Headsphones.expert

Logitech impressed with nice and clear sound when I reviewed their G733 over ear headphones a few weeks ago. On the other hand, they did not win any design awards with that color scheme. Today’s test is of a pair of threaded in-ear headphones that have been given the model name G333 and these are immediately nicer than big brother.

When I pick the headphones out of the box, I really feel how unexpectedly heavy and solid they are. No plastic here not. When I put them in my ears, they close properly and the fit is really comfortable. Despite the stability of the construction, the weight of the G333 is not felt when you have them in your ears. The package also includes extra rubber plugs, a USB-C adapter and a flexible, small bag.

I get started, connect them to my phone and play some test music. First out will be Avicii – Heart Upon my Sleeve, the instrumental version. When the base kicks in, a smile spreads on my lips. These headphones have a really good base for being in-ear; or the phase – really no matter what kind of trick you compare with! It’s heavy, deep bass that sounds absolutely fantastic. I continue my test with the standard song The Other Side from The Greatest Showman and the reason I have snowed in on that particular song (apart from the fact that it is awesome) is because it is a very complex song and if it is a couple worse headphones so everything is smeared together and nothing gets clean. This will not be the case in the G333, but here all the details are heard with clarity, weight and timbre.

The next test will be to use them as hands-free and in today’s world, where all meetings are either by phone or on Zoom / Teams, I want at least a headset that is comfortable but above all that I hear the person I am talking to with clearly and that that person hears me. I tested them on purpose in a rather noisy environment and thanks to the fit, it was no problem at all to still hear the person I talked to perfectly. He heard me well too, but the standard problem when you have a cord is that there will be some scratching and noise if the mic gets to the clothes. Something that bothered me a little is the three buttons on the cord itself. The middle button is the activity button and the other two are turn up and down the volume. When you just feel a little fast, you can accidentally take the wrong button. Maybe not the whole world, but it’s a little annoying to try the right button when it rings or even worse – accidentally turn off when you want to raise or lower the volume.

I have started playing some VR games on Playstation 4 Pro and when you wear the PSVR helmet you can not have large, over-ear headphones. There, the G333 from Logitech quickly became my absolute favorite headphones for the VR kit! You really become completely immersed in the VR world as the G333 sits tight and the nice sound enhances the experience. It may be that the G333 is developed in harmony with the Oculus VR kit, but they do just as well with other brands such as Playstation VR. A pair of good in-ear headphones are really A and O for the VR experience and here the G333 is perfect. They are also convenient to have with your Nintendo Switch on the go or why not watch a movie on the toad? There are lots of uses for these flexible and well-made lures.

So in summary, I was really impressed with the G333 from Logitech; they sound fantastic, are very well priced and therefore sniff at top marks!

When I got home the gaming headphones G733 Lightspeed Wireless from Logitech, I reacted immediately to how crazy ugly they were. Or rather how crazy the ugly color scheme you have chosen is. The light purple color with the dark blue / purple headphone elements is really not a nice combination. To my delight, the headphones are available in other colors as well and the ones I got as test copies were really the absolute ugliest – in my opinion I should add (and five other people I asked …).

When I pick the headphones out of the box, I immediately feel how light and flexible G733 from Logitech is compared to many other headphones I have tested. I put them on charge and wait anxiously to test them.

While they are charging, I pick up the microphone, which is removable. It is rubberized and can be directed so that it is at a reasonable distance from the mouth. The G733 works wirelessly only with dongles, which in this case have the same deplorable color as the headphones. However, it feels solid, robust and it is not so small that it can easily disappear either. I start the test by plugging the dongle into my Macbook Pro and the computer finds the headphones immediately.

I run my standard test song “The Other Side” from the Greatest Showman and am immediately impressed by two things. One; how clear and nice the sound is and two; how deep and comfortable the base is. It really gets a nice sound experience from these crazy light headphones; I can hardly feel that I am wearing them. The RGB light in the headphones pulsates and feels really cool and nice and gives an extra spice to the whole thing. You can easily change the volume via the knob on the left headphone.

I connect the mic and via a flexible button on the back of the left handset you can choose whether the mic should be on or off. The button is ribbed, so it is easy to find. A small beep in the headphones indicates whether the mic is turned on or off as well.

