The New Earbud Design No One Is Talking About — Transcript

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1. 0:00I'm tired of my earbuds not doing their
2. 0:03job. They cost $200 and yet they just
3. 0:06slide out of my ears at the gym. Or I
4. 0:08get that weird tickle feeling after a
5. 0:10couple minutes. Or I'm on a plane and
6. 0:12the seal suddenly breaks and I'm getting
7. 0:14blasted by jet engines directly in my
8. 0:17ear holes. Why can't the earbuds just do
9. 0:20their job and stay where they're
10. 0:22supposed to? Well, I think I finally
11. 0:24found a solution. Clip-on earbuds. Up
12. 0:27until now, I thought I had tried it all
13. 0:30between IM, true wireless, and even open
14. 0:33earbuds. Yet, none of them felt quite
15. 0:35right. Turns out, my answer was dangling
16. 0:38right in my face the whole time. Now,
17. 0:40clip-on earbuds are nothing new. Bose
18. 0:43came up with them in early 2024 with
19. 0:45their ultra open earbuds, retailing for
20. 0:48a whopping $299. But now, there's more
21. 0:51affordable ones like the Tozos for $30
22. 0:54or the cute pