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Post by Boomzilla on Jul 30, 2020 6:24:57 GMT -5
And a LOT quieter than unmuffled race engines normally are!
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Post by garbulky on Oct 23, 2020 23:11:18 GMT -5
Amazon Echo Buds Intial Impressions!
I went in to this acquisition with low expectations. I have used several Bluetooth headsets and they’ve all been universally disappointing in audio quality – though I have not tried the Airpods. Anyway, the main reason I wanted the echo buds is due to the portable low weight of the device and its ability to make calls. The alexa feature was icing on top.
The few calls I made had adequate voice quality. After a few hours of using it, I came to the realization that I had something truly special on my hands. The first being that this was the best Bluetooth headset I had heard! It had bass that extended low. There was a sense of slam. Some highs. A very appealing sense of spaciousness and a surprisingly good tone. Other things I liked was the noise reduction function which worked surprisingly well, though not completely. Now keep in mind you still can’t blast the music on this like you could the Sennheiser HD700. And yes, obviously the HD700 is significantly better at music being about 15 times bigger. But at modest volume levels it really surprised me, especially for the sale price of 80 bucks. I played some modern jazz and pop music it all held up quite well. I was quite surprised that tech had come so far.
But the echo buds package surprising sound quality in a small package with its always on alexa functionality really brings it all together. It also has useful things like customizable tap controls – a double tap can pause music and enable passthrough mode which amplifies outside conversations. It’s small enough that you can actually fall asleep with them on which is something I can’t do with a headphone.
It does have some annoyances which I’ll cover later in a full review.
Rating so far: Loving it!
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Post by garbulky on Oct 27, 2020 0:15:31 GMT -5
More updates. I've had a day to run it through its paces. I admit that I went into this product with low expectations. To my surprise, the product outperformed. If the product wasn't as good I wouldn't really notice these issues. But I think amazon really has something nice and special here. It just needs some polish. The biggest drawback is the alexa software. From lost connections, to passthrough and alexa mode not being available during phone conversations, there is a lack of coherency.
Why is this important? Well, for one, you can adjust the volume with alexa. But you can't during a phone conversation. The other is that the gestures need to more customization. At the same time, we need passthrough/noise reduction. Volume up and down. Mute. Siri. Pause and passthrough.
Now for the other cool parts. There has still been a good amount of thought going in to this. The case is a godsend. Carrying a hefty amount of charge to get you through the day. The passthrough is fantastic. You can listen to music and carry on a conversation.
The pause and passthrough gesture pauses the music on a double tap. Then it enables the passthrough which allows you to hear a conversation. Then a second double tap re-enables noise reduction and the music comes back on. The same happens if you take one ear bud out. It pauses.
The noise reduction is really a great feature. I sat outside in my car on my lunch break windows down taking a nap. There was some very loud machinery going on. I told alexa to enable noise reduction and the difference made me do a double take. What happened to the loud noise! I had these in my ears at night and I didn't hear the low thrum of my window ar condition unit or the overhead fan. I rode in the car with my wife. Enabling the noise reduction took away the road noise. Passthrough made it easy to hear the road around you. Very well done.
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Post by garbulky on Oct 31, 2020 0:02:58 GMT -5
Further updates on the Amazon echo earbuds. Everyday I am quite impressed with the noise reduction - it really works and doesn't hurt your ears (all that much). This is a genuinely useful thing that I enjoy using. The same goes with passthrough mode which does let you to hear car noise, voices etc. The seal is also quite good. Though the earbud can work its way out, it does stay in reasonably well.
The real problem is several glitches on the alexa app. From freezes to a dropped connection to complete crashes. It's not very good. There also needs to be much better integration with amazon music within the alexa app. Basically for a product to acheive greatness in a smartphone environment it has to acheive an intuititive flexibility. Where the thing just does what you want wiuthout you wondering whether it is able to do it in this particular position. Here is where its integration with the iphone fails rather badly. For instance during phone calls you cannot enable passthrough mode. Hey siri doesn't always work when you expect. You can't use alexa during calls though clearly you can hear it activate on the wake word.
Sending a text message does not work.
Calling on Alexa call takes longer than expected to switch over.
Turning on the earbuds with the phone locked doesn't work 50% of the time. The case takes a few seconds longer than you want it to to turn blue. If you take the earbuds out BEFORE this happens, it doesn't connect. All these are aggravations that really don't need to be there. It's about making deals with apple to allow for integration.
Still these earbuds are extremely enjoyable and very convenient. I use it mostly when I get up off the couch. Walking around. Getting ready for something or during breaks at work.