The next step is to try to have them in a game context, so I connect them to the editorial staff’s Playstation 4 Pro and run some Outriders. My companions hear me clearly and well, but there is no further scope in the microphone. So I recommend using another mic if you are going to stream on for example Twitch. There is a tight and good overlap between the sound and what happens in the picture and I did not perceive any lag, which is one of the advantages of wireless headphones that run on their own Wifi dongle.

Sammanfattningsvis så är G733 från Logitech både superlätta och galet bekväma gaming-hörlurar med ett riktigt nice ljud. Det är synd att jag inte har möjlighet att visa den svarta och den vita versionen av lurarna, för dessa – i kombination med RGB-ljusshowen – är riktigt snygga!

Sennheiser is one of our favorite brands in sound here at the editorial office. We have been driving their headphones in a number of different models for almost 20 years and the German sound engineers rarely disappoint us. In 2018, they came with their first True Wireless handset in the Momentum series, which suffered from a slightly short battery life and such a fit. Now they are here with the sequels Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, which we hope will improve most from the first attempt in the increasingly tight TWS market. These little beauties have been polarizing: critics have handed out everything from top marks to downright lukewarm shrugs. One of the water parts has, among other things, been the base. We return to how it sounds below (and how you can boost it).

Aesthetically, the Momentum TWS 2 is by far one of the market’s most stylish True Wireless headphones in strong competition with the Technics EAH-AZ70, which, however, is more luxurious in terms of material selection. The headphones are, funny enough, also very close to each other in price. The quality of the construction is excellent, despite the focus on plastic here, with crisp and clear sound as expected for the price. The fit? Of course very individually depending on your ear shape, but like EAH-AZ70, the “body” in the coil is slightly full, but not as heavy thanks to the plastic and here, as usual, to “screw them in” the ears properly with the largest possible silicone plop to properly attach to your ear canal.

But what about the base?

The sound of clarity

We have deliberately waited to finally review the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 as we thought the connection and the app at the beginning of the test period felt shaky and assumed it could be improved with future updates and firmware. And we were partly right – it’s more stable now, but not all bugs are erased. The headphones have improved in their connection to, for example, smartphones and especially the app’s software has been improved; above all, the equalizer is much more useful. On the other hand, the headphones behave strangely in the auto-sense mode (which is turned on by default) where they should feel if you take out one of the shells and pause the music automatically. This works – just like in Momentum Wireless 3 (over-ear) – not very well in practice. When it works the worst, the headphones disconnect without disappearing from, for example, Spotify as a source, so you just do not get any sound when you try to start everything again. Then both shells must be lowered into the box and the program restarted. Not the whole world, but leave the function off so you avoid all that meck (it is excellent to pause manually if you need to hear or talk to someone). From time to time, the connection between the Senneheiser app and the headphones is also lost, which means that you have to remove them from the Bluetooth list and pair them again with the device. No direct dealbreakers, but a little annoying on a pair of premium headphones.

If we start playing through the reference list with songs, two things quickly become very clear:

1) Sennheiser Momentum TWS 2 plays with a focus on purity. 2) The base is not very impressive, at least not in neutral EQ mode. We assume this is partly due to the construction and fit of the headphones, but also to the fact that Sennheiser consciously seems to have chosen not to emphasize the deep base (perhaps for a more “correct” representation?). That idea has its merits and works great in a pair of sturdy over-ear headphones like the Audio-Technica M50XBT. Here, however, the membranes become too small and small and the bass is therefore absent to such an extent that it affects the listening experience in certain music genres. On the other hand, the EQ is now so skilled that it can compensate for a lot of bass and provide a level of foundation that should make most people happy.

Just take the dark notes on the guitar in Carolina Wallin Perez’s acoustic Kent cover Pearls. Here is the warm beautiful song in the middle register mixed with vibrating and pure bass reproduction in the lower. Impressive for the format. If we stick to the calm in acoustic or cinematic music, such as Steve Jablonsky ‘s My name is Lincoln (from the Michael Bay film The Island), Momentum TWS 2 delivers basically perfectly. It is when the complexity of the songs and the speed of the base is turned up, as in Ludacris Get Back that Momentum TWS 2 does not really keep up. The deepest bass is missing and parts of the bass frequencies muddy together a bit, as the response is not quite as fast as you would want for this genre of music (try The Knife ‘s Silent Shout). However, you should not judge all hip hop from it, Kanye West ‘s classic 808s and Heartbreak sounds very good in both general rendition and bass.

