I’ve never seen headphones work with outside apps because the app is basically controls that should’ve appeared as buttons on the headphone itself. (imagine that) Companies would argue it’s only right that it’s proprietary to them, no matter how crap it is :P

If you have a spare, throwaway phone, put the app on there for when you need to change settings. You can disable location in system settings and then allow location for the app, technically the app won’t really get to know your location because the system has no location to provide.

If an app wants to foul this and spy on your location with location off, the app has to have Instagram-grade snooping, where if you use any web browser or google app, they will detect your location from that… But most apps are not assholes like that (yet) lol

I’m a bit older and I find this trend of headphones having apps really unfortunate. It’s forced a lot of brands who are unsavvy to make bad software. And, do you guys remember Bose was caught selling user info from their first headphone app? (for the QC30)

In the equalizer section, try the Mellow preset first, that’s not bad for audiobooks. Usually we don’t want too much treble for spoken word stuff.

1kHz and 2.5kHz are common human voice frequencies, 6.3kHz can also be harsh, turning these bands down would make the sound more mellow. I also like to bump up the bass on spoken word stuff. The Mellow preset has low bass (clear bass set at -3) so you can try adding more (clear bass +5 for instance).

If you want to change it, click on the gear at the bottom right corner of the panel, it’ll show you the 5 bands and the clear bass slider. If you change anything you’ll see the name turn into “Manual” and it’ll be saved under “Manual” in the main screen.

No, and companies will not do it because if you get hit by a car you might sue them.

Currently at their claim of 35-40dB reduction, they’re already using “adaptive noise cancelling” which if you’ve used it, you’ll know it’s euphemism for “we won’t actually reduce 40dB unless we detect that much noise shows up” which is so obviously to protect them from liability.

It started when Sony went from Varta to Chinese suppliers for true wireless batteries.

I also suspect the truth is true wireless earphones are “too small to be reliable” in current technology, that’s why you see far fewer issues with overhead headphones. These products are not on a fast release cycle - the WFXM4 was on the market for two whole years, as were things like Jabra’s Elite series.

The Airpods Pro 2 has more “negative pressure” to its ANC over the WHXM5. In recent years a lot of people have realized they biologically can’t tolerate this pressure, leading to brands like Sony carefully tweaking their algorithm to try and minimize it, but this pressure can also give you the sensation that ANC is more effective.

One thing I always did when I visited Tokyo was listen to Eagle 810 on the AM band, and there are certain songs that sound great through AM radio, like Echosmith’s Cool Kids and Nelly Furtado’s Promiscuous (I see someone agrees!)

Hey, belated comment: Sony invented and called that design “vertical in-the-ear.”

Because it’s got a headband, it can set the speaker driver perpendicular to the ear canal instead of covering the ear canal opening like regular earbuds, and this creates the impression of extra clarity.

Diminishing returns occur because satisfaction is subjective.

It also occurs sometimes when we attempt to use the wrong solution (e.g. buy ever more expensive headphones) to fix a lack that requires a different remedy (e.g. what you really want is the sound of an old audio format).

Audio is a very subjective hobby, and whether headphones are driven well enough is also quite subjective. I have definitely heard many headphones where enough power made a difference, but I’ve also owned many headphones that don’t benefit from extra power - or it defeats their whole purpose. And contrary to popular opinion, I would say for a lot of people, the PC headphone jack is often the better source they need - it’s usually got extra power over many portables, possibly from the PC system having a higher voltage power supply.

I do the following as a rebellion. I grew up listening to radio, FM is the origin sound for me. So I plug an FM transmitter into my source, and use Sony’s pocket radios as my headphone amp. What’s funny is this for me has fixed all issues where the sound wasn’t good enough, even though those radios all have low or miniscule output on paper, they’re always very loud, very smooth and satisfying in a way audiophile gear can’t be to my ears. So I feel like instead of sticking to conventional wisdom, you can probably do very well without new equipment to drive those headphones.

I threw the UTWS3 away. It can’t be worn comfortably and stably, no matter how much I adjusted. I even tried wearing it down, Xperia Ear-style. It’s got major issues with charging. Have not bought any Fiio Chinese audio product since then - I switched to Sony and Aiwa’s FM pocket radios for “headphone amp” purposes and I’ve been very happy ever since.

The best kind are the ones advertised as washable under running tap water. Sony used to make a bunch of them… They would come with the disclaimer of “don’t subject it to hot shower/steam” but they’re still your best bet.

My Sony WS623 (earbuds with built-in memory) has gone through multiple hot showers and always came out fine. Not recommended as BT earbuds though, low battery life and sound quality is limited because they truly did seal up the speaker with no vent hole.

The direct equivalent would be something like the WH-XB910N (the XB920N might be launching at some point soon), but, there’s a big but.

Sony has changed the overall mission and positioning of the XB series. They no longer make “extra bass” like they used to. If you liked the early XB (up till XB950) for their so-called “rumble” and “drive,” Sony has kinda given up on those parameters in the name of clean audio. So, if you can EQ, every Sony headphone can be made to push out very heavy bass, but none of them have the groove that the earlier XB models used to.

For this reason I have been chasing down older XB models like the XB950 (two generations, wired/BT and N1/B1), XB550 and the XB55 earbuds. Today’s extra bass Sonys just can’t compare.