Amazon's AirPods competitor arrived this year after reports and rumors
swirled last spring
<https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/04/amazon-airpods-competitors-alexa/> . Now an
in-depth review sheds light on how the Echo Buds <https://amzn.to/38O63Ao>
stack up to AirPods and other fully wireless earbuds and unfortunately, even
at an affordable price point, the bad stacked up to outweigh the good.
What Hi-Fi? <https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/amazon-echo-buds> gave the
Echo Buds gave a full review and found some big issues with the AirPods
competitor. But first a couple of the positive, err neutral aspects.
At $129 <https://amzn.to/38O63Ao> , Amazon's offering is one of the few in
the fully wireless category at less than $200 to offer noise-cancellation
and they found the feature to be "decent." Another good/neutral rating was
for battery life which What Hi-Fi? called "reasonable."
Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. Amazon was reportedly aiming
to offer better sound quality than AirPods
<https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/04/amazon-airpods-competitors-alexa/> but it
sounds like Echo Buds really miss the mark here. The review says that sound
quality is very inconsistent and sonic character changes drastically
depending on the volume.
Play Muse's Dead Inside and the soundstage sounds congested, like the band
is playing under a duvet. Turn the volume up just one notch and their
character changes completely. Immediately, they sound more open, spacious
and detailed. There's a much better overall balance. The thick cloudy bass
disappears and the Echo Buds start to show a bit more sparkle across the
frequency range.
Another negative, What Hi-Fi? notes that the touch controls are "hit and
miss" and that the earbuds are "not hugely intuitive to use."
And that's one of the problems with the Echo Buds, they're not hugely
intuitive to use. Those touch-sensitive surfaces don't help - double tapping
is especially frustrating with seemingly no consistency wherever you touch
them. Another issue is that you can't change volume through the Echo Buds.
You have to either ask Alexa to turn them up or down or do it via your
smartphone or tablet.
All in all, the review says that "Amazon's AirPods rivals are so flawed in
their current state, "it's impossible to recommend them."
Even though Echo Buds manage to undercut Sony <https://amzn.to/36HK8Jg> 's
WF-100XM3 (reviewed <https://9to5mac.com/2019/08/09/sony-wf-1000xm3-review/>
) and AirPods/AirPods Pro on price <https://amzn.to/2szlXhm> , with all of
the trade-offs, it sounds like they won't be a good choice for many people.
By Michael Potuck at:
www.9to5mac.com
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