I agree. His reviews are very fair. I bought the aerobes aftershokz due to his review. I knew that the sound wouldn’t be super high range going in, and so I love them because they do exactly what I want. Thanks TM!
I don't think anyone would expect anything different from Mat, he has built a solid reputation on being completely honest about stuff like this. I expect there will be a lot of people who see the points he didn't like as positives and will buy on that basis. Sony should be pleased with this video and I doubt anyone is going to be calling Mat a shill for it (haven't read the rest of the comments yet).
He should make a deal with Sony - For every new product they send him to review, they have to also send him something from at least 30 years ago that they never released.
I'm not sure. Seemed a bit odd to me, like he couldn't quite make his mind up, especially on sound quality. I can imagine somebody not listening to the whole thing intently coming away with the impression that they don't sound very good. Sounds to me a bit like asking a motorcyclist to review a car. No matter how good it is, he's not going to like it. I really like this guy and am a subscriber but I think this was out of his comfort zone a little. Maybe I'm slightly biased but I found myself disagreeing with almost everything. The sound quality is fantastic, but many people seem to be making the mistake of trying to compare them with premium earbuds designed specifically with the best sound quality and battery life in mind, yet obviously they're not going to get close to a full size set of cans with 40mm drivers. That's not what these are about. The case is a little smoother than I would have liked but you soon get used to using it. I would have preferred a slightly textured finish like Cambridge Audio did with the Melomania Touch, and a magnetic catch might have worked better than the fiddly button on the front. I'm not entirely sure what the button on the back is for, there's no indicator light accompanying it and mine paired (to a Sony smartphone) without pressing it. But the case is fine, and super compact to carry around. It's nit picking really. As for comfort - and this is coming from someone who has never found anything that doesn't fall out, needs adjusting or refitting and gets tiring or annoying after a while - I wore these all day yesterday and found them to be so comfortable that I even forgot they were there at times. The amazing 4 gram weight means there's no bulk to push against your ears, and they held in place all day in perfect comfort without the need to adjust them even once. No cushioning needed, and they never came loose. Of course, everybody's ears will be different but if mine are average these should suit a great many people, and I think a lot of thought has gone into the design. The tap your face (next to the ear) worked remarkably well for me every time, and I found no accidental "taps" being picked up from ambient sounds around me and setting off the excellent pause to talk thing, even when the missus had the TV on with the surround system. And being a little deaf she tends to have it on slightly loud. I could hear my music without the background noises being intrusive yet still be aware of them and it's remarkable what Sony have done here. I had no problems when I was eating either. In fact nothing affected them adversely at all. I also didn't experience any dropouts yet I had mine set to sound quality rather than connection strength. I also like the fact that the other earbud continues to play uninterrupted if one runs out of juice. I've seen plenty where if one stops, they both stop. Overall, if you take them on their merits and not try to compare them with something they're not intended to compete with I think Sony have done a fantastic job with these. Sound is never going to be the loudest or deepest coming from a device weighing 4 grams, but it's clear and true and they exceeded my expectations. Likewise with battery life, having some of the extra features on can bring it right down to three hours or so but you really do get a 90 minute boost from just a few minutes charge so it's not that big a deal, and it's amazing how they get so much out of something so small and light. If you consider their intended usage scenario and it's what you want I think you'll be delighted with them. As stated on the video they're £149 in the UK and Sony currently have a 30 day money back guarantee offer on if you don't like them. The price will probably drop fairly soon but I think they're worth every penny, and definitely won't be sending mine back.
@@RoastBeefSandwich I know that, but it’s still surprising to see Techmoan as part of the initial wave of reviews for a product after an embargo is lifted.
@@summerrr1 Besides, this product, despite not being perfect, is quirky, which is the best Sony, as the proverb says. Regular boring stuff is just boring.
The biggest benefit of bone-conducting headphones above earbuds (for me) is that I can use my regular ear-protection buds together with bone-conducting phones. I work in construction sites a lot and using ear protecting buds when on site. I can use my bone-conducting headphones wether I use ear protection or not.
I like the confidence of Sony; they absolutely knew this was going to be a fair review. Matthew is never really disrespectful, but he's not going to excuse the flaws of a product.
