you know that i'm a huge fan of wireless headphones and the new link bud in-ear
headphones from sony are just weird enough that i had to try them but are they any good
the leaf bud is sony's latest truly wireless earbud style headphones not to be confused with
the costlier and more feature packed 1000xm4 earbuds the linkbud is aimed at a slightly
less demanding listener now what makes the link bud undoubtedly unique is its physical design
i can't think of a single earbud that looks like the sony the sony's hollow ring design is unique
in that no part of the bud penetrates your ear canal the ring shape allows for music to flow
down into the ear canal while also allowing for outside noise to be heard albeit
to a lesser degree needless to say these are not active noise cancelling headphones
though they do a surprisingly good job balancing your music phone calls or video content you know
the things you want to hear with outside ambient noise these are ipx4 splash or sweatproof meaning
you can wear them to the gym or out and about on a warm day they have a reported battery life of
five and a half hours on their own though they can charge inside their included carrying case
giving you up to 17 and a half hours of play time before needing to be properly charged
using a wall outlet an initial setup of the link buds is handled inside the free sony headphone
connect app which is the exact same app i used to set up my reference xm4 over the year active noise
cancelling headphones if you are an existing sony headphone customer or you're familiar with the app
and sony's setup and tuning process initializing a set of link buds will be second nature
if you're new to sony headphones getting started with a set of link buds will not
be the same plug and play experience you may be used to from other in-ears like apple's newest
airpods can i just say that i love the app true it can sometimes come off as a little tedious at
times but once you get through the initial setup which includes taking pictures of your ears yeah
yeah i know that the app asks for ear picks it's important to note that once you go through the
initial setup procedure you'll never have to do it again meaning that every time you take your link
buds out of their case and place them in your ear they will automatically connect or sync to
whatever device you've paired them with which in my case was an apple iphone as well as a brand new
m1 macbook pro now within the app you're able to take advantage of sony exclusive features like 360
degree reality audio which works in conjunction with tidal which we're going to talk about in
a minute spotify users can set up quick access to spotify streaming services as well as a host
of other services most of which have to do with adaptive sound leveling location-based services as
well as call settings for me the real perk of the sony headphone app is its ability to essentially
tune them to your personal tastes using the multi-band eq and clear bass functionality
so let's talk about the link buds sound out of the box and in your ears with zero adjustment i
doubt many will be outright just blown away by the sony sound now i'm not saying that the link
buds are bad just that they're kind of what you should expect from an earbud at this price point
detailed upper mid-range and treble focused with minimal base depth or palpable impact in
sticking with the out-of-the-box settings the link buds they're not fatiguing or harsh but
they're not what i would call neutral or balanced as they definitely favor
the top end of the sonic spectrum over the bottom octaves as a result dialogue vocals
higher pitched sounds they come across as very clear but low mid bass and bass just in general
is pretty unremarkable dynamics are good especially up top where the link buds shine
though at louder volumes it's not difficult to get the sonys to bottom out and i have to say
the distortion characteristics of this earbud is rather unique first base will hit with a
distinct kind of garble thwack but as bass goes so does the treble and with it you're going to
experience a new found graininess when you reach the limit of the link bud's capability and a great
way to hear what i am talking about would be to play the cover of heartless by chris allen
now this is not a well-recorded track at least in my opinion and at louder volumes it can wreak
havoc on headphones even good ones and i'm sorry to say that under spirited listening conditions
with the link buds in their default settings they went ugly early those of you who like to listen
loud to hard driving rock may want to consider another headphone for the more compressed the
track the greater the possibility that you're going to be let down by the link buds but like
with a lot of sony headphones the link buds get better the more you adjust them to your liking
inside the app engaging or increasing sony's clear base functionality brings a bit of needed weight
and dimension to the link buds not so much to the base department mind you i'm afraid the sony's
always come across as somewhat light but the clear bass does enrich the low mid bass and mid-range
both of which are welcome the default setting is zero but i actually found that increasing the
boost to anywhere between plus six on up to eight resulted in a far more balanced but still not
entirely neutral sound from there selecting one of the app's eq presets will continue to change the
