Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot overly impressed
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2023
I've only had these a day but there are not many reviews so I'll give my 1st impressions. I wore them for a few hours doing yard work (using my Samsung S22) and tried them with some of my favorite test tracks connected to my PC and using Amazon HD music (using Exclusive mode)
The first thing that surprised me was the white case... I ordered black, and at first thought they sent the wrong ones but opened the case and the buds themselves were black. I don't like white, but whatever.
Looking at the case there is not much indication of what is the front and it's a bit fiddly to open. The magnet to suck the buds into place is not very strong, so a bit fiddly to lay them in the case.
I don't like wearing buds much, but these were pretty comfortable right out of the box. The insertion was not quite as deep as I like but they stayed in well while I was moving around and I did not feel the need to keep adjusting them.
How do they sound:
I want to emphasize these are first impressions.
These have a polite sound that would probably please many people. I'm not one of them. When I got the Lypertek buds for the same price I told people "I can't believe how good a sound you can get for $100 these days". With these, I would say "They are ok, most people would like them".
They are "fine" for having something playing in your ear while you do something else but they did not bring out any joy in the music for me. Nothing stood out about the sound. Ordinary comes to mind or, nothing wrong but nothing right. I'm not into 'soundstage' the the lack of one while listening to live tracks actually stood out to me.
The sound is a bit congested, the instruments kind of bunched into each other. There is no 'air' around the instruments. I found myself pushing the volume louder than I normally listen to "wake them up a bit".
Detail retrieval is decent, but you are not going to notice the reverb, the grind of a distorted guitar, the 'ting' of the drumsticks on a cymbal, breath sounds, etc.
The overall presentation is smooth enough from low to high, with no glaring holes, or peaks. If I had to fault the frequency response it would be male voices. Just a bit in your face at times. Bass get a bit tubby if you try to push it much. In "normal" mode I found it just about right.
Let's see what I can 'fix' with EQ. The EQ in the App has 9 bands, cool! But that hardly matters if there is no custom EQ option. Seriously Samsung? The Sennheiser App only has 3 bands but at least they let you set a custom EQ, name it, and save it.
There are 7 presets, but none of them really gave me something I liked. But there is enough variety that most people would find something they like.
I'm mixed on keeping them. The sound is good enough for what I want them for. listening to music while I do something else. They are comfortable and stay in well, but I am not impressed with the sound. It's "fine", it's "okay", and "good enough" but not impressed with the sound for the $100 price point.