I received the shipping notice about an hour ago. (Ordered & paid 14 October)
hi,
just received my true wireless earbuds and you can also listen to music with just the left earbud. you donāt have to have both in your ears.
ANC works well, have here an air purifier from IKEA next to me stand less than 1 meter away and at the highest level is usually unpleasantly loud. with ANC and music at medium volume I hear him no longer. But have no comparison to other ANC headphones.
From the sound rather bass-heavy as you know it from in-ear headphones compared to my HifiMan Sundara open back headphones
Not yet. These are my first earbuds, I think I have to get used to accepting calls with them. Instead of taking them out like my old in-ear headphones.
Some first ā¦
Compatibility & Functionality tests
3x = three taps | 2x = two taps | 2s = hold 2 seconds
FP1 Fairphone OS 1.8.7 KolaNut | Android 4.2.2
App / Feature | Works? | L Skip back 3x | Pause 2x | R Skip next 3x |
---|---|---|---|---|
Pairing | ||||
Sound Recorder | ||||
Music | ||||
VLC | ||||
ANC 2s | ||||
Voicethrough 2s |
FP2 Fairphone Open 21.10.0 | Android 9
App / Feature | Works? | L Skip back 3x | Pause 2x | R Skip next 3x |
---|---|---|---|---|
Pairing | ||||
Sound Recorder | ||||
Simple Voice Recorder (F-Droid) | ||||
Music | ||||
VLC | ||||
ANC 2s | ||||
Voicethrough 2s |
FP3 Murena /e/OS 0.19 | Android 10
App / Feature | Works? | L Skip back 3x | Pause 2x | R Skip next 3x |
---|---|---|---|---|
Pairing | ||||
Sound Recorder | ||||
Simple Voice Recorder (āAppsā) | ||||
Music | ||||
VLC | ||||
ANC 2s | ||||
Voicethrough 2s |
As you can see, I have not been able to use the microphone to record my voice yet under /e/OS 0.19 on my FP3+. Still awaiting if it works for calls, but more optimistic there.
I cannot test the Voice Assistant functionality (needs a Google-certified OS, I guess), so I omitted that control (hold left earbud for 2 s) from the table.
As to ANC and Voicethrough, I really just confirm (not that easy to test by talking to yourself ) that the controls result in audibly different modes ā and I assume that those work completely independently of the device the earbuds are connected to.
UPDATE 18:47:
Just using them to listen to FLAC tracks played through VLC ā¦ from my early 2009 desktop computer.
UPDATE 18 Nov:
Easily worked with a Win10 tablet as well (plus made me figure out the unmentioned volume control, see below).
Interesting find: While Fairphoneās instructions advise you to control volume on the source device, I just noticed that swiping (in either direction) the right earbud (i.e. its stem) increases volume while swiping the left earbud reduces it. Itās not super precise and doesnāt always respond at first try, so maybe itās a function Fairphone just chose to not mention for those reasons while it might have been originally planned to be part of the controls.
Oh thank you so much @urs_lesse for doing these tests! Iām very grateful, it feels a lot better ordering them after Iāve seen some hands-on info about them.
Iām wondering a specific thing that Iād be very grateful if you, or anyone else reading this, could test: the back pocket problem.
Can the headphones keep playing music from your phone, without the sound getting choppy, if the phone is in your back pocket, or a bag on your back?
Iāve only encountered a few wireless headphones that actually could, and itās grown to be a rather important issue for me.
Either way, very grateful for the tests that youāve already done.
Yours kindly,
panina
Welcome to our community
This is the first pair of wireless earphones I ever had, so others might have more experience here. However, I just gave them a really tough test ā I started listening to radio streaming (Wi-Fi ā read: a double challenge for the phone ā receiving and sending a signal) and put the phone into the fridge. Sitting down at my desk some 3-4 metres from the fridge, I was surprised how well this worked (after 1-2 interuptions whilst I went from fridge to desk, I just let it play for one minute without interruption) when I was sitting still. Once I got up and moved, it was getting interrupted from time to time. I then got upstairs to my apartmentās upper floor and only there & then did radio playback finally collapse altogether. The same with locally stored (on the phoneās SD card) audio playback.
I think there cannot be a general works/does not work answer, it depends how tough the āshieldingā around your phone is. Probably everyone agrees a refrigerator door counts as tough shielding.
P.S.: This was with my FP3+ on energy saving mode.
Dear @urs_lesse
Thank you so much for testing! Youāre a star!
That does like rather good connection, so it should be safe.
Iāve ordered mine, and will get back with my comparisons to my other headphones when the TWS arrives!
Thank you for your detailed review, Urs! Just a small follow up question: Is it possible to pair the Earbuds with more than one device simultaneously?
Pair yes, but not actually use/connect (active) simultaneously.
Thanks for the review! So its nice to know, that you can use just one earbud, but is it possible to put one earbud in the āloadingstationā and use only the other one? And if so, will the used earbud restart after you put one back or does it work seamless?
Hi
Mine just arrived. Great stuff
To the last question. Yes you can continue listening whilst the other is loading. The moment you take it out of your ear, the remaining one stops playing. By pressing play it will continue to play even if the other is in the case.
now about putting the it back in.
