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Review: Yamaha TW-E5B

December 17, 2022 by Sujith Gopinath

Price: ₹14,200

Yamaha has experienced, replicated, and engineered probably every sound that can be produced by wind, string, membrane, or any other vibrating surface. A leading manufacturer of audio equipment and easily one of the most recognisable brands in musical instruments, Yamaha traces its origins to a legend surrounding reed organs. And this is the legacy and expectation that their debut line-up of true wireless earbuds tries to live up to. The TW-E5B is the mid-range model in Yamaha’s TWS line-up and joins a crowded and competitive space. 

The Yamaha TW-E5B comes in the largest charging case we have ever seen, and it is certainly not comfortable to be carried in your jeans pocket. The earbuds too are uncomfortably big. To give credits where due, both the case and the buds offer premium build quality. The device carries IPX5 ingress protection rating, making it resistant to water splashes. There is no touch interface, but the physical buttons are quite responsive and offer much better control than most touch sensitive buds. The earbuds have a twist-to-fit design. The fit depends much on the shape of your ear and the size of your ear canal. Yamaha has included four sizes of eartips. Even though I managed to get a good fit, the top-heavy design and the large protruding body made it extremely uncomfortable to wear during my walking and workout, checking the fit often. I also felt the tips were sensitive to temperature changes since the buds were coming loose often while flying onboard chilled aircraft cabins.


The E5B doe not feature active noise cancellation, and hence noise cancelling depends on the fit of the buds. The buds connect with smartphone via the Headphone Control app. Like the earbuds, the app is quite basic. It lets you activate ambient sound mode, gaming mode and Listening care mode. It also provides an equaliser with six presets along with a customisable user setting. Apart from the ambient mode, we did not find much difference in sound by toggling the other settings. The equaliser certainly helps in fine-tuning the sound profile, but with a limited range. The app shows battery status only for the buds and not the case.

Coming to sound, the earbuds offer a more or less balanced sound with emphasis on strong bass, like we Indians prefer, which is enjoyable to most people. However, we felt some overlap in certain instruments like cymbals and high-hats in addition to amplifying the uncomfortable background hum in husky male vocals. The percussion and jazz notes sounded particularly pleasing. The earbuds use 7mm drivers. The E5B does not offer a lot of volume range and hence you could find it restrictive while playing old tracks with low reproduction volume. I found myself playing music at full volume, which Apple Health app found to be around 65 dB. Overall, the experience was quite enjoyable, particularly when the earbuds could afford a proper fit.

The TW-E5B offers Qualcomm cVc (Clear Voice Capture) technology for better voice clarity during calls. The buds support SBC, AAC, and aptX codecs, making it compatible with high-res audio from a wide range of devices. It also supports Siri and Google Assistant. The earbuds provide up to 6 hours of playback time on a single charge and the case holds enough juice for three additional recharges.


<strong>Rating</strong>

WE’RE IMPRESSED Excellent sound quality, IPX5 rating, supports a wide range of codecs, battery life

WE’D IMPROVE Hefty design, the fit is more like a hit-or-miss, software needs much improvement  

THE LAST WORD As a first attempt from Yamaha, the TW-E5B is a decent release. However, it’s a highly competitive space, and others are doing much better.

Filed Under: Audio, Entertainment, Music, Review, Wearables Tagged With: audio, headphone, headphones, true wireless, TW-E5B, TWS, Yamaha

Dyson Zone headphones hit markets in January

December 9, 2022 by Gandhi Mathi

Dyson announces the Dyson Zone noise-cancelling headphones with air purification, go on-sale from January in China and March in the US, UK, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore.

The Dyson Zone noise-cancelling headphones with air purification are engineered to tackle the dual challenges of city noise and air pollution. USB-C charging can provide 50 hours of audio-only run time or 4 hours of purification and audio run time, with a charging time of 3 hours to 100%.

The Dyson Zone incorporates an additional microphone for telephony, allowing phone calls, voice recording and voice control. The telephony microphone combines with the feed forward ANC microphone to provide dual microphone beamforming.

