When is enough, enough? I guess I’ve asked myself this question for years, and I still don’t ever clarify it myself. My reasoning is that I guess I never wanted to come to this point. What I have before me is the greatest assembled bluetooth creations ever made. In one breath or another, someone has declared one or more of these the very best and can make a reason for it.
My dilemma comes in when the dog actually catches the car:), sorta speak. Truth be told, I’m not sure I’m anymore happier today than I was last week. I thought this was going to be a great thing to finally have the very best to fight it out. But it hasn’t been exactly what I thought. And it’s not because this became complicated or too tough to determine. No, to the contrary, the best, at least in sound, stood up really fast. It didn’t take even 30 minutes to figure out either.
To no surprise, the $500 earphone was the best, obviously. Shocker, the one that cost the most, actually had the best sound and wasn’t just charging for looks this time. The Devialet Gemini 2 was clearly the superior sounding over the pack. It’s was equally as comfortable, if not the best comfort of the pack. It’s truly hard to describe, but I fingered out I didn’t have to twist or turn anything in my ear…. They just sit perfectly inside my ears, and when that happened, it turned into a 4 dimension feeling. It is truly hard to describe, but I’ve never felt this connected in the comfort/sound as a combo like this. It’s like it uses the way it fits in your ears to help create its soundstage and imaging, if that makes sense. Sound has never been this connected at this level ever in my life with earphones. It had superior bass and vocals. Had equal or even better imaging of the pack. The ANC was superior to the Pi8 and Denon. The phone call quality was superior to the pack. And guess what? They actually reached the promised 5 hours of battery life( even though the PI8’s is 6.5 hours). Then, it topped it off with customization of touch controls that were accurate and had no delays, unlike with the pi8s. Finally, there are no stutters, skips, , and it charges faster than the PI8’s. Lastly, the fact is that the pi8s are newer but not better than the Gemini 2’s in these areas, which says a lot about this older product.
Bottom line,it was an easy victory. The unit as a whole just feels polished and refined. But then why do I feel so sad about it? The journey is over, and the last card was pulled. The hunt is over, and yet all I’m wondering is why I felt more fulfilled before all this. Even when I thought the Pi8 were the last road, I felt more fulfilled about the results then, than now.
My guess is that this is a result of understanding that I was wrong about the Pi8’s being the absolute limit of greatness, so also one day the Devialet Gemini 2 will be replaced too and I’m way too tired to go through this anytime soon. So then, the reality is that I’m tired of the guesswork and comparisons. The truth is that it will never be over. Come next year or next week, there will be another that everyone will claim is the best yet again, and this whole race starts over. I’m stupid enough to believe that the race winner remains the winner for a long time, and they don’t in this market. But at least this has remained king for over a year and still regeins.
Even when Devialet or Bower and Wilkins themselves makes yet another version of their models that will be the best, there will always be another and another. But what I feel is that I, for the first time in my life, I might have finally stepped into my limits I’m willing to go finally.
Right now, I’ve been blessed to have these three. And yes, of the three, the Devialet, have the most luxurious qualities, comfort, sound, and ANC. But at the same time, the pi8 delivers similar results with a unique case function for transmission. And then if I really want to step up the confusion, the Bose quietcomfort has THE Best ANC, great touch custom controls too, amazing sound just under the top 3 and possible one of the better separation and sound stage like the Denon perl Pro and both only run $130-$150, not $399 and $499. The fact is I can’t keep trying to keep up with this stuff.
After all this info, I can’t blame a single person for going with the Denon Perl Pro or Bose over the Bowers and wilkins or Devialet because despite their superior qualities, they still don’t truly prove that they are $200-$300 more in sound or quality over others. In fact, some could say neither do the $130-$150 models if you are one that is buying cheaper models under $100 and are perfectly happy with them. Subjectivity is a beast, and this kind of tech has a lot to do with subjective views. But objectively, they are clearly the best ever made even if being the best doesn’t equal the asking price in most peoples budgets or views. But once you are exposed to them, going back isn’t an easy option. It basically spoils things for you because you can’t unhear what you have listened to, and all you want to do is find more ways of experiencing it all over normally but not when you find yourself burnt out on it. When that happens, you just want to sit down and stop running, stop searching, stop looking, and just enjoy the music because this is the real reason for the instruments in the first place, right? Best sound, best comfort, best materials, best phone call quality, not stutters, no drops, great ANC, multi connection, and custom controls/EQ. This is the Devialet Gemini 2, and this is the endgame of sound/comfort if you are willing to pay the price!
Tech-N-Things 