audiosplitz: aptX

B&O BeoPlay H5 - First Wireless In-Ears

July 02, 2016

30 Jun - Bang & Olufsen have come up with their first Bluetooth in-ears offering, the BeoPlay H5 (and about time too). Let's check out what this offers.

What's the Big Deal?

1. First Bluetooth In-Ears
Bang & Olufsen have dabbled with wireless technology quite a few times already (think BeoPlay H7 / H8) and this is one of the first in the market that runs on Bluetooth 4.2. Their very first in-ears unit weights a relatively light 18g and comes in Dusty Rose and Black color variants. The aptX codec is supported and it's compatible with the BeoPlay app. Oh, and the buds magnetically latch on to each other. Ain't that great?

2. Durability
The earphone housing is supposed to be made of textured rubber and polymer, which supposedly makes it splash and dust resistant (No IPX rating we're aware of as yet). The cord is made of braided textile too. We'll have to see how all this withstands the elements.

3. Comply Foam
B&O has been pretty receptive to Comply Foam tips and they're utilizing these again. We've tried them on both the BeoPlay H3 ANC and Jaybird X2 Wireless and the fit is great. This time round, they are using the Sport tips with SweatGuard variants where there's a layer to prevent sweat from seeping in.

4. Charging Cube
Unlike other wireless in-ears that use a micro-USB cable to charge, this uses a cube. You click them in place magnetically and after a 2 hour charge, it dishes out (a rather average) 5 hours of playback.

Let's have a look at this product video:

Price
The B&O BeoPlay H5 goes for USD 249 / GBP 199. We're currently checking on the Singapore pricing.

Availability
The BeoPlay H5 are available in US / UK as of today. For SG availability, do stay tuned for updates.

Update (4 Jul 2016)
This will be available in Singapore at SGD 379 from 31 July 2016 at Bang & Olufsen Grand Hyatt, Apple Premium Resellers, Challenger, Newstead and various other retailers.

If you like what you have read, do support me by buying from Amazon from USD 249 via an affiliate link.

Update (20 Jul 2016)
We got our hands on a unit. Check out our thorough review of the B&O BeoPlay H5!

aptX

Klipsch R6 In-Ear Bluetooth - First Glimpse

January 29, 2016

Mid-Dec 2015 saw the launch of the Klipsch R6 In-Ear Bluetooth, a behind-the-ears type of earphones. Klipsch certainly appears to be on a roll after just recently announcing their new generation of X-series in-ears.

What's the Big Deal

1. First Bluetooth In-Ears
While they have produced on-ear Bluetooth headphones like the Image ONE, this unit marks Klipsch's first foray into Bluetooth for in-ears. This unit runs on Bluetooth 4.0, promising better power saving. We expect even more audio manufacturers to enter the Bluetooth fray within the year, possibly in anticipation of the new audio-jackless iPhone 7.

2. Sound Quality
The Klipsch supports the aptX audio codec, promising near CD-quality sound. They boast dual-magnet moving coil drivers that cover a wide frequency range. Combine the above with the patented oval ear-tips and it all gives a very strong hint of a more than adequate level of sound to expect.

3. Battery Life
8 hours is pretty much a good number for a pair of Bluetooth Wireless in-ears. The more sports-oriented in-ears like the Jaybird X2 Wireless (worn behind-the-ears or under-ears) hits that very same level while the Beats Powerbeats2 Wireless (clip-on style) maxes at 6 hours.

4. Wire-Cinch
Similar to the Jabra Sport Coach or the Jaybird X2 Wireless, this nifty cinch allows you to bundle the cables to reduce the cable rustle / microphonics.

5. cVc Microphone
This feature supposedly enhances the voice clarity and reduces the environmental noise. Not sure about the performance, but this no doubt will come in handy when taking calls.

Pricing
The Klipsch R6 In-Ear Bluetooth retails in Singapore for SGD 299. Overseas, the price goes at an MSRP of USD 149.

Availability
Tat Chuan Acoustic, Klipsch's distributor for Singapore announced that the R6 In-Ear Bluetooth is available as of 15 Jan 2016.

We are currently testing out this unit and will update this page with the full product review shortly!

Update (14 Mar 2016)
Check out our full review over here.

