Transcription
So, Bluetooth earbuds have gotten really good. But which ones are actually the best of the best? I've tested hundreds, and in front of me, I have six of my favorite pairs of earbuds that all have amazing sound, great active noise cancellation, plenty of unique and impressive features, and more to like about them.
So, in this video, I'll be testing these six pairs of earbuds in 13 different categories, and in each category, I'll be ranking them one to six to figure out, in the end, which is actually the best pair to buy. These categories include a wide range of what you might be using these earbuds for, from sound quality to indoor microphone quality, outdoor mic quality, ANC, and much more. So, hopefully, this video is a complete and comprehensive guide to help you decide which is actually the best pair for you. And most importantly, to demonstrate that they're not actually correlated to price at all. The most expensive ones aren't necessarily the best, and in some categories, they may actually be the worst.
So, the contestants we have in this video, in no particular order of course, are the very, very popular Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbud, the Sony WF-1000XM5s. They came out about a year and a half ago, but you can't sleep on these. These have a lot of very impressive qualities. The Bowers & Wilkins PI8 came out just a couple months ago and have really been getting raving reviews by many people out there. The Technics AZ100s, a sequel to the 80s, which are a very impressive pair of earbuds, and these came out the most recent out of everything on this table. We have the Devialet Gemini 2, and of course, the Apple AirPods Pro 2. Now, the Apple AirPods Pro 2 are often not thought of as the most premium pair of earbuds out there, but they do really compete in many categories, as you'll see throughout this video. And most importantly, they act as a really good reference for anybody who hasn't tried these other earbuds. You probably know somebody who has AirPods Pro, and you could just try them and kind of get a good reference for how much better or worse the other ones on this table are in each of the categories.
Now, I know there are many other great earbuds that are not included here, but we had to draw the line somewhere. So, I know a lot of you are like, "Rushing to the comments section, why didn't you include the Denon Pearl or Master & Dynamic, the Audio-Technica, the B&W 11, or the Sennheisers?" Like, all of those are great earbuds, and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro as well. They're great earbuds, but on my list with these criteria, they just didn't quite make the cut. So, the six that I have in this video, I think are my personal favorites.
Now, before we get into that first category, my disclosure here: this video is not sponsored. I purchased about half of these with my own money. No brands saw this video prior to publishing. No brands had any influence on this video. And all opinions are my own in this video. So, with that being said, let's start off with probably the most exciting category: the active noise cancellation. And I don't want to just talk about ANC as like one through six here. I want to break it down to three different categories. One is going to be the lower frequencies. If you're on a jet, you're trying to block out those sounds. Second one would be higher frequencies, people talking, chatter, crowd sounds, your spouse, literally anything that you want to block out that is not a low, droning frequency. You're going to have very different rankings here. And the third one is going to be just the artifacts. So, you might hear in a quieter environment, is there any hissing, any white noise, or anything like that?
Starting off with the lower frequencies, if you're on a jet, what is the best pair to get? Well, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras absolutely dominated in my first test where I play the sound of a jet at a set distance away, and I turn that volume up gradually until the earbuds are no longer able to block that. I then record the volume, and that is how we rank them. So, Bose came in first place here. In second place were the AirPods Pro 2, a surprisingly impressive algorithm for blocking noise. Not far behind them were the AZ100s, blocking about 60.5 dB. And then barely behind that were the Sony WF-1000XM5s, blocking almost 60 dB, about 59.5 is what I was getting. About 1 dB less than that were the Gemini 2s, and in last place by a pretty significant margin, surprisingly, were the PI8, blocking only about 50 dB.
Then moving to higher frequencies, like I said, a very different setup here. Typically, earbuds are really good at blocking lower frequencies because it's more of a constant that you're blocking. Higher frequencies tend to be much more difficult for those ANC engines to actually do. And in this one, first place was again the Bose, blocking by far the most at about 47 dB. But Sony came in second place here, very, very close behind, mostly because they have those foam ear tips that come in the box and help to block a lot passively. Behind them were the Gemini 2s, then the AirPods, then the AZ100s, and in last place again, the PI8.
And then finally, the third test being the just quiet and room test. With these, I found that the Gemini 2s, the XM5s, and the AirPods Pro all had a very nice, clean silence. They didn't have any kind of artifacts or any kind of white noise. The Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras had a kind of staticky, chirping sound in the left ear. And the PI8 and the AZ100s also had a very faint left ear noise, not quite as much as the Bose, but something that I certainly did notice. However, the AZ100s are very, very adjustable on the app, and I'll show you the app later in the video. But my ranking for ANC: first place, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras. Second place, we have a tie between the Sony's and the AirPods. Both did a great job, but it depends on if you want to block higher frequencies or lower frequencies. Again, very similar, small trade-off. So, I called it a tie in that one. And then in fourth place, the AZ100s. In fifth place, but really very close to the rest, were the Gemini 2s. And then in last place were the PI8s.