The speaker driver and electronics, mechanical system, materials, and acoustics are designed to minimize distortion. 11 microphones feature within the product. The Dyson Zone ANC system uses eight microphones which monitor surrounding noise 384,000 times a second. The Dyson Zone offers up to 38 dB of noise cancellation from 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

The MyDyson app can also be used to control the Dyson Zone, adjust airflow speed and noise-cancellation mode as well as adapt the audio equalization to preference, choosing from three modes: Dyson EQ (enhanced), Bass Boost (bassy) and Neutral (flatter response curve). In the MyDyson app you can opt-in to loudness limit in line with aural health guidance.

The Dyson Zone noise-cancelling headphones will be launching in 2023 in selected markets.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Dyson Zone, headphones

Review: Sony WH-XB910N

April 5, 2022 by Sujith Gopinath

Price: ₹14,990

Recently, we reviewed Sony’s latest TWS earbuds, and here we are, with the latest of their over-the-ear headphones. If the WF-1000XM4 features a balanced sound profile, the WH-XB910N is specially made for bass lovers as Sony brands the XB series as Extra Bass.

The headphones are available in black and blue colours, and we received the blue version. The device has a nice matte finish on the exterior with a rougher pattern on the headband. The top of the band has a faux leather wrapping on the exterior along with a soft cushioning pad at the inner surface. The earpieces rotate about 120 degrees, flex about 30 degrees to adjust to the contours of your head and can be folded inward for storage. The headphones come in a sleek oval-shaped hard fabric case, which also includes a USB-C to USB-A cable and an aux cable. The overall finish feels premium, and the top of the pivot area has a glossy finish that enhances this feel. The Sony branding on both ends of the headband completes the styling. The left earpiece houses the physical controls and ports, which include the power button, noise cancellation/ambience button, 3.5mm aux jack and USB-C charging port. The right earpiece looks plain, but the broad flat surface hides a touch panel that can be used to pause or play music, control volume and switch the tracks. You can also make use of the Quick Attention mode by placing your hand over the right earcup, which pauses noise cancelling mode momentarily, allowing you to listen to ambient sound. At 252 g, the headphones are quite light. The soft earpads are comfortable and do not cause any discomfort or pain even with extended use.

The WH-X910N uses a 40 mm driver unit and features dual noise-cancelling with feedforward and feedback mics on each side. The noise cancellation is effective but not quite the best we have experienced in premium headphones. The device supports 360 Reality Audio for an immersive experience with a suitable audio input. The headphones offer 48 ohms impedance in wired connection with the unit turned on, and 16 ohms while it is turned off. This makes it compatible with most smartphones and other low-power devices, irrespective of the type of connection. The headphones are compatible with LDAC codec for high-res audio playback in Bluetooth mode. As mentioned earlier, this device is made for thumping bass, and it remains true to this assigned role. In fact, the device is a bass lover’s haven, bringing out those fine reverberations in percussion. The Headphones companion app offers adaptive sound control, switching the sound profile according to your location and status. It offers a number of equaliser presets such as Bright, Excited, Mellow, Relaxed, Vocal, Treble Boost, Bass Boost, and Speech, along with Manual and two Custom modes so that the sound is always within your control when you are on a call or listening to music. Though you can tweak the sound via custom modes to bring up the mids and highs for some balance, it still remains faithful to bass. If you are using an iPhone, you can tweak the sound even better from the EQ mode.

The XB910N can be paired with two devices over Bluetooth, and the headphone intelligently switches between the two inputs. However, when paired to a laptop and a smartphone, the 910N would pause music played on the laptop when there is an audio notification on the phone and would not resume playback automatically. The headphones are stated to provide up to 30 hours of battery life, and we found this to be quite close. Of course, this depends on the volume of playback and ANC. You can top up the battery quickly for 10 minutes for up to 4.5 hours of extra playback with an optional AC adapter.

The device offers voice control with Google Assistant and Alexa.