Exactly, a video like this adds an enormous amount of credibility to the product, unlike some shill RU-vidrs creaming themselves over it with no actual constructive criticism
Having been half asleep at my desk and my phone announces Techmoan posted a video, I thought I’d been sleeping for four days and lost a lot of time. Nope, but what a great bonus video for me to enjoy today. Thank you.
I use those bone conductors mainly for the audio on my TV. They're brilliant for that, as you say, not so much for music. Great content & an automatic thumbs up from this long time subber! 👍
These are great if you are on a bike so you can hear the traffic around you. I remember there was a discussion here in The Netherlands about banning headphones while driving a bike that block out all your surrounding. I don't think that went anywhere (holding a phone on a bike did get banned though).
@@HOLLASOUNDS why? You’d still be able to hear your surroundings clearly. People drive in sound proofed metal boxes with music blaring out, drowning out everything but the loudest emergency siren, but no-one seems to think it’s an issue.
@@a1white The rules at work are no headphones and you wearing those headphones with a hole in will create arguments and repeated situations where some one will think it's fine wearing normal buds as they dont know the difference between there normal buds and the ones that have holes in. So the answer will be no.
@Cardboard Homestar yeah I wear those apple earpods when I’m working at my computer, simply because they don’t block all ambient sound, but often take them out when I need to concentrate. My brain gets overloaded 😂
This is the only review on RU-vid that has ever made me buy a product. These are perfect for what I wanted them for: Pottering about the house listening to a podcast and Zoom calls. The mic is really good at cutting out background noise.
I like how honest Techmoan is when he is reviewing products. I would like to get a pair of these, even if they do have some discomfort to them. Like Mat, I'm not a fan of earbuds either, but a hour or two at a time won't hurt.
Fair review. I agree with you on just about everything. I've tried these and after about a month they have become my favourite wearable earphones. The app said in March I wore them for 306 hours... The case is slippy The battery drain isn't balanced. They fixed the audio drop out. Having both ears and hearing just about everything is something I didn't know I wanted. Yet most practical for me.
Good to see a review like this on the channel. Presume the embargo lifted for all reviewers at the same time, so nice to be able to have a contemporaneous comparison with the channels that grind out reviews daily.
I own the "Xperia Ear Duo" (Sonys first open ear headphones) and really like them. Best feature was (missing on the linkbuds) to get to the next song by shaking your head in one direction and accepting a call via a nod.
I've been using the STH40D (wired open earbuds) for the last few days just to give my ears a break, let them breathe. So these linkbuds have come at a perfect time because I'm sure those drivers must sound better than sending the sound down tubes.
@@jatnierdorta Knew that comment would be one of the first one - it is not really an abrupt "shake" but rather looking to the left as if you noticed something out of the corner of your eye. I asked people (who had the same suspicion that it would look like a "tick") to walk with me and tell me when I changed the song. They maybe got one out of ten or non at all over a span of 15 minutes.
Oh one good thing about this, if Sony didn't send you these for review I likely wouldn't even know they were available soon for purchase! So smart of them to utilize his audience. Now I'm going to go mention these to a friend if I don't end up buying a pair for myself.
The most embarrassing thing about the speak to chat feature is that I noticed how often I talk to myself. The bluetooth dropouts are to be expected. 2.4GHz is completely overloaded in certain areas and I'm surprised bluetooth works as well as it does.
On my God. Me too... In fact my wife said I do this but never believed her....but this has taught me to stop talking to myself... I tell you I didn't know how much I talk to myself...
I have Sony wireless earbuds (WFXB700) and I love them. Great battery life. Small and comfortable. No dropout problems. I almost considered trying these Linkbuds though. But mine have real buttons for start/stop/volume, etc. I really don't like the touch controls because I'm about your age and I find that my big fumble fingers turn things on off up down without meaning to. The hole in the middle seems like a great feature. I'm concerned, however, about them being hard plastic without the soft rubber cushion, and how long could I tolerate that. Thank you for the thorough and honest review.