Podcasts sound warm and comfortable, so do audiobooks – depending on the voices that read, you get a round and rooted feeling at its best.

The big plus is that the headphones support aptX (if your devices do too), which gives a better sound that also adds a little less. Bluetooth version 5.1 and IPX4 allow you to walk away from the source and still keep the connection to it and the latter protects against splashes (light rain, type).

There is ANC (active noise reduction) in the headphones, which is a bit cumbersome to press (three presses at the right rate) but which can be activated more easily from the app. It works well and easily dampens noisy environments, such as public transport, but do not expect the effect you get from the very best, over-ear headphones out there today. Also on this model you lower and raise with long presses on the different shells and this system may not be possible to do differently, but given the number of misprints that give unwanted effects, this felt easier to do directly on the phone or via the voice assistant (“Siri , turn it down”…).

The battery life is praised, we got about seven hours on a full charge of the shells and the case (which is slightly larger than most, roughly in pairs with Technics) gives another 21 hours on full charge. To say that you are doing well for a whole day is an understatement in this case.

Summary Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Taken as a whole, Sennheiser’s second investment in TWS headphones is a success, which has slowly matured while we evaluated them with good updates of both firmware and software (but there is room for even more here). The sound is crystal clear and the base can be turned with the right EQ settings, even if the deepest bass is missing no matter how much you fix and trick. They are stylish, have good battery life, are acceptable in weight and size and also offer some noise reduction and aptX (for you who have Android or run from a computer, iPhone does not support such innovations to audio format). It is difficult to find major errors on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, the minus would probably be the price tag (which is still not unreasonably high nowadays) and that the software could be better, here are some annoying small bugs left as we describe above.

But as a whole, these are a pair of very, very good true wireless headphones for you who prioritize sound quality and design and are not afraid to open your wallet a little further.

Before I reviewed the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid a few months ago, I hardly had much knowledge of the True Wireless phenomenon. The small, smart box that charges the headphones when you are not using them and the – for the format – usually fantastic sound that they offer. I have reviewed a number of Skullcandy’s TWS headphones before I had the opportunity to test their latest and absolute smallest headphone: Dime.

Immediately when I open the box, I am impressed by how small and light the loading box is. You can easily have it as a keychain and always have access to your headphones. The box is no bigger than a regular car key! When I have fully charged it, I take out the headphones and put them in my ears. Unlike other TWS headsets that I have tested, these must be turned on manually to be found by your phone. Once they are connected, it works as usual. They draw some power when in standby mode, as if you want the battery to last extra long, you also need to turn them off manually.

As usual, I play the song The Other Side from The Greatest Showman and am impressed by the clear and clean sound in the headphones. There is no treble that cuts and this is really an overall pleasant sound experience. On the other hand, it is a very small base compared to the big brothers. But considering their small size, it’s still really impressive sound, especially with the price in mind as well.

Dime has a very comfortable fit in your ear and unlike the big brothers Jib True Wireless, I never got the feeling that these headphones would fall out of my ear. Even after several hours of use, I did not perceive any discomfort or soreness in the ear – which is a really good rating!

When I try to call with them, the other party’s voice is heard well and clearly and the mic picks up my voice with nice volume and good proximity. Perceived no problems at all on that front. The Bluetooth range is really good, I forgot my phone at home once and only after two closed doors and almost 20 meters before it started to glitch in the sound and I realized that I had forgotten it.

The disadvantage of Dime from Skullcandy is actually that due to its small size, the price is that the battery life is not so impressive. The headphones last for about three and a half hours and the charging box has another eight and a half hours. So in total we are only talking twelve hours of playing time on a full charge. It is considerably shorter time than on most other TWS headphones that usually manage up to double that. Then there is another problem with the box being so small. To make it as small as possible, the manufacturers have chosen to make holes in the lid, so that the headphones can fit. When the lid is closed, there are no problems at all, but when you have the headphones on and the charging box in your pocket, the inside of it gets dirty from pocket lint and other things you can have in your pockets.

