- The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX
are the latest drop from B&O.
Now we got a lot of talk about here,
so let's just jump straight into it.
So first of all, let's talk about that Bluetooth connection.
So they are featuring Bluetooth 5.2 with SBC AAC
and Aptex adaptive as the connection codex.
Now, when it comes to Bluetooth range,
I got about 34 feet or just around 10.3 meters.
In addition to this,
you also get single usage mode with the Beoplay EX.
Now, unfortunately you don't get active noise cancellation
or transparency mode when using them independently.
And that brings us over to
one of the more important features
that I'm excited about here,
and that's the multipoint connectivity.
Now, multipoint connection with these,
you can actually connect the Beoplay EX
to two separate devices at the same time.
In my own testing,
I was using them with my Xiaomi Mi 11 light,
and they were also paired to my iPad Pro.
The connection was smooth and stable
and I was able to use my app
on either device to control the earbuds.
Overall, it's been a really good experience.
Now moving over to latency,
when watching video, there was little to no lag
or latency to be experienced,
whether YouTube videos or Netflix or Disney Plus,
whichever service you're using, it was not an issue.
Now when it comes to casual mobile gaming,
not really a problem,
you can definitely use these for your regular games,
like Asphalt 9 or things of that nature,
but if you're gonna play
any sort of competitive shooting games,
then you're probably gonna wanna look elsewhere
because the do not have a low latency or gaming mode.
So now that's gonna bring us over
to the battery life of the Beoplay EX.
So they were claiming six hours of noise cancellation
turned on and eight hours with noise cancellation turned off
with an additional three charges in the charging case.
Now in my own testing, I managed to get five hours
and three minutes with noise cancellation turned on,
and then I managed to seven hours and 37 minutes
with noise cancellation turned off.
In addition to this,
the Beoplay EX are also featuring a fast charge option
where you can drop these earbuds
back into their case for 20 minutes,
and that's gonna give you an additional hour and 45 minutes
worth of playback time.
When it comes to recharging the case itself,
that does charge via USB type C
and they also feature wireless charging.
So you have both options here.
Now the case itself is slightly wider
and thicker than that of their previous version,
the Beoplay EQ.
But it still has that high end feel fit and finish,
it's not cheap or plasticy.
it feels like you're getting something
that is built very, very well.
So that's gonna bring this over
to one of the most important questions
that I get asked about any set of earbuds
and that's how comfortable they are.
So for me, my experience with the Beoplay EX
is that the comfort is excellent
and they fit my large ears perfectly.
If you're wondering,
these are actually less bulky than the previous version,
the Beoplay EQ and they fit my ears better.
Now, I haven't experienced any fatigue
or discomfort over the past few days of using these
and I'm still using the large silicone tips
for a proper seal.
Thankfully B&O also included
a set of complied foam tips in the box
if foam tips are your jam.
Overall, the grip is excellent.
And I haven't experienced any slippage while walking,
eating, or working on my day to day stuff here.
The combo of their grip and the IP57 rating
make these a good option
for people looking for some workout earbuds.
Now, when it comes to sleep, the Beoplay EX
can work well for back sleepers
but side sleep is probably gonna be a no go
if those stems bother you.
And then last but not least,
when it comes to body born noises,
these are no better or worse
than most other Truewell earbuds on the market.
You can hear your own footsteps and breathing
because they do isolate quite well,
but it's only bothersome if you're gonna be walking around
while not listening to music.
So now let's talk about how you control the Beoplay EX
and they offer you full touch controls here,
so you get single, double tap, triple tap
and a tap and hold or long press,
however you wanna call it.
Now, the touch controls are highly responsive
and they're very easy to locate.
Unfortunately, the controls of the Beoplay EX
are not customizable via the app.
I'll expand a little more on this later in the video.
Now, speaking of the B&O app,
it is available for both iOS and Android devices.
So when you first open up the app,
you're gonna get greeted with the battery life,
and then you get your music controls, play, pause,
skip track, volume, things of that nature.
Moving below that,
you get your ANC and transparency controls
with their associated sliders.
Below this, you have a toggle
for the adaptive active noise cancellation.
Now below this, you also have your listening modes
which is your EQ presets,
along with any customs that you've set up for yourself.
Below that, you have your call settings,
and this is where you can make adjustments
between own voice, neutral
and noise cancellation for your phone calls.
Below that, you have a toggle for the auto standby.
And then last but not least, if you need a firmware update,
the app will prompt you accordingly.
I actually had a firmware update
as soon as I pulled mine out of the box.
Unfortunately, that firmware update
took like 45 minutes to complete,
but I got it done and they're working perfectly.
