Jaybird
If you’ve researched running headphones at all in the last few years, you’ve no doubt encountered many glowing words about Jaybird’s X2 earbuds. Rightly so. The company’s Bluetooth earbuds are comfortable, have great sound, and—thanks to removable fins that nestle into the folds of your ear—they stay put when you sweat. The X2s are a little bulky, however; they stick out of your earholes about a half inch, making it uncomfortable to wear a helmet or a snug hat.
But now Jaybird has a new headphone called the Freedom, for $200, that addresses the bulk issue and improves on the overall design. The earpieces don’t stick out at all, instead curving downward as they exit the ear to sit flush against the lower part of your lobe. Helmets are no longer a problem. Much of the electronics have been moved out of the earbuds and into the nub-like remote that hangs below the right earpiece. The Freedom’s remote is bigger and heavier than the X2’s, but not by much. Just like before, you can wear the earphones with the cable running either under your chin or around the back of your neck. Let the cable dangle under your chin and you’ll feel the remote knocking against your jaw. But loop them behind your head so the cable can rest on your neck, and the weight from the remote assembly disappears. On the old design, charging happened via a USB port in one of the earpieces; the Freedom has a little USB cradle that you snap the remote into. Much more elegant.
I tested the new Jaybirds for several days last week, and I can recommend them. For $200, you’re unlikely to find a set of sporty Bluetooth earphones that are this small, sound this good, and have such solid wireless signal strength.
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Natural, rich sound. Supreme in-ear fit with a tight seal. Three sizes of eartips come in the box, as well as a barely-there cable clip for taking up any annoying slack in the one-piece cable. Jaybird quotes four hours of use per charge, but in real life it’s more than six. I charged up the headset all the way, then wore them for two hours of office work, an hour of yoga, and another three hours beyond that. Another charge, and after six hours, they’re still kicking—in fact, I’m trying to wear the battery out as I write this. Audio warnings (“Battery 20 percent”) tell you the reserves are dwindling. For testing, I always kept my Nexus 5X in my pocket and I haven’t experienced any dropouts. I’m not a runner, but I wanted to test them doing something athletic, so I did what you’re absolutely not supposed to do: I wore them on my bike commute. I completed a 25-minute ride with my phone in my pocket streaming the new Marissa Nadler album on Spotify, and I never heard the music break up or stutter. Pockets used to be death for Bluetooth headphones, but this is rapidly ceasing to be the case. The tips remained fully in my ears even though I wasn’t wearing the optional stay-put wings. As I constantly looked over my shoulders to navigate the hectic and interference-ridden Frisco city streets, I remained blissfully (dangerously) isolated from the noise around me. (The things I do for my job, people!)
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They finally konked out at six and half hours. That’s commendable, but not long enough for an all-day hike, an all-day work shift, or an all-day anything. You can continue to listen while you charge them by snapping the charging cradle onto the mic/remote thing while still wearing the headset, but it’s about as awkward as tethering gets. My only other minor complaint is the price—$200 is a bit steep. But really, for a wireless sports headset as stable, nice-sounding, and long-lasting as the Freedom, they’re worth it, if you can afford them.
RATING
9/10 Excellent, buy it now.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
A few months ago, we told you about the imminent arrival of Sine, the new compact on-ear headphones from Audeze. They use planar magnetic drivers, not the dynamic drivers found in most headphones. Dynamic drivers are the familiar cone-shaped variety you’ve seen a million times—look inside the stereo speakers in your living room and you’ll see them. Within each earcup of a planar magnetic headphone, however, is a thin, flat (hence “planar”) membrane with conductive material that is moved to and fro by an array of magnets. The size of the diaphragm and the larger number of magnets makes the driver more responsive, which means it reproduces the finer details in your music more accurately. Well-recorded acoustic stuff in particular is brighter and more lifelike.
Sine headphones are shipping this month. At $449, they seem quite expensive for portables, but that’s an accessible price for planars. Audiophiles, who tend to have more dollars than sense, go nuts for planars, and they’re usually priced accordingly. Models from Audeze, Oppo, HiFiMan, and others often top $1,000. So, yeah, the Sines are on the low end, especially considering Audeze is among the giants in high-end headphones. Planars also tend to be YUGE, and the fact the Sine headset folds flat and slips easily into a briefcase or slim backpack makes it even more attractive.
Audeze’s on-ears come with a standard analog headphone cable, but you can get that and a Lightning cable for another 50 bucks. If you’re an iPhone owner, spend the extra dough. Not only will you get the advantage of hearing your digital music before it is converted to an analog signal (a process that alters it in tiny ways), but you’ll be future-proofing your headphones. Should Apple ditch the standard headphone jack and move to Lightning-only audio (as rumors suggest, and rumors are always correct), you’re covered. And if that never happens (because rumors are never correct), you still get a noticeable audio upgrade.