Dime also has the same system as its big brothers, where you can raise and lower the music depending on which handset you press and so on, but just like with Jib True Wireless, the button on the handset is quite hard and sluggish and it is immediately inconvenient to press insert it when you have it in your ear. Although I may find it less inconvenient on Dime as the button is slightly better.

In summary, the budget headphones Dime from Skullcandy are flexible and comfortable TWS headphones with relatively awesome sound and a very nice price tag. So a warm recommendation, on the verge of a must is in place!

A little over a month ago, I tested Indy ANC from Skullcandy and was impressed by the nice base, battery life and bluetooth range. When little brother Jib True Wireless appeared in the review pile, I became curious about how this budget variant would stand.

When I pick up the charging box from cartons, I immediately feel that it feels very light and plastic. The headphones themselves are quite large and “clumsy” and when I insert them in the ears, the fit is not the best. It feels like they want to slip out. However, they remain and I go into the phone and find the pairing immediately. “Connected” says a nice voice and now it’s time to start testing.

First out, I run in the usual order The Other Side from The Greatest Showman, which is my go-to test song. The sound is actually really impressive! It is not the same pressure in the base as in the Indy ANC headphones, but it is stronger bass than in the current reference headphones. The sound in general is not as clean as a whole and when you turn up the volume a bit, the treble cuts. But considering the price range, the sound quality is still approved with praise.

The next step is to call a friend and I do. The sound in the headphones during speech is pleasant and clean. My voice sounds good to the person I am talking to without it for that matter amplifying everything else around. As a hands-free, Jib True Wireless is really good. The battery life is an impressive 22 hours and it actually matches quite well with reality, as I used them both for music and in long conversations and the battery kept the promised number of hours.

Just like with big brother Indy ANC, there are buttons on both headphones and the system on paper is quite smart, but works very poorly in practice. For example, there are two clicks on the left handset to lower the volume – but if you are not fast enough, the music is paused instead or you click wrong so the assistant is engaged. Unlike Indy ANC, there are no touch buttons on Jib True Wireless, but physical buttons. The problem is that the button is so that you press the handset inwards in the ear when you click, which is both uncomfortable and annoying. The buttons are anything but light so you have to press quite hard.

I used the Jib headphones when I ran intervals and then I had to push them into my ear just before each round to make sure they did not fall out. This may not be a problem for all of you out there, it depends a bit on how your ears are built, but fit is generally a very individual feature of true wireless.

In summary, Jib True Wirleess from Skullcandy with its flaws is still extremely affordable TWS headphones, with nice sound and good features in its price range. So they are definitely worth a recommendation.

We have previously tested lures from the Danish-German collaboration and been very impressed (Sennheiser rarely disappoints on the sound side). EPOS Sennheiser GSP 602 can be briefly described as an alternative version of the GSP 600, but with a bolder color palette. The headphones are still wired and only in stereo. For this package, we also received from the manufacturer the DAC (external sound card) GSX 1000, an ingenious small USB box that will provide better sound quality, 7.1 sound and more features for both GSP 602 and your other, wired headphones. The question is whether the slightly breathtaking price tag of SEK 5,000 (for both) can motivate purchases? We have tested and give answers!

Appearance and feeling

Like the GSP 600, the GSP 602 is not a direct beauty. They are quite large, slightly plastic and to some extent reminiscent of the Astro A50 ‘s curly creations. But like Astro, the sound quality is really excellent, which we will talk more about in the next paragraph. The headphones come with a foldable microphone model sturdy, which can not be removed and our copy was in midnight blue and retro-brown, a clearly nice color combo in our book (artificial leather on the covers, which makes them a little warm after a while). These are distinct gaming headphones, so judging their chic factor in town feels pretty harmless because they a) are only wired (few phones have the 3.5mm connection left) b) are clear gaming headphones with the big mic that does not can be removed. In the gaming sofa, however, they work really well.

Despite the plastic, the GSP 602 feels solid in the build quality itself. They are firm and sturdy, no rattle or slack leads here. Honestly, they are perhaps a little too bulky, those with larger heads and / or glasses will feel that the headphones hug the skull firmly, the first few days we were actually a little tender after wearing them during our game sessions. But they close well and give as a bonus a kind of passive ANC (noise reduction).