Moving out to the next category, though, the transparency. Total opposite of ANC. Now you want to hear your surroundings. And with these, I didn't actually go all the way down to sixth place because all of these felt so competitive. They were all so much better than earbuds were even just a couple years ago. But I kind of rated them in a kind of an A through F scale. So, A+ being like, "You absolutely nailed it." C minus, D, F, right? Terrible, not good quality. And so, going through these, A+ first place here, the AirPods Pro 2. They sound very natural for the transparency. You can talk, you can do everything, and it almost feels like you don't have them in your ears. Very little pressure. I think these do, they're kind of the gold standard in the industry, in my opinion, for transparency mode. But not far behind them, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras. I gave them just an A, not an A+. But they have a little bit of white noise. It's the only reason that I didn't give them a higher score. Otherwise, equally as natural as the AirPods Pro 2, and you can really hear directions and everything with them. They feel just incredibly natural when you're wearing them, aside from that little bit of white noise.
Then in third place, I kind of have a three-way tie here. I gave all of these a B+. They do a really good job. The Gemini 2s, the Sony XM5s, and the AZ100s. Again, all just really solid. They sound natural, just not quite as good as the Bose and the AirPods. And unfortunately, I mean, in these first two categories, the Bowers & Wilkins are really falling behind. I promise, they'll pick it up later in the video, but at least right now, it's just not their strong suit. I gave them a C. They definitely weren't really working on Android. I saw there's a weird quirk. I had to use my iPhone to get that to even switch between ANC and transparency. And then, like, it just kind of sounded a little bit tunnel-y, a little bit compressed, not really as natural as the other ones. But that's okay. That means absolutely nothing if the sound quality and the microphones and the designs are not actually good.
So, let's talk about the designs on all of these. I know I kind of just started jumped right into them without properly introducing these earbuds. So, let's go through these designs from last place to first place. In last place, I actually gave that to the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras. Even though they really dominated in the first two categories, the design, I find the cases a little, a little bit too large for my liking. I like that they do have an IPX4 water resistance rating on the buds, but I don't like that they don't have wireless charging unless you upgrade to a wireless charging case kind of thing. So, that's kind of a big drawback here. I like that they have a button on the back for easier pairing. And by the way, if you want to see the colors for any of these, I'll have links to all the products down below. Those are affiliate links, so they do help to support the channel at no cost to you. And of course, at any point in the video, if you decide which one you want to buy and you want to just, you know, go ahead and order, you can use those links down there. But talking about the colors, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras are available in black, lunar blue, white, and silver. But again, last place for that lack of wireless charging and there's the large, clunky case.
Then moving up, the Bowers & Wilkins PI8. I really love the colors on these. We have four different colors again: black, blue, greenish, and white. That's kind of really understating how cool the colors actually look. But the case is second largest. I like how the buds are IP54 water resistant and a little bit of dust resistance there too. But again, just slightly larger case and the rest here. I, I really, I value the cases a lot. Neither the Bose nor the Bowers & Wilkins stand upright. They both just lay flat like that, whereas the others, you can kind of set in several orientations.
So, in third place, I actually have a tie between the Sony's and the Technics. They both have really similarly sized cases. I think the Technics are slightly smaller. I like how there's a flat bottom on them. They have wireless charging. You can charge with USB Type-C. Sony does have a button. I really prefer having a button on there for pairing rather than having to use the earbuds to do that. And the colors are just black and silver on the Technics, but I really like that kind of brushed metal look on the top of the case, whereas Sony has a third color. They have a black, they call this silver, but it's more of a tan color to me, and I think they have a pink color that they released after launch, so you can check out that if you want.
In second place, the Devialet Gemini 2. I just love the design of this case. Kind of like an Art Deco style. It looks like a mini Empire State Building. So cool. I like the metal, the font on the front, and they have several different colors: black, white, and gold, like very classy, very premium-looking colors. Somehow, they managed to get wireless charging on this too. Very impressive. The button on the back, I love that. And the earbuds, just like a really unique and really cool design in my opinion.
And weirdly, like, I know I'm going to get pushback on this one, but first place, I have to say the AirPods Pro 2. Because the case is so small, they have a metal hinge on the back, and you have several ways you can charge this. You can do MagSafe, Qi wireless charging, USB Type-C, or even an Apple Watch charger to charge this up. You also have a speaker on the case in case you lose this, and you have a little loop on the side. You can actually put a lanyard on here. Unfortunately, they're only available in white. But I mean, if anyone's pushing back, just ask yourself, if Sony made a case that looked like this, would you think it's an upgrade from their current case? I think most people would say yes. Like, that is an abundance of new features that puts these deserving of first place in this category.