You just made me realize even more everyone is different. I can wear regular airpods the whole day and even forget I'm wearing them until they bong because they are low on battery (I find 'em so comfortable I keep them on even when I'm not listening to anything) but can't stand anything rubbery you have to shove down in your ear canal for more than 30 minutes
I’m just the opposite. Regular earbuds don’t fit in my ears, they just fall out. I have to have in ear style with the rubber tips. Super comfortable and they don’t fall out! 😄
I never expected an earbud review from techmoan, but honestly well played Sony, I'd probably take your advice over many other RU-vidrs that I watch, not because I don't find them trustworthy but because you're not testing these with crab rave, but rather audio books and podcasts which is what id probably want these for
Yep, I bought myself a pair of WH-1000XM4 headphones recently and they're really great. Best headphones I've ever had. I also turned off that "speak to pause" feature since I quite often talk to myself (or the presenter of the video I'm watching, as if they can hear me 😂) and I kept interrupting myself.
@@PedroPauloAmorim Baddery.... fully.... charged! Yeah, I turned those off 😂 Annoyingly what I would like is to retain the beeps for each noise cancelling mode but ditch the voice. Seems you can only have neither or both.
I just got these earbuds in late November and I absolutely love them. Comfortable for all day wear, secured enough for my ears to stay put while skating (rollerblades). Sound is awesome, but I'm not into bassy music anyways. The update allowed multi point which is great for connecting to my laptop as well. I use them all day at the office without blocking out my colleagues. The wide area tap is sensitive for eating but I turn it on again when not eating which is useful for using with gloves or beanie hats. The only downside is the weak battery life but it is good enough still.
Hi. when it comes to the bluetooth dropout I'm pretty sure Sony will fix it, I own the Sony WF-1000xm3 buds ( bought them a month after they came out and they suffered the same bluethoot problem in the start, took Sony a couple of months to send out an update (if I don't remember wrong) but after that update the problem was gone. BTW thanks for a great review and great content👍🏻 keep up the great work and have a nice day😃
I’ve long enjoyed my Sony headphones, wxm4 for noise canceling and MDR V6 for active listening, but as of recent I’ve been more sensitive to clamping pressure and noise canceling pressure due to some medical unpleasantness, so the notion of having a more opened back pair of buds to let me enjoy my music and podcasts at an acceptable quality without making my head ache worse is appealing. That said I’m not sure where bone conduction falls in the scope of head/brain agitation. Looking forward to trying a pair if anyone I know gets these, cause they may be just what I need at this point.
Sennheiser 595 and 555 models (presumably all that look similar) are extremely comfortable, but the bass is terrible so they're not suited for music with lows. They'd be perfect for any other use.
Thanks for the honesty. 👍🏻 I recently reviewed some earbuds I was sent and wasn't exactly positive. The company might never send anything again but having a genuine review is so important. I would like to think Sony will be different.
Great review! I hope Sony sends you more stuff to review because I know you like a lot of their products from different periods of time and to see honest reviews should help them with future products and help the consumer too.
Big thanks for this review, reviewer! I still use the old school wired earpods from Apple today. Why? Because I have tried the wireless JBL before (closed version) for music at the most, but find it sound ‘muffeled’. As for the wired Apple ones I experience more crisp high sound and that’s what I would like to hear in music. Also the higher price of wireless ear sound product is keeping me from use these systems. Pity selling companies don’t have try- before/you-buy programmes for these expensive systems, so that’s why I’m sticking to the wires.
Hi Mat, cracking video as always. I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it, but on any of the chapter title cards, there's a high-pitched sound present. Not enormous in volume, but it's there in the left channel, and kept me pausing the video to investigate it's source!
They look decent and the price seems in the range of others out there. I have the AirPod Pro and I use them mainly for cutting the grass and snow blowing because of their sound isolation which really reduces the noise, but they also have the feature that allows background sound in via the built in mics and it works well. I don’t like them for casual around the house use because they’re not as comfy as the ones that just sit in the ears. I think these Sony’s would be good for around the house.
I've bought these linkbuds. I really like the throughput sound. Normally - amazingly - you can hear things *above & below* your head as well as side to side. When in ear headphones pass through outside sounds this is lost. At low volume, it is just like there's a stereo system playing in the room; you still feel you are 'in' the room. The bad part for me is these tend to fall out with my TMJ going on when I talk or eat. I need a stiffer loop than they give you. If they were just a little bit more secure in my large ears, I could easily do outside stuff, bicycle, etc.
Like the new chapter intros and is the little bed of music used in the chapter intros taken from the VHD promo video - they sound very similar. Super happy to see mid-week content too Mat - can never get enough of your channel.
