[hi-fi amateur]

Anyone have good EQ settings for these?

 

[Tenlow]

A new firmware (1.1.5) with "improved Bluetooth connection / stability / range" is out.

 

[jsmiller58]

Just got these in. Sound quality I'll label as "pretty good". Not blown away whatsoever, but for being a dark-tilted sound sig, pretty clear and detailed sound for a true wireless pair. Sony house sound as expected, which I'm not a big fan of (don't like recessed mids), but the tech in this thing was my priority. The noise cancelling is out of this world. Everything but voices is silenced. That blew me away. The foam tips muffles voices but doesn't completely silence them. That's expected.

People Sony tested these on must have small ears. The middle tips are like small and large are like medium. I'd say caution for anyone who regularly uses large tip with IEMs.

I got LDAC to work with a bit a fiddling. That part I didn't like. I expected their to be a codec switcher in the Sony app. There's a toggle to set priority on sound quality, but you don't know for sure if it's LDAC. I went under the Bluetooth settings for the device and set it to "Best sound quality" from there as well. But still, you can't see if it's LDAC for sure because it stupidly doesn't say (on my LG V60). As a last resort I ended up going under Developer Settings to check and confirmed it is in LDAC. You shouldn't have to do that though.

Another annoyance is, still in the Developer Settings, that the sample rate and bitrate default to 96 kHz and 32-bit. I want it at CD quality. That's what I listen to most. However, each time you turn the headphones on again, it reverts back to the default. Annoying the hoops audiophiles have to jump through to get what we want. Oh, and the LDAC Playback Quality defaults to Best Effort also. I want 909kbps all the time. So every time I turn on the headphones, I'll have to go through this ritual of selecting settings that don't stick. Awesome.

Just a question…. As to 96/32 when all you want is CD quality, why is that a problem? I don’t think there is any harm in that - just more blanks being transmitted, I think…. As to changing developer settings for bit rate, yeah, that is a bit annoying, but at least with my LG v30 I have seen in such cases most of the time it is still transmitting at the full rate (I can see this when I connect my phone to my Qudelix 5K and I check the Qudelix app).

 

[joshnor713]

Just a question…. As to 96/32 when all you want is CD quality, why is that a problem? I don’t think there is any harm in that - just more blanks being transmitted, I think…. As to changing developer settings for bit rate, yeah, that is a bit annoying, but at least with my LG v30 I have seen in such cases most of the time it is still transmitting at the full rate (I can see this when I connect my phone to my Qudelix 5K and I check the Qudelix app).

I don't like resampling. Want things to be truly what they are. One can argue whether you can hear the difference, but so can one with LDAC versus everything else. If I'm investing in this system, I value all the pieces in place.

 

[jsmiller58]

I don't like resampling. Want things to be truly what they are. One can argue whether you can hear the difference, but so can one with LDAC versus everything else. If I'm investing in this system, I value all the pieces in place.

I don't know if there is actually resampling going on in that situation…. Maybe just 0s being transmitted…. Others may have knowledge of this?

 

[PixelSquish]

Just got these in, and I'm not so thrilled with the sound. Sound is similar to the full-sized XM3/4, it's really warm and treble is dark.

Dark sig can still be acceptable as long as it sounds detailed, but these don't even sound detailed. It's a dark and smooth sounding response with lots of bass. Bass isn't quality, but somewhat boomy that you'd find with most TWS earphones. Mushy bass with ANC on.

It's got a weird echoey effect to the sound like there's mids resonance. It's very warm and wet sounding so it loses on clarity and separation, and thus, imaging suffers.

There is some sort of resonance or echoey sound. I can hear the resonance with the piano hits.

And when treble is noticed, the quality isn't good. It has that digital sounding treble you'd expect with BT phones. I think it sounds muddier with ANC on. I don't think the stock foam like tips helps either.

These are really bad when it comes to clarity. Pretty sorry for SQ for how much it costs. Youtube reviews are just totally unreliable.

So you bought Sony's, got pretty much the same sound you've heard in their full-sized wireless cans, and came here to bash them.

You have issues.

 

[Tenlow]

Wow, these firmware updates really take their time, don't they? It was the same on the MTW2 but I always thought that it was just Sennheiser being lazy as their app is not exactly their strong point. Seems I was wrong

In other news:

The included foam tips are now listed on Sonys website(s).

Model numbers are:

EP-NI1000S​

EP-NI1000M​

EP-NI1000L​

 

[joshnor713]

Wow, these firmware updates really take their time, don't they? It was the same on the MTW2 but I always thought that it was just Sennheiser being lazy as their app is not exactly their strong point. Seems I was wrong

For real. It really did take an hour. Mine stayed at 51% for a long time. Thought it froze up, but eventually continued.

 

[VICosPhi]

Been happy with MTW2, just got my WF1000XM4 and here is what I think :

- WF1000XM4 has extremely good ANC, only surpassed by Bose TWS(from memory)

- LDAC works well and I think sounds better than AAC if you have HQ music

- Treble is rolled off in typical Sony way, if you are used to Sennheiser or B&O then these will sound dark to you. Even after EQ you cannot extract the same amount of upper treble out of these

- Bass is impactful and I maybe a minority here but I'd rather have strong bass presence that I can EQ down for typical listening sessions.

