a lot of marketing, and being very litigious. They patented ideas and sued companies infringed their patents. Perhaps engineering was used to bring ideas for patents. Or those ideas were already well known, but only they bothered to patent the ideas.

I know Bose do not have the best reputation among audiophiles, but I'm not the kind of person to refrain from trying and giving fair opinions based on brand alone.

But, if we talk strictly in terms of engineering, Bose lags behind other companies in terms of formfactor, etc... Their first one was very bulky and there were competing products already in the market that had better engineering solutions to miniaturize the components.

But, we are aware their products have high performance NC. And they should given that they were early adopters. They had the patents to sue Beats.

Since Beats is owned by Apple, Bose will not mess with Beats anymore because Apple has such a strong litigation team and money to fight forever. When small companies get bought out by big ones like Samsung, they gain legal protection.

 

[Not so fat head]

Amar Bose came up with the idea of using common mode rejection and frequency cancellation for headphones.
What's with the hate?
Bose is a private company with sales topping $4.5 Billion a year....
Switch to decaf!!!

 

[Not so fat head]

And yes, guys that spend $3k on inner-connects, probably don't own Bose products..
Millions of others do and enjoy them.

 

[ubs28]

I personally like the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 for sports. The added fins makes sure it stays in my ears.

The Apple Airpods Pro 2 is quite nice too. But the fit is not as secure as the Sennheiser’s, so Sennheiser is still #1 for me.

Sony is crap though. These things fly out of my ears when I do some running.