Echo Buds 2 announced

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www.cnn.com/2021/04/14/cnn-underscored/amazon-echo-buds-preorder/index.html?iid=CNNUnderscoredHPcontainer
So Amazon is coming out with echo buds 2. But, the have done away with the two balanced armature drivers per side and gone with a single dynamic driver. They've also made it 20% smaller. The case appears to be improved.
" There’s an Amazon-designed 5.7-millimeter dynamic driver in each bud, which Amazon says will deliver clearer tones across low, mid and high." So they are saying it'll sound better? I'm a little skeptical

second gen

vs
1st gen

Thoughts?

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Update: Spoke to amazon. I got conflicting information on whether the new gen has any buttons at all. At the end I was told that they had touch sensors and that more will be revealed. But I'm not sure if this is accurate or not. If it doesn't have any tap sensors of some kind I would be very disappointed because this is one of the better features of the echo buds.

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Echo Buds 2 intial impressions!

Wel my very first impressions sonically were extremely poor. So bad that I couldn’t get past one minute of listening before I just put it back in the box. Where as the Balanced armatures on the first gen were fantastic I thought the new dynamic drivers just sounded simply ordinary. Like this is what you would expect to get for the cheapest earbuds on the market. A step down.
Later I took it back and adjusted the eq and things are starting to sound a bit more positive. I sense a little bit of a lack of resolution in the treble resulting in cymbals gelling together a bit. But the longer I listen, the better it’s sounding with certain feel of ease starting to happen. It also can get noticeably louder than the old echo buds.

The case is also a significant positive. The previous case was very bad at actually holdingearbuds and the magnets would frequently get lodged in the wrong position for charging. The new case is more similar to the airpods or the Sony WF-1000MX4 in terms of ease of use. The case is also noticeably smaller in size. The earbuds also appear to stay in my ear better than the old ones.

One noticeable downside is that the claim of better noise reduction is simply a big ol lie! These new earbuds are vented. What this means is it is much easier to hear things around you. The Bose noise reduction of the old generations was simply much better in truly locking out the noise which was made better by the fact that the old earbuds were sealed already providing very good passive noise reduction. However, the vented earbuds does provide a better ease of use on long phone calls. On phone calls the tight seal gets fatiguing on the first generation. This time it was significantly more natural to talk on this earbud.
The other big downside is that passthrough mode now comes with a significant audible hiss! The old echo buds contributed very little hiss in comparison. Right here, this may be a deal breaker.

Closing for the night, I think I'm about 80% sure I'm not sending them back. But ONLY because I wanted a second pair not because of any improvements. At this point, I am having a little trouble getting the type of tone I want. It doesn't sound like the sennheisers and sounds more mid-range forward similar to the Sony WF-1000mx4 but not quite as bad.

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As I spend some more time, I feel like the new echo buds are definitely coming in to their element! It took some tweaking to the eq and perhaps they are ... (sigh, I know, I know) breaking in. Keep in mind it's only gotten maybe a few hours at best of use.
At this point, the echo buds gen 2 are definitely moving from dull and bland to being engaging in their sound. The soundstage which earlier felt more compressed with little placement appears to be more precise now.

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Doesn't look like there's much interest in these on the forum.
Another update, I think the echo buds are coming in to their own. There are some audible improvements I'm hearing in the midrange. And the sound is now quite engaging. At this point, I'm willing to call this a classic and at the price a heck of a bargain. Having said that the passthrough and noise reduction mode are both simply not good and may be dealbreakers for people that are used to the much more functional implementation on the older gen echo buds.

My ear definitely appreciates the vent hole. Makes keeping them in for long periods of time much easier. On the older echo buds I could hear my own heartbeat or when I walked I heard uncomfortable low rumbles. The vent does allieviate this effect significantly.

Finally, where they really missed was that they should have used better technology like that found in the airpods. The airpods connect much quicker, there is much less setup involved, can switch between devices, and is overall more streamlined. The buttons on the echo buds also respond sluggishly taking about two and half seconds to play and pause a song. There was little reason not to include these improvements for say $15 more.