Where To Buy
If you like what you have read on the product, do feel free to support me by buying from Amazon via this affiliate link. Prices start from USD 77.

aptX

LG TONE Active (HBS-850) - Full Review

January 26, 2016

To say the LG TONE series has been successful is quite an understatement. As of July 2015, it has chalked up some impressive stats - selling in excess of 10 million units worldwide and being the top wireless Bluetooth headset brand (by units sold) in the US.

Recognizing that the sports segment has huge potential, LG announced the worldwide rollout of the LG TONE Active (HBS-850), a sports oriented unit, in that same month. We were fortunate to check out its Singapore launch held in Dec 2015, grab a unit and now, deliver a full review!

Design
Out of the 4 colors to choose from - Lime, Orange, Blue and Pink, we obtained the Lime version, which actually dazzles in a bright yellowish veneer.

Now for the unboxing experience.
You can feast your eyes at the product instantly through the transparent blister.

Taking the top lid off gets you full access to the TONE Active, but not before peeling off a plastic fastening tab. There's a small box flanked on the top and a big one smack between HBS-850.

The big one includes the user guides while the small one bundles all the relevant accessories.

Taking everything out, the full packaging contents include:
- LG HBS-850
- 2 x Ear gels (S / M)
- 2 x Stabilizer tips (S / M)
- Charging cable
- User guide

Let's talk about the LG HBS-850. Choker? Collar? Whatever you may name it, the LG TONE sure is a looker. Wearing it around the neck as fashion accessory is certainly an option. For practical purposes, it holds around your neck and doesn't fall off easily. Its design is undeniably striking, sporting bright colors that accentuate this notion. The retractable earphones are really convenient too - pull them out to slot in the ear and pull again to stash it back into storage. This is more apparent if you try to insert earbuds of other sports earphone types such as clip-ons or over-ears with one hand.

It weighs a pretty meaty 51g, not light compared with other sports earphones like the Jaybird X2 Wireless (13g) or the Beats Powerbeats 2 Wireless (24g). However, there's a purpose for the weight that we'll look at later.

Features
The TONE Active has an IPX3 rating. This is basically a International Protection Marking system that rates the degree of protection afforded against the elements. Nutshell - it's supposedly water and sweat resistant.

Running on the Bluetooth 4.1, promising longer battery life, pairing is a cinch. Just hold the power button, activate your device's Bluetooth, select 'LG HBS850' and that's basically it. All this done with accompanying voice prompts and flashing LEDs to clearly indicate the pairing progress statuses.

The playback controls are found on both the left and right sides. The right has the volume up / down. On other selected Bluetooth earphones, holding the '+' will skip to the next track. On this unit, when you hold the button, it will do the reverse ie. jump to the previous track. No worries 'cos you get used to it in a jiffy. The left side has two buttons - Power and multi-function button.

There are two features that are not immediately obvious but add great value to the product -
1. Built-in equalizer - There are 3 modes and this is changeable on the go by holding the multi-function button for 2 seconds. The default is a Bass Boost setting. Pressing again in a cyclic manner, will give you Normal and Treble Boost modes. Our preferred mode for jogging or traveling was the Bass Boost. In the office, Normal did great. Thankfully, your last setting will be remembered whenever you turn off the device.

2. LG Tone & Talk App
You can get this app on Google Play. The handy part is it can read out messages or notifications from different apps and it does have different language support. Curiously, I did not see this same app in the App Store.

The micro-USB port is hidden by a rubber cover on the inner ring. When charging, the indicator displays a solid red light, progressing to violet once hitting the 80% mark and blue at full capacity.

Performance
And now for the jog!

I took the LG TONE Active for a 2.15km run at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. I tested out both the Medium-sized issued silicon tips and Comply Foam Isolation Plus (Tx-400) tips (purchased separately) for jogging. We split its usage evenly during the run while the equalizer setting was at Bass Boost.

Besides the zig zag lines at the end of the jog, the GPS worked erm...fairly accurately.

1. Default Silicon Tips (M-size)
These tips are functional - they do their job in delivering quality sound. The isolation does a decent job but you can still hear the grass cutting through the music. The fit is great 'cos unlike the traditional under-ears earbuds (eg. Jabra Sport Coach), there's nothing that tugs the earbuds downward so they are always kept in place.

2. Comply Foam Isolation Plus (Tx-400) (M-size)
Update (19 Jul 2016) - To understand Comply Foam tips and the different types available, do read this article.