Sound quality GSP 602

Epos Sennheiser GSP 602 is thus a closed over-ear handset with – we guess, nedymium diaphragm (not confirmed by the manufacturer) – 10-30 000 Hz frequency range and wired through a 4-pin minijack cable, or a two-part one for devices that can run separate audio and microphone (computers for example). There is no wireless, battery life or support for any other audio format is straight stereo. And straight stereo they deliver nicely – with some bravado actually. In games like the current Nioh Collection, a focused and at the same time dramatic soundscape is painted in Nioh 2, where what happens here and now gets to step forward in the spotlight, while the orchestrated soundtrack is like a background – as it should be in a good mix . Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War thunders nicely on the Xbox Series X and shows that the GSP 602 can handle heavy bass when needed in FPS games.

If we go over to music in the reference list, the Sennheiser sound is recognizable: strength, precision and some warmth, without coloring the sound profile too much. The headphones are a feast for well-mixed, calm songs like Eddie Vedder ‘s Society and Karen Souza ‘s eerily cool version of Can’t help falling in love. The bass is a bit anonymous in faster hip-hop songs like the Ludacris classic Get Back – the bass keg that starts later in songs works better, but in the beginning the sound feels a bit disembodied.

The only function that the headphones have built-in is a volume knob on the right cover, which is also slightly tightened to spin.

GSX 1000 – external sound card with extra cream and features

In parity with the price tag on the GSP 602, EPOS Sennheiser also releases the GSX 1000, their intermediate model of an external sound card and DAC that gives you better sound and more functions on wired stereo headphones (all, not just EPOS Sennheiser’s own).

USB-A is starting to feel a bit mossy as the only connection today, but there is at least one of these left on most PCs and desktops, you with portable Macs must be prepared to run via adapter to USB C. The software is available in both formats, but the Windows versions felt a little easier for firmware updates and settings, we thought when we tested.

The GSX 1000’s display allows you to easily control audio output (headphones or external speakers), various EQ modes (precision in games, music, movies or muted), surround focus (front, rear, all around), switch between 2.0 and 7.1 (virtual surround, which gives the right convincing effect) and finally a side tone mode to exclude disturbing environmental noise on different cover constructions and finally a mode to set the amount of reverb (“room echo”).

In addition to providing surround function for stereo headphones, the DAC also improves the sound quality. Setting it to 2.0 with the music EQ gave more body and warmth to all music genres and also got the Ludacris song that GSP 602 had a little problem with, to play nicer. Unfortunately, the DAC only supports up to 16-bit depth at 44.1 kHz, although Windows supports 24-bit by default nowadays. A little disappointing for the price.

Another huge flaw is that the GSX 1000 does not work with consoles at all, as it has no solution for the consoles’ way of (not) sending audio via USB. This will thus only be a gadget for you who play on a computer and want better sound quality or virtual surround (of which the latter is available with software on many modern Windows computers for a fraction of the price). Good product, but not fantastic for the price and the area of use is quite limited, as for example the Astro A50s DAC supports both PC and console.

Summary GSP 602 and GSX 1000

There is no doubt that the EPOS Sennheiser GSP 602 is a competent and well-sounding stereo headphone for gaming. This is good sound, period. On the downside, the headphones sit a little too tightly around the skull and lack many features other headphones in a similar price range offer – mainly wireless and some kind of surround sound.

The GSX 1000, on the other hand, is a capable sound card, which both enhances the sound quality and adds a lot of features that the GSP 602 may lack “out-of-the-box”, including 7.1 surround and well-balanced, preset EQ modes. For just over SEK 2,500, however, this is a really expensive DAC and even if you get a lot more functions than, for example, Soundblaster PLAY! 3, the actual sound quality in stereo is roughly comparable – and PLAY! 3 is then almost ten times cheaper. 7.1 and EQ (or headphones, if you like) are basically available for purchase in a DAC that is included in the exquisite SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless. Overall, the GSX 1000 will be too expensive an investment for anyone other than the hard core gamer who should have the very best (or if you have other, favorite hi-fi headphones in stereo you want to be able to use for games on the computer).

