Wednesday, 10 July 2019

Review For Sony WF-1000XM3 Industry Leading Noise Canceling Truly Wireless Earbuds, Silver



The new headphones are packed with compelling features, including six hours of battery life with noise-canceling on (eight hours with it off) and a 24-hour charging case, and touch controls. Like Sony’s bigger over-ear model, you can touch the left earbud to quickly pipe in some ambient sound from the outside world, making it so you don’t have to remove a headphone to hear an announcement or have a quick conversation with a flight attendant.

In terms of aesthetics, these don’t appear to be the most compact true wireless headphones you’ll find, but they don’t look as bulky as the earhook-style Powerbeats Pro either. The WF-1000xM3 are pill-shaped buds that look like tiny versions of the Bluetooth headsets you may have used a decade ago.



A big thing Sony is touting about the new headphones is their sound quality. The headphones feature the company’s Digital Sound Enhancement Engine HX (DSEE HX), which has the ability to upscale compressed audio formats to make them sound of higher quality, and they also feature the ability to play 24-bit audio, which is the same bit depth at which it is typically recorded in the studio.

Another thing that the company has addressed explicitly in the WF-1000XM3 is video latency. 
Because older chips were slower, we’ve often seen true wireless models that simply don’t sync up with YouTube or Netflix on your phone. Sony says it has solved this problem with the WF-1000XM3, thanks to improved processors.  Call quality should also be excellent, with the company stating that it will employ both noise-canceling and specialized microphones to make sure you come through crystal clear on the phone.

We have yet to hear Sony’s latest pair of true wireless headphones, but we certainly look forward to spending some time with them in the coming days: We should be getting a pair in-house shortly, and will put them through their paces as soon as possible.

At least on the surface, these headphones seem as though they could be among the best on the true wireless market, which has yet to feature a great pair of noise-canceling headphones.  The WF-1000xM3 will be available for pre-order on Amazon starting today, and will ship to customers in August. They will cost $230.


Tuesday, 9 July 2019

Reviewed The best Sennheiser OCX686 sports headphones

Sennheiser OCX686

 

 

 

Sennheiser’s taken a more grown-up approach with its OCX686 earphones. Wireless is out to keep the price down, but it’s the way they sound that makes them a bit unusual in this company.

Their magic trick is to provide great bass impact without actually injecting all that much extra bass. The reasoning being that it’s actually impact rather than sheer volume that will get you running to your favourite tunes that bit faster.

By not swamping the sound with bass, the Sennheiser lets the OCX686’s mids breathe a bit more, so vocals and guitars are clearer and more spacious. That’s all good, but there is a problem: these earphones are quite sibilant, which makes cymbals and searing vocals clash uncomfortably with your eardrums if you listen loud.

We’ve seen a few buyers have complain about the fit of the Sennheiser OCX686s, too. We’ve had not had that issue, but it’s worth being aware of any potential incompatibility with your ears.
They use flexible hooks that sit over your ears to help keep them in place, but also use standard IEM silicone tips. They isolate well, which is great for the gym but may not be so sensible for running out on the roads. Like the best sport headphones, these are also water resistant enough to withstand sweat and the watery removal of said sweat.

There are two versions of the OCX686 headset - the OCX686G for Androids handsets and the OCX686i for iPhones. They have different circuits in the little 3-button remote, ensuring you can change volume as well as switching tracks no matter which smartphone tribe you roll with.

These are good earphones if you don’t mind being tethered to your phone, but the somewhat harsh treble may be too much for some ears, given the price and lack of wireless.

Stuff says ✭✭✭✩✩

Grown-up sounding earphones let down by sibilant treble and a lack of wireless

Sennheiser OCX686 tech specs

Bluetooth: no 
• Battery life: not applicable 
• Mic: yes  
• Remote: yes 
• Sweat/water-resistant: sweat and water  
• Weight: 18g

 

The best Monster iSport Victory sports headphones - reviewed

Monster iSport Victory

 

Makers of running headphones tend to worry about making pairs that don’t mind sweat and that won’t instantly fall out of your ears when you start running. Monster has a few extra ideas, though.