You are practically jogging in a world of your own. The default tips were good but the noise isolation on Comply Foam is considerably reduced to the extent that you'd get a little worried for your safety if you're jogging with road traffic closeby. Fit remains the same, but probably psychologically more assuring as the foam expands to lodge in the ears. The bass is actually upped an ante with these tips, something that worked perfectly fine for my run with Armin Van Buuren's Take Me Where I Wanna Go pounding my ears.

I'm not the kind that drenches the product in sweat after jogging. From my perspective, what can be said is the product still works perfectly fine. The sweat points are mainly around the black rubberized section surrounding my neck. The visible surface dried off pretty quick though you may wanna note that you may need to open up the stabilizers as some residual sweat may gather there.

Wearing them around the neck feels comfortable. Sure you feel something there, but it doesn't intrude into your physical activities that you consider it a hindrance.

There's absolutely no cable rustle at all ie. no mechanical vibrations due to the LG TONE HBS-850 that get transmitted to your ear during the jog. The reason is simple - the ultra -thin earphone cable is never overly stretched when you jog. This is a actually a great feature. The only impact is actually the sensation of the tips of the LG TONE that throb up and down intermittently (like probably 10% of the entire jog) against your collar.

To test the sound quality in detail, we sat in an office setting. The first sensing was that the quality was actually not too good - at least until we realized that the default setting was Bass Boost. Once Normal was activated, Keane's To The End Of The Earth suddenly took on a new dimension. The balance was struck by a piano accompaniment that felt more dramatic while the low frequencies came through with resolve. Simply put, use Normal (or Treble Boost if you love even more detail) in your office and Bass Boost when jogging.

The TONE Active's 180mAh Lithium-Polymer battery can last for a decent 9.5 hours of music playback for less than 2h of full charge. Once powered, it boasts a healthy 13h talk time or an equivalent of 430h of standby. The battery life of the Jaybird X2 Wireless (8h) and Beats PowerBeats 2 Wireless (6h) is less, likely due to a more compact form factor.

Overall
We enjoyed using the LG HBS-850 very much. The really convenient placement over the neck and ease of slotting the earbuds to fit was great. The almost non-existent microphonics, the great sound quality and adjustable equalizer really sealed the deal to make this an excellent choice for joggers.

Where To Buy
If you like the LG TONE Active, you can purchase from Amazon via our affiliate link from USD 77.
Compatible Comply Foam M-size eartips (400 series) can be purchased from Amazon too. 3 pairs go for Isolation - USD 12.95 and Isolation Plus (with WaxGuard) - USD 19.95.

Audio Sources
Take Me Where I Wanna Go - Armin Van Buuren, VanVelzen (Tidal 1411kbps FLAC) on Samsung Galaxy S4
To The End Of The Earth - Keane (Tidal 1411kbps FLAC) on Samsung Galaxy S4

Credit to Leader Radio Technologies and Hearing Components for review units.

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Wireless Sports Audio - A 4-Part Series

aptX

Earin - Truly Wireless and Innovative

January 12, 2016

Earin is one of the few earphone manufacturers that rose to prominence on Kickstarter. We took a first look at the unit when launched in Singapore for SGD 349 last month. Since then, we got our grubby paws on a unit for a full review.

Pros (+): Incredibly lightweight; Simple / innovative presentation
Cons (-): No storage for stabilizers; No microphone to take calls

Design
The unboxing was quite unexpected - in a surprisingly good way. Here's the outer layer. But beneath that...

there's no need to open a tab or slide anything. The box consists of 2 magnetically latched pieces. Just pop it open by a pulling off the top layer. It's incredibly simple.

The interior is refreshingly sparse. There's just the 2 earbuds, the charging capsule and a rectangular box...

which turns out to be the accessory toolkit.

Once the components are taken out, the contents reveal:
- Earin earbuds
- Comply foam tips (Comfort) M-size
- Stabilizers (aka fins)
- Charging capsule
- Charging cable

There are also no user guides. All the instructions are on the interior of the top lid. It would've been great to have some graphics to supplement.

Now to the Earin balanced armature earbuds. The 3.5g weight is incredibly light, definitely the lightest we've seen in a pair of earphones. They are very compact at 15 (diameter) x 20mm (length). If we didn't know better, we'd mistake these for a pair of ear plugs. The design is so simple that there are no buttons on the unit at all. They come with Comply Foam tips which we'll talk about later.