GSP 602 and GSX 1000 are both products with high sound quality that can definitely be recommended, but it is difficult to say that they feel affordable in relation to what other brands perform. But if you settle for stereo and play both games and enjoy music, you still get good sound in the EPOS Sennheiser GSP 602.

Note: The rating applies to the EPOS Sennheiser 602 headphones without GSX 1000. Reviews of both are given in the text above.

När jag plockar upp RB-M700-hörlurarna ur kartongen så känner jag direkt två saker: De känns lätta och lite plastiga. Jag sätter dem på huvudet och ställer in dem för min ganska stora skalle. Hörlurarna sitter väldigt bekvämt och kuddarna har bra styrsel och komfort.

Jag börjar med att para ihop dem med min telefon via Bluetooth. On-off knappen fungerar även som Bluetooth-knapp vilket var lite förvirrande först, men det efter lite tryckande så dyker lurarna upp i listan i alla fall. “Battery Low” förkunnar en röst i lurarna och jag läser innantill att de rekommenderar att ladda upp dem innan jag använder dem. Sagt och gjort, kopplar in den medföljande USB-C sladden och lägger dem för att ladda (något man alltid bör göra med nya produkter).

Fyra timmar senare så är lurarna fit för fight (de stöder även snabbladdning, 15 minuter ger en och en halv timmes speltid) och jag parar dem till telefonen igen. Först ut så kör jag The Other Side från Greatest Showman. Det är en låt som jag kan utantill och använder till alla hörlurstester. Basen, som skapas via Panasonics XBS Deep-system (Extra Bass Deep), är verkligen enorm och det finns ett eget reglage där du kan höja och sänka den. När jag sedan ökar volymen lite, med basen på max så vibrerar RB-M700B kring mitt huvud. Jag har faktiskt aldrig varit med om något liknande.

Så hur låter basen i Panasonic RB-M700 då? Jodå, den är fin och djup, men det är samtidigt väldigt lätt att överdosera den och då blir det bara grötigt istället. Så jag fann min sweet spot i att dra ned basen en del för att den inte ska ta över helt. Nästa test så kopplar jag in hörlurarna till datorn och körde slutstriden från Avengers: End Game. Här fungerar den djupa basen bättre då den inte är på konstant. Det blev en riktigt filmisk upplevelse och det kändes väldigt lyxigt att kunna dra på med fet bas utan att någon omkring dig hör eller blir störd.

Mellan volymreglaget och basreglaget på lurarna sitter en riktigt otight och “fladdrig” knapp som är själva brusreduceringen (ANC). Den har två problem: För det första så vibrerar den fysiska knappen när du går med lurarna och du hör den klicka för varje steg du tar. Extremt enerverande. För det andra så är brusreduceringen inte särskilt effektiv alls. Jag upplevde ingen större skillnad med den på eller av, ärligt talat. Riktigt tråkigt.

Du kan använda RB-M700B när du pratar i telefon också. Micken plockar upp din röst ganska bra, men min test-person kände att min röst lät ganska avlägsen och metallisk. Batteritiden är runt 20 timmar enligt tillverkaren och det stämmer ganska bra med verkligheten. Kanske var den var den aningen kortare än det, men beror ju också på volym och hur man mätt upp tiden (med vilka funktioner påslagna, ANC et cetera). Bluetooth-räckvidden är riktigt bra, med klart rent ljud till och med om du är i ett annat rum tack vare Bluetooth 5.0s räckvidd.

Sammanfattningsvis så är RB-M700 från Panasonic ganska prisvärda och har – precis som de lovar – sanslöst fet bas. De är bekväma och lättanvända men baksidan är att de är ganska plastiga och brusreduceringen fungerar sisådär. Men inom sin prisklass så kan jag rekommendera dem.

There are really a plethora of different in-ear headphones, now including true wireless headphones, on the market, and which ones to choose from depend on taste, function, and application. Today’s review is Skullcandy’s Indy ANC, and these true wireless headphones impress on several levels.

When I take them out of the box, I immediately feel like this is a different price range than the GTW 270 HYBRID from Epos, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. The box is made of plastic, not metal, but it still doesn’t feel fragile. Open it and the headphones will immediately appear in my Bluetooth list on the phone. A quick click later and you are connected. A voice in the headphones indicates that they are plugged in and that noise cancellation is active.