link buds overall character the only way to hear each eq setting as set by the factory would be to
leave the clear base in its stock configuration which for me wasn't my favorite so i created a
custom curve with a bit of boost added for good measure with my eq curve now resembling a mild
two peak mountain range with subtle rises in both the base and mid range i was able to get the link
buds to a place where i felt they were enjoyable for a wider range of source material sounding
far more balanced as a result i'm not going to call them neutral i wasn't able to really coax
real weighty bass from these weird earbuds but from about the low mid-range on up to the treble
they can and do get better on well-recorded tracks featuring either singer songwriters like
amos lee or with not two bass heavy electronica from like royce stops melody am the link buds
were impressive given their design if you're the type to focus on dialogue and or vocals especially
multi-part harmonies the link buds are bound to impress listening to the ballad hush hush
by avril lavigne her backing vocals were among the clearest i've heard from a pair of in-ears
but all that said there is still a limitation to the link bud's overall dynamic capability where
i would classify them as being good but not great but for those of you who don't listen loud or need
an in-ear to act or sound like a close-back pair of cans the link buds start to enter respectable
territory when adjusted correctly where i found they were at their absolute best however was in
total long-term comfort this is an easy pair of in-ears to wear for long periods of time and maybe
even forget about they fit securely in your ear and don't really move as you go about your day
i did several long walks with our dog katie going up and down the hills near our home and the sony's
never once fell out or gave me any indication that they were shaking loose additionally i felt
call quality was great far cleaner than through my iphone's own speaker and receiver and this
is something even the people i was speaking to noticed on the other end of the line those of you
spending a lot of time on conference calls or zoom meetings you may want to check out the link buds
if for no other reason than for the strength of their dialogue clarity in virtually any eq setting
now the link buds are unique but they're far from perfect like i've said throughout this review if
you like bass or enjoy blowing out your eardrums these are not the headphones for you let me repeat
that if you like deep rich palpable bass or you simply have to play music at full tilt all the
time do not spend your money on the link buds or if you do don't complain to me when you find
that they're light in the base and distort pretty heavily at higher volumes now sony advertises five
and a half hours of real-world battery life with the link buds and while that was plenty for me
in my day-to-day use comparatively it's a little lukewarm considering what competing in ears give
you nowadays additionally the gesture based controls you know where you tap on your temple
in order to play pause track skip you know stuff like that it doesn't really work okay it works
sometimes but you have to be pretty precise with your movements and placement of taps
if you were jogging or working out i seriously doubt you'd get it right the majority of the
time hell just walking around the house i couldn't execute a simple play pause with 100
precision lastly and this is more of a note about sony than an outright critique of the link buds
but 360 degree reality audio just does not sound right sure there's perhaps a greater sense of
space i guess but it it isn't the kind of space that sounds natural instead it just makes every
pair of headphones that i have sound like a pair of tin cans that i'm now pumping sound into sorry
but there's just no other way to put it it's just not very good as intrigued as i am by the link
buds when you start to compare them directly to other similarly priced earbuds like apple's newest
non-noise cancelling air pods you start to see where and how they come up short for starters the
latest generation of airpods cost about the same as the link buds and for your money you're just
getting a far more turnkey product in that they just work and they sound great out of the box now
true airpods are more of an in-ear design whereas link buds sort of hang out just outside the ear
canal but let's let's be real these two products are going to be cross shopped and the airpods are
better hands down it's not even a contest for starters you only have to play about
say a half a second of any song to realize the airpods have bass and i mean loads of it they
almost have too much at times coming across as maybe even a little bass heavy or boomy compared
to the link buds thankfully you can adjust the eq inside your phone your tablet or computer and curb
some of the bass but it's better to have bass and be able to turn it down versus never being able
to achieve it which is more the case with the sonys the airpods resulting sound comes across
as just more balanced they also don't distort as heavily when listening at loud levels and and then
of course should you already be an apple customer they easily work with your existing apple products
without a great deal of fuss and it's the same story when comparing link buds to sennheiser's
