SP Wild
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2009
- Posts
- 3,862
- Likes
- 295
It all started with finding a solution to late night TV watching without disturbing the wife and kid. Being on call till 6am for my job as an emergency roadside breakdown car mechanic means there are quiet times that need filling in on occasions.
With technology moving at a frightening pace... Netflix was a great way to fill in those quiet times. But it wasn't, because I could never quite hear what was going on. Everytime I turned up the volume to hear the dialogue, I would turn it back down again when inevitable something too loud kicks in and threatens to waken the neighbourhood.
What I needed was a headphone. My TV has Bluetooth in which the soundbar and sub is connected...and the lag that used to horrify me with Bluetooth isn't really all that bad. So maybe Bluetooth headphone these days aren't so bad with latency anymore?
Let's buy a cheap one...but not too cheap. A quick search shows JBL to have a very cheap Bluetooth headset I can pickup at the local electronics store. I have the JBL Extreme 2 and Charge 3 speakers and they sound excellent for music. I especially liked the full range drivers on the Charge 3. The full range drivers had a coherence to the midrange that the two way Extreme 2 speaker could not match.
I think JBL is a safe place to start.
I buy the JBL Tune 510 Bluetooth headphone for fifty bucks, and did they function as I had hoped?
Yes. Yes indeed. In fact, they functioned too well for fifty bucks. The latency was acceptable for watching Netflix. The frequency response was really good. I think they are following the Harman headphone target. This sounds very crisp so moderate volume speech is intelligible. A good boost to the bass for all the action sequences and we have a very enjoyable Netflix headphone.
I am curious to see how they sound with music. So I pair it to my relatively new budget Vivo 8GB RAM Android phone. I emphasize the RAM, because my Galaxy S9 had 4GB and it stutters like mad, because 4GB doesn't cut it anymore. I never learn...I always opt for lower RAM in my computer's....and it always backfires. Always get more RAM if you want your phone or computer to last longer. Later in the year I will probably banish Android and jump over to IOS...I am getting too old to worry about software updates and sufficient RAM.
Back to the point. The JBL headphone sounded nice with music. Crisp, clear, punchy and even a splash of warmth. And a 40 bloody hour battery life. More than I thought was technologically possible and more than I would ever need.
But the biggest lesson from this experiment was wireless was effing good. No tickly itchy face and neck when horrible silicone like wire insulation grazes across your face. No restriction of movement. Wireless is awesome. The best.
What about wireless earbuds for those hot days that are too hot for headphones. I wondered. How much do they go for?
A little research and I narrowed it down to JBL once again. Not expensive and a trustworthy sound signature. The JBL Wave 100 earbuds can be had for 50 bucks at my local store. So I bought them.
And they were good. I took them to work because they are so pocketable and I listen to YouTube or a podcast while I drive. I use only one on the left ear, so I can hear if my work phone rings with an emergency job.
I inevitably start critical listening to the earbuds with music... something bothers me.
Even though the overall frequency response is very consumer friendly and nice to listen to, there is no layering or depth to the sound. It's very 2 dimensional. It has the same signature as the JBL headphone, what I presume is the famed Harman target curve. However the headphone has more depth and 3 dimensionality.
Both have the same pleasing frequency response. But the difference lies in the upper bass. The headphone was a tad tighter there leading to a more tuneful bass and slightly more spacious overall midrange.
The earbuds bass sounded like cheap two way speakers and crappy subwoofers. All flab and no tightness. The warmth that exists was loose...a loose warmth, while still better than no warmth...I crave a nice tight warmth region...
The technicalities of the JBL Wave 100 was about identical to the Samsung wires earbuds provided with their Galaxy phones, tuned by AKG. They were never offensive and sounded perfect for watching YouTube at sensible volumes.
But for music, I get a bit more demanding of my headphones. Sensible volumes are welcome, we must protect our hearing. But for that one song that just came on....just for one song...I wanna blast it. I am allowed right? No more than 5 minutes...once a day...no harm done right. Most headphones and speakers fail this basic test.
I can't go back... wireless is here to stay in my life. What if I pay a bit more? Can I get one that sounds a bit better for music? You know what else I want? That ambient feed through feature...it would be perfect for work...I can listen to both buds and hear for emergency phone calls on my work phone. What about ANC?...I never had one of those before.