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Truly excellent sound. All the hallmarks of the planar magnetic driver: Skull-rattling, distortion-free lows, nicely balanced mids, and crisp, like-you’re-there highs. Jazz, classic rock, and anything with acoustic instruments sounds particularly excellent. You don’t need a headphone amp—the Sine is rated at a phone-friendly 20 ohms, but they can handle 6W of input, so plug them into your tube Mjolnir 2. Earcups fold flat, making the headphones easier to transport. Remarkably small and lightweight for a set of planar magnetics. Handsome too! Lots of premium leather, with a tasteful and stealth all-black construction. (DesignWorksUSA handled the industrial design here, so brava.) If you carry lossless files on an iPhone, you’ll want the Lightning cable for $50 extra.
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While inexpensive for a pair of planars, there are many other headphones that sound as good or better for the same $450 base price—you should consider buying these for the unique technology inside more than anything. If the planar vibe doesn’t appeal to you, they’re not for you. The on-ear design isn’t as comfortable as an over-ear headphone; I found myself having to take them off about once per hour to rest my aching lobes. Shorter sessions are better. The design requires one cable for each earcup, so there’s twice as much wiring to get in the way. They don’t have a very wide soundstage, so while music sounds more clear and lively, it isn’t as expansive.
RATING
7/10 A great buy for headphone freaks, a pricey specialty item for everyone else.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
Throughout its 70 years, the American audio company Klipsch has carried a reputation for innovation in design. From the famous Klipschorn design to the company’s signature copper-colored “Cerametallic” speaker cones, its products have swagger. The company’s new crop of excellent in-ear headphones, with their zinc flourishes and unique ear tips, carry the tradition. These in-ears are branded as “Reference” products—a term that, to audio nerds, signifies a flat frequency response and an un-messed-with sound free of the bass-boosting and audio-sweetening so prevalent today.
The Klipsch Reference X6i in-ears cost $179, the least expensive of the new line. The most expensive, the X20i, are $549. I’m almost always attracted to the most affordable option, so I tried these for a few months. Even for the “budget” end of the line, they’re phenomenal. The X6i are my new go-to recommendation for reference in-ear headphones under $200. They’ve unseated my previous pick, the $150 Etymotic hf3. The Klipsch’s have comparable sound, but better cables, better ear tips, and better overall design.
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The sound is pretty much perfect; crisp without being sterile and loud without being fatiguing. The unique oval ear tips (Klipsch holds a patent on the design) provide an excellent, no-fuss seal within the ear canal. That seal is what enables an in-ear headphone to deliver good bass, and in this case, the bass is clear and dramatic. The box includes tips of many sizes, including flange tips that also create an excellent seal. Light and comfy; all-day wear is no problem. The cable is thick and coils easily. It never tangled or knotted, even when jamming the headphones into my back pocket and sitting through a meeting, or balling them up and tossing them into my carry-on when it came time to board the plane. The remote is large and forgiving. $180 is a great price for in-ears this nice.
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That big thick cable means lots of microphonic cable noise. You’ll need to use the clothing clip to keep your Rachmaninov from being smothered by rubbing noises. There are zinc elements in the earpieces, but otherwise there’s just a lot of plastic here. Anyone looking for bling will be disappointed. The wallet-like carrying case is interesting—you coil up the headphones then slip them into a pouch that folds in half—but I miss a fully-closing zipper case. These are all teeny quibbles! They sound great.
Rating
9/10 Nearly flawless, buy it now
Mi
The Chinese company Xiaomi is probably best known to people in the West for making phones that look a lot like iPhones. And while that’s true (look!), the manufacturing giant produces much more than handsets. There have been a steady stream of TVs, routers, and audio products released over the last couple of years under the company’s consumer-facing Mi brand name. This November, Xiaomi released a new set of Mi in-ear headphones. They debuted in China for 99 yuan, which means they’ll be priced at around $29 when they make their way to US consumers in the new year. Not a bad price for a nice set of metal earbuds.
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The fit and finish is exemplary for something this inexpensive. The sound chambers of the buds are made of machined aluminum and not only feel sturdy, but look really nice. Visually, they’re restrained and sophisticated. Even the plastic pieces feel like quality. Inside each chamber are two drivers: one balanced armature driver for the highs, and one traditional dynamic driver for the lows and mids. This design gives them a walloping low end—if you’re always aching for more bass, these might make you happy. But unlike other bottom-heavy earbuds, the vocals and the high end of the mix have their own driver, so they’re not obliterated by all that low-frequency muscle. There are a few different sizes of rubber tips in the box, so you can find a comfy fit pretty easily. The cables are Kevlar-reinforced, in case you need to take a bullet for a friend.
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Kudos to the dual-driver design for keeping things tidy on the high end. But that low end is so big and boomy, it’s overwhelming—most music ends up sounding murky. I found myself rolling off the lows inside my iPhone’s EQ settings during testing, and I still couldn’t clean up that bass. The hardware is smart, but it’s tuned in a way that diminishes the design. The tiny and oddly-shaped buttons on the inline remote make it difficult to manage. The cables are coated in rubber from the ears to the Y-joint in the middle, but from there down to the plug, the cable is protected by a braided sheath. The result is a cable with two different weights and textures, which I found odd. For $29, they sound good, but there are better cheap in-ears for the same money (Mrice, JLab, Soundmagic) as long as you’re OK with a lower-quality build.
RATING
6/10 – A solid product with some issues
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Review: Jaybird Freedom