- Fit is subjective but these have been comfortable for me, even though looking at size and weight, they come off as larger than usual TWS. MTW2 feel lighter though and more comfortable

- Speak to chat works perfectly and you can adjust the timer for it in the app

- Left earbud stops working once in a while but it could just be a bug in current firmware as many have experienced this issue

- Touch controls on either L/R buds are somewhat customizable in the Sony app but not as much as MTW2. Sony App gives you presets to choose, Sennheiser gives you full control

- Microphone on these is terrible. I had 3 people on a Zoom call today and they had a confused face when I started the call with XM4s and after two minutes of speaking I asked them are you able to hear me okay? The answer was "You sound garbled as if speaking underwater, and we can't make out some words at all like it is cutting out". I switched to my Plantronics and they said the difference was night and day. So definitely these are not the buds for conf calls. Maybe you can use for occassional short phone coversations. Hopefully Sony improves the mic as I think these buds have the best processing power out of everything TWS out there and Sony added bone conduction in these.

- Watching YouTube is less laggy on Sonys vs MTW2, minor difference but noticeable

- Sony case is pocketable but still a bit bulky as compared to Galaxy buds pro which I also own. MTW2 case is most premium of all the cases but both Sony and Samsung cases show battery life in the app, MTW2 case only shows battery life for buds.

- The Sony factory foam tips that come with XM4s seem one size smaller than usual. I typically use M size but M was too small so I went with L

- The voice is fuller on XM4s vs MTW2 when on phone calls or listening to YouTube podcasts

- The mids sound better on XM4s vs MTW2

- MTW2 sound more "refined" when listening to music

- XM4s respond very well to the EQ but you won't get the quality of treble you get from MTW2

- Battery on XM4 outlasts MTW2 which is great for long flights or listening sessions

- MTW2 has inferior ANC to XM4s but the Azla tips I have on MTW2 give me such a great seal that any low frequency noise is suppressed by MTW2 as good as XM4s which was a pleasant surprise that I did not expect with MTW2


Ordered some ePro horn tips to see if they bring out the Treble, will know in a couple days. Once I decide which ones to keepm the other paid is giong on eBay. I don't like returning to the retailer and abuse the great return policy they offer.

 

[snapandslide]

So an update now I've tried them this morning on London's Underground (using the XM3 silicone tips).

The ANC is excellent - far surpasses what the XM3s and for that alone it's a winner. Fit wise less fidgety than the XM3s and definitely more comfortable.

Microphone - no complaints from the other side on the microphone either which is good. One thing I've noticed when using my Windows laptop is I was unable to control the volume anywhere, which is bloody annoying! So I've enabled vol control on the buds and will see if I can control in my next meeting.

On to music - the silicone tips definitely clean up the mid bass bloat that was there with the stock tips. Treble is a bit better too, though I agree with the poster above that no amount of EQ will bring that back. But on a commute with ANC on to reduce peaky outside noises, I can live with that. I may also try the epro horn to see the difference.

I think tomorrow I'll try the stock tips on the underground to see if the enhanced passive means better ANC performance.

 

[beowulf]

The only reason I'm not making it a big deal is because I don't have to disconnect them from my previous device when connecting to a new one. I can tolerate no multipoint if I can just connect to whatever device I'm using without disconnecting. It's when I have to disconnect first that it really bugs me.

Know what you mean, that does make it a lot less annoying. But in general well implemented Multipoint is super pleasant (for people who are using two sources simultaneously frequently - typically a computer + a phone).

The lack of MP and threads I've been reading about glitches (reddit is full of them) give me the feeling that engineering wasn't done with these but Sony didn't want to postpone launch. Some aspects almost make it look as if they were shipped with Beta-grade firmware and will require a lot of bugfixing.

If the hardware is solid, shouldn't be a major issue, a few updates will probably improve them. But at this point I'm considering picking them up later after development matured a bit (and there's always the bonus of Sony launch pricing having a tendency to tank pretty fast as soon as stocks accumulate)

 

[gLer]

For real. It really did take an hour. Mine stayed at 51% for a long time. Thought it froze up, but eventually continued.

That's what happens when 50,000 people are downloading new firmware at the same time!

 

[helmutcheese]

Updating FW now, had to charge first as 7 hours with ANC+30% Vol had R bud at 2% and L bud at 22%, 20% is a big gap IMO.

 

[Devodonaldson]

Know what you mean, that does make it a lot less annoying. But in general well implemented Multipoint is super pleasant (for people who are using two sources simultaneously frequently - typically a computer + a phone).

The lack of MP and threads I've been reading about glitches (reddit is full of them) give me the feeling that engineering wasn't done with these but Sony didn't want to postpone launch. Some aspects almost make it look as if they were shipped with Beta-grade firmware and will require a lot of bugfixing.

If the hardware is solid, shouldn't be a major issue, a few updates will probably improve them. But at this point I'm considering picking them up later after development matured a bit (and there's always the bonus of Sony launch pricing having a tendency to tank pretty fast as soon as stocks accumulate)

I've read the posts of different individuals complaining about the xm4 "lack" of treble. Definitely a subjective thing. I prefer the epro tips on the xm4, but am happy with the treble response, as I'm listening to Miles Davis as I type this. At the same time, my favorite headphones are the Nighthawk and Z1-r, so I skew in the darker side of detailed. I don't feel any lack of treble in any of those headphones nor do I in xm4, it's just not prominent. At the same time, I don't like titanium tweeters in my car audio, and don't like Focal nor Sennheiser upper tier headphones treble, so I guess I'm a Sony type.

 

[JML]

I wrote to eProaudios, and they said "eProaudios TW00 series will fit Sony WF1000-XM4 very well."