@@Techmoan Thanks Mat, and one last question - is there a deliberate order to your use of the “new new” intro (super high resolution ray traced one), the older fuzzy ray traced one? IMO love the new intro sequence.
I am totaly interested in the earbuds, suit my working condition perfectly - I am working as maintenance and I am knocking and going into people's rooms and I need to be able to hear them, but have the option to entertain myself at the same time. In all honesty I can see a lot of room for improvements, so most likely I will wait for 2nd gen or "pro" version of the product. Would have been more tempted to try them now if they were around the £99 mark.
@@pepperpepperpepper I've had those and returned them, because the way they clamp down on the sides causes a bit of discomfort after an hour, more so than in ear buds even did. I've yet to find a pair of in ear that I can wear without my ears hurting in one way or another, so I gave the aeroplex a shot. The galaxy Buds Live aka "the beans" are the ones that cause me the least amount of discomfort I can wear the one in my left ear without noticing it, but for some reason the right ear will still start to ache at the 2 hour mark. I'd still recommend trying the Aeroplex though, you might not get that pain from the clamp down force I did.
You are the only reviewer who said anything about the stutter in audio even after connection priority 😇. It seems it is an issue on all Sony earphones. My wf100 xm3 have the same issue and I saw at least 20 reviews from the best reviewers who never said a word about it. After buying and going through the issue on reddit, it seems like a very common issue with sony blutooth earphones.
I've had the Aftershokx Aeropex bone conductors for 3 years now. They've been great to wear under my full face mountain bike helmet, and even just around the house. Great for Zoom calls to as the mic seems to work really well. Maintaining situational awareness is great, even if the SQ is not that of good ear buds or OTE. Now I just upgraded to the new Open Run Pro model, which has a second speaker just for base, and it's a marked SQ improvement. Buds just don't work for me, too easy to lose with all the active stuff I'm into. Kudos to Sony for getting into the open ear area, I think we need more focus on this from companies. But not an improvement over the Shokz, IMO.
I got a pair of Trekz Air when they were just out, I don't know how many years ago that was. I found them useless for bike riding, as the wind noise completely drowns out the sound. Even walking and listening on a very windy day (I'm living by the ocean, so a very windy day is almost every day) is out of the question. The battery don't last for more than a few hours now and it has developed some kind of distortion on one side (in other words, broken). Nice while and when it worked though.
@@luobomu9747 Open Run Pro has proved great so far. Several days of multiple hour sessions on a charge. Can't speak to a super windy environment but my full face helmet is well vented and I can hear some wind noise, free hub, etc, when blasting down an MTB park flow trail, and music is still great. All IMO, of course.
I've bought AfterShokz Aeropex strictly for cycling, but those LinkBuds look like a great alternative for that. I would be affraid to lose them though, these little rubber hooks don't look very solid. And it would be a huge bummer to lose one while cycling since they are very expensive. I guess I'll wait for second rendition.
I always struggle to get a good seal with regular earbuds when I'm moving around, like walking or biking, so I usually have no problems hearing my surroundings, but it also means the bass is weak. I'm not a big fan of wireless earbuds though.
Great video as always. I do hope Sony keep sending you gear from their more quirky product line, because you would be the perfect person to take a closer look at the SRS-NS7 neckband.
A very balanced review - like you as I've become older the feel of something in my ears has become less tolerable. Now I use Bluetooth over ear headphones and they are much more comfortable!
@@scottigertiger6430 Not the same sure, but it hits on a lot of the technical points mentioned in the review. Being able to hear surroundings, carrying on a conversation, cultural acceptance of carrying on a conversation, not 100% sure about relying on technology for the actual safety of being able to hear things possibly allowing for work with heavy machinery, I guess like a lot of things that's going to be YMMV. But it's a very valid comment in regards to the points hit in the video.... And it's something I would like to see the sony's compared to.
I didn't think these would have Noise Canceling. As I listened though it made me think. What does everyone think about a possible high pitched tone that can potentially disable ANC on headphones for emergencies? Kind of like how some stop lights at intersections go red when a specific frequency of light is flashed to a sensor by emergency vehicles.
