The world of wireless audio has a seen a lot of action in 2018. Major headphone and earphone brands have gone wireless. As with other wireless categories, there’s also a significant focus on True Wireless IEMs. Let's take a look at the winner.
The world of wireless audio has a seen a lot of action in 2018. Major headphone and earphone brands have gone wireless. However, there’s the true wireless category that has emerged from a progress in wireless technology to the point where absolutely no wires are needed for you to enjoy your music. It wouldn’t be too incorrect to give the Airpods credit where it’s due, but we’ve had entrants who’ve set up shop before them.
As with other wireless categories, there’s also a significant focus on True Wireless IEMs to include extraneous features. However, in our tests, only pure audio performance has been taken into account. So, let us kick off this brand new category in the Zero1 Awards!
2018 Zero1 Award Winner: Beoplay E8
B&O surprisingly managed to fit luxury into a pair of tiny truly wireless earbuds, in their new offering, the E8. Sporting a sleek and inconspicuous design, the E8 speaks of B&O’s years of experience in designing quality audio products. Each of the buds packs a 5.7mm dynamic driver that produces warm, lively and energetic sound. While the Beoplay E8 allows a number of configurations, we stuck to the default sound signature and weren’t disappointed.
The bass response depends on the fit you get but even with the defaults buds, our experience with the lows was exceptional. The mids are clear and forward, with Adele’s Hello sounding full. The highs are also handled quite well, avoiding shrillness in the upper ranges. The controls on the Beoplay E8 are quite handy, with the right-left earbuds being master-slave respectively. There is a certain amount of tapping required, but it doesn’t take too long to get the hang of it. Overall, the Beoplay E8 stands for the best truly wireless earbuds that (a lot of) money can buy.
Runner-Up: Bragi The Dash Pro
With the Headphone and the Dash, Bragi made a lot of noise (pun intended) in the world of truly wireless audio. The Dash Pro was released to make up for the drawbacks of the Dash and it almost fulfills that goal. Packing a ton of features, this was also the most satisfying of the lot in terms of connectivity and usability. The touch interface is a dream to use with most controls on the right earbud and a couple on the left.
We experienced no issues whatsoever in our usage period. When it comes to the audio, the Dash Pro does a fairly good job of staying true and clear across genres but falls short of the clarity offered by the E8. There’s a slight bias towards the lows and they come across as muddled. Overall, the sound lacks a bit of power and impact.
Best Buy: Jabra Elite Active 65t
The Elite Active 65t sport a number of upgrades and changes when compared to its predecessor. For starters, the finish is slightly more rugged and the build comes with an IP56 rating. The sound that these buds can generate is clearly superior at its price point. There’s a certain amount of treble boost which works in its favour, and the deep and punchy bass response with the appropriate seal is also handled with just the right amount of power.
The Elite Active 65t has ditched the heart rate sensor of the Elite 65t resulting in a sleeker design that is more focused on being usable and sounding great. Where this headphone is surprisingly impressive is detail reproduction. Music across genres sounds crisp and well detailed. Overall, the Jabra Elite Active 65t is a solid pick that works on the few drawbacks of the Elite 65t and augments itself with a wide range of features.
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