But before we get into the actual performance
of the Beoplay EX,
if you've gotten any value out of this video so far,
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So let's move over to the active noise cancellation.
The Beoplay EX are giving you solid ANC performance
but unfortunately it's not up to par with
what you're getting from Sony or Bose.
However, they can be improved
by using the included comply foam tips.
These memory foam tips
add additional passive noise isolation,
which works well in combination with the ANC.
Overall, the ANC works well against steady
and low mid frequency noises
like machines, engines and things of that nature.
And there are three levels of adjustments,
so you can dial in a comfortable amount
of active noise cancellation.
And that brings us over to the adaptive ANC,
which is available, but in my instance,
it doesn't seem to be working properly.
Now to be fair, it could be that maybe mine are messed up,
I'm not sure, but let me break it down for you.
So I tested it with both crowd noise
and jet engine noise at various volume levels.
I never felt any increase or decrease in ANC strength,
the way that you can feel it
when you're using the ANC strength slider.
Now, when I test this type of a feature,
adaptive noise cancellation
on the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro,
or say like the OnePlus Buds Pro,
you can feel the active noise cancellation
ramping up and down,
and the difference in ambient noise reduction is noticeable.
So B&O might have been aiming for a more subtle approach,
but this ain't it, bro.
If I can't feel or hear the difference,
then it might does will not even be working.
Now I know sometimes that could sound a little harsh,
but I'm just trying to keep it real with you,
and if BNO watches this video,
I definitely want them to hear that feedback.
Now let's move over to the transparency mode.
Now they have a natural sounding transparency mode,
it's not overly processed,
things sound normal the way that you would hear it.
There are three levels of adjustment.
So you can dial in to the exact amount that you want.
The difference between the three levels
is subtle but noticeable.
So it goes from a full transparency
to a more voice focus mode where it reduces ambient sounds.
What I would like
is the slider to actually raise the volume up and down,
that would've been a little bit better in my opinion,
but it's nice that we have some sort of adjustment here.
Now that's bring us over to the volume of the Beoplay EX.
And in my testing,
I managed to get a 112.3 DB peak volume on these earbuds.
So definitely more than loud enough for most people.
Common listening for me is right around 55% to 75%
if I wanna jam out with my music,
probably a little bit less
if I'm just gonna be listening to a podcast
or an audio book of some sort.
With that outta the way,
that's gonna bring us over to the sound quality.
And this is where the Beoplay EX truly shine.
The sound quality and clarity here are excellent.
Now testing was done with the factory optimal EQ applied.
So let's break it down.
First up, let's talk about the bass.
Now, the bass is well executed here.
There's enough weight and punch
to satisfy all my bass heads out there, bass head crew,
but controlled at the same time.
And it can be dialed up or down as needed.
So it hits hard
and it gives you that sub bass rumble, if you want it.
Now, one of the test tracks that I used
was "Me and You" by Cassie.
Now, no timestamp, just go ahead and let the song ride.
Now let's move over to the midrange.
The midrange is warm and rich with the Beoplay EX.
I wouldn't call the sound mid forward,
but it's also not recessed.
There's depth to the sound here.
The vocals come in clear and natural,
they never get muddied by the instrumentation of a band.
One of the test tracks that I used was a song
called "Sabor A Mi" by El Chicano.
This is some old school fire
that some of you young bucks might not be familiar with,
but I highly recommend it.
The vibe and the warmth of the sound is just unbelievable,
and it really highlights the midrange of the Beoplay EX.
And then that's gonna bring us over to the treble.
So the be play ex have a smooth treble delivery,
there's no harshness, there's no sibilance,
there's enough power to give weight to the strings
and symbols without overpowering the rest of the music.
There's good sound stage here as well
with above average imaging and separation
in my personal opinion.
Now there is an airiness
and an openness to the sound as well
that I was not expecting.
And one of the test tracks that I used to test this out
was "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black" by Donny Hathaway.
Now, once again, there's no timestamp needed,
his voice with the band and the organ in the mix
is absolutely soul stirring.
I got the chills listening to it with the Beoplay EX.
So do yourself a favor and add this song to your playlist
if you haven't already.
Now moving over to the EQ.
Now, EQ is a simple affair with the Beoplay EX.
They use a circular interface as opposed to a graphic EQ.
It's easy to use and they respond well to the adjustments
based on what sound you personally prefer.
You can also save multiple presets if that's your jam.
I created one I call Crisp
which you can see here on the screen
if you want to try it for yourself.
Now, if I had to give Bang & Olufsen
some constructive criticism here with these earbuds.
