Coming from the great earphones and great IEM’S alike, it can really be hard to get excited about yet another entry. And despite my best efforts not to like this unit or want to purchase it, I feel for it and ordered it. Every day, I tried to ignore yet another video about it or another article claiming the greatness of it. Ultimately, I kept clicking and kept coming up with reasons why I wasn’t willing to purchase another overpriced earphone. I finally ran into a video stating that the bluetooth signal was dropping out and stuttering. This gave me a lot of strength because I wasn’t interested in another problem like the PI8 brought me.
Not soon after that video, I was able to speak multiple people online who said the opposite. So it proved to be not related to all. Then I ran into more videos describing its greatness and triump over my top sounding earphones, the pi8 and Gemini 2, and couldn’t shake it. How could anything destroy those. I didn’t believe it, and yet every website that carried them started to show the status of “Out of Stock”. Not even the makers had them in stock anymore. And then the FoMo hit. I found one online store I trusted the most, and they had 3 in stock that morning. I stopped myself from ordering and walked away. But late that night, the same webpage showed only 1 left, tax-free, and 2-day air shipment, and that proved too much, so I got it.
The moment I got them and saw the package in had and in person, I knew I was holding something different and unique. I fell hard for the green and black design. Then, I read more about the company and creator of this instrument before I opened it up, wanting to save some mystery once it arrived. And once I finished reading about the creator …aka Wizard, I got more excited and felt more special to have the product even more just before I unboxed it. Once the box opened up, I saw the absolute beautiful emerald green box, which it was like seeing candy for the first time.
Hence, the reason why the nickname was given to it is the “Green Lantern.” Like their color, too, it reminds me of candy. I found myself just staring at it and holding its cold surface. Even the earbuds had the same green attached the underside of them. And all this happened before I even put them in my ears. I was still blowed away with how they came and especially the fact that they shipped fully charged within even shipping with the earbuds in the case already. Wizard at work:). And then I put them into my ears and felt how perfectly they fit inside my ears and how lightweight they were.
Once I got the app downloaded and the EQ set the way I wanted …it felt like I was home. The App was so minimalistic and perfect imo. No gimicks or wasted clutter like i had seen with bowers and wikkins app. No, this one was a relaxing vibe, and sounds from the earphones were tones of realism and intimacy in the music. It was even a little better than anything I had flet prior in any earphone. Song after song had its own signature and just enough mid range to stand out a little different from any other way through song played on other devices. It almost took the crown from the Az100 in its mid range.
The 5 drivers built into this unit really help make the sound a little different from others, making it unique. It’s this type of thing that makes certain tws stand out more than others. And while it’s not a drastic step up over the others top two as some had been saying online, it was a little better still, and that was surprising enough. And finally the other thing that was needed and it delieverd on was the battery life. It had good battery life if you used Aptx Adaptive with 7 hours of use and said to have 40(18-25) hours on the case. I’m not yet sure about the case hours yet, but I’ve enjoyed how fast the earbuds charge back uo once used. I’ve had times wh were I’ve used the battery power down to 30%, and they were fully charged back in just under 20 minutes. So absolutely loving that. But one huge issue is that at 30%, you get an annoying alert that continues every 5 minutes, I believe.
Only two things exist that it didn’t do well in, and that was, of course, ANC and hear through. So, it’s not a perfect TWS, but impressive nonetheless. So I would place this #1 in sound but 2nd place overall to my az100. Giving this a score of 9.4 overall. It’s on my list of recommended TWS for those who want to spend this much on them. Subjectively, I still don’t think anyone should, especially being that you can get the Az100 for $299. But if you don’t mind the money, I would buy these before I would buy the pi8s or devialet right now for two reasons. My Bowers and wilkins mistrust that they have proven, and the Gemini 2 older tech and battery life could point to a successor soon. Personally, though, and subjectively for myself only, I’m addicted to this earphone. I’m so attracted to the color, look, feel, and especially the best sound quality it delivers on. I just don’t want to go anywhere without it. I thought I would get over things the newness by now, but it’s not the case.
Tech-N-Things 