These don't have noise cancelling, on account of the great big hole in the driver unit. There are no ANC functions here. You're probably thinking of the noise-reduction feature, and it's only for the in-built microphone, meant to improve the quality of voice calls (watch the part of this video where he is driving on the motorway if you need a practical demonstration) The whole selling point of these is so you can hear what's going on around you, so ANC is completely pointless
@@DuyLeNguyen yes you are correct I got thinking about one thing and confused another. I definitely meant ANC in my idea but that's DEFINITELY not what these have lol.
I've never been able to use ear buds, they've always chaffed in my ears and fell out. I find actual headphones too heavy, so the only kind I can wear are ear hook earphones that sit on top of the ear, which are becoming increasingly rare, so I guess they're not popular, but they're invaluable for me.
Have the same problem. My ear canals are too large for any of the ones Apple provides with their phones. I would have to push the ear bud in and hold it up get the full sound. The moment I let go, it would lose half of the tone and fall out. I know some brands are larger, but I never had that introductory chance to lure me in.
@@JonnyMorgan18 Last time I tried a Koss pair, the plastic snapped two days after I opened them. I tend to use Panasonic pairs, they usually last 6 months to a year before the left ear dies.
@@guitarcheology well considering Apples old wired headphones were one size fits all that isn't a surprise. Just buy a pair that has a lot of different size tips.
@@FilmBrain True they are fragile, I baby them, I don't think they'd survive being left on a couch and sat on. The fragility seems to be a sacrifice for how ridiculously light and comfy they are.
I've had these for a few weeks and I think your review is very fair. I don't find them uncomfortable, maybe about the same as the Galaxy Buds Live. It's not been a problem for me to wear them all day. The sound quality is absolutely fine much to my surprise. I really like the speak-to-pause feature but it dramatically shortens the battery life so I disabled it. They also can't connect to BT when the right earbud is in the case, so I can't charge one while using the other. Bluetooth dropouts for me were about the same as I had with my Galaxy Buds 2 + Pixel 6 Pro (both of which are more frequent than on my Airpods + iPhone 13 Max)
To be clear, for the "best quality" headphone experience, most audiophiles agree that you'll want open-backed circumaural (around-the-ear/over-ear) headphones. By their nature, they don't block out the outside world (at least not by much), and also let the outside world hear a bit of what you're listening to. Obviously, for the best open-backed experience, you need a quiet environment-and ideally an acoustically treated space, as the headphones do interact with their immediate surroundings, although to a much lesser degree than loudspeakers. That's not to say that these are equivalent to open-backed headphones, or that closed-backs can't sound excellent, because neither is true.
@@startedtech we're taking about headphones, not speaker cables my friend. You can buy equivalent wired headphones for less that have better sound quality, so actually you're saving money and not losing audio fidelity like you would with bluetooth.
@@JG-nx3jg Bluetooth is enough for good audio quality. Plus, if you are older than 12 years old, your hearing only gets worse with age, so it's not like you're losing much if you can't hear 20KHz frequencies. And yes, I do prefer wired headphones over wireless, but just because I don't want to lose the damn things, I need a leash on those mofos lol.
Open back in ears, interesting concept. I've recently jumped to using IEM's over closed backs most of the time when not at my desk (where I use over ear openbacks, currently Sennheiser 560S). More and more I even use my IEM's at my desk, if they could make something like this that could give an openback style soundstage while retaining a good enough driver setup and tuning to reach a pleasant sound profile like Moondrop Arias I would pay the money for a pair without question. Personally, I'd rather have a wired pair, making room for better drivers/sound resonance and letting the DAC/Amp handle the heavy lifting. I wouldn't mind a wireless pair, there's plenty of time during breaks to charge them up. The issue comes into longevity, I have headphones that are decades old that work great and I'm betting my IEM's will last for a similar length of time. Battery powered stuff automatically has a life span, but for 200 USD give or take if they lasted the ~4-6 years I guess it would be ok.