The Monster iSport Victory earphones also work on visibility, with a neck cable that is ultra-
reflective. It’s tiny, but should still help you stand out on those treacherous night runs. As you can see from the pic, the earbuds and in-line remote are very bold too.

The earpieces are pretty big, but this actually comes in handy. To stick in your ear with the tenacity of a dog with a chew toy, the Monster iSport Victory headphones use very effective silicone in-ear hooks to stop a yank from virtually any direction pulling them out. The chunky cone-shaped backside of the earpieces allows you to get a good grip when you actually want to remove them.

The battery lasts a solid eight hours and the remote has clearly-contoured buttons to make finding them blind a cinch.

This remote has a special feature, too. Press the Vol Up and Vol Down buttons together for three seconds and the earphones switch sound profiles. There’s an ordinary one for normal listening and a turbo DSP mode that boosts the volume and makes this pair’s distinct sound characteristics all the more… distinct.

There are two boosted areas here, the bass and everything from the high mids and up. The bass is no issue: these are Monsters and sporty ones at that. A bit of extra bass is welcome and the iSport Victory headphones don’t go overboard.

The high-mid and treble boost is a more problematic, though, often making vocals sound quite sibilant, harsh or slightly grating. It’s particularly obvious if you activate the turbo mode and listen at decent volume. Ultimately, these are good headphones for sport but you can get better sound for your cash.

Professional says ✭✭✭✩✩

Safety-conscious sport earphones with a good price but disappointing sound

Monster iSport Victory tech specs

Bluetooth: yes 
• Battery life: 8 hours  
• Mic: yes  
• Remote: yes 
• Sweat/water-resistant: sweat  
• Weight: n/a

Review For The best JVC HA-ET50BT sports headphones

JVC HA-ET50BT

 

JVC may not be a go-to name in headphones land, but the company’s been churning pairs out at a decent pace for years and some have been very good. These, the JVC HA-ET50BT’s aren’t going to set the world alight, though.

Not that effort hasn’t been made; £55 is a good price for Bluetooth sport buds (these used to RRP at £80) and there are a couple of pretty interesting features here, such as magnetic earpieces that stick together and dangle under your neck when you’re not listening, making the JVCs a little less loseable than most in-ear headphones.

Battery life, at up to nine hours, is also great for a set without a neck band or separate battery pack. And you don’t have to buy them in the fluorescent shade shown above - there are subtler shades available.

The so-called Pivot Motion Fit system doesn’t work well for all ears, though. This silicone ear hook nestles into the labyrinth of your ear cartilage to prevent the ‘phones falling out at the first knock but, while better than the standard buds of a normal pair of in-ears, the Monster iSport Victory earphones are much more secure. It all depends on the shape and size of your ears, but the JVCs seem fussier than most. If you are lucky enough to get a secure fit, you’ll also find the JVCs are very comfortable.

The JVC HA-ET50BT sound works well for an exercise earphone, with zero harshness, plenty of bonus bass and respectable mid-range and treble detail. An extra dose of subtlety and nuance would significantly improve the sound, though.

It’s all about where the bass boost sits in the frequency range. The JVC HA-ET50BT’s is higher than some, meaning it bleeds into the mids and eats up some of the space and separation in the sound. The sound isn’t as wide as some either.

Stuff says ✭✭✭✩✩

The JVCs have one or two cool features, but the sound and fit could be better

JVC HA-ET50BT tech specs

Bluetooth: yes 
• Battery life: 9 hours  
• Mic: yes  
• Remote: yes  
• Sweat/water-resistant: sweat  
• Weight: 17g

Reviewed For The best Sony XB80BS sports headphones

Sony XB80BS

 


Sony has some of the best wireless tech going, and in sound tech terms the Sony XB80BS headphones are really quite special.

Sony is a wireless master at this point, so it’s no surprise the Sony XB80BS’s wireless performance is top-notch. These earphones also have NFC, allowing you to hook your phone up (if it has NFC) by just holding it to the left earpiece. They also support LDAC, Sony’s proprietary format that transmits three times the data of normal Bluetooth for a “less digital” sound.

To fit in all this tech, Sony has had to make the XB80BS headphones rather large by non-headband standards. The earpieces snake around and increase in size as they wind down to meet your earlobes. They’re anything but slight, and can be particularly awkward if you wear glasses. Power and volume controls are squeezed onto the right earpiece, and this side’s bottom pops off to reveal a microUSB charge socket.

You might expect the battery life to be amazing given the big stems, but at seven hours it’s only OK.
It’s also important not to assume that the best wireless tech automatically means the Sonys have the best sound. These headphones sound good, but they’re not class-leaders.

Like other “XB” (extra bass) earphones, these have powerful bass, but, unlike the XB650BT headphones we reviewed recently, it doesn’t distort under pressure. It can seem a little disconnected from the rest of the sound, though, and the New Balance PaceIQ and Bose SoundSport Pulse rivals have more engaging mids and treble. The Sonys do sound good enough to use as your everyday listen, as the stereo image is quite wide, but you can do even better.

Stuff says ✭✭✭✭✩

Tech-heavy sport earphones with powerful bass

Sony XB80BS tech specs

Bluetooth: yes 
• Battery life: 7 hours 
• Mic: yes  
• Remote: yes 
• Sweat/water-resistant: sweat and water  
• Weight: 27g

Review For The best Skullcandy Method Wireless sports headphones

Skullcandy Method Wireless

Review For The best Jabra Pulse sports headphones

Jabra Pulse

 








Jabra knows more than most about wireless headphones and, while the Bluetooth Pulse buds are a bit long in the tooth at this point, techie features and a big price cut mean they're still well worth considering. Another around-the-neck cable design, the big draw here is connection to the Jabra Sport app, which delivers heart-rate monitoring and pretty much any other stat you might want. There’s an in-line remote and mic, too.

Wireless buds with a fin to keep them in your ears and a neck cable that runs behind your neck is the standard design, and the Jabra Pulse do it better than most. You’ll barely notice the soft buds are in your ears (there’s a choice of three fins and four buds) and the cable is the right rigidity and length to sit comfortably.

The heart rate monitor has always worked straight away for us and the tracking appears in real time on your screen along with a myriad other figures, from calories burned to your pace and distance. 

You can even get a voice update with the tap of your ear. It’s a neat, easy to use, easy to read app. 

They sound fine, but not better than that. Even at the discounted price (these were originally £180) we’d like a fuller, bigger, all-round more impressive sound, but a decent tonal balance means they’re far from offensive.

Stuff says ✭✭✭✭✩
 
A tech-packed but simple to use pair of wireless buds with good enough sound

Reviewed For The best Jaybird Run sports headphones

Jaybird Run

 

If you’re not fussed about fitness tracking but want to lose the wires along with those extra pounds you’ve put on, Jaybird’s first pair of true wireless buds could be your perfect training buddies.

Reasonably priced considering they don’t have any fancy talents beyond playing music and taking calls, they’re comfortable and sweatproof, although a four-hour battery life isn’t especially impressive, so remember to keep the charging case nearby - you’ll get an extra eight hours of playback out of that.

Performance is a bit on the bassy side but that can be encouraging when you’re down to the last couple of miles. They won’t do complex classical numbers much justice, but there’s a crisp high end and a decent grasp on rhythm that keeps them sounding energetic.

The accompanying app also offers an equaliser, so you can mess around with the levels until you find a mix that powers your quest for that elusive PB.

Stuff says ✭✭✭✭✩

 
No frills wireless buds that’ll give you a real boost with their bass

Jaybird Run tech specs

Bluetooth: yes 
Battery life: 4 hours 
Mic: yes 
Built-in controls: yes 
Sweat/water-resistant: both 
Weight: 6.83g per bud without fin or tip
 

Review For The best Bose SoundSport Wireless sports headphones

Bose SoundSport Wireless

 

The Bose SoundSport Wireless are well set for adventuring in the great outdoors. A handy hook keeps them firmly in place even during running, while a clip attaches to your clothing to put pay to any annoying bouncing around.

Plus, they’ll bang out your playlist faves with panache.
If you have an iPhone, get the Beats, but if you have any other mobile device, get the Bose. They’re extremely comfortable, sound great for sports headphones and connect to multiple devices without suffering any dropouts.

The inline remote is easy to operate while you exercise, and the mic allows you to take calls (although wind is a factor when cycling). The five-hour battery life is pretty standard for sports headphones, but NFC tap-to-pair is a novel and valuable addition for devices that support it.

Stuff says ✭✭✭✭✩
 
The Bose SoundSport Wireless headphones are great for fitness fans who still value sound quality.

Bose SoundSport Wireless tech specs

Weight: 23g, 
Bluetooth, 
Battery: 5 hours, 
Water-resistant, 
Mic + remote

Review For The best Beats PowerBeats3 sports headphones

Beats PowerBeats3

 

Beats has had a rough history with wireless: its Powerbeats2 tended to leap out of your ears like a puppy that had just heard the postman. Thankfully, these successors stay put through hour-long runs without any trouble, while water-resistance means they’re impervious to both an impromptu downpour and your sweat.

Thanks to Apple’s W1 chip, the Powerbeats3 are automatically picked up by any compatible iPhone with no need to dig around in Settings. It’s ace, as is battery life which has doubled from 6 hours to 12. Forgotten to charge your headphones? It won’t be a problem quite so often.

Strangely, given the Apple association, they charge via microUSB rather than lightning cable. Still, that's not a huge deal.

While you can get better overall earphones for the money, these Beats can go really loud without distorting and offer plenty of detail. They’re not too punchy in the bass either, so you can cycle to work without feeling as though you’re stuck in a perpetual rave.

Professional says ✭✭✭✭✩
 
A great pair of sports buds that are ideal for iPhone 7 owners

Beats PowerBeats3 tech specs

Weight: 24g,
Bluetooth,
Battery: 12 hours,
Sweat-resistant,
Mic + remote


Review For The best Audio-Technica ATH-SPORT3 sports headphones

Audio-Technica ATH-SPORT3

Buy Now From Amazon

Not every pair of sports headphones have to be wireless, even in 2019. The Audio-Technica ATH-SPORT3s are normal, wired earphones, but they have a bunch of special features to make them gym-ready.

First, they’re IPX5 rated, meaning you can give them a quick rinse if they get a bit grotty, and they don’t mind some sweat. They also use flexible ear hooks designed to work their way over your ears. These make the Audio-Technica ATH-SPORT3 very secure.

To try to get rid of any cable annoyances while you work out, there’s a little junction box by the right earpiece to let you cut down on the amount of wire left flapping around. You probably will want to use the inbuilt shirt clip to avoid the noise of the cable bumping against your t-shirt making its way to your ears, though.

The one obvious missing feature is a remote control. You have to pull out your phone if you need to change volume or skip that dodgy track on your “pumping iron” playlist.

Sound quality is a little different to the sporty norm in that it tries to be clean and clear instead of super-bassy. There’s enough low-end to fill out the sound, but it’s the Audio-Technica ATH-SPORT3’s crisp treble that stands out in this crowd.

If you have to ramp up the volume to compete with a blaring gym sound system, it can start to sound a little grating. You do get a good sense of detail, though. This is a rare sport earphone for treble heads.

Professional says ✭✭✭✭✩
Non-wireless sport headphones for those who can live with less bass

Audio-Technica ATH-SPORT3 tech specs

Bluetooth: no 

• Battery life: not applicable  

• Mic: no • Remote: no 

• Sweat/water-resistant: water and sweat  

• Weight: 10g

Monday, 8 July 2019

Review For The Best Sound Sports Headphones

Bose SoundSport Pulse Wireless


Buy From Amazon









Zip back a few years: Bose used to be a company that marketed its stuff at old people in the back of broadsheets. Now it makes some of the most desirable tech around. It’s more a thinking person’s Beats than grandad fodder these days.

The Bose SoundSport Pulses are tech-packed sport earphones with a heart rate sensor built into one earpiece. It’s much better than the sensors you find on most smartwatches, still getting a good reading even if you’re haphazardly pounding down the pavement to sweat out a hangover.

There’s a Bose app you can use to see your pulse, but just about any fitness app worth its salt will recognise the headphones as an HR accessory for proper tracking. Don’t care about bpm? There’s a version without the heart rate monitor that can be had for about £30 less than these.

The other hit feature of the Bose SoundSport Pulse is comfort. They look dead bulky, but these are among the most comfy wireless sport earphones in the world, using in-ear hooks that are stable and ultra-flexible at the same time. While they’re in you forget there’s a great big bit of plastic poking out of your ear, mostly because the housing is actually very light.

The Bose SoundSport Pulse’s sound quality is very good, with enough bass to satisfy during a workout, but also a generally smooth and rich tone. They’re sport earphones that want to be your only earphones, even if they don’t quite have the micro-detail of a great pair of non-sporty earphones.

Stuff says ✭✭✭✭✭

Pricey, but really good sound and built-in heart-tracking make the Bose pair the ones to get if you can make the stretch

Bose SoundSport Pulse Wireless tech specs

  • Bluetooth: yes 
  • Battery life: 5 hours  
  • Mic: yes  
  • Remote: yes  
  • Sweat/water-resistant: sweat  
  • Weight: 23g

Review For Jaybird Tarah Pro

Runners will love these versatile wireless headphones 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H72WMLN/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07H72WMLN&linkCode=as2&tag=trueamericanl-20&linkId=6edd92c0a707cc156715424d16300cb2







These are Jaybird’s first higher-end pair of Bluetooth headphones. Priced under the Sennheiser Momentum Free and Bose Soundsport Wireless, but above the firm’s own Tarahs, the Tarah Pros are a mid-range offering that combine better sound quality with a premium, hardwearing design in the hope of appealing to those who get their exercise kicks in the great outdoors.

But when it comes to wireless in-ear headphones, do they come top of the podium? To find out, we strapped on our trainers and fired up our best running playlist.

Design: Built to survive the elements

The Tarah Pros are one of that strange breed of Bluetooth ‘phones: they’re wireless headphones, but they’re joined by a wire. This keeps the two earpieces together, like a the sleeve string in a pair of mittens. It also means the controls have somewhere to live, instead of relying on a touch panel on the earbud which we always find a little hit and miss.

The earpieces also stick together thanks to their magnetic backs so you can wear them around your neck like a necklace. Man, Jaybird really doesn’t want you to lose these things.

Outdoor activity is very much the order of the day, hence that cable is made from a woven material that feels like a very strong shoelace. It’s reflective, so should help you be seen if you’re out running at night, and has a hydrophobic coating which will help it repel moisture (handy for dealing with sweat and rain).

Speaking of which, the Tarah Pros are waterproof in up to 1m of water for 30 minutes, but they’re not recommended for swimming. Only a twazzock would try – the cable would create drag in the pool, and there’s no onboard storage, so you’d have to keep your phone close by in order to try and stream tunes. Good luck with that.

Three sizes of rubber ear tips come bundled, and they’re easy to pull off and on. Once we’d found the size for us, they stayed put for the duration of our testing. So no complaints there.

You can also twist them into an over-ear position if you prefer, and tighten or loosen the cable to fit using the bundled ‘speed cinch’. Plus there’s a shirt clip to for attaching it to the back of your collar to keep the cable in place while running.

The small three-point charging cradle connects to USB and is simple to use. But it’s proprietary, and hence would be a pain to replace if you lost it.

Everything fits in the neat little carry pouch, and even that feels weatherproof. Make no mistake, these headphones are very much aimed at outdoors adventurers.

Functionality: Versatility up the wazoo

 

They’re certainly a versatile pair. As well as the ability to wear them normally or over-ear, you can also fine-tune the sound using the Jaybird app. In fact, the app walks you through the whole set-up, from what’s in the box and what the controls do to how to get the best fit for you.

But it’s the EQ customisation that will have audiophiles excited. Pick from one of the many presets and you can tweak it to your heart’s content, then save it as a new preset complete with a new name. There are all kinds of presets, from Extended Listening to Warmth to Bring the Bass and Flat.

You can also create a whole new sound profile based on your hearing. Just take a quick hearing test – it involves you sliding a bar until you can hear a tone for a range of sound types including mid range, bass and high range – and it’ll make a preset just for you.

The buttons are pretty intuitive, and you get an impressive number of controls from just three buttons. The middle one is used to play and pause, and a longer press powers the headphones up or down. The Volume up button also skips to the next song, while the volume down one can take you back to the previous track. These also take on more uses for handsfree calls – muting and unmuting, accepting and declining etc.

Double-press the centre button and you’ll summon your phone’s personal assistant. It’s handy if you’re out on a run and want to know whether the weather will turn.

Performance: A true endurance pair


You could spend hours tinkering with your sound profile until you get it just right, but our own personalised profile suited us down to the ground – the warm bass was a natural fit for our seemingly high-range-lacking hearing. Admittedly the sound isn’t quite as good as the Bose SoundSport Wireless, but then these are a little cheaper.

The headphones are light enough to barely notice when out on a run, and the extras like the speed cinch and shirt clip pretty much guarantee a comfortable wear. In fact, we happily wore them all day (at our desk, we didn’t go on a day-long run).

But you could if you wanted. A full charge gives you 14 hours of use, but perhaps more usefully, they charge up in double quick time – just a five-minute charge will give you almost two hours of use, which is way longer than we want to exercise for.

So far so good, but there are some omissions. There’s no built-in heart rate monitor, which would’ve been quite fitting for a pair aimed at sporty types. There’s also no noise-cancelling, and no pass-through mode that lets you hear your surroundings – a great addition when you’re running near busy roads. And would a charging case have been too much to ask at this price? Probably. Call us fussy.

But these are still a quality pair. Join the headphones together with their magnetic backs, for example, and they’ll mute the music and disconnect from your device. Leave them disconnected for 15 minutes and they power down. It means when you arrive somewhere you don’t have to faff around switching them off, just click them together instead.

It’s the little touches like that that make these buds so fun to use.

Jaybird Tarah Pro verdict


 


The Tarah Pros are a great pair of headphones, and it’s clear a lot of thought has gone into them. If you absolutely have to have a pair of ‘true’ wireless headphones, we would suggest thinking twice and giving the Tarah Pros a whirl. They’re light enough to be almost unnoticeable, and between the shirt clip and speed cinch you’re sure to find a fit that suits.

Sound quality is very good, and even if you’re missing your Bose, you can tinker with the EQ settings until you find a sound profile you like.

Bit pricey for you? You can always take the step down to the standard Tarahs, the main difference being a shorter battery life (six hours to the Pros’ 14).

If you’re serious about running and want a decent pair of headphones to keep you going through the tough times, the Tarah Pros are a fantastic option.
Professional says... 

Jaybird Tarah Pro review

Even those not of a sporty bent will find a lot to enjoy from these wireless headphones  
 
 
 
Good Stuff 
Marathon battery life
Personalised sound
Versatile fit
 
Bad Stuff 
Proprietary charger
No heart rate monitor
No charging case