I narrow it down to three choices. The JBL Live Free earbuds are the cheapest at $150, they have a cool equaliser on their app in case I need to change it.
The Sennheiser CX plus can be had for $220 and has Bluetooth 5.2 and AptX....the latest AptX for low latency
I could even stretch the budget to the famed Sony XM4s, if they are as good as they say they are.
What are my priorities here. Sound quality first and foremost. With that in mind I have to make a gamble.
The Sony is said to have the best noise cancelling...but that isn't my priority. I also have never heard a Sony earbud that I thought sounded any good. For the price the risk was too damn high.
The JBL had a low risk due to the low price. Surely the drivers will be more technically accomplished than the bottom of the barrel JBLs I bought. The Harmon Target Curve also sounded very nice. Very consumer audio friendly. Very inoffensive.
But there is one curve even better than the Harmon Target Curve. The sound curve on my Sennheiser HD650s, my HD58Xs. My Neumann KH120 studio monitors also exhibit the same sound curve. All three were made in the same Irish factory by Sennheiser.
I deemed the lowest risk to be the Sennheiser CX Plus.
So this afternoon I picked up a pair at my local electronics store.
And how do they sound?
Well my friends. This is the CX and Plus TWS thread. If they weren't any good I wouldn't have made this thread. How did they sound to you? What feature do you enjoy the most and how can things be improved?
For me, I have listened to them all afternoon in my truck testing the ANC, ambient pass, and sound quality.
The drivers on these are truly high end in my opinion.
These surpass my wired reference Shure SE215s with relative ease. From top to bottom, they are more defined.
The transient response is superior to both the HD650 and HD58X. The bass is tighter, the warmth is tighter. Only the HD58X has a smoother upper mid, as I find the HD58X to have the smoothest of upper mids. The midrange is more separated and defined than the HD650, which has the best low mid and mid separation and definition...yet these wireless jobs are a fraction better. The Treble is almost as clean as the HD800S. But these CX plusses sound more neutral than the HD800.
The Harman Curve sounds very nice, but these CX plusses sound better...and more neutral to me.
But the price and additional features makes this a little bewildering to me. These sound like high end buds to me. Not far from the Shure SE846. In fact, I always wanted to upgrade my 215s with 846s, but now, why would I bother?
These are wireless. And they have thrown the gauntlet to my wired stable of headphones and earbuds.
With technology moving at a frightening pace... Netflix was a great way to fill in those quiet times. But it wasn't, because I could never quite hear what was going on. Everytime I turned up the volume to hear the dialogue, I would turn it back down again when inevitable something too loud kicks in and threatens to waken the neighbourhood.
What I needed was a headphone. My TV has Bluetooth in which the soundbar and sub is connected...and the lag that used to horrify me with Bluetooth isn't really all that bad. So maybe Bluetooth headphone these days aren't so bad with latency anymore?
Let's buy a cheap one...but not too cheap. A quick search shows JBL to have a very cheap Bluetooth headset I can pickup at the local electronics store. I have the JBL Extreme 2 and Charge 3 speakers and they sound excellent for music. I especially liked the full range drivers on the Charge 3. The full range drivers had a coherence to the midrange that the two way Extreme 2 speaker could not match.
I think JBL is a safe place to start.
I buy the JBL Tune 510 Bluetooth headphone for fifty bucks, and did they function as I had hoped?
Yes. Yes indeed. In fact, they functioned too well for fifty bucks. The latency was acceptable for watching Netflix. The frequency response was really good. I think they are following the Harman headphone target. This sounds very crisp so moderate volume speech is intelligible. A good boost to the bass for all the action sequences and we have a very enjoyable Netflix headphone.
I am curious to see how they sound with music. So I pair it to my relatively new budget Vivo 8GB RAM Android phone. I emphasize the RAM, because my Galaxy S9 had 4GB and it stutters like mad, because 4GB doesn't cut it anymore. I never learn...I always opt for lower RAM in my computer's....and it always backfires. Always get more RAM if you want your phone or computer to last longer. Later in the year I will probably banish Android and jump over to IOS...I am getting too old to worry about software updates and sufficient RAM.
Back to the point. The JBL headphone sounded nice with music. Crisp, clear, punchy and even a splash of warmth. And a 40 bloody hour battery life. More than I thought was technologically possible and more than I would ever need.
