Adventures in Bluetooth Land

Preamble

I've been an avid bluetooth headphone user for a couple of years now. I tend to listen mostly to IEM-type headphones - more out of convenience than for reasons of sound quality. I currently own the following headphones:

Sony WH1000XM2 - a very impressive full-sized headphone with active noise cancelling and LDAC support. One of my personal favourites.

Apple Airpods - purchased not long after their release. Whilst not the best in my collection from a sound quality perspective, I love their convenience, comfort, wireless capabilities and form factor. They don't sound that bad either.

Mavin Air-X - wonderful set of TWS headphones - superb sound quality, excellent volume range, comfortable and excellent wireless range. Audio is slightly bass boosted (to my ears) but still sound great.

Lypertek Tevi - the latest in my collection. Nice build quality, volume and fit. Don't really like the buttons but I use my smartwatch most of the time anyway. Very flat sound character which reminds me of the Etymotic ER4P's of yesteryear.

I've recently had the opportunity to try out the leading active noise cancelling earbud-type headphones - namely the Sony WF1000XM3's and the Apple Airpods Pro. Here's what I found out (about my listening needs).

Sony WF1000XM3.

I really liked the sound signature of these headphones. They definitely share a similar sound characteristic to their larger WH1000XM3 - deep bass, expansive soundstage like you would find in full sized headphones and wonderfully mellow. You could listen to music for many hours with these without experiencing any listening fatigue at all.

The noise cancelling did work but I must admit I spent most of my time listening to them with this feature switched off because most of the time I was in a fairly quiet environment. The good news is that the noise cancelling doesn’t affect the sound quality at all. Touch controls worked really well - producing a not unpleasant beep every time it registered a touch I found this feedback very useful.

I very seriously considered keeping these but the main thing which put me off was the lack of overall volume. I found that I was spending much of my time listening to these on pretty much full volume. I would still consider buying these but not at their current retail price.

Apple Airpods Pro

Apple has done a great job with the form factor of these headphones. I found that the fit was nice and easy - no fiddling about with insertion angles and equalising ear pressure. The sound quality was reasonably good and wireless range was more than acceptable. I did struggle with the unusual touch controls but once I got used to it I think Apple has really nailed the best way to interact with TWS headphones - your results may vary though.

Again, like with the Sony’s I initially thought that these would be keepers but there were a couple of things which I found to be somewhat irritating. Firstly I really struggled to get them back in their case - I know this seems like a real 'First World' problem but to be truthful I could easily imagine me dropping these all the time and that's not something I want to be doing with headphones which cost this much money. I also felt that the sound quality didn’t match up with their rather excessive price. On closer listening I found the sound to be somewhat average when compared to others at this price point.

What did impress me though was the noise cancelling. When you consider the shallow insertion depth and ease of fitting, the noise cancelling was rather startling. I drive a truck for a living and was stunned at the level of noise cancelling when using the Airpod Pros. The only other headphone that has impressed me for this is the Sony WH1000xm2 full sized headphones.

Again, like with the Sony’s, I spent most of the time listening to these with the noise cancelling switched off - and again, like with the Sony’s, the active noise cancelling didn’t have a detrimental effect on the sound quality.

What effectively stopped me from keeping these though was their sound quality. Don’t get me wrong,, the Airpod Pros didn’t sound bad but they were definitely not as satisfying to listen to as the Sony’s. In the end I just felt that potentially there were better solutions available - either now or in the near future. I'm also mindful of the old adage - 'for every flashing light - that money could be better spent on improving sound quality'. In very mindful of this when it comes to features like active noise cancelling, touch controls and audio passthrough.

Lypertek Tevi

After playing with the active noise cancelling headphones I thought I would try out the latest in regular TWS headphones to see if there’s been any improvements in sound quality since the Mavin Air-X. The Tevi’s are the ‘Flat Earth Society’s’ version of TWS headphones - in other words they are pure vanilla in that they don’t feature active noise cancelling, audio passthrough mode or even touch controls. They are basic but have the features where they count - sound quality.

Don’t get me wrong - these actually feel that quality items - especially the rechargeable case which looks great and offers a whopping 70 additional hours of charge - this is really quite remarkable. The case and headphones have a quality feel to them and you get the impression that these could last for many years if you look after them.

It’s in the sound quality department where these headphones really shine. The lack of ‘bells and whistles’ means that attention has been made to what’s really important in headphones - sound quality. The Tevi’s have a very pure sound characteristic - being very flat in their frequency response without the enhanced bass boost that’s found on much of the competition.

The other thing about these headphones is that they go loud - really loud - far louder than you could ever comfortably listen to - this is useful as it allows for additional dynamic headroom and also greatly helps when listening to older recordings where overall levels are reduced.

At first listen I was a little disappointed with the apparent lack of bass - I must admit I have gotten kind of used to the bass-boosted sound characteristics that are found with so many other TWS headphones out there. I remember reading a review many years ago on the Magnaplanar electrostatic loudspeakers and the reviewer commented that you had no idea of the bass performance until the bass actually kicked in - there was no 'bloom' around the lower mids to indicate that the speakers had any bass at all - the Tevi's are somewhat like this in their sound characteristic and I must admit is taking some getting used to.

After listening almost exclusively to the Tevi's for a couple of weeks - I then connected my Sennheiser HD598 open back headphones to the Topping NX-1 portable DAC/AMP and connected that via USB to my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 phone and had a good listen. The first thing that struck me was the similarity in sound character and detail to the Tevi's. It's not surprising really when you consider that the Sennheiser's also tend to be somewhat bass light.

A couple of days later I decided to try out my Mavin Air-X TWS headphones. These are amongst my very favourite out of all my headphones - perhaps not the best sounding when compared with wired headphones such as the Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10's, but they do bring a lot to the table nonetheless. Straight away the clarity had dimmed considerably. Whilst there was significantly more bass with the Mavin's, it sounded softer and less defined than the Tevi's - again by a considerable margin. I remember recently referring to the Mavin Air-X's as my own little wireless Triple Fi 10's - but I'm afraid the Tevi's sound even closer.

In conclusion I have realised that I don't need active noise cancelling in earbuds - I don't really ever use it on my full-sized Sony WH1000xm2's - I tend to listen to music mostly in fairly quiet environments. Sound quality is still king - and the Lypertek Tevi's are currently the best sounding true wireless headphones in my collection - for now!

Postscript

Well, I purchased the Sony's WF1000XM3's again - and I certainly don't regret it. I've really grown to love their sound quality and character. I'm also now using the active noise cancelling feature a lot more now - living next to a main road, the traffic noise definitely intrudes at certain points in the day and the ANC works a treat at completely cutting out this traffic noise. My opinions on the other wireless IEM's mentioned still very much apply but the Sony's have definitely become a firm favourite.