It’s been really nice to see all these cheaper earphones in the world today. I have a new appreciation for unknown brands and cheaper earphones than I have ever had in the past. However, one thing that is consistent is the fact that prices do matter eventually. It’s not a 100% science but no matter how you feel about your cheaper earphone today and no matter how they sound. Eventually, the price reason will almost always show up as to way your product was cheaper vs a more expensive product. Today, everything might work perfectly, sound perfect, and might be blown away with all it’s features. But sooner or later they will show you why they cost what they do. There is a certain inevitability that comes into play when you only have so much money towards your Research and Development.
For me there is but one perfect earphone on the planet today, the AZ80’s. And while they are not the very best in all things, they work without a single problem. They are the only earphone that have ever been perfect in everything single thing they promise to do for you. They don’t have glitches where today the touch controls work and tomorrow they don’t unless you put them back in the case or delete their profile or shut your phone off or something. Nope, what they say they can do, they do every single time and I’ve two of them that both were perfect and yet I shipped them back off because I thought I had a better product but I didn’t.
The Earfun Air Pro 4’s are yet another example of greatness at low cost but eventually has glitches either everything day or every few hours that require you to put them back into case for them to work again. This type of thing makes me believe that more and more problems will continue to happen as every time there is a problem it’s something different and a little more serious or disrupting. Yes, I love the battery life and the incredible soundstage and separation it gives, higher than any bluetooth I’ve had. However, I can not help but see the pattern of problems that keep happening and sapping my trust of the product.
Sure I can ignore this at the $80 price tag if it ever stopped increasing in different problems. But as of right now it hasn’t. And I can’t help be fear that more is coming and on top of that the I have to deal with the growing frustration that I had a perfect earphone that I let go because of a cheaper product that I thought was delivering better quality than the Az80’s, only to turn out that they turned into a problem.
Now, I’m stuck with option like Sony, Sennheiser and Bose that I still have if all else fails. Sony and Sennheiser seem to have enough firmware to count on them for reliability finally but again, I’m not getting the sound quality I was used to from Earfun, Cambridge Audio, AZ80’s,or Perl Pro’s. And I’m definitely not getting the supreme battery life of the Earfun and Cambridge Audio. But the Sonys and Sennheisers are still who they are and again could present a case as to why their cost is what it is.
All I say at the end of the day is that technology Sucks and I hate how many choices they are without a consistent performance across the board from brands. It would probably be my luck if I do go back to get the AZ80’s that the one I get this time does have a failure or problem. Everything has a sacrifice to it.
Tech-N-Things 