So first of all,
the fact that there's no active noise cancellation
or transparency abilities when in single usage mode,
I'd love to see that
'cause some people do use single usage mode
and would like to have that ambient mode turned on.
Secondly,
the fact that there's no low latency or gaming mode.
Now mind you, they do have aptX Adaptive,
but still, it'd be nice to see a dedicated mode
for people who wanna play first person shooting games.
On top of this,
the fact that there are no customizable touch controls,
we have an app.
Why don't we have customizable tap controls here?
Let me adjust these to the ability that I want.
I wanna set things up the way that I wanna have 'em set up.
So it'd be something that I think
is like low hanging fruit for them to put into their app.
And then last but not least,
it's gonna be the elephant in the room,
which is the price tag.
These come in at 399 US
and that is a tough pill to swallow for most.
Obviously everyone's budget and finances are different,
and fans of B&O products probably wouldn't even bat an eye
at this price tag, but considering the current competition,
it's tough to justify the price.
For me personally, I think that 250 to 300 bucks
is where I would draw the line,
considering that's where Sennheiser, Bose, Sony
and many of their competitors,
that's right where they're sitting.
So now let's get into the comparisons,
and for this competition against the Beoplay EX,
we've got the Sony WF-1000XM4,
the Bose quiet comfort earbuds,
the techniques AZ60 and the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro.
All right, so first let's start with the ANC rankings.
So in first place, we've got Bose,
second place, we've got Sony,
third place, we've got Technics,
fourth place, we've got Soundcore,
and fifth place, we've got B&O.
Now this is where both Bose and Sony truly shine.
The ANC strength they offer is tough to beat,
and it's a noticeable difference
between those and the Beoplay EX.
But if I had to choose a winner,
the Bose still edge out Sony
for sheer noise cancellation power.
Now moving over to the transparency mode.
In the first place, we've got Sony,
second place, we've got Bose,
third place, we've got B&O,
fourth place, we've got Soundcore,
and fifth place, we've got Technics.
Now Sony takes a win here
for having the most natural sounding transparency mode
out of the bunch.
To be clear, none of these do a bad job of this.
All are very good to excellent, but a win is a win.
So that's gonna bring us over to the volume rankings.
In first place,
we've got the Bose coming in at 115dB,
in second place, we've got the B&O's coming in at 112.3dB,
in third place, we've got Soundcore with 111dB,
in fourth place, we've got Technics with 108dB,
and in fifth place, we've got Sony with 104dB.
Now I believe these measurements speak for themselves here
so let's go ahead and move on.
And that's gonna bring us to the sound quality ranking,
in first place,
we've got the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX,
second place, we've got Soundcore,
in third place, we've got Technics,
in fourth place, we've got Bose,
and in fifth place, we've got Sony.
I know that some
of the Sony fan boys will be angered by these rankings,
and I wanna make one thing very clear to you,
fifth place doesn't make them bad,
it's just that the other four in this comparison
sound better to my ears with, or without EQ.
That said, the Beoplay EX truly came through
with excellent tuning and presentation
that brought some of my favorite tracks to life.
It was a tough comparison between these five,
but the Beoplay Ex needed less work than the sound cores
and the others to sound great.
So the winner was clear.
So now let's move over to some mic quality samples,
but first let me preface this by saying
that these samples were recorded while using the Beoplay EX
in their own voice mode,
this mode captures and adjust the volume of your voice
while also removing background noises.
So let's test this out.
All right, so here we have the mic sample for the Beoplay EX
but we're gonna do this a little bit differently.
Read off one of my favorite lines
from one of my favorite movies,
choose a sword and you'll join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose a sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and you join your are in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose the sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose the sword and you join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose the sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose this sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose the sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose the sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death
Choose a sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and you join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
Choose a sword and you will join me,
choose the ball and join your mother in death.
You don't understand my words, but you must choose.
So come boy, choose life or death.
As always,
you're gonna have to be the judge of the microphone
quality of all these ear buds, that in the comment section.
All right, so with all of that outta the way,
the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX
were purchased by me with my own money for this review.
There was no monetary compensation involved
and Bang & Olufsen were not afforded any copy approval
or early access to this video prior to it being published.
I'm telling you this
because I believe in honesty and transparency
with you as the viewer.
As always please be sure to watch multiple reviews
before making that final purchase decision.
Now, if you're interested in hearing my thoughts
about either the Technics or the Sony's,
check out the videos that I'm gonna leave for you
right up here on the screen.
With that said my name is Hefe and I'm out this bitch.