But the biggest lesson from this experiment was wireless was effing good. No tickly itchy face and neck when horrible silicone like wire insulation grazes across your face. No restriction of movement. Wireless is awesome. The best.
What about wireless earbuds for those hot days that are too hot for headphones. I wondered. How much do they go for?
A little research and I narrowed it down to JBL once again. Not expensive and a trustworthy sound signature. The JBL Wave 100 earbuds can be had for 50 bucks at my local store. So I bought them.
And they were good. I took them to work because they are so pocketable and I listen to YouTube or a podcast while I drive. I use only one on the left ear, so I can hear if my work phone rings with an emergency job.
I inevitably start critical listening to the earbuds with music... something bothers me.
Even though the overall frequency response is very consumer friendly and nice to listen to, there is no layering or depth to the sound. It's very 2 dimensional. It has the same signature as the JBL headphone, what I presume is the famed Harman target curve. However the headphone has more depth and 3 dimensionality.
Both have the same pleasing frequency response. But the difference lies in the upper bass. The headphone was a tad tighter there leading to a more tuneful bass and slightly more spacious overall midrange.
The earbuds bass sounded like cheap two way speakers and crappy subwoofers. All flab and no tightness. The warmth that exists was loose...a loose warmth, while still better than no warmth...I crave a nice tight warmth region...
The technicalities of the JBL Wave 100 was about identical to the Samsung wires earbuds provided with their Galaxy phones, tuned by AKG. They were never offensive and sounded perfect for watching YouTube at sensible volumes.
But for music, I get a bit more demanding of my headphones. Sensible volumes are welcome, we must protect our hearing. But for that one song that just came on....just for one song...I wanna blast it. I am allowed right? No more than 5 minutes...once a day...no harm done right. Most headphones and speakers fail this basic test.
I can't go back... wireless is here to stay in my life. What if I pay a bit more? Can I get one that sounds a bit better for music? You know what else I want? That ambient feed through feature...it would be perfect for work...I can listen to both buds and hear for emergency phone calls on my work phone. What about ANC?...I never had one of those before.
I narrow it down to three choices. The JBL Live Free earbuds are the cheapest at $150, they have a cool equaliser on their app in case I need to change it.
The Sennheiser CX plus can be had for $220 and has Bluetooth 5.2 and AptX....the latest AptX for low latency
I could even stretch the budget to the famed Sony XM4s, if they are as good as they say they are.
What are my priorities here. Sound quality first and foremost. With that in mind I have to make a gamble.
The Sony is said to have the best noise cancelling...but that isn't my priority. I also have never heard a Sony earbud that I thought sounded any good. For the price the risk was too damn high.
The JBL had a low risk due to the low price. Surely the drivers will be more technically accomplished than the bottom of the barrel JBLs I bought. The Harmon Target Curve also sounded very nice. Very consumer audio friendly. Very inoffensive.
But there is one curve even better than the Harmon Target Curve. The sound curve on my Sennheiser HD650s, my HD58Xs. My Neumann KH120 studio monitors also exhibit the same sound curve. All three were made in the same Irish factory by Sennheiser.
I deemed the lowest risk to be the Sennheiser CX Plus.
So this afternoon I picked up a pair at my local electronics store.
And how do they sound?
Well my friends. This is the CX and Plus TWS thread. If they weren't any good I wouldn't have made this thread. How did they sound to you? What feature do you enjoy the most and how can things be improved?
For me, I have listened to them all afternoon in my truck testing the ANC, ambient pass, and sound quality.
The drivers on these are truly high end in my opinion.
These surpass my wired reference Shure SE215s with relative ease. From top to bottom, they are more defined.
The transient response is superior to both the HD650 and HD58X. The bass is tighter, the warmth is tighter. Only the HD58X has a smoother upper mid, as I find the HD58X to have the smoothest of upper mids. The midrange is more separated and defined than the HD650, which has the best low mid and mid separation and definition...yet these wireless jobs are a fraction better. The Treble is almost as clean as the HD800S. But these CX plusses sound more neutral than the HD800.
The Harman Curve sounds very nice, but these CX plusses sound better...and more neutral to me.
But the price and additional features makes this a little bewildering to me. These sound like high end buds to me. Not far from the Shure SE846. In fact, I always wanted to upgrade my 215s with 846s, but now, why would I bother?
These are wireless. And they have thrown the gauntlet to my wired stable of headphones and earbuds.