Features
The design of the 42g charging capsule is quite ingenious. It is a silver cylindrical contraption.

Pull the side with the LED to open the device. There are 3 contact points on either side, giving a hint of how to insert the earbuds back for storage / charging. The capsule shouldn't open accidentally as there are magnetic latches to prevent the occurence.

As there are no instructions, we did a trial and error on how to store the earbuds. Thankfully, we figured out that the Earin logo on the buds double as the point to contact. Insertion is done at an angle as seen below.

Small size comes at a cost - there's no inbuilt microphone. So if someone calls, you'll have to take the earbud out and hold the phone to your ear to talk to the caller.

Bluetooth pairing was not a consistent experience. Once you take out the earbuds, they are auto on. Go to your device, turn on the Bluetooth, search for 'Earin L' and select it. The first time worked fine for me but there was a varying degree of success in connecting to different devices subsequently. Do note that the Earin can only connect with a single device at a time.

The Earin comes with an accompanying mobile app that can be downloaded from Google Play or App Store. The original UI mockup is very different from the actual (below). When you open the app, Bluetooth on the Galaxy S4 automatically turned on. You can tell the battery life of the left and right earbuds, adjust the left / right channel balance and add a boost to the bass. The most useful feature to us was the Gain Control (for Android) which allows a boost in the audio volume 'cos the default max volume of the device was a little soft.

Performance
It's interesting that only one pair of tips are provided in an era where some manufacturers provide anywhere from 3 to 7 different types of ear tips. Not that it's a bad thing 'cos the default M-size fit me perfectly fine.

The Comply Foam (Comfort 400 series) tips don't disappoint for comfort and noise isolation. The way to use them is to squeeze them, insert them into your ears and leave the foam to expand. When tested on a bus, the passive noise cancelation effectively blocks ambient sound to the extent that I daresay that these tips perform almost (not quite, but almost) as good as some active noise canceling earphones. I can use them in excess of an hour without any discomfort.

There are 2 modes to wear the earbuds.
1. With stabilizers
On first time use, fitting the stabilizers (fins) may take a while as you need to acclimatize to how to slide them in and how to orientate the fins. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite simple. They provide a better fit and an assurance that they won't fall out so easily. One thing to note is the fins need to be taken out before you store the buds in the capsule.

2. Earbuds alone
This is the most common and convenient way to use the earbuds. Squeeze the foam tips, insert them with the L / R markings inward and that's it. Taking them out from the capsule and storing them is hassle free. If you're going out for commutes on the train / bus, this is more than sufficient as the Earin lodges quite well in the ear. Want additional assurance? Use the fins.

While the wireless earbuds themselves are a conversation starter, somehow the sound quality becomes secondary. But it shouldn't. The Earin supports aptX which promises 'near CD-quality' sound, a feature that you will appreciate if you are able to appreciate the finer nuances in your music. A sample of dreamy Tame Impala's The Less I Know The Better gives a rather well balanced performance. This is reinforced with Armin Van Buuren's Touch Me with a combination of engaging bass and vocals coming through with gusto.

A niggling point is that the audio signal on the right earbud tends to drop intermittently, though this can easily be fixed by pausing and playing the track.

The 60mAh Lithium-Ion battery will power the earbuds for 2h50min in stereo mode. 10 minutes before dying, there'll be a chime to alert you. The charging time for earphones takes 75min in the capsule which will display a red LED when charging. Note that whenever you store the earbuds, they will automatically charge.

For the capsule, it takes 75min to charge the 600mAh Lithium-Ion battery which holds enough for 3 charges of the earbuds. The side lights up red when charging and green when done.

Overall
The presentation of the Earin product and packaging boiled down to two things for us - simplicity and innovation. The product is not without flaws but forgivable if you are willing to be a first adopter of a very innovative device that will get you some quizzical glances when commuting. The overall experience of using the Earin is quite agreeable. It makes you well aware that technology of the future is already here. With more interest in this product category, we can't wait to see how wireless earbuds evolve.

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Audio Sources

The Less I Know The Better - Tame Impala (Tidal 1411kbps FLAC) on Samsung Galaxy S4
Touch Me - Armin Van Buuren, Rising Star (Tidal 1411kbps FLAC) on Samsung Galaxy S4

Credit to Leader Radio Technologies for an evaluation unit.