[shadow04]

You mention no dropouts whatsoever, but then say the right side cuts out. Therein lies the rub. For you it was infrequent, but for me, it was not. I guess it's a case by case basis.

Earlier in the thread people were mentioning complete cutoff and/or the right side earphone not connecting back, I have not experienced that that's why I say I have no dropouts. In any case, as mentioned, the right side earphone connects back and play music in less than half a second for me, and even that seldom happen to me anyway.

Yeah sure, maybe you have a bad set and can consider yourself unlucky; I am just sharing my own experience with the earphone, it's just another data point for people to consider. I'm also waiting for the BeoPlay E8 to be available in my area as well, if they sound better I will switch. I'm more concerned with sound quality than ANC, I think IEM blocked out enough noise passively during the commute even without ANC IMO.

 

[dehory]

For the first couple of days of heavy use with my iPhone X, both indoor and outdoor (e.g. gardening) were rock solid, but I have indeed started experiencing intermittent right ear drop outs. There’s no discernible pattern to them so far. They are a bit concerning, but so far rare (a couple of times a day) and easily fixable (stopping and starting playback on the source device) enough to be tolerable. Given how much I like the SQ, I’m going to keep trying them out and troubleshooting before deciding whether to keep them.

The first drop out was in my kitchen after recharging and reconnecting following the first time the earphones ran out of battery and shut down. This leads me to speculate whether one cause of dropouts might be disrupting or interrupting the connection/disconnection protocol between the right and left earphones (i.e. when taking them out and putting them into their case). Does this ring a bell for anyone?

This would explain why IME following the manual’s rather specific steps for reconnecting the earphones for each use (take out the left earphone from the case, wait a second or three for it to initiate connection with the source device, then take out the right earphone, and start playback if it hasn’t started automatically) works quite smoothly and consistently -- but IME not following those steps (e.g. taking out both earphones at the same time) often leads to having to manually initiating the connection from the source device’s bluetooth settings.

 

[CocaCola15]

Fair enough. I don't think a second pair would solve it, based on some other posts here. And as far as SQ, even if they didn't cut out, I might have returned them anyway, because they didn't wow me or give me reason to think they are far superior to that NuForce pair I have (they share a wire, however, so maybe the complete lack of dropouts are causing a "halo" effect re SQ.). In fact, as noted, I prefer the NoForce SQ to the Sonys, even though they cost 1/4 as much. It happens.

 

[CocaCola15]

As for proper use regarding taking them out of the charging case, I followed those instructions. Again, my issue was really only when away and out walking on crowded city streets. The dropouts didn't require any action, it was just intermittent enough to make me annoyed. If anyone knows about the variable schedule of reinforcement, that's what is in play here from my experience. The unexpected dropouts, with even a semi-infrequent pattern, just drove me nuts.

 

[nc8000]

With the Beoplay E8 I have had no dropouts at all with the right unit (the master unit). On the left unit I have random very short dropoutd almost like the link blinking the eye. Some days there are no dropouts at all and other days they can be fairly frequent. No patern I can find. They are however infrequent and short enough that I can live with them as a trade off fir the truely wireless convenience and respectable sq.

 

[SniperWolf]

Darn it! You guys are making it so hard to return this thing. I guess what it comes down to is whether or not one can tolerate intermittent drops. I'm getting mixed opinions from people here and I guess it all depends more or less on the individuals tolerance to what is acceptable as far as the frequency of drop outs. What I want to know is, how many interruptions would you experience in a half hour? I can tolerate about 5. Would you guys say on average, walking around the city that the number would be higher then this? THANKS!!!

 

[CocaCola15]

Sorry to say, for me in was every minute or three. Just reporting my experience. This was walking, not sitting on a bus/subway. Walking the dog.

 

[SniperWolf]

Sorry to say, for me in was every minute or three. Just reporting my experience. This was walking, not sitting on a bus/subway. Walking the dog.

What?!?! That's absolutely horrendous! Thanks for your honest answer.

 

[SteveKiwi]

What?!?! That's absolutely horrendous! Thanks for your honest answer.

I don't know if this applies to everyone but when I keep my phone or Fiio x5 3rd gen on my right hand side then the cutouts are horrendous.

However when I keep them on my left hand side they work flawlessly.

Both devices are Android whereas if I use my iPad i dont have any issues at all using AAC.

Steve

 

[theGatMan]

There is no doubt that both the playback device and the source to the device has impact. I found extensive trouble when streaming music from my MacBook- no issues with the same MacBook for music that had already been downloaded.

