Well, just as I predicted… the new refreshes of the top brands are due to hit the shelves. And just as predicted, “This is the best sounding earphone in the world” term will be said again this year as it is right now with these new Technic Az100’s. Everyone is already crowning this earphone, the king of all earphones and better than all others. Now, I’m not saying this isn’t going to be what they claim because I have never experienced the technology mentioned and bragged about with these earphones below.
While this sounds like a next level type of driver, it’s been used before in their wired IEM’s, and these earphones are not even mentioned in the top IEM consideration amongst audiophiles. So, I’m not sure how impressive this tech is. Everyone explains their sound different with all sorts of made up terms and technical steps that they used to create it. But nonetheless, what excites me is that this unit is smaller in the ears, which was my first complaint. My second complaint was the battery life with LDAC being only 4.5 hours. Now it’s 8 hours, they claim and 10 if you don’t use LDAC. So if true, and the sound is better than even the PI8’s, like some have said, I can easily see this being one of my top earphones if they maintain their perfect operation they had on the Az80 which won my award for the most consistently perfect operating earphone of the year.
All of this is going to be something I will get to test myself, and I’ve learned not to assume that things are unbeatable when new things came out or I get new things I’ve never tried. So regardless of how I feel about my Devialet Gemini 2 and pi8s , I will give this a try and keep an open mind. But this is going to be a tough task trying to beat these from their crown. But being that they have corrected all my complaints I had with the old ones, it does seem it might have a chance. Can lightning strike twice? I don’t know. The AZ80 did have one of the best tonality and timbres on the market, so I shutter at the thought that this remains and then they add this next gen driver and make it better.
The concerns I have is over-development for this unit that some companies sometimes find themselves doing. Another concern is what’s stopping that liquid from leaking into the drivers or electronics? Does this new driver carry with it the same realistic sounds, not just more power. Does the unit work without any hiccups with the software, crashes, skips, or stutters in bluetooth stability? We assume that the same steps taking with the Az80 were taken with this but this is not always the case. I tend to believe in habits of people and companies more that one-offs, so I believe that this will result in a great unit just like the Az80 were but I can’t say this for sure. More to come once mine is in my hands. I can see it now…the Devialet Gemini 2, Bowers and Wilkins pi8’s, and the Denon Perl Pro Vs the AZ100! However Mark Ellis tends to be on point when it comes to sound quality matching with me and not even he said it was better or tied with the Pi8’s. He said that they were “NEARLY” on Par with the Pi8’s …which means to me that they aren’t better and if they aren’t better than the pi8’s then they can’t be better than the Gemini 2’s, which are better than the pi8’s. They also don’t have good ANC , or should I say Mark Ellis said that the ANC is like the Pi8’s, which suck. And that is the really elephant in the room. Regardless of all the new earphones that are coming out, I see no point in them if they aren’t better than the Pi8’s and the Gemini 2’s( for me). But then another Youtuber said that they were better, but they also had the Technics Az80s ranked better than the Pi8s too, which it most definitely isn’t. So there is no way I trust his opinions. So I’m not holding my breath about this. It would not be a shock if this is just overhyped stuff that leads to nowhere because they aren’t better than the pi8 or Gemini 2’s. But at the same time, why should they be? It’s a reason why the Pi8 and Gemini 2’s run $400-$500 and these are only $299 and I can’t forget this( even though prices don’t alway tell the nature of the items ability). Why expect them to or hold them to those standards?
Tech-N-Things 