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Post by garbulky on Nov 8, 2020 4:54:36 GMT -5
I'm getting pretty close to rendering a final review on these Echo buds. I never expected earbuds to be a way to get some enjoyable music. These Amazon Echo Buds have really changed my mind. They are super portable. Though not at the level of my HD700's, they are seriously enjoyable. Plus they are hands free and can play any song I can think off from Amazon Music. That combination makes it so desirable.
Welp! I just did it! The Sony WF-1000XM3 was on sale on Amazon one day only. After I found out it had ALEXA enabled on it...I jumped on it without telling wifey! Yikes! Oh boy...
Oh well...it's got ....free returns. Lol.
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Post by garbulky on Nov 11, 2020 1:35:36 GMT -5
Sony WF-1000 MX3 is in the house! I am comparing them directly to the Amazon Echo earBuds. Intial impressions: Probably returning the Sony's due to mediocre sound quality.  I was looking for something to beat Amazon's Echo earBuds, but the Sony underperforms in soundstage and instrument separation compared to the echo buds and even has some audible distortion, which appears to be a symptom of software induced distortion rather than the driver or amp maxing out. Sigh.... well after reading all of the reviews that seem to put the echo buds nearly dead last in the sound quality (though better than the standard airpods), and the Sony's right at the top, I am quite surprised. First the packaging is clearly superior on the Sony, feeling reasonably premium with a huge amount of ear tips and nice stepwise unboxing. Unfortunately right after that, things started going downhill. First, the earbuds had update. This meant you had to keep them in your ears for about 15 minutes. I didn't know if I could play music or not so I just sat there, not being able to hear anything due to noise reduction until it updated. In the middle, the earbuds died. Now interestingly it first said that the battery was 70%. 10 minutes later, it said battery low and died. After a surprisingly quick charge things were full charge on the battery pack and the earbuds. This lead to another long wait for the update to complete. Then finally it was time to get with it. The first important thing to note is that this indeed does have alexa "almost" hands-free. And by this it means you have to tap the earbud to activate it. But it WILL activate with the phone screen locked and off. Now that is GREAT news. Each ear is programmable with a different tap which gives you two different combinations. However, in this mode no siri. Here it still loses to the echo buds which allows both hey siri and alexa to activate truly hands free by speaking the wake words. Also the Echo buds have four possibler combinations. Each ear has a tap and a long press gesture giving you four, two per ear. The Echo buds are a lot more practical. I have it set where one side I tap and it immediately pauses, puts me in to passthrough mode so I can hear conversations. Double tap, it turns on noise reduction mode and resumes the music. if I'm listening to music and I'm in passthrough mode, a tap only pauses the music while conveniently leaving pass through mode turned on. If I am in noise reduction and don't want to pause things by switching to passthrough mode, I can just use my voice and say turn on passthrough mode. It's the little things. Comfort is hands down the Sony's. The earbud tips are just so much more comfortable - and I don't think these were even the foam tips. The Echo buds has a slight bite to them which is simply not going to cut it for long periods of time. You are always aware that it's in your ear hurting just a tiny bit. This is probably it's biggest downside. So much that I'm ordering replacement tips. Now on to the sound: Compared to the Echo buds the Sony immediately came off sounding like it was a bit clearer in the mid-range and a bit clearer treble in a certain way. Definitely more midrange presence while the echo buds felt a bit more recessed. The soundstage sounded very similar to what you are used to through headphones. At times, the soundstage felt more "open". They also can go significantly louder than the Echo buds. Unfortunately that's where things fell flat. I don't know if it's an issue with things breaking in or bad codec management or some software dynamic compression...but whatever it is, it sounds low-fidelity. Though the headphones can clearly get louder cleanly, I hear a significant amount of distortion on the recording, where it's obvious that it's not the headphones doing it. I hear it most on vocals. There is also a noticeable amount of smearing where things aren't properly separated out into their own voices. It sounds like you are listening to a 64 kbps mp3. The treble also had some sibilance issues, where things got slightly on the harsh electronic sizzle. It was very strange. On one hand, the earbuds seemed capable of some really nice transparency, on the other hand whatever transparency it had was somehow pushing through a bit of a mushy distorted sound. I played around with the eq. I preferred the flat eq and also the "excited" one. The excited eq bought it closest to the Amazon Echo buds sound signature. Switching to the echo buds, immediately things started sounding more impressive on the soundstage. Significantly better width. The instruments weren't mushed together and it felt a bit more 'high res'. Now is this a case of Amazon pushing a higher fidelity bitstream to the Echo buds? Is it poor codec management by Sony? I don't know. Whatever it is, I was really surprised to find myself myself preferring the Echo Buds. Also they are a little bit lighter! No they aren't perfect. There is a slight "far away" feeling. It loses composure quicker than the Sony's at higher volumes and essentially only does well on about three different volume clicks before it's too soft or so loud that it thins out. However, the sound is still vivid and well differentiated and really pleasing to my ear. Having said that, if I hadn't heard the echo buds, I probably would have been quite liked the Sony's. They are easily the second best wireless device I've heard by a country mile. But with the Amazon Echo Buds out there with much better convenience and features, I can't see a reason to choose the Sony's right now. |
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Post by novisnick on Nov 11, 2020 9:55:30 GMT -5
Sony WF-1000 MX3 is in the house! I am comparing them directly to the Amazon Echo earBuds. Intial impressions: Probably returning the Sony's due to mediocre sound quality. I was looking for something to beat Amazon's Echo earBuds, but the Sony underperforms in soundstage and instrument separation compared to the echo buds and even has some audible distortion, which appears to be a symptom of software induced distortion rather than the driver or amp maxing out. Sigh.... well after reading all of the reviews that seem to put the echo buds nearly dead last in the sound quality (though better than the standard airpods), and the Sony's right at the top, I am quite surprised. First the packaging is clearly superior on the Sony, feeling reasonably premium with a huge amount of ear tips and nice stepwise unboxing. Unfortunately right after that, things started going downhill. First, the earbuds had update. This meant you had to keep them in your ears for about 15 minutes. I didn't know if I could play music or not so I just sat there, not being able to hear anything due to noise reduction until it updated. In the middle, the earbuds died. Now interestingly it first said that the battery was 70%. 10 minutes later, it said battery low and died. After a surprisingly quick charge things were full charge on the battery pack and the earbuds. This lead to another long wait for the update to complete. Then finally it was time to get with it. The first important thing to note is that this indeed does have alexa "almost" hands-free. And by this it means you have to tap the earbud to activate it. But it WILL activate with the phone screen locked and off. Now that is GREAT news. Each ear is programmable with a different tap which gives you two different combinations. However, in this mode no siri. Here it still loses to the echo buds which allows both hey siri and alexa to activate truly hands free by speaking the wake words. Also the Echo buds have four possibler combinations. Each ear has a tap and a long press gesture giving you four, two per ear. The Echo buds are a lot more practical. I have it set where one side I tap and it immediately pauses, puts me in to passthrough mode so I can hear conversations. Double tap, it turns on noise reduction mode and resumes the music. if I'm listening to music and I'm in passthrough mode, a tap only pauses the music while conveniently leaving pass through mode turned on. If I am in noise reduction and don't want to pause things by switching to passthrough mode, I can just use my voice and say turn on passthrough mode. It's the little things. Comfort is hands down the Sony's. The earbud tips are just so much more comfortable - and I don't think these were even the foam tips. The Echo buds has a slight bite to them which is simply not going to cut it for long periods of time. You are always aware that it's in your ear hurting just a tiny bit. This is probably it's biggest downside. So much that I'm ordering replacement tips. Now on to the sound: Compared to the Echo buds the Sony immediately came off sounding like it was a bit clearer in the mid-range and a bit clearer treble in a certain way. Definitely more midrange presence while the echo buds felt a bit more recessed. The soundstage sounded very similar to what you are used to through headphones. At times, the soundstage felt more "open". They also can go significantly louder than the Echo buds. Unfortunately that's where things fell flat. I don't know if it's an issue with things breaking in or bad codec management or some software dynamic compression...but whatever it is, it sounds low-fidelity. Though the headphones can clearly get louder cleanly, I hear a significant amount of distortion on the recording, where it's obvious that it's not the headphones doing it. I hear it most on vocals. There is also a noticeable amount of smearing where things aren't properly separated out into their own voices. It sounds like you are listening to a 64 kbps mp3. The treble also had some sibilance issues, where things got slightly on the harsh electronic sizzle. It was very strange. On one hand, the earbuds seemed capable of some really nice transparency, on the other hand whatever transparency it had was somehow pushing through a bit of a mushy distorted sound. I played around with the eq. I preferred the flat eq and also the "excited" one. The excited eq bought it closest to the Amazon Echo buds sound signature. Switching to the echo buds, immediately things started sounding more impressive on the soundstage. Significantly better width. The instruments weren't mushed together and it felt a bit more 'high res'. Now is this a case of Amazon pushing a higher fidelity bitstream to the Echo buds? Is it poor codec management by Sony? I don't know. Whatever it is, I was really surprised to find myself myself preferring the Echo Buds. Also they are a little bit lighter! No they aren't perfect. There is a slight "far away" feeling. It loses composure quicker than the Sony's at higher volumes and essentially only does well on about three different volume clicks before it's too soft or so loud that it thins out. However, the sound is still vivid and well differentiated and really pleasing to my ear. Having said that, if I hadn't heard the echo buds, I probably would have been quite liked the Sony's. They are easily the second best wireless device I've heard by a country mile. But with the Amazon Echo Buds out there with much better convenience and features, I can't see a reason to choose the Sony's right now. Very nice review, I enjoyed it but believe you received a bum set of ear buds. My set sounds very good and without the problems you mention. You may make me do a review, if I can find the time. |
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Post by garbulky on Nov 11, 2020 12:05:56 GMT -5
Sony WF-1000 MX3 is in the house! I am comparing them directly to the Amazon Echo earBuds. Intial impressions: Probably returning the Sony's due to mediocre sound quality. I was looking for something to beat Amazon's Echo earBuds, but the Sony underperforms in soundstage and instrument separation compared to the echo buds and even has some audible distortion, which appears to be a symptom of software induced distortion rather than the driver or amp maxing out. Very nice review, I enjoyed it but believe you received a bum set of ear buds. My set sounds very good and without the problems you mention. You may make me do a review, if I can find the time. Thanks Nick. Wow what a difference a day makes. I really don't know WHAT happened? Was it the driver's breaking in? Was it the Sony's headphone connect app that degrades the digital audio by compression or something? Whatever it was, today the Sony's sound significantly better. Things felt very open. The soundstage was big. The bass had gotten more extended. The treble sibilance was not noticeable. However, its weakness is still that the width of the souindstage isn't as big as I'd like. Yesterday, I was ready to pack it so I could return it. Today, I may have changed my mind. It remains to be seen. Since this is such a big upgrade in price, it better actually deliver the sound quality increase over my Echo buds which I really enjoy. I will give it another day or two of playback to see how much more it can improve. Right now it looks very promising. So far, it has this going for it. A slightly better midrange presence and treble. It reminds me a little of the sennheiser hd600 sound signature (obviously not quite there). Significantly more comfortable. The case snaps the earbuds in quickly magnetically, every time. The echo earbuds case, you have to double check you got it in. Right now it's biggest downside is indeed that it does not have alexa activated by voice and also it won't activate siri by voice. Which means if you want to adjust the volume or anything, you have to touch the headset and then speak. Sounds trivial, but if you do it a lot, the echo buds do win significantly on this feature where it is truly hands free. |
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Post by novisnick on Nov 11, 2020 12:22:00 GMT -5
Very nice review, I enjoyed it but believe you received a bum set of ear buds. My set sounds very good and without the problems you mention. You may make me do a review, if I can find the time. Thanks Nick. Wow what a difference a day makes. I really don't know WHAT happened? Was it the driver's breaking in? Was it the Sony's headphone connect app that degrades the digital audio by compression or something? Whatever it was, today the Sony's sound significantly better. Things felt very open. The soundstage was big. The bass had gotten more extended. The treble sibilance was not noticeable. However, its weakness is still that the width of the souindstage isn't as big as I'd like. Yesterday, I was ready to pack it so I could return it. Today, I may have changed my mind. It remains to be seen. Since this is such a big upgrade in price, it better actually deliver the sound quality increase over my Echo buds which I really enjoy. I will give it another day or two of playback to see how much more it can improve. Right now it looks very promising. So far, it has this going for it. A slightly better midrange presence and treble. It reminds me a little of the sennheiser hd600 sound signature (obviously not quite there). Significantly more comfortable. The case snaps the earbuds in quickly magnetically, every time. The echo earbuds case, you have to double check you got it in. Right now it's biggest downside is indeed that it does not have alexa activated by voice and also it won't activate siri by voice. Which means if you want to adjust the volume or anything, you have to touch the headset and then speak. Sounds trivial, but if you do it a lot, the echo buds do win significantly on this feature where it is truly hands free. You must also remember that the Sony’s are noise canceling earbuds. You may have to trade off something to get that you know. I found that they do a very good job in that capacity as well. Enjoy |
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Post by garbulky on Nov 11, 2020 13:59:55 GMT -5
Thanks Nick. Wow what a difference a day makes. I really don't know WHAT happened? Was it the driver's breaking in? Was it the Sony's headphone connect app that degrades the digital audio by compression or something? Whatever it was, today the Sony's sound significantly better. Things felt very open. The soundstage was big. The bass had gotten more extended. The treble sibilance was not noticeable. However, its weakness is still that the width of the souindstage isn't as big as I'd like. Yesterday, I was ready to pack it so I could return it. Today, I may have changed my mind. It remains to be seen. Since this is such a big upgrade in price, it better actually deliver the sound quality increase over my Echo buds which I really enjoy. I will give it another day or two of playback to see how much more it can improve. Right now it looks very promising. So far, it has this going for it. A slightly better midrange presence and treble. It reminds me a little of the sennheiser hd600 sound signature (obviously not quite there). Significantly more comfortable. The case snaps the earbuds in quickly magnetically, every time. The echo earbuds case, you have to double check you got it in. Right now it's biggest downside is indeed that it does not have alexa activated by voice and also it won't activate siri by voice. Which means if you want to adjust the volume or anything, you have to touch the headset and then speak. Sounds trivial, but if you do it a lot, the echo buds do win significantly on this feature where it is truly hands free. You must also remember that the Sony’s are noise canceling earbuds. You may have to trade off something to get that you know. I found that they do a very good job in that capacity as well. Enjoy Yeah. I'm not entirely sure if the noise reduction is engaged, but whatever is happening it really does cut out the noise. I think one of the soudn differences I noticed is in the decay. On the first day, the higher treble didn't feel quite complete in the harmonics. Today, it feels significantly more extended. |
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Post by novisnick on Nov 11, 2020 15:11:48 GMT -5
You must also remember that the Sony’s are noise canceling earbuds. You may have to trade off something to get that you know. I found that they do a very good job in that capacity as well. Enjoy Yeah. I'm not entirely sure if the noise reduction is engaged, but whatever is happening it really does cut out the noise. I think one of the soudn differences I noticed is in the decay. On the first day, the higher treble didn't feel quite complete in the harmonics. Today, it feels significantly more extended. When all else fails, read the directions! LOL 😂👍 |
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Post by garbulky on Nov 11, 2020 18:46:38 GMT -5
Still pretty confused. I am not sure if the improvement is worth the money. I dislike purchasing things that are only half what I want but also irritate me in some way. So... still figuring it out with the Sony's. In some ways the mids are very clear. But in other ways, the sound is not as immediate or as palpable. The convenience features are also annoying. For instance, I can't easily tell what is turned on. They refer to ambience control as both noise reduction AND pass through. And they simply announce that it is on or not. So I don't know which one is happening.
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Post by garbulky on Nov 12, 2020 23:05:50 GMT -5
Well now I have swung back to "return". The Echo buds still sound a bit more natural for me and the always on voice response to Alexa on them is much smoother than fiddling with the button on the side of your ear. I am thinking I shall return it and see how Sony's upcoming 1000 mx4 is going to be like.
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Post by garbulky on Nov 20, 2020 0:44:38 GMT -5
If you missed it: my Echo Buds review: emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/58014/garbulky-amazon-echo-buds-reviewAs I've been enjoying the heck out of the Amazon echobuds, I realize that the bass is superior in extension and pressuirization to the Sennheiser HD700's. Prior to this I had never taken earbuds seriously at all. But the seal and lightweight and impressive sound have got me interested. Has anybody listened to any high end earbuds/in ear monitors? They don't have to be wireless, though I would prefer them to be wireless. What are they like? Has anybody heard Noble Audio in ear monitors? Any other high quality brands to reccomend? |
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Post by garbulky on Jan 3, 2021 23:32:50 GMT -5
Got my turntable set back up! It's been too long! Spinning Ellis Marsalis' 80th bday performance. One of the greats that we have lost this year.
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Post by garbulky on Jan 13, 2021 3:28:26 GMT -5
Anybody know what the instrument the lady plays?
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Post by jackfish on Jan 13, 2021 10:02:54 GMT -5
Irish Bouzouki
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Post by garbulky on Jan 13, 2021 12:35:10 GMT -5
I think that's it! Thanks |
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Post by garbulky on Mar 8, 2021 10:10:30 GMT -5
Issue: in the latest Emotiva newsletter they advertise the SP-1
The problem is that the DC-1 is no longer available. So their advertising is to accessorize the DC-1 that is no longer available for sale.
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Post by novisnick on Mar 9, 2021 0:13:39 GMT -5
Issue: in the latest Emotiva newsletter they advertise the SP-1 The problem is that the DC-1 is no longer available. So their advertising is to accessorize the DC-1 that is no longer available for sale. pawn sell off extra stock? Hint that the DC-1 or dare I say that the DC-2 will soon be in production? Is it something else I don’t see? 🤔 |
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I was looking for something to beat Amazon's Echo earBuds, but the Sony underperforms in soundstage and instrument separation compared to the echo buds and even has some audible distortion, which appears to be a symptom of software induced distortion rather than the driver or amp maxing out. 
