Airpods Alternatives

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Zonda_
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by Zonda_ »

DaveE wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:02 am These 1more "Stylish" arrived this morning, and I've been listening for about 30 minutes.

Initial impressions:
- the box and general presentation is very nice - they'd make a nice present - feels quite posh/expensive
- the case is nice and small, matt/rubbery finish, only micro-USB which is a shame
- the buds are pretty small, stick out a little, fit well and feel secure
- there's a pretty good amount of passive isolation from the rubber tips
- the sound if good - quite warm in the bass, good mids/highs - they're not "hifi" but they were only £40
- I guess id' describe the sounds as "quite Bose-like" - not in a bad way I hasten to add (and I'm not really a massive fan of Bose)
- I wonder if the sound will "open up" over the coming days (as often happens)?

They're not bad at all for £40 - yes, you can do much better if you spend much more

But for cheap, fully-wireless earbuds that I can just sling in my bag and have to hand, I reckon they'll do nicely
Where did you get them from? I can only see them for £79.99 on Amazon
DaveE
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by DaveE »

Got them from eBay...

Think they can be had from that huge Chinese eBay equivalent (can't think of the name just now) for a similar price.
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Mito Man
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by Mito Man »

I bought the Umi ones for £40 when I left my old AirPods at my parents house. The sound quality on them wasn’t a patch on the already mediocre AirPods. Another bad thing I found was that after long periods 12+ hours of non use you would have to manually pair them to your phone in the Bluetooth settings. Also they’re weren’t automatic at all so whenever you wanted to use them you pushed a button on each one so they would pair to each other and then your phone which was a faff.
Plus points were you could still see all the battery life data for the buds in the iPhone and they lasted a long time. But after 2 weeks I returned them when I had my old pods back.

Apple AirPods aren’t the best in sound quality but when you get used to something which works perfectly every time and seamlessly with minimal effort it’s hard to then use anything else.
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ZedLeg
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by ZedLeg »

DaveE wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:45 am Got them from eBay...

Think they can be had from that huge Chinese eBay equivalent (can't think of the name just now) for a similar price.
Taobao?
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DaveE
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by DaveE »

ZedLeg wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2019 1:20 pm
DaveE wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:45 am Got them from eBay...

Think they can be had from that huge Chinese eBay equivalent (can't think of the name just now) for a similar price.
Taobao?
I was thinking of Ali Express

Amusingly I now know why mine were cheap - they're Chinese domestic market ones - all the vocal prompts are in Chinese :)

Having saved about 50% on the price though, I can live with that...
speedingfine
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by speedingfine »

Holy thread resurrection etc etc.

Are the Sony WF1000 noise cancelling ones folks have still going strong?
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Gwaredd
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by Gwaredd »

I've been using some Edifier W296BT earphones for over 2 years now and they're utterly superb. They do have a connecting wire, but I've just seen they do true wireless ones also. I can only vouch for the brand though.
Cheers.

Gwaredd
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McSwede
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by McSwede »

I have Creative Outlier Air earbuds and they're great. They sound good and last ages plus waterproof for running. Great value too.

I also bought some INAIRS memory foam tips as the silicone ones aren't great when on a sweaty run. Sound is better with silicone tips though.

https://uk.creative.com/tws/?gclid=CjwK ... JoQAvD_BwE
DaveE
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by DaveE »

The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ are really good IMO.

They don't have ANC, but they do have a good fit and do well in just blocking noise that way.

They also charge really quickly (USB-C) and have wireless charging built into the case, which is very handy.

I also have the Buds Live. They're brilliant for indoor use and long sessions (I spend most of my days on Zoom calls) they also do really well with music.

But they don't make any sort of seal so don't do well outside/in a noisy environment.

They do have ANC but because they naturally leak so much, it's pretty infective. You can hear that it reduces low frequency noise, but it's barely noticeable when out and about.
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ZedLeg
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by ZedLeg »

I finally bought the RHA ones I'd been looking at a wee while ago. They sound good and connect easily, I've had the occasional connection issue while walking around with them in but I'm not sure if it's a fault with the phones or something I'm doing that causes it. They don't completely disconnect but the sound will just randomly cut out on one or both ears.

RHA also do ones with ANC but they were another £150 over what I paid for mines and I didn't think I'd need it.
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simon_g
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by simon_g »

I went through a few Anker/Soundcore ones. Liberty Air 2 aren't bad at all, often get discounted to £70 or so.

Although when an offer on Airpods Pro came up for about £170, I got those and realised I should have just got those back in the first place (rather than spending about that on several shitty ones). If you use Apple stuff and switch between phone, ipad, computer, watch then it's incredibly slick, no pairing/unpairing faff. Noise cancellation is great but the transparency mode is excellent.
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Mito Man
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by Mito Man »

I got the AirPods Pro as a Christmas present. I find they work well when just using my iPhone but when switching between Mac and iPhone it gets confused about 50% of the time needing to be manually re-paired. The bluetooth range on them in nuts though, I can walk out the house into the garage and they'll remain connected.
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speedingfine
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by speedingfine »

Gwaredd wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:44 pm I've been using some Edifier W296BT earphones for over 2 years now and they're utterly superb. They do have a connecting wire, but I've just seen they do true wireless ones also. I can only vouch for the brand though.
Do you ever lose bluetooth connection with these? Not quite ready to drop £200 on a set of nuraloops or in fact £100 on the Sony ones, despite Simon G's protestations :? :mrgreen:
DaveE
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by DaveE »

speedingfine wrote: Fri Feb 12, 2021 10:10 am
Gwaredd wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:44 pm I've been using some Edifier W296BT earphones for over 2 years now and they're utterly superb. They do have a connecting wire, but I've just seen they do true wireless ones also. I can only vouch for the brand though.
Do you ever lose bluetooth connection with these? Not quite ready to drop £200 on a set of nuraloops or in fact £100 on the Sony ones, despite Simon G's protestations :? :mrgreen:
Before you go for the Nuraloops, several reviews have said they suffer really badly from microphonics (that thing where if you rub or knock the cable, you hear it in the headphones themselves).

They use a proprietary connector that sits on the back of your neck. The exposed metal pins of which constantly rub against your neck and generate these microphonics.

I forgot to mention that another benefit of the Samsungs that I miss on some others (like the Bose QC ones I have) is that you can switch from one device to another from the device you're switching to.

i.e. you don't have to unpair from device 1 before connecting to device 2. You just go onto device 2, hit "pair" and the headphones disconnect from device 1 and reconnect to device 2

This is incredibly useful these days when I'm constantly switching between devices.
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Gwaredd
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by Gwaredd »

speedingfine wrote: Fri Feb 12, 2021 10:10 am Do you ever lose bluetooth connection with these? Not quite ready to drop £200 on a set of nuraloops or in fact £100 on the Sony ones, despite Simon G's protestations :? :mrgreen:
No. I used to leave my phone in my coat on a hook at the gym and roam around the machines. Only ever glitched if I strayed way too far. I think I paid £40.00 for them, so no brainer for running headphones.
Cheers.

Gwaredd
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240PP
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by 240PP »

I’ve been using some Cambridge Audio ones (with aftermarket foam tips) for running and they’re excellent - £100

Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 True Wireless Earbuds - 45 Hours Battery Life, Bluetooth 5.0 Earphones, IPX5 Water Resistant In-Ear Headphones, Clear Voice Calling, Graphene Enhanced Drivers (Black),S
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Gwaredd
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by Gwaredd »

The Cambridge stuff always gets good reviews, but I could never drop £100 on some earphones!
Cheers.

Gwaredd
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240PP
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by 240PP »

Me neither, think I paid £80.

But having bought two or three in the £30ish bracket previously, these are so worth the extra. I should have forked out more in the first place.
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McSwede
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by McSwede »

240PP wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:05 am Me neither, think I paid £80.

But having bought two or three in the £30ish bracket previously, these are so worth the extra. I should have forked out more in the first place.
This!! Buy well and buy once. Applies to most things in life.
simon_g
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Re: Airpods Alternatives

Post by simon_g »

The Liberty Air 2 are £55 on Amazon at the moment. Really really good for that money.
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