Thanks everyone for your observations about Technics. I keep thinking about pulling the trigger (on Amazon), but these concerns make me pause… Maybe I will buy the Mystique to satisfy my desire for sound quality, and wait on the XM5 before considering a new ANC TWS…
I'm no audiophile for sure, and most of my earbuds were the under 70$ mark and I thought they sounded great. (I love a V shape with bass you can inhale, though my main genre is rock/pop not rap or EDM so much) but when I bought the Soundcore Liberty 4's last summer, they really opened my ears to better sound. Even laying in bed at night with the volume low I could feel the bass thump in Doin' it Right by Daft Punk. So I was done researching new earbuds and enjoying the 4's.
But last week, while listening on the pool deck and cleaning my above-ground pool the right Liberty 4, lept from my head and dove into 4 feet of freezing cold water. My brain froze over the idea of freezing for a sec then went into the pool and scooped it up and put it on the deck. I noticed the ear tip was gone. The ones I had are clear so I thought, CRAP I'll never find it in my clear pool. I looked down into the water and saw my S22+ Ultra lying on the bottom because I had my shorts on, lol. The phone is pretty waterproof so I wasn't worried, but I realized for some reason the eartip was still in my ear, the bud wanted to swim so bad it disengaged from the tip to dive!
Ok, I'm going on and on, so I wanted to get new earbuds since the liberty was trashed and I saw these Technics AZ80s and thought maybe it was time to spend some big money and see if I could have another awakening of perceptions...
They came today a day earlier than expected (US, Amazon FYI) after updating them and setting them up the way I like them...I just sent them back. The bass doesn't hit that deep deep note in Doin' it Right like my Libertys did which surprised me and also strangely the volume up and down on the taps didn't raise the volume of the phone, just the earbud volume.
I sent them back and ordered a 2nd pair of the Liberty 4s. By the way, I was able to test between the two back and forth because after a couple of days, the waterlogged earbud now works fine. Take that with a grain of salt for your own use.
edit: Just some grammar fixin'