 

[darveniza]

Just some quick items:

• Some phones have a very aggressive battery management and actually will close apps. If you are using the Sony app, this will impact the BT. Its not the Sony device its the phone profile
• The unit has a standby mode to save battery and will actually disconnect if not in use for a while
• Some BT system use a master/master or master /slave approach with their BT, which will impact the position of your phone,etc . I think the configuration of this unit is that one of the earpieces is the actual master with the main BT radio

 

[Brent0001]

I picked up the iconx 2018 and have to say they have a solid connection..Sound quality is pretty good and no dropouts so far...I'm pretty happy I returned the Sony's.

 

[david8613]

Well I returned mine today, so sad because the sony's definitely sounded great, just count not deal with the drop outs out doors. I ended up staying with the samsung 2018, no drop outs, great controls, great battery life, good sound. The ones I wanna try now are the beo play e8, anyone here try them?

 

[tinyman392]

So I bought a pair of these last night from Best Buy. I should note that the first IEMs I purchased were a pair of 50-dollar-ish Sony IEMs way back when (in high school, probably like 7 or 8 years ago). The sound signature of these reminds me a lot of those IEMs which actually sounded half decent so some nostalgia kicked in when I gave these a first listen. That said, these are still burning in. I'll comment on connection issues. I should note that I'm running an iPhone X on iOS 11.1.1 currently and have noticed some dropping out in my right ear bud twice today, but could not recreate the exact situations for the drop outs consistently. Both occurred when I was moving around and both occurred indoors in a more confined area. I used them for like 5 minutes outdoors today without any issue (walking down the block).

OK, onto a question I'm not sure about... If you go onto the spec sheet on the Sony website for these and click full specs you're sent to this page. If you scroll down you'll see battery life quotes:

• BATTERY LIFE (CONTINUOUS MUSIC PLAYBACK TIME):
  • Max. 3 hrs (NC ON)
  • Max. 3 hrs (NC OFF)
• BATTERY LIFE (WAITING TIME):
  • Max. 8 hrs (NC ON)
  • Max. 35 hrs (NC OFF)

However, their main page quotes 3 hour continuous and 9 hour total which contradicts the above already. If you go by the numbers it says that the case can charge the headphones about 3 times (a little less depending on which spec you believe). When you look at the NFC OFF specs, however, you don't see an increase in battery life for continuous, but you see a huge leap in the "Waiting time" battery life. This doesn't make any sense as either the waiting time is off (by about 26-27 hours) or the continuous is off (by about 9 hours). It's kind of bewildering to me.

One more thing regarding connection issues. I know BT runs on a 2.4 GHz frequency which is also used for WiFi. Although unlikely that a WiFi signal is mistaken for a BT one, could it be possible that they are still interfering with each other and causing noise? A higher abundance of WiFi hotspots tends to create lots of noise and signal issues for WiFi. I'm not sure if that's a possible cause for BT, it could be. We're actually also uncertain how the left and right 'buds talk to each other (whether BT or WiFi or some other means).

 

[shadow04]

Well I returned mine today, so sad because the sony's definitely sounded great, just count not deal with the drop outs out doors. I ended up staying with the samsung 2018, no drop outs, great controls, great battery life, good sound. The ones I wanna try now are the beo play e8, anyone here try them?

I tried them last Friday when they were finally available for sales in my area. They fit much better than the WF-1000x(flush with ear, not sticking out) and the carrying case is even smaller than the WF-1000x's which surprised me a little as the photos I have seen from online reviews made me feel they would be larger than it actually is. I think they isolate well enough that I don't hear the chatter and store music playing when my music is playing, though I can still hear ambient noise if nothing is playing on my phone.Touch controls could get some getting used to but I think they work better than the BeoPlay H9 that I used to have. From my short listening I would say they are about on par sound-wise, the E8 seems to be a little more sibilant, but there seem to be a little channel imbalance between the 2 sides as well(confirmed by my girlfirend when she tried them next) so it may be a faulty unit. Highlighted the problem to the shop and may drop by again some time later to try them out again to see if the problem persists, would have bought them straight if it weren't for the little channel imbalance and sharp highs; really like that the earphone sit flush in my ears and that the carrying case is maybe half the size that of the WF-1000x.

Connection-wise, as I have stated multiple times in this thread I did not face any major connection issue with the WF-1000x, likewise the E8 has a very stable connection throughout my short listen(maybe 20mins). But there seems to be few people with intermittent dropout problem on Amazon's review section as well so I think this will vary between users(areas?) as well. Also, they seem to require a higher volume to play at the same level as my WF-1000x, I usually get loud enough sound at half volume of my iPhone 7 but I find myself almost maxing the iPhone 7 volume rocker when I paired them with the E8, so people who are already maxing their phone's volume with the WF-1000x might want to find some place to try them before purchase.