The headphones fit snugly in the ear, but don’t fit as well as the EPOS headphones (or the “cast” Creative Labs Outlier Gold). The slugs actually fell out once and twice, which was also our criticism of the original Skullcandy Indy. Now there are definitely different sizes of rubber rings, but I’ve tested them all and they were either too big or too small for me. No big deal that they keep failing all the time, just that the Skullcandy Indy ANC doesn’t really feel as tight as the reference headphones.

I’ll start the test with The Greatest Showman’s song The Other Side. This is a song I always test headphones on and know exactly what it sounds like. What immediately impressed me is the fine and deep bass that is contained in the song. Very impressive. However, the sound is not as clean as I experienced with the EPOS headphones, for example. Now it’s a completely different price range here, of course, so Skullcandy’s sound at the Indy ANC is still very impressed. Next test I ran a sequence from Avengers: Endgame. Such a complex sound is hard to clean up with simpler headphones, but Indy ANC handles it really well – although I might experience a certain “mush”.

The headphones are charged in the box in the usual order and should last up to 32 hours according to the manufacturer. I didn’t manage to use it until the battery ran out, but then I used it a lot.

The next step is to test them out during a phone call. I call the same friend I used to talk to while testing tricks. The sound quality of his voice during the conversation is clear, but he felt that my voice sounded metallic and “quite far away”. It was still audible, but not as clear and precise as one could wish it to be.

The Epos GTW 270 had a physical button on the left earbud that controlled calls and the assistant. Skullcandy’s Indy ANC solved it a different way – which is really smart on paper – but it works worse in practice. Both headphones have touch buttons. If you click once on the left handset, the volume will decrease. Clicking the right handset once increases the volume. Two clicks are paused and three clicks are the wizard. The only problem is that it doesn’t work that way. I never got it to work as intended. When I clicked twice to pause, the assistant turned on or the volume turned up. Then when I hung up the phone I accidentally opened it and turned up the volume. So at some point I stopped trying to use the touch buttons and ran through the phone buttons.

There is a very good app available to download that allows you to check details in the headphones that you would otherwise not be able to access. You can choose to use them for games, music, or movies. Downloading this application is really a tip as it will allow you to get even more out of your headphones. There is also a personal sound profile for each hearing, which was first introduced in the Skullcandy Crusher ANC. The app also supports Tile to help you if you’ve lost a device.

In conclusion, Skullcandy’s Indy ANC is still a really impressive true wireless headphone in its price range. It offers impressive bass and they connect quickly and seamlessly via bluetooth. So a really warm recommendation that I will share.

GTW 270 Hybrid from EPOS impresses already when you pick them out of the box. The headphones are small and flexible and the box they are in works – like most True Wireless headphones – both as a charger and a sync station. The box is completely made of metal and feels solid and stylish. It is a good size and can easily be tucked into a pocket.

The Quickstart guide suggests that you fully charge the headphones before I start using them, so I do. About an hour later they are fully charged and this is indicated on the front with a simple push of a button. I start by connecting them to my phone via Bluetooth. Press the button on the box for three seconds and it starts flashing alternately red and alternately blue. The phone finds them immediately and the headphones are now synced. Light as a plate, just as it should be.

Puts them in the ears and is impressed by the nice fit of the EPOS GTW 270. They seem to slide into place in a very comfortable way. On the left handset is a small button that you can control your phone via. The button works like most other buttons found on other hands-free headphones. When the handset is in the right ear, it is flexible and easy to find and it all works impressively well.

Starts with playing music that I can memorize to hear how the GTW 270 Hybrid is doing. First out, there is of course quite a bit of bass in these small headphones and it is quite obvious when it comes to many TWS headphones so it is no minus, for me (although we have more basic models also such as Nero-TX and Outlier Gold) . The sound is clean, clear and there is really an impressive range in the music with a consistently nice sound.

I press the button on the handset and ask Siri to call a friend. Again, I am overwhelmed by how clearly and nicely the voice at the other end comes out – but what is even more impressive is that when I ask the person how my voice sounds, he answers: “You hear better than ever!”. Now it’s part of it that I have tested a lot of cheats and called the same person so this is a really impressive rating! From now on, all other hands-free alternatives are smoking and it is the GTW 270 Hybrid from Epos that applies. According to the manufacturer, the battery life for the headphones is five hours and when I tested them, it was not really that long. Now I used them outdoors in several degrees below zero and it may have affected the battery life negatively. The box has a built-in battery, so when you put the headphones back in the box, the headphones can be charged up to four times before you have to recharge the box again, which is the correct standard procedure for TWS. So in total you have around 20 hours listening to a charge. Which I believe is approved with praise.