In my experience with my own products and working for Best Buy, the average life span of truly wireless earbuds with their batteries is a maximum of 2 years before needing to be serviced or replaced
i disagree on 200 usd for ~4-6 years being ok. Thats at worst 50 dollars a year for questionable quality sound. I've had 30 dollar monitor headphones last 12 years. the 200usd is for the gimmick, which is novel at best, and stupid at worst. These sony linkbuds shouldnt cost more than 100 dollars. Why would they? The quality isn't incredible, recycled, ugly looking plastic, uncomfortable. It has a hole in it. That's it. There are in ear head phones that have ambient sound inclusion through microhphones at half the price, double the specs. 200 usd I expect the product, with out accidently breaking them, to last around a decade, if not longer, especially for such a compact, simple design. It has a hole. That's it. The hole isn't even big enough to wear ear protection with. These are a niche product... and that's generous... it's a novelty. Just my opinion, I mean no disrespect, just conversing and sharing thoughts. 100usd-150usd tops for these is fair... sadly people will pay double what they're actually worth because it's a conversation/lifestyle/unique accessory that is hip and cool "Look, my earbuds have a hole in them so I can hear ambient sound too, instead of a mic to hear ambient sound BETTER, but uh yeah they have a lesser carbon footprint cause it's RECYCLED PLASTIC, cutting edge technology, want to see? Look at the app, wow." I just don't see the value/appeal. Again, no disrespect, just conversing and adding my 2 cents in.
I'm old and only use wired headphones... because I would only lose wireless ones. (And I've also washed too many of those corded Apple ones already, so $$$... ;)) But, they look decent though. :)
I'm really not a fan of Individual wireless earbuds, and I'm fairly young! Wayyyyyy too easy to lose, and it isn't very convenient to take them out. Why I'm a fan of the "traditional" Bluetooth earbuds, I can just pop em out and drape em over my neck. No fiddly charging cases, and they're not any easier to lose than a regular pair of earbuds. Edit: they also tend to have longer battery life by a good margin.
Wired are great because you never have to worry about keeping them charged. I carried wireless buds for a little bit, and there is nothing more frustrating than not being able to listen to music because you forgot to plug them in last night.
I mostly use my earphones in combination with my phone. Since Apple wanted their phones to be (more) waterproof*, they did away with the separate earphone jack and now I have one port for both charging and my earphones. That means I can either not use my phone to listen to music/RU-vid/podcasts while charging or I have to use a wireless solution. I have opted for the latter. *People say they had other motives like selling more peripherals. I don't know, but I do enjoy the additional waterproofness, since I am a clutch.
Just watching to see Matt's great presentation skills. This kind of devices always seem a bit Star Trek to me. I never see myself using something like that. I don't mean other's shouldn't. I think I just like old tech. I heard of pilots having bone conducting sound but never knew this was used outside aviation(and affordable). So, back to my stereo FM radio while the rest of the world charges toward the future... ;-)
i agree. bluetooth never works for me, i can't use them with my laptop without having to figure out how bluetooth works on a computer, and your headphones might die on you in the middle of a song. plus i can't even connect them to my mp3 player without a cable anyway
I love that you also reviewed these, I just came from LinusTechTips and while they're great I kinda perfer your energy, much more relaxing, and having two opinions on the same product really shows what's good and what's bad about it. Thank you ^^
Thanks for your work and passion. I think you can forget the chapter titles in the video, it's a little bit annoying to me, the RU-vid timeline chapter feature is enough for me. :)
You know, I was interested particularly on one aspect of the sound quality of these; that being the ‘sound stage’, in the sense of how wide the sound is; with such an open design, I was wondering if it worked well in that particular area. I was startled by a total absence of this in the review. I mean it doesn’t really matter; more of a wired ear bud, replace-the-whole-world-with-my -music kind of listener, so these were never something I would have bought, but I was wondering. I agree with you, by the way, different products fill different peoples needs, and it not filling mine doesn’t make it a bad product.
I found with earphones recently they'd hurt in one ear so I made the move to headphones - and I'm really happy I did too. I couldn't make a leap with these because ultimately there's the question of comfort and if earphones physically hurt one or both ears then it's just a non-option. That said, it's nice to see where the technology is going.
Also if you need to hear the environment you can't beat just regular open back headphones like koss porta pros. The amount of sound they block is unnoticable and the sound quality is fantastic also they're very cheap compared to these at less than a third of the price. The only issue being that their more visible and so likely to attract a managers attention.
Great review as usual. Price point seems rather high to me just for the sake of a hole. Mic function seemed surprisingly good, I wonder if and how well they could send voice commands to a smartphone. Presumably the camera you were using in the car was picking up a lot of road noise via conduction.
