Yamaha recently put out a brand new range of true wireless headphones, with the TW-E7B as the premium star of the show.
The true wireless space is a crowded one. It seems that every single tech company ever has a pair of true wireless headphones now. Were I a cynic, I would say it was because they’re easily lost and the glued-in, non-replaceable batteries have a roughly 2-year lifespan, so true wireless is the most profitable form factor because people need to replace them more frequently than any other kind of headphones. However, as a lazy person with tiny pockets, true wireless headphones are also the most convenient form factor, so it makes sense that they’re what everyone wants at the moment.
Even in that crowded market, the Yamaha TW-E7B stands out when it comes to audio quality, but there are some missteps in the design that means they’re not perfect.
Details: Yamaha TW-E7B
| Australian website | Yamaha |
| Price (RRP) | $299 |
| Warranty | 1 year |
| Other | Read more sound reviews on GadgetGuy |
Yamaha TW-E7B first Impressions
Taking them out of the box, I was surprised by how chunky the battery box is. It’s much larger than most of the rest of the true wireless field, only getting beaten by the PowerBeats Pro and Bose SoundSport Free. The buds themselves are quite chunky, too. In the box, you get five pairs of ear tips to choose from, which is more than most, so you have a better chance of finding the right fit. I managed to get extremely close to a perfect fit on my right ear, and close enough on the left.
While I was sceptical about how comfortable the very large and bulbous buds would feel over long periods of time, I was pleasantly surprised. They stayed comfortable for hours at a time, even though their weighting seemed like it would be off.
My absolute favourite feature of the outer design is the physical buttons for play/pause/skip/answer phone. Touch buttons on true wireless headphones are my number one complaint on most models because they’re almost impossible to not activate when you reposition them in your ears. With these physical buttons, I haven’t accidentally activated them once, and they’ve worked every time I’ve used them deliberately. I love them. I recommend them based on the quality of these buttons alone. A+
Audio quality
However, no matter how good the physical buttons are, the sound quality is the main thing. Luckily, to my ear, the Yamaha TW-E7B sounds fantastic. It’s a touch lacking in the treble, but not so much that it’s bothersome, and the bass is full without being overwhelming.
The song I use to test all headphones is “Chasing Twisters” by Delta Rae, because it has a good mix of frequencies and one detail in the second pre-chorus that only seems to show up in the fanciest headphones.
In the verses, the definition of the tom-tom strikes is clear, and the cymbal crashing is bright, though the piano strikes are a little more backgrounded than I’m used to. Her vocals are clear and strong, but that growl detail I notice on more premium headphones is missing, which often signals that the mid-tones are a touch buried.
The heavy cover of “Santa Tell Me” by Conquer Divide seems to be the kind of song the TW-E7B is designed for. The drums sound great, the guitars sound crunchy, and Kiarely Castillo’s vocals soar while Janel Monique’s screaming holds the right weight.
“Full Heart Fancy” by Lucky Chops has the right amount of emotion, all the instruments seem to be on the right levels with none being overwhelmed, which I can sometimes find on headphones that have been overly tuned for electronic music. It’s here, though, that the slight weakness on the mid-tones becomes more pronounced. Whereas it wasn’t obvious on “Chasing Twisters” or “Santa Baby”, there is a more noticeable absence here.
However, these absent details are only clear if you’re looking for them. In regular, daily listening everything sounds very, very good. It’s just when you start looking for details you’re familiar with testing on headphones at different price points that you notice them.
Back to something a bit folkier/singer-songwritier, and I’m convinced this is the genre these headphones were tuned for. “Tell That Devil” by Jill Andrews sounds superb. The resonance on that snare, the forcefulness of her vocals, the menacing whisper of the male singer in the background, the acoustic guitar, all of it sounds right. Odesza’s “Better Now” sounds similarly good. “The Story” by Brandi Carlile also sounds great, with so many little drum flourishes I hadn’t noticed before, you really feel surrounded by the song, enveloped.
Noise cancelling
Noise cancelling is where these headphones really shine. While I haven’t gone on any flights with them, I have been wearing them while going about my day. They don’t quite manage to cut out the clacking of my keyboard, but I couldn’t hear my microwave beeping while standing right in front of it, nor could I hear my coffee machine. My coffee machine is one of those ones that grinds the beans for each cup, it sounds like someone threw a brick in a cement mixer, and yet I could hear nothing. The keyboard really is the only thing I can hear, I can’t even hear my wife, which has led to me nearly having multiple heart attacks when I turn around to find her there while I’m working.
The transparency mode isn’t great, though. The AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) really spoiled me for what a transparency mode should be. On the TW-E7B, the world sounds louder, but unclear. On the AirPods Pro, it sounds like you’re not wearing headphones.
App
The medium news is that the Yamaha TW-E7B has an app. The bad news is that it straight up does not work on iPhone. I’m using an iPhone 14 Pro Max and the app just will not pair with the headphones at all. My phone still pairs with the headphones just fine to play music, but I can’t access any of the app features like the EQ, firmware updates, or noise cancelling adjustments.
I could get it to work on the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion I reviewed, and it’s pretty OK. You can adjust the EQ on five different levels, which is better than the usual three, but those five levels aren’t labelled at all, so you just have to fumble around and hope for the best.
Most people don’t really ever use their headphone apps more than once, so I’m not weighing this too heavily. But if an app is important to you and you’re an iPhone user, keep that in mind.
Would I buy it?
I am a strong believer in a pair of headphones for every occasion and use. I would not buy these to be my main headphones, as I think there are better and more comfortable all-rounders out there for similar amounts of money. However, if I was looking for in-ear, true wireless where noise cancelling was my main concern, I would 100% buy these. The noise cancelling is top-notch, and the audio quality is a bit better than what I would expect for $299.
The post Yamaha TW-E7B True Wireless Headphones: great sound and noise cancellation (review) appeared first on GadgetGuy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment