Going fully Wireless IEMs. Too soon? Or are we there yet?

[cresny]

Well I haven't seen the Falcon Max there but they're willing to send me the Falcon 2...

 

[stacey]

know of any DAPs which transmits in the BT aptX Adaptive?

Your smartphone.
DAPs are generally behind the curve with chipsets, so they won’t necessarily have the latest and greatest SoCs available. Not even Sony’s DAPs get the modern chipsets for AptX.

 

[dweaver]

Placed the order for the Mackie MP-20TWS. For $115 after shipping that's pretty reasonable.

Ceon and Gamesky are the only youtube reviewers who seem to have tried them. Both talk about the lack of features but rave about the sound quality. Ceon thought the ANC was OK and liked the battery life
Gamesky thought the ANC was almost non existent. If they remove hums I will be satisfied. I am very curious how well the wind feature works.

I am mainly curious of they have managed to create a good sound quality through their audio expertise so will compare them to my Elite 10, MTW3, Hifiman Svarna Wireless. If they compete with any of those audio wise I consider that a win given the price I am paying.

I don't think I will see them for a couple weeks based on the sites estimate. But that's OK.

I am actually thinking after these arrive of taking a break from buying anything and might take a break from Head-fi for a while. Honestly I am to the point of thinking TWS is stagnated a bit and I am just chasing minor changes in sound experience or features at this point.

The Elite 10 has been the best sounding TWS I have owned to date (my opinion) so am really questioning the need to keep trying stuff.

 

[dweaver]

Decided to drop $70 for them on Amazon. I've kind of wanted a cheaper backup pair of tws, so we'll see how these are. I'll probably eventually buy the mw09.

Did you get your pair yet? Curious what you think of them.

Should have done a search in this thread. @nekonhime posted on them a couple times back in January last year. His comments are concerning. Hopefully he just had a defective pair.

 

[stacey]

Delete. Dupe.

 

[Alpexis]

So I finally bought a Noble Audio Fokus Prestige, thanks to the friendly guys at Audiomagic (Poland). I must admit: my expectations have been blown out of the water!

I had almost given up on TWS buds, after hearing the Devialet Gemini I and II, Final ze8000 mk1 and mk2, AirPods Pro 2 and the Campfire Audio Orbit. Not that they are terrible... the Gemini II and ze8000 mk2 actually deserve a big thumbs up. But I felt the compromise in SQ and ease of use was too much (compared to IEM's).

Enter the Fokus Prestige, which sounds, looks and feels amazing. It easily matches the SQ of a wired iem in the <1k price range. It easily matches the looks of stuff costing 5x more. And last but not least, gone are the fiddly nozzles and fiddly device pairings and plasticky materials which greatly annoyed me - joy of use is through the roof.

In conclusion: the combo of my smartphone + Fokus Prestige is (finally) good enough for my (very critical) ears and my portable audio needs. So I've decided to sell my DAP's and IEM's and use that money to upgrade my desktop chain (which gets most of my listening time anyhow).

Next stop: Fokus Prestige mk2 with Snapdragon Sound and Bluetooth Lossless. (hint hint)

 

[Alpexis]

Your smartphone.
DAPs are generally behind the curve with chipsets, so they won’t necessarily have the latest and greatest SoCs available.

True about the codec. But I wonder about the influence of DAC chips in bluetooth audio. Would love to compare the sound of my Fokus Prestige off an SP3000 with its AK4499EX DAC (and aptx hd) VERSUS any smartphone with aptx adaptive.

Which brings up another question: which smartphone has the best built-in DAC? Sony, Samsung, Asus, Apple? Too bad LG has left the building.

 

[stacey]

True about the codec. But I wonder about the influence of DAC chips in bluetooth audio. Would love to compare the sound of my Fokus Prestige off an SP3000 with its AK4499EX DAC (and aptx hd) VERSUS any smartphone with aptx adaptive.

Which brings up another question: which smartphone has the best built-in DAC? Sony, Samsung, Asus, Apple? Too bad LG has left the building.

Barely any smartphones come with DACs anymore anyway. You’re better off with a dongle.

 

[Alpexis]

Barely any smartphones come with DACs anymore anyway. You’re better off with a dongle.

You mean like an iFi Go Blu? Don't know of any other dongles that do bluetooth well + have a decent dac.

 

[LoryWiv]

Looking out of the window I realize ... I LIVE IN JAPAN

So, I see e-earphone already has a listening 'station' set up and sales are scheduled to start on 29th .. so .. at least I can go and check them out in person.

It will be great to hear your impressions

 

[SynaestheticA]

One thing to note is that the Falcon line has ANC, while the FoKus does not (But the FoKus does have a more premium finish). I wonder if that will ever get rectified?

I thought photos of the new Falcon Max made it look like one of the most premium of the tws. Could be wrong but seemed like it had metal finish and resin faceplate

 

[SynaestheticA]

Dr. John, Do you have a list of portable DAPs, which send BT in aptX Adaptive? I cannot find any at all. Without a source sending in the aptX Adaptive codec what good is it having the aptX Adaptive codec in the FoKus Prestiage but not being able to use it? Or do I not understand how the Adaptive codec works?

Portable DAPS are horribly behind any significant codec TWS use case. I feel there is a market for a pure wireless tws DAP but manufacturers insist on putting in 2020 Bluetooth 5.0 and poor codecs.

 

[SynaestheticA]

Travelled through some airport shops on my way to Sweden this weekend and stopped in to test the Bose Ultra Headphones.

Sound quality was pretty good as a standard. But when I turned my head and had the sound travel to one piece it felt like the entire room came alive with hidden speakers. The effect was pretty cool and made the music incredibly orchestral and out of head. I did a double take to make sure the store hadn't all of a sudden turned every speaker on at once.

I'd actually call it oustanding which is hard for me to do as I've always avoided Bose headphone tws.

I felt if I owned these I would only listen on one side though lol

 

[subguy812]

My SP3000 DAP has LDAC, aptX HD, aptX, AAC, SBC but no aptX Adaptive

 

[Juturna]

Travelled through some airport shops on my way to Sweden this weekend and stopped in to test the Bose Ultra Headphones.

Sound quality was pretty good as a standard. But when I turned my head and had the sound travel to one piece it felt like the entire room came alive with hidden speakers. The effect was pretty cool and made the music incredibly orchestral and out of head. I did a double take to make sure the store hadn't all of a sudden turned every speaker on at once.

I'd actually call it oustanding which is hard for me to do as I've always avoided Bose headphone tws.

I felt if I owned these I would only listen on one side though lol

Are you talking about the buds or the headphones here?

Are you also from Sweden btw? Didn't know we had 3 Swedes here in that case.