Interesting design. Though a lot of the noise cancellation headsets including from Sony have a setting which records external noise over the mic and then mixes it back in at the level you want - which seems like a more flexible solution than having a whole dedicated set of earbuds designed with the idea in mind.
A pass through function has to determine, WHAT to pass through. That can go wrong. These headphones with a hole inside, there YOU will be the one focusing what to hear.
Everyone here is right. An example of this would be if you’re talking to someone in person with buds in and a transparently mode on. However, it’s raining and quite windy. You’ll not be able to hear them and you’ll have to take them out anyway. With these you’ll not need to at all. Another example would be you’re doing stuff at work and you have a company phone and it’s ringing. You’ll have to remove the earbuds to really hear the phone, where as with these; you do not. This is some fun stuff, I cannot lie.
They probably want you to see any earwax on it and wipe it off occasionally, before it starts to clog the holes and block the sound. Earwax color is also not too far from white people skin color and while hearing aids try to blend in, earphones usually try to stand out since most people wearing them want to send a message that they can't hear whatever you might be saying to them.
big fan of the transparency provided just by the youtube platform. Techmoan's own transparency is more of a given at this point but i also can't wait for the day sony sends him something that has him crying tears of joy
These are an interesting variant that may find a niche due to workplace liability issues. Long term the solution will be user adjustable relative volume combined with noise cancellation.
That's already what my WF-1000s do, which were kind "old" when I got them. That said, they don't go loud enough to be truly "transparent." But all the newer earphones I've ever used do make it up to transparent. If only their noise canceling was as good, I'd have upgraded, as they are also a bit lighter.
A very honest review - as always. With this informations, I will have a much closer look at these, because I have a little bit of problems with the normal eartip design - thats wear I like to wear my Jabra handsfree. And the mic test in the car was an amazing idea, thank you so much for this extremly helpfull advice, it was very good idea from Sony to let you test these device. As allways - great video!
I am not a fan of earbuds myself. I have tried many, but I find after about 15mins to a few hours, depending on the style, they make my ear feel either raw or just painful. I dread this because as I get older my hearing is slowly deteriorating. I think I will take up ASL over hearing aids....
I'm one of those people who keeps transparency mode on 95% of the time on my AirPod Pros. I can't do phone calls without it enabled and I don't like being outside without also being aware of my surroundings. Unfortunately, keeping that enabled also drains the battery and, as they age, it's becoming more of a problem. These Sony LinkBuds may be just my solution. For the 5% of the time I really want ANC, I still have my AirPod Pros. I was skeptical when all the reviews hit for these but now I feel I have a legit idea of what to expect. I may have to check these out! Thanks for keeping it real.
A very well thought out and honest review that is G rated, unlike what you get with a lot of reviewers on RU-vid. I am not thin skinned, I just think that some reviewers come across as unprofessional, Techmoan never disappoints because he keeps it real.
I have had dozens of bluetooth headphones and every pair, including my Apple and Beats models, has connectivity issues with my iPhone. Apple's own seem to recover, but everything else including Beats, ends up skipping nonstop once it starts. Even pausing and stopping won't fix. And sadly this has been an issue since my iPhone 4s then my 6s+, iPad mini, iPhone 8+ and even the latest iPad Air. Zero issues with AppleTV though. And zero issues with several Android phones (LG v30 and RED Hydrogen One.) So the connectivity could be a similar thing. These buds are intriguing as I would love an "open back" style earbud but... having been spoiled between Airpod Pros and LG Tone FP9, I doubt I could handle a drop in quality just to have a natural Transparency mode. Thanks for your review though!
The main issue with these is the battery life. With only 5.5 hours your going to be charging them probably twice a day to get through a work day and so that battery is just not going to last very long and given how tiny these are they're just going to end up in the trash. If they actualy end up being used regularly they're just not going to last much longer than a year.
Excellent review as always. I was a little worried though, when you passed the wire through. I thought - he's gonna pass it through one ear and out the other before fitting the left ear bud 😲🤓
I wonder how they managed to make the linkbuds sound decent with a hole in the middle of the driver. Unless it uses balanced armatures in the body and the ring is just for show.