cx line of in-ears i mean for about half the price the sennheisers get an automatic recommendation
for me because they're just stupid good plus they feature largely the same level of customization
you get with the sony app and i think it's kind of the same story when it comes to the
clips t52 in-ear headphones though they are active noise cancelling and a bit more expensive though
that's going to depend when or where you purchase them i haven't formulated my final thoughts on the
t5s so i don't want to make a definitive judgment good or bad with respect to choosing them over the
sony but what i can say is this like airpods and cx in ears from sennheiser's the t5s have bass
so where does that leave us with the link buds well honestly i still really like them but i'm
not about to say that they're great or even among the top contenders at or near their price point
what i love about them is their all-day wearability and the way they sound when speaking
with someone on the phone as far as sound goes they can be adjusted or made to sound good but for
some listeners i doubt there'll ever be an ideal all-rounder if you don't like or need a lot of
bass and you value clarity and detail in the upper mids and highs then definitely check out the link
buds but if this doesn't sound like you i would steer you towards potentially better solutions
in apple's latest air pods or some in-ears from sennheiser so that's it that is now my take on
sony's brand new link bud in ear headphones but i suspect christy has a few thoughts i do okay bear
with me i mean i feel like it's been a million years since we've done a proper review yeah so
i'm probably going to be a little bit rusty um okay i think first i want to talk about the
apple air pods before i get into what my thoughts about the sony link buds
now just just to get it out of the out of the way what do i think is better out of all the
ones you've mentioned so far i think the apple air pods the these new ones that we just got
hands down better out of all the ones we've mentioned now the the problem for me is that
i just cannot wear them that long um i think it has something to do with the fact that they are
made of a rigid material and i've always had issues with that and i'm sure there's a lot
of people out there that have the same issue or same problem just everybody's ear is different so
comfort to me is going to be a huge factor because if i can't stand to wear them really
doesn't matter how good they are exactly but they are they are they sat the sound
of the airpods is exceptional i completely agree with your assessment
the apple airpods had a fuller sound definitely deeper bass they're really good i mean it it like
you said it only takes a handful of seconds of a track playing just be like yep we're
done here yeah it's yeah they're they're they're really good because i've mentioned them in past
videos i wanted to throw these out there and that's the cambridge melon mello it's the dumbest
name i'm sorry cambridge melo mania touch they're another pair of wireless earbuds they're they've
been out for a year or so but i have somewhere around there and i have always really liked them
and recommended them over most other 10 years that we've had having a side-by-side comparison
oh man i was like wow these these are definitely the weakest in the bunch in terms of sound they
are so comfortable though um so i give them points for that um but the the sony and the airpods
are way more balanced and have better clarity they're just night and day night and day better
yeah i i have yet to experience a pair of in-ears that just almost instantaneously impressed me the
way the new airpods have just whoa yeah i i would agree so i just i guess they make a um there's a
pair that are a little more expensive because we talked about that because i was like you know i
wish these had the the silicon um the silicone like eared yeah you know what are they like yeah
the the actual ear cups yeah that sit there and fit more comfortably yeah those i tend to
like better so but i think they're like 100 more 249 or 279 i can't remember but uh maybe we'll
review those and compare them to the air pods because this is kind of turned into an airpod love
fest yeah unintentionally unintentionally but yeah they're just really good and for the same money
unless you're super sensitive and can't have things in your ears
um or you need to be in them all day you need to be in a headphone all day um then i would get the
sony yeah i would i would i would get sony over airpods but if you're like no sound quality man
airpods all right guys well that is now our review of the sony a link buds in-ear headphone what did
you guys think let us know and my question of the day for you it's pretty simple and that is
i know we don't review a lot of headphones on this channel so i am curious if you would like to see
more headphone reviews specifically would you like us to review the apple airpod line sound off let
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follow me on instagram at recovering audiophile and that is it for us today still moving in but
we're getting back into the groove so remember the only person who has to like the sound of
your system is you so happy listening everybody thank you so much for watching and bearing with us
and we're going to see you on the next video bye
you