It does work seamless if you manage to put it back in your ears without touching the the surface that is supposed to respond to your finger. A complete restart is not happening even if you touch it. It just stops playing the Musik as it should when touchedā¦
hope I was able to answer your questions.
And what are the sound characteristics? Clear? Muffled? Bass accentuated?
I received my boyfriend ones. He will test them as a casual tech user the next week and I will share what he tolds me.
I tested them for ~25 minutes too.
So @juri.gagarin.ii I think I can help. Any audiophile-related analysis is subjective. However :
To begin, bass are here, and they have a strong presence. How you will like it depends of your preferences, but I love it. Thatās something I dig.
Concerning how it handle different sections of the audio spectrum:
- Massive bass can wronlgly mix together and lose detail a little more easily in metal genres, I feel (Tested with Children of the Dark of Mono Inc where this was more the case. On Music and Shoemaker of Nightwish it as more acceptable, but that is a less bass imposing metal band).
- Medium-basses are well present and I feel that they are not lost in the rest of the spectrum like I feel they do in the previous fairphone headphones. With some jazz, wich relies more on mediums, sound can be too bassboosted for a Ā« natural Ā» feel, but the way you will react about that depend highly of your preferences (Tested with Blue World from John Coltrane).
- Medium-high can feel a little scathing for me, but I think that is something you can be used to (Tested with Finale from Tron Legacy soundtrack).
Concerning how the sound is āclearā:
- Sounds and instruments are really more balanced and discernible than on previous headphones or many previous audio material that I had. This is not Sennheiser but itās a thing that I really appreciate.
- On few musics, different areas of the spectrum are clearly discernible and itās really pleasant!
On a general note, concerning audiophile feelings, from my point of view this is without a doubt clearly better than on the previous fairphone headphones. Moreover, in conclusion, because I wrote a lot of details about my feelings, what is really clearly important here is that I really enjoyed my time using those little things. Despite the fact that I can be a nitpicking person sometimes. But I never put more than 40ā¬ in headphones or listening device before. So I am clearly not an expert for a 100ā¬ device.
If someone want to critic/nuance/improve on what Iāve said with their personal experience of the FP earbuds, Iām really open to it. There is only subjectivity in my feeling and Iām clearly not an expert on spectrum analysis, I just like to check how the sound feel on different genres and that is an important aspect for me. But when bass are strong, I can be biased as it is something I really like.
Hoping this helps
I am also quite delighted with the sound (music playback). I slightly disagree with you and @GreenAndFair though when it comes to basses. To me they sound just right and not particularly emphasized. From my experience and from what I have read in the past, in-earphones actually always run the risk of losing/missing bass if the silicone āsealā in your ear isnāt good enough. In other words: in-ears should usually tend to sound tinny rather than bass-y. Although Iām using the biggest silicone parts with the Fairphone TWS, it still doesnāt feel like Iāve hammered them into my ear channels to the max, and yet the basses are there.
All in all, I find the sound pleasantly balanced, and I agree with you on how they sound significantly better than Fairphoneās discontinued wired Modular Earphones which suffered from ā¦ let me call it droning. Details were getting drained a bit in too much lower register walls.
I have only taken two phone calls with them so far, and this is where they didnāt sound that great. A bit of a radio communication sound that I didnāt have with the same caller when previously using Fairphoneās modular earphones.
Sorry, I am also not an expert, so my terminology might not be up to the highest standards.
Grateful for your takes @GreenAndFair and @TrueCherry
Thank you both @TrueCherry and @urs_lesse for your assessment. I have quite diverse taste in music: punk (mids important), hip hop, jazz and electronic music. So I also like bass, but it should not be too fat.
Letās see what I make of it
Just to note that frequency db drops off as a person ages and there is a significant gender difference.
So one personās assessment is weighted by age and gender.
A teenager may well hear 20K and they are used to that, at near 74 I doubt I can hear 10K and no doubt as itās a gradual change I am used to that.
More and more I like bass, it was never so important when I was younger.
Still I rarely use earphones as they seem increasingly uncomfortable.
In principle, you are of course right, but: if person A says: āthe basses are not separated properly and sound dullā, then I can at least deduce that the headphones do not separate basses well and are perhaps not so well suited for bass-heavy music. Then I donāt need to know whether person A actually likes a lot or a little bass and what the hearing curve of person A is like.
If someone would tell me on the other hand: " sounds good, just buy", I would be skeptical of course
But in any case, thanks for the links!
I received the earbuds a week ago. So I had some time to test them. I came across a couple of issues and I was wondering if other users share this or whether I got a faulty pair.
- On low volumes thereās quite noticeable white noise (in all 3 modes).
- When taking the earplugs out, they stop playing for a couple of seconds but then resume playing again. The only way to stop them is by putting them back in the box.
- When plugging in the left earplug, I often trigger the voice control or accidentally turn the volume completely off.
- The smallest sleeve is almost the same size as the cylinder its covering. And thus doesnāt provide much cushioning.
Iām very pleased with the sound on medium to high volumes. But the overall experience feels quite ābuggyā.