The middle of the driver doesn't really do much, it might as well be a hole. They are probably high-excursion and low Fs, to counteract the acoustic losses, though odds are, most of the midrange and high end is shaped by the firmware anyway, so as long as you got the excursion at the low end, they can work with that. As to balanced armature? Do they even work right when they aren't coupled directly into your ear canal? I haven't seen that done, ever. Pressure leakage is on the other hand basically how you design most things dynamic if you have to compromise on sheer space needed.
@@SianaGearz Thanks for the info, you definitely know more about drivers than I do. Had no idea the middle of a dynamic driver doesn't do anything. I've also never seen balanced armatures not coupled directly to the ear, but assumed it was because they were only on premium (read: expensive) IEMs.
@@rokushou This isn't quite what i meant. There is often a lot of response shaping in the dustcap in the middle, in purely acoustically tuned designs, but it occurs to me that it can be eschewed in electronically tuned designs, such as all true wireless Bluetooth units. I mean from purely geometric considerations, the middle has little piston area and isn't necessarily moving a lot of air. Like if you make a circle twice the size, it will have 4 times the area. If you have a 10mm membrane, then a 14mm one is twice the area. If you punch a 10mm hole in a 14mm circle, it looks like you have barely any material at all, it's a 2mm wide ring, but it's still got the whole area of the 10mm circle! A little bit of an optical illusion of sorts. The dustcap area is however a persistent source of trouble in driver designs due to membrane breakup, so much so that it's generally gone completely in most high end large loudspeaker driver designs with modern material, extra stiff membranes. Replaced with a stationary phase plug. In a soft membrane design, there is a lot of energy loss, damping, affecting foremost higher frequencies, between the motor and the surround across the membrane area, so soft membranes use that dustcap for the top end. With a hard membrane you can just pick up that top end from all across, just need to package it up a little. So far in-ear and headphone drivers have actually extensively used dustcap area as the main radiation area because the membrane is cheese and they don't have room for a spider and soft surround, so the outskirts of the membrane end up having to do both duties, with compromises. SONY must have embarked on some insane motor redesign to actually accomplish this as well. There have been some recent-ish developments in the industry that i don't quite understand yet for lack of information, with beryllium and carbon/graphene stiffened membranes, which probably enabled this development as well, and they're actually insane how wide and hard they go, absolute revolution, but i have no idea how they're built.
@@SianaGearz I see, so you're saying that the hole in the middle makes a small enough difference that it can mostly be fixed in software. Glad you brought up the motor redesign since that was one of the things I was unsure would work well with the hole.
Just to add, it might worth pointing out the use of recycled materials which is an important positive point. It got me thinking, my set of earbuds have a magnetic close shut lid and magnets to keep the earbuds in and the Sony ones don't - again, this might be to do with the theme of using recycled materials by not using magnets and using the materials for the lid opening and closing - when you were talking about how fiddly someone might find it when trying to open the case. Points you thought could be negative could be seen as points Sony could use to improve on. A good review should show the good and perceived bad points - this helps to improve the product. Another good view all in all, do like watching your channel.
I'm a bit of an audiophile and have used iPhones for years so it made sense for me to get the AirPod Pro's. I did swap out the foam tips with a third party but the main thing is that I can wear them all day for conf calls and I find them very comfortable which is the main thing. I really think it's the foam tips that make the difference as I did suffer using a pair of plastic in-ear headphones on a flight and they were just uncomfortable. They also stay in the ear whatever I'm doing. I also have a pair of Audeze iSine20's magneplanar "earbuds" which ship with over-the-ear clips and a similar "butterfly" arrangement to the Sony's for clamping into the ear and they don't work for me either. The AirPods also have a "transparency" mode to allow ambient noise to be mixed with audio playback which when I go for a walk is invaluable and when on a train I can use noise cancellation which is OK for cutting a lot of ambient noise out but not as good as say a pair of closed back over-the-ear headphones.
These have some great ideas in them but I think I’ll stick with my AirPods Pro. Having the switchable noise cancellation vs transparency mode, better iOS integration, and fitment that doesn’t drive me bonkers all add up to a better product for me. I can totally see these being great for a lot of people though. The cultural aspects are interesting. Maybe they should sell it in flesh tones so that they look like hearing aids instead.