But – it’s not over yet, because now we come to the “hybrid” part of the review: You can connect these headphones via a USB-C dongle to your computer, Playstation 4 or Nintendo Switch when you play games. Now you get wireless sound, without lag with impressive clarity. I tested Inside on Switch and Spider-Man on Playstation 4 and the result was superb. Every detail of the sound comes out and pretty soon you forget that you even have the headphones in your ears. The only thing I perceived as a bit negative was that the dongle does not have a very long range and that the microphone in the headphones does not work when they are connected via it – so no chat function here. The range is probably the reason why the adapter has a fairly long cord, so you can put the dongle quite close to you when you play. I measured the Bluetooth range as longer.

Are there any disadvantages then with the GTW 270 Hybrid from EPOS? Yes, there is a slight downside – and it may just be for me personally – but I perceived some pain in the right inner ear after a few hours of use. Even though the headphones are very light and flexible, they stop a lot of noise from outside and in the world we live in now, with plexiglass discs everywhere, you need to pick the headphones out of your ears sometimes to hear what people around you are saying.

In summary, I am really impressed with the GTW 270 Hybrid from EPOS and despite the fact that they cost a penny, the rating can of course not be anything other than a clear must! New reference in the price range!

Footnote: EPOS GTW 270 is also sold without a dongle, as pure TWS headphones for just music and then costs a couple of hundred bucks less.

There are a number of different game consoles on the market, so there are a plethora of accessories that work better or worse for them. I was deeply impressed with the SteelSeries Arctis 9X when I reviewed them a year ago (and are in a completely different price range than these, more than twice as expensive), but they are created for Xbox One and do not work at all for Playstation. So when Cloud Stinger Core Wireless from HyperX appeared, adapted for Playstation 4 and Playstation 5, I became interested.

When I pick up the Cloud Stinger Core Wireless headphones from the box, I am immediately impressed by how light they are, but in the same breath they do not feel plastic or fragile. They really give a solid impression and when I put them on my head they are extremely soft and comfortable. The mic is folded down and when it is in this position it is on and in the folded position it is off. It could not be easier than that. The mic is noise-reduced and thus has a very good and clear sound.

You connect the headphones to your Playstation with the USB dongle and immediately the headphones then take over all outgoing sound. You can increase and decrease the volume on the cover and a signal tells you when you have reached the maximum level. I start by testing them by playing Darq as I have a clear memory of how it sounds and where there is a wide range between high and low. It is immediately a clean and enveloping sound; when the world starts to collapse in the game and the base kicks in, a big smile spreads on my lips. There are really good sounds in these light and flexible headphones!

I continue the test by playing a little Spider-Man because I want to see how dialogue behaves. Same thing here – top quality, no matter how clear. The battery lasts, according to the manufacturer, about 17 hours and they indicate smoothly with red flashing lights when they are down to less than 20 percent battery life left. The headphones also work while charging, so there is no problem with you having to stop playing.

The range is impressive and there is no lag or noise in the headphones, thanks to the 2.4 GHz wireless connection that the dongle fixes. You can also connect them to your computer and they work just as well for PC as for Mac. The only negative I can think of with Cloud Stinger Core Wireless is that it lacks Bluetooth. Bluetooth is easier to connect, but often worse from a lag and range point of view. However, 2.4GHz wifi radio has the price that you constantly become dependent on having the USB dongle connected to make the headphones work – and it is another gadget that can easily disappear if you have children or pets, and if you connect in and out of it. It would have been convenient to have a storage space in or around the headphones for this thing.

In conclusion, I am deeply impressed by the comfort and sound quality of the Cloud Stinger Core Wireless, especially considering the extremely attractive price tag that is below half the price against some competitors in the same class. These are stylish, wireless headphones with awesome sound – so they will of course be a must for you who want good sound for PS4 and PS5 and new references in the price range.