RATING

WE’RE IMPRESSED Multi-device connection, high-res audio support, comfortable fit, good battery life, companion app

WE’D IMPROVE Some sound leakage observed, playback doesn’t restart after phone notification

THE LAST WORD These headphones offer good comfort and convenience. True bass enthusiasts will appreciate its sound profile.

Filed Under: Audio, Entertainment, Review, Wearables Tagged With: headphone, headphones, Sony, wh-xb910n, xb910

Soundcore launches Life Note 3 Bluetooth Headset (TWS) with Gaming Mode

January 17, 2022 by T3 India

Soundcore, by Anker, expands its TWS portfolio after announcing the launch of the Life Note 3 Headset in India. The noise-cancelling earbuds promise enhanced call performance & thumping bass with gaming mode, and strive to offer a seamless transition from work to play mode.

These wireless earbuds come in a glossy case with carbon fibre finish, that offers a modern look. The ergonomically-designed earbuds sit suitably in the ear and comprise of custom 11mm composite drivers. The exclusive Bass Up Technology further intensifies bass. The TWS headset works wirelessly up to 10m range with a battery life of up to 35 hours.

The TWS supports multi-mode noise cancellation, a distraction-free listening experience that syncs the noise cancelling as per the location for an optimized experience. Transport, Outdoor, and Indoor modes (can be switched via the Soundcore app) are tailored to block out irritating background noises in each environment. The TWS earbuds offer three different transparency modes – full, vocal and enhanced vocal mode.

The Transparency mode keeps the user aware of the surroundings.  The Soundcore app, in turn, allows users to create an EQ profile and choose from 22 different EQ settings.

Furthermore, Life Note 3 noise-cancelling earbuds have 6 microphones and an exclusive algorithm to tune out background noises for  a better calling experience. The TWS also supports Gaming mode, which can be activated via the Soundcore app for an immersive audio experience. “Find my headset’ can be activated on the Soundcore app to find the lost earbud; that will emit a loud noise to help locate the missing earbud.

The Soundcore Life Note 3 costs Rs. 7,999 and is available on Flipkart with an 18-month warranty.

Filed Under: Audio Tagged With: Anker, headphones, Soundcore, TWS

Play launches two foldable headphones: PLAYGO BH22 and BH47

August 12, 2021 by T3 India

PLAY has integrated their proprietary features into their latest wireless headphones which come in a foldable design and at affordable prices. With added flexibility in the devices connectivity, these headphones stay true to the standards maintained by Play over the years in bringing state-of-the-art consumer tech products to the market.

Play has launched two headphones, The PLAYGO BH22 and the PLAYGO BH47.

PLAYGO BH47

The PLAYGO BH47 is powered by a Qualcomm chipset and also features active noise cancellation for complete isolation. The BH47 comes with a speaker size of 40mm and comfortable ear cups which enable the users to wear them for longer durations. Striving to provide a refreshing audio experience, the BH47 has a battery life of 30 hours while needing 3 hours to charge completely. Connectivity-wise the BH47 supports Bluetooth v5.0 and consists of an AUX cable for wired outputs as well. BH47 also offers multi-point connection which allows users to pair up to two devices simultaneously.

The BH47 is compatible with voice assistants of Google, Siri, and Alexa ‘that allow users to change track or accept & reject calls’. The BH47, designed for young professionals who are on-the-go, is priced at Rs. 6,999.

PLAYGO BH22

The PLAYGO BH22, on the other hand, is also equipped with 40mm speakers and dual equalizers in order to provide enriched audio. Like the BH47, the BH22 supports Bluetooth v5.0 and an AUX cable as well. It, too, allows users to pair with up to 2 devices simultaneously. The BH22 offers 35 hours of playback time and requires 4 hours to charge completely. It supports Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa to allow users to change tracks and manage calls. The BH22 is available in the Champagne and Lush Lava colour and costs Rs. 2,999.

To know more about the availability and specifications of the BH47 and BH22, please visit this page.

Filed Under: Audio Tagged With: headphones, PLAY, wireless headset

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