I don't think for one second that I have ever had such a huge difference in innovation and guts vs Bad sound for music from any earphone. But let's first give Sony some credit for trying something different. Not many companies would have tried this design and Sony did, so I admire this. It's a design that goes really well for people like me who have headaches from Noise-canceling tech and none vented earphones. Thanks to this design I have an open-back design that doesn't create pressure. Another nice thing about this attempt is that they handled issues with the outside world noise vs earphone sounds for select people(which is what will cost this product). Some people like hearing the outside world more not the earphones or headphones drowning those sounds out. And if you are this type of person, this might be of some interest to you. For the majority of the people that I know ...this isn't the case but I can see the appeal for those people. Other than the open back design there's the touch your face feature to skip tracks, 5 hours per charge, and a very nice soundstage and mid-range. So again I give Sony credit for this. This mixed with its smaller design and new for your ears(which could be the best fitting and feeling ever) and this would normally be all you need to have a successful product for earphones. But nope...Sony had to do something stupid and unfortunately, that stupid thing was tied into the very reason you even buy earphones...music quality.
Sony decided on a design that doesn't even contain bass no matter what EQ you use. Because this is a completely open-back design with a small speaker set-up..the music has no dynamics...no bass....no emotion from it. It's a dead hollowed-out sound, especially coming off of audio tracks played on audiophile equipment or even a basic Bluetooth earphone. The earphone here are just not built for this type of music or production and it's plainly clear when you hear the complete absence of bass and dynamics normally. So the narrative that Youtube people(paid off) are spinning is to fool you into believing that having no bass is better than "heavy" bass. This will fool most to believe that if they aren't into heavy bass then these will sound good. The truth is ...if you care about ANY bass at all..balanced or otherwise...it's just not present and can never be because you have no sealability. If you buy this for anything more than for only phone calls or to listen to ASMR, Audiobooks, or piano music, then you are wasting your time. It's the worse sounding Bluetooth device for music I've heard and shouldn't be. It has all other things in place for it to succeed. Even have fantastic sound staging for Bluetooth earphones...maybe the best I've heard for Bluetooth to date. But when you completely remove the bass from the equation...even balanced and neutral bass...then you are playing with a losing hand. But don't get me wrong...if you are only into this because you only mainly listen to classical or need a phone call earphone that will block out unwanted noise and still keep your voice in play ...this could be an option, just not the only one.
But what this earphone does do that is truly unique to its Bluetooth style ( not the tapping of your face), is its soundstage. It's the widest Bluetooth soundstage on the market today. It's actually quite impressive honestly. Sounds are all over the place in different parts of your surroundings and this is accomplished because it bleeds into the background noise and can even fool your brain into believing sounds are coming from different areas of the room you are in when they aren't. It truly is something you don't see unless it's audiophile equipment. So Sony deserves all kinds of credit for that part. This is probably the reason they went with this design, in order to accomplish this. It cost them Bass and dynamics but they got something different for Bluetooth earphones. Some can argue that this made it worth it and some could argue that it isn't worth it. Me personally, I just can't see myself ever using these for anything more than just a phone call or music listening experience on the go, as long as it's not too loud, that is. And this was kinda my direction in the first place. I just didn't know that choice would be made for me by default based on the design of the earphones.
Comments