Moving on to the next two categories, fit and comfort. I'm kind of separating those. Comfort's going to be how comfortable are they to actually wear if you're sitting, like, at your desk. And fit is going to be how well do they stay in your ears if you're talking. Like, your jaw moves a lot, obviously, when you're talking, or maybe if you're even working out. That's not the main focus of these, but let's be honest, if you're spending hundreds of dollars on earbuds, you're probably going to want to work out in them on occasion.
So, going through these, starting off with comfort, in first place, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds are incredibly adjustable. They have kind of an oval shape on the ear tip, which puts less pressure in my ears. You have several different ear tips, they're silicone, by the way, you can swap out for, and several different little like wing tips on the top that help to secure them and kind of give you a nice seal. So, you put them in your ear, gentle twist, they're very comfortable, very soft, and they evenly distribute the pressure, at least around my ears.
In second place, I have the AirPods Pro 2. Probably one of the lightest pairs here. I mean, countless people use these, so it's kind of no surprise that they are so comfortable. I find that I could wear them for a long time and not have really any discomfort. The venting on the inside also helps with ANC discomfort, so less pressure on these as well.
And then in third place, I just have a four-way tie. The rest of the earbuds: the Sony's, the Devialets, the Technics, and the Bowers & Wilkins. None of them deserve to be lower than third place. They're all just basic, regular-fitting earbuds. They're not particularly comfortable, like, compared to the other ones, but they're just, I can wear them for a while. They're not bad in any way, so I put them all as a tie right here. Now, I will comment that Sony's can be uncomfortable if you're using the foam ear tips. It can give you fatigue if you're wearing them for a really long time, but in the box, they do come with silicone or foam tips, so you can choose. If you value the comfort more than the ANC, then maybe you want to make that little trade-off right there.
Moving on to fit, though, the foam ear tips do a, you know, world of wonders for me in keeping them secure in my ears. That's why I leave the foam tips on here, besides the passive noise blocking I talked about before, which puts the Sony's in first place for fit and security. If I'm working out, these are going to stay in my ears by far the best. In second place are the Bowers & Wilkins. If you look at the earbuds, they have kind of a non-replaceable wing tip, is what I would call it, a little tiny rubber piece that grabs the inside of your ear and helps them to stay in quite well. I'm giving the AZ100s a tie in second place. They have sort of a plastic geometry that does a very similar thing, and they also have like a nice little like design in the back that makes it easy to push into your ear and keep them secure without accidentally controlling the touch controls on them.
In fourth place, the Devialets do a decent job. Just like I said, regular fit, regular comfort, you know, they're solid. They're not going to fall out necessarily, but they don't have anything to really keep them extra secure. And then a big gap between those and the next two. The next two unfortunately fall out of my ears all the time. So, in second to last place, the AirPods Pro 2. The left one, in particular, always falls out of my ears. I know you can buy some like wing tips on Amazon, but then you can't close the case, so it's kind of a drawback there. Just they don't stay in my ears very well. Maybe my ears are weird. I mean, all ears are weird, but for me, that's the problem. And then the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras, really, really surprising. Despite having a wing tip on these, I can't like eat food or talk or like do any kind of workout without the left earbud again falling out of my ear almost immediately. And because you have such a large touchpad, you're always like adjusting it to get it back in. That's a big problem for me personally. That's probably the most subjective category in this video, but that kind of leans into the next category, which is the controls.
This is really important if you're wearing these earbuds and you don't want to always be taking your phone out to control the volume or the song or or anything like that, answering, rejecting phone calls. And so, these all have very different controls. In first place, in my opinion, are the AirPods Pro 2. They have several different ways you can control the earbud, so pinching and swiping. So, already two things, and I think pinching is better than the capacitive touch sensors that the rest of the earbuds have because if your hands are sweaty, if you're wearing gloves, if your hands are just too cold to register on the touch controls, then pinch is always going to be more reliable. Additionally, you have gestures, so you can nod or shake your head to answer and reject phone calls. You have Speak to Chat, so you can just start talking, it will turn your music down, turn on transparency, and you can have a conversation. Then when you're done, it turns your music back up. You have a mute button if you're on a conference call, but unfortunately, you can only customize the pinch and hold feature.
Now, I should mention, I have a three-way tie in first place here. Just depends on what you value. So, the Sony are also tied in first because you have more controls on them and more customization on them, but you don't have those pinch controls that I mentioned before. So, we do have gestures for nodding and shaking your head on the Sony's. We have Speak to Chat again, so you can just start talking. And I think Sony actually came out with this a couple years before Apple did, really a great feature. They've been nailing it for a while. You can tap either earbud once, twice, three times, four times, or tap and hold, and they have really nice feedback. So, you tap it, it gives you a nice little beep, so you know that you did tap it and it registered. And there's definitely more customization in the app for the Sony's.
And then I'm giving the third tie for first place here. Even though the controls themselves are not necessarily better for the AZ100s, you can tap once, twice, three times, or tap and hold. That's it. You don't have the Speak to Chat, you don't have the gestures or anything like that. But the customization is infinitely better. You can customize every single tap on each earbud for phone calls, for music playback, extreme customization. So, if you don't use one of the features, you just get rid of that tap feature and customize them infinitely.
Then next, which puts us down to fourth place, are the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras. They have swipe and tap, great for controlling volume and tapping, like I said, very large touchpad as well, so easy to control that. You can tap once, twice, three times, tap and hold, and there are some customizations. I believe you can only customize the tap and hold. And the reason I didn't put these any higher was because the tapping is very, very loud in your ears. The touchpad, something about the way it lines up, you tap it, and just, it really is loud in your ears.
In fifth place, then, are the PI8. Very, very little to customize. The app doesn't really have much in here, and you can tap it once, twice, three times, or tap and hold. And then last place are the Devialet Gemini 2s, just because you can only tap it once, twice, or tap and hold. There's really not much more you could do with these, and they are customizable, but not really that customizable in the app.
But, but of course, those are all like small details. Maybe you don't care that much about the touch controls, or maybe you don't care about the fit or the comfort or things like that. Something I would definitely matter to a lot of people, though, is going to be how good you sound on phone calls. If you can afford these premium earbuds, odds are you're going to be in some meetings from time to time or calling people, and you want to sound good on the call. You don't want somebody saying, "What kind of garbage earbuds are you listening to?" when you just spent $400 or $500 on those garbage earbuds. So, let's get into a microphone test indoors and outdoors to see how these compare.
This is an indoor microphone test in a studio environment using the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds. The Apple AirPods Pro 2 have always had excellent microphones, but we'll see how these actually compare to the others on this table. By the way, I can actually hear my voice very, very clearly on the transparency while I'm talking. That's a big benefit of these earbuds.
This is a microphone test with the Technics AZ100s. Again, these are all in a studio environment right now, so this should probably be as easy as it's going to get for all of these earbuds. And of course, these are the Sony WF-1000XM5s. By the way, WF-1000XM5 means Wireless Free. That's WF-1000 is just their premium lineup. Lower numbers are like their mid-tier and their budget lineup. And then XM, I don't know what XM means, but M5 means for the fifth, for Mark 5. These are the fifth generation of these earbuds. These are the Bowers & Wilkins PI8. Bowers & Wilkins were two guys that founded a company in England in the '60s. They made speakers, now they're making earbuds. I believe PI8 stands for either Personal In-Ear or Premium In-Ear, and then eight, these are just the eighth generation of these earbuds. And last but not least, the Devialet Gemini 2 earbuds. This is what the microphone sounds like. And by the way, of all the earbuds, a small quirk I noticed with these, these seem to take the longest to turn on. Like, you take them out, put them in your ears, you have to wait a beat until they actually turn on. But once they're on, they're great earbuds.
Let's start off with a sample of just the ambient noise. There's obviously some traffic behind me, some dump trucks. It's breezy out here. This is a tough environment for any earbud. Let's see how these compare. And of course, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds. These, I have to say, are incredibly comfortable and really easy to talk on the phone with. Like, I really don't hear this background sound. I don't feel like I have to talk loud at all. But how well does it sound on the other end of actually isolating my voice from loud sounds like that? Let me know in the comments below. Of course, I'll let you know in a second what my ranking is of all of these.
Now, the Apple AirPods Pro. These have long been one of the leaders in microphone quality. So, again, this is a tough environment, and it's been a couple years since these came out, so we'll see how these actually compare.
Now for the AZ100s, which is trapped to pick up. So, we get some extra noise back there. There we go. There's some noise. So, we'll see how this isolates my voice. By the way, I don't always do a full review of every pair of earbuds. There's just too many to do. So, I will a lot of times cover these in like short-form reviews on my Instagram and on TikTok. So, if you guys don't already follow me there, go over, check it out. Michael Bryan with two Ns, because one N was already taken. It's unfortunately a really common last name.
Now, the Sony WF-1000XM5s. Yeah, still clearly very windy out here, still some traffic behind me. These, I can hear my voice in, like, playing through the ears, but it's not super loud. So, on a phone call, you might be talking a little bit louder by default. The Bowers & Wilkins PI8 always seem like a little bit buggy to me. I know I updated them when I got them, but sometimes you can hear yourself better through the left ear than you can through the right, and that's the case right now. But, you know, we'll see how the microphones pick up my voice and play back on a phone call or a video like this.
All right, so this is the outdoor test with the Gemini 2s. There's some traffic behind me. It's definitely, as you can see with my hair moving around, definitely very breezy out here. So, we'll see how well they're able to block this background sound and pick up my voice.
Talking about the battery life for these, I'm not actually counting this as a category because they all have a solid enough battery life. I'm not listening to any earbuds more than six hours continuous without ever putting them back in the case, and they all have a similarish battery life. It's going to depend on how you use the ANC or transparency, things like that, you're going to get a different battery life. But I'll read through them what the claimed battery life is for all of them and then comment on my own experience.
So, the Gemini 2s are five hours in the earbuds, 22 with the case. I was getting slightly less than that when you have ANC on in the earbuds, but still respectable and decent battery life. Sony's are getting eight hours in the earbuds and 24 in the case when you have ANC on, which is honestly quite impressive. And without ANC, you're getting 12 hours in the earbuds instead of eight. So, if you need to use them for an entire day, maybe no ANC is going to get you through if you just, for some reason, can't put them back in the case. And by the way, pretty much all of these have some quick charge feature where a couple minutes gives you a couple hours of listening or something like that.
The Quiet Comfort Ultras give you six hours in the earbud and 24 in when you include the case, but slightly less if you turn on immersive mode, which is like your surround sound, 360 audio kind of experience there. The Bowers & Wilkins PI8 give you six and a half hours in the earbuds, 20 hours when you include the case. The Technics AZ100s claim 10 hours in the earbuds, 28 with the case, and I didn't actually see if they were calling that with or without ANC. The ANC is like very adjustable, 1 to 100, same thing with transparency, so you can really change the battery life a lot there. And then the AirPods, six hours in the earbuds and 30 hours with the case.
But finally, this is perhaps the most important category for premium earbuds: that is the sound quality. Which, yes, it is subjective, but I'm going to try to make this as objective as possible. Talk about what each pair does well, what they don't do well, how the EQ is, and what you need to know before buying any of these in terms of sound quality.
So, starting off in first place, this has a six-band equalizer and really great codecs as well for high resolution, as incredible bass. The Gemini 2s, they have a lot of control on that low end, abundant clarity, very crisp highs, a very wide soundstage, and a very open sound as well. And really, what I was most impressed by was the instrument separation and the detail. I think the only thing that I would like to maybe see improved, and it's very difficult to find things that these really need to improve, I'd say maybe they could be a little bit better in the mids. There were some songs where I felt like it was harder to hear the vocals, they felt like they were a little bit further back compared to the rest. But again, with the equalizer, you can maybe adjust that. Otherwise, like, just an incredible experience when listening to these earbuds.
In second place for sound quality, these have been getting a tough run through this video, but finally, this is their time to shine. The Bowers & Wilkins PI8 have fantastic sound quality. Later in the video, by the way, when we add up the scores, I'll talk about how I weighted it. Obviously, I'm weighting sound quality more than fit and comfort. But getting back to the sound quality for these earbuds, great sound quality. There may be like, very slightly harsh or a little overbearing on some high hats, slightly narrower soundstage compared to like the Geminis or the Technics, but very warm, bass-forward, like really nice, impressive sound quality in my opinion. They might be a little bit more consumer-focused and V-shaped, so more low-end, more high-end, like I said. But I think a lot of people listening to these would be very impressed just by the fidelity and the quality of these earbuds. They also have some pretty solid codecs as well for high-resolution audio, and I think overall, very deserving of a second place on this list.
In third place, the AZ100s. Some would argue that these should be higher on the list. They're definitely a little bit more bass-forward. Sub-bass seems to be boomy, but still pretty well controlled. Lower mids are tight and controlled as well. It could be slightly bloated, so something to me feels like, like a little bit off. It sounds like somewhere around around like, like the 2 to 250 Hz region just sounds like a little bit, a little bit off. Like, for example, if you listen to any guitar solo, any like Billy Strings, for example, listen to any of his stuff, and like that 250 Hz region just sounds slightly off to me. That's why these didn't get higher in this video. But otherwise, the vocals sound fantastic, incredible level of detail and clarity. The soundstage is incredibly wide on these, and the sound is just very, very open sounding. Instrument separation is superior to nearly all earbuds in the industry, with plenty of space between instruments and the sound. I have to say, is definitely noticeably different though with ANC on versus off. So, these solid, solid pair. I think some people might argue they should be higher, but for me, I'm putting them solidly at third place.
In fourth place, the Sony XM5s. They're definitely a little bit more bass-heavy, and they have less prominent highs. Like, anything above 5,000 Hz sounds a little bit less pronounced to me, which sometimes people would describe as more of a closed sound. So, slightly less perceived clarity on these. But Sony has some pretty big bass, some big sound, like maybe a tad aggressive unless you go into the EQ and switch like vocal mode or or manually adjust it. Or if you just, you know, depending on the genres you listen to, that might not bother you. But, you know, they are very capable earbuds. And like I said, in the EQ, which they have a five-band EQ, you're able to adjust it reasonably well. And, you know, they do have some good fidelity. They also use LDAC, which, by the way, of all the codecs, LDAC is is one that I believe Sony made. Now they allow everyone else to use it, and it's a very high fidelity or high-resolution codec, so it's quite good.
And then in fifth place, as is fairly common for Bose in these videos, they tend to be more consumer-oriented rather than like premium market-oriented. So, these tend to be a little bit too warm in my opinion, too bass-heavy. They do calibrate to your ears when you put them in, which is really cool. But just a lot of bass going on with these. It gives them like a nice warm, full sound if you're into that, but sometimes I think it's just too bassy, a little bit muddy. I ended up going into like, kind of lifting the treble to make it sound a little bit better to compensate for that. They also lack some detail. Even though they do have SBC, AAC, so those are lower resolution codecs, and aptX Adaptive. But many phones, unfortunately, like depending on what you're using, a lot of people are just not going to be able to use aptX Adaptive. So, I tried these on a number of different phones so I could use some aptX Adaptive on them. They have a lot of attack on snares, I thought that was kind of interesting. But generally, like summarizing them, warm, a lot of bass, which is typical of more consumer-oriented headphones and earbuds.
And speaking of consumer earbuds, nothing's more mass market than the AirPods Pro 2. They do sound pretty well-balanced, a pretty clean baseline on here. They have adaptive EQ, but no EQ in the app. They also only have SBC and AAC, so they're only lossless if you use the Vision Pro. If that's how you listen to music, then yeah, these are lossless. But if you're listening on an iPhone or anything else, you're kind of limited on your codecs there. They don't have the best instrument separation for noisier songs. The cymbals sound a little bit deemphasized to me. There's a decent soundstage, not nearly as wide as the others on this table. And although AirPods in the past were known for less bass, I have to say the newer model here is, you know, pretty accurate. They can handle some deeper baselines. They're just not going to be like the biggest, bassiest pair out there. Even though they're sixth place here, they don't sound bad in any way.
So, we have three more categories left. It's a long video, but these next three are going to make or break these earbuds in the final comparison here. The next one is features, then we have the app, and of course, we have the price.
Starting off with the features, this is my personal favorite for a pair of earbuds, really the icing on the cake that makes a good pair great. If they have a good app, if they have good features, that can make a big difference here. And in first place for features, I actually have to say the Bowers & Wilkins PI8. Even though they don't have a ton of features, they have one absolutely killer feature in my opinion, and that is the case acts as a transponder, essentially repeating whatever it's plugged into. So, what do I mean by that? You can plug your case into anything that you want to play audio from, and then it will transmit that to your earbuds. So, if you're on a plane, you're watching on like that little TV on the back of a seat, like you can't connect by Bluetooth on a lot of them. So, you plug in your case, and it connects to your earbuds, and now you have ANC earbuds with good quality rather than those little junky earbuds that they give you for free on the plane. It's an incredible feature. They also have Service Link in the app, I'll talk about in a second. They have multipoint connectivity, and they have Bluetooth 5.4, which is the newest of all the earbuds on this table.
In second place, Sony has a ton of features, and most of the features that other earbuds adopt, excluding the PI8 obviously, a lot of those features start off with Sony. Like Speak to Chat started from Sony, Adaptive Sound Control, a lot of these cool features that Sony does first. They have DSEE Extreme, which should up-scale some of the resolution on some lower quality tracks. Bluetooth 5.3, multipoint connectivity. They have Service Link, which allows you to connect to, you know, like Tile or Spotify or Amazon Music, different platforms like that. An Adaptive Sound Control, which changes the settings based on what you're doing. If you're walking or riding a bus or whatever, it'll change your settings based on how you have that saved.
But for features, I do have a three-way tie in second place. I hate giving out ties, but this one with features, like, it just depends on what you value. So, another version of second place would be the AirPods Pro 2, which have some really great things, especially if you're hard of hearing. So, they have their hearing aid suite, which one can amplify and like literally act like hearing aids. And from what I've seen, people try, like, people who have hearing impairments, they say these actually do a very impressive job. They're very affordable and they're very accessible for a lot of people to get them without having to go to a doctor and get a prescription. Apple also has a hearing test to let you know if you have hearing impairments, and then of course, you could use these and see what the difference actually is. There is hearing protection features on your transparency mode that limits the pass-through. So, I was recently at a wedding, and the bartender had AirPods in. And at first, I was like, "Wow, how rude, this guy's AirPods in." But then I realized it was really loud in there. He was in the same room as the DJ, and what he was actually doing was just limiting the volume of everything, but he could still hear whoever was ordering in front of him. Very impressive feature that really only earbuds can do right now. They also have that seamless Apple switching, but they don't have multipoint with any non-Apple devices. Siri is native on here. They have personalized volume, they have conversation awareness, similar to what I said Sony has. And of all the earbuds, these actually wake up the fastest when you take them out and put them in your ears. They're just on right away.
And then the third one that's tied in second place, again, really depending on what kind of features you want, are the AZ100s. These have Bluetooth 5.3, and really the big benefit here is that they have three-way multipoint connectivity. So, everything else just has like one or two, maybe. These can connect to an iPhone, an Android phone, and a Windows laptop, or your TV, your phone, your laptop, whatever. They can connect to three things. And you have so much customization in the app for transparency, for ANC, for multipoint connectivity. You can also do call quality for the other end of the phone call if somebody's calling you and they're in a noisy place. And even though they don't have Speak to Chat, they have something that is perhaps even better, which is one-touch conversation, which basically is the same thing, but, you know, using touch controls instead of that.
So, those are the three that I would call second place. Then jumping down to the next one, then that's three. So, fifth place is going to be the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultras. They just don't have a ton of features on here. They have their different modes, so you can have like running mode or immersive mode or quiet mode, and that's going to change a couple settings, and you can tap through that. But otherwise, they don't have multipoint. They kind of almost have multipoint in the app. You can switch what they're connected to, but it's not going to be automatic.
And in last place, with only Bluetooth 5.3, kind of an outdated Bluetooth, the Devialet Gemini 2s. They do have multipoint, they do have mono mode, they have all the basic stuff you'd expect, but nothing special, nothing unique or interesting about the features on these. They just, they work, and it's okay.
Okay, so starting off in last place for the app, without a doubt, the Bowers & Wilkins app is just absolutely terrible. I like the earbuds, they're great earbuds, but like, I don't know who designed this app. On the bottom, maybe you'll like this, it's kind of like a, it's meant to act like a media player. So, it's connected to Tidal for me right now. I would rather just use Tidal. I don't want to see all this. The only quick settings I have for the earbuds are going to be switching between pass-through, noise cancellation, which doesn't even work on Android. If I use my iPhone, it's able to switch, but on Android, actually worked that time. In the past, like, it just, many times it doesn't work, and now it suddenly does. Very, very buggy. And if you want to change anything about the earbuds, watch how many taps it takes. So, you have to go down to settings, then you have to tap on your earbuds, then you get the same three settings before you could go on, off, or transparency. And then if you want to change, like, literally anything, you have to scroll down and go into, maybe like, touch controls. You can change that, and there's only two options for touch controls. You've got your wear sensor and you have an advanced five-band EQ. Otherwise, nothing you could really change about these earbuds. So, the app, I think, is not only fairly buggy, but also just very non-functional. Doesn't really do anything that is useful to me.
So, in fifth place, then, this isn't necessarily a bad app, just not great. This is the Gemini 2 app. I don't know why they have such a giant space here just for one little picture of the earbuds. You can see the battery level, and again, the only quick setting we have is ANC or transparency on the very bottom there. Aside from that, if we tap on the top right, we get some settings, and there are some nice settings in here. You can adjust the touch controls, single, double tap for either left or right earbud. We've got the equalizer, we've got the stereo balance. You can do a lot in here, just nothing super special. And the app, I think, could be better designed.
In fourth place are the AirPods Pro, which don't even have an app. But if you're using an iPhone, which you pretty much have to with those AirPods, you can actually go into your settings, and they're just built into the settings, which I think is quite convenient. There's some basic things you can change, not a ton within there, but, you know, it's kind of still, in my opinion, better than the other two apps I just mentioned because it is baked into the settings, which is very convenient.
So, then we have the Bose app, which I think is very usable. I like this a lot. So, we have, of course, the earbuds on the top. We've got the battery level there, the volume level here. We can adjust the modes. You can create your own mode as well. So, I made like the running mode, for example, which you can choose the ANC and if you want to have immersive on or off. We can also have some shortcuts, so just controlling the touch and hold, like I mentioned before, for the left and the right. We could choose the source. This is what I mentioned before, where it's not really true multipoint, but you can, you know, force it into another device. So, if you're on your phone and you're like, "Come on, like, connect to my laptop," I want you to connect to my laptop, you just hit this, and it'll switch over to your laptop on its own. And if we tap on the gear on the top right, you can do an earbud seal test, you can find your perfect fit, you can control the connections. There's, you know, different settings you can do, EQ in there, for example, and stuff like that.
And in second place, we're getting there. This is almost the best. The Sony app does a lot, and actually just changed this to the Sound Connect app, I believe is what they're calling it right now. So, this, you have some easy settings right there. You've got your equalizer there, Adaptive Sound Control. And I think you can actually customize, yeah, you can edit the layout of this if you want different things to be your quick settings. And, you know, there's so many deep settings in here. If I tap on device settings on the bottom, it brings me into kind of the old layout you might be familiar with if you used older Sony headphones or earbuds. You've got all these different settings in here, system, you've got services, like I said, you can connect to Amazon Prime, you can connect to Spotify, you can, you know, do a lot of settings in here. The app is still kind of changing.
I think the new layout is much cleaner, and I'm sure in the future they're going to migrate that older layout into the new one. But at least right now, it already looks pretty solid. It even tells you what codec you're using right there.
And then we have the A100s, by far the best app in my opinion. Feels a lot like the Jabra app, and you can see we have on the front, just like noise cancelling. We can change our EQ, we can do like a focus test, a voice focus test, um, the user guide. And if you tap on that, they tell you like recommended settings. They even walk you through how to set up, like if you really want to use all the OneTouch conversation mode I mentioned before, it'll tell you how to do that. Uh, you can, you know, kind of browse through all these different things. And, you know, even though it's easy to set up, there we have four tabs on the bottom. Your ambient tab, super customizable for, you know, how much noise cancellation you want. Same thing with ambient sound, you can customize this, choose if it's going to be, uh, transparent or, you know, focused on a voice. And if it's transparent, again, super customizable there. Your EQ over here, which, by the way, is an eight-band EQ. And then some other settings for the earbuds. Overall, like if you're making an earbuds app, make it like this. This is a really good app. I like this a lot.
Finally, the prices. Now, prices change a lot, so I'm talking about the latest price from the company's websites that are listed right now at the time of making this video. In last place, the DVLA Gemini 2, $500, $499 for these super expensive. I bought these on Amazon for $4.99, so certainly no cheap pair of earbuds. Then in fifth place, the Bowers and Wilkins. Pretty good sale though. They're $3.99, but right now they're on sale for $319. So they're very competitive with the other ones, which are about $300ish dollars, but still, you know, that that does put them in fifth place here.
Then we jump up to a tie in third place at $299, the Sony WF1000X Mark 5s and the A100s. I think, you know, that's certainly no cheap pair of earbuds, but that's kind of what you would expect for premium earbuds to be around that $300 price. After that, we've got the AirPods Pro at $249. They've always been that. You'll probably never see a sale. Apple just has a price and that's the price for their products for years. Even when they make a new one, they don't really change the old price, but that's the price for the AirPods. And then the best price here, which is also a really significant discount, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds. These were $299 at launch, now they're $219. So $219, definitely the cheapest out of all of them.
But adding up all those scores, and again, we're doing this like a golf score, so everything added up, uh, you want the lowest score, meaning you came in first place the most and sixth place the least. And I'm actually doing a weighted score here, so I'll show the scores of everything on screen, uh, throughout this video. You can add them any way you would like, but I'm adding the sound twice and I'm adding the ANC twice, the two features I think should have a double that are most important.
So in last place, we have the Gemini 2. Solid pair of earbuds, fantastic sound quality, but they came in last place because the competition so stiff in terms of ANC, in terms of controls, in terms of features, and obviously the price and the app are two things that really put this one behind. But if you only care about sound quality, these absolutely deliver.
Then in fifth place with 54 points, we have the Bowers and Wilkins PI8. Great features, great sound on these, but again, they fell behind in a couple key features like ANC, which I had a double weight on, which kind of pushed these a little bit lower on this ranking.
In fourth place, the king of ANC with the best price here, the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds. For me, they fell behind in fit. Uh, they kind of fell out of my ears a little bit. The design kind of a little bit bulkier, but otherwise, like, really a solid pair of earbuds that, you know, considering the price, they're a really good premium pair of earbuds. They're more consumer-focused, I think we saw that with the sound quality and a lot of the features on here, but nonetheless, very deserving of fourth place on this list.
In third place, the A100s. Super solid. These were never fifth or sixth out of all the earbuds. I think these are the only ones that never came in fifth or sixth, so just a really solid across-the-board pair. Uh, really did a great job with their app, did a great job with their features. The controls I thought were the best, great fit, great comfort, just a very solid, recommendable pair of earbuds.
In second place, many people may be surprised that the AirPods Pro 2 are here, and you might say, oh, you're a fanboy. I'm not. I was literally like, I'm using a Samsung phone right now, not a fanboy, just calling it how it is. These, I think it's kind of undeniable, were really good in terms of transparency mode, microphones, their compact design, the controls being a pinch control and different things like that. They did not come in first. Actually, they came in last in terms of sound quality, but other than that, they did a pretty good job across the board. So they had 37 points.
And then in first place, this is my recommendation for the best pair of premium Bluetooth earbuds, the Sony WF1000X Mark Fives. These did a fantastic job in so many categories, typically coming in first or second for ANC, uh, for fit, for comfort, for controls, for features, for app, and even the price is pretty competitive there as well.
But that is my ranking for the best Bluetooth earbuds. I actually did not expect that outcome at all. I didn't add them up until right before the end here, so thanks for watching the video. This was a long time to hang out with me. I really appreciate it, but obviously, leave a comment, let me know what you think. Add these scores up however you want, give different weights to different categories, and let me know what you would call the best Bluetooth earbuds. Thanks for watching. I'm Mike O'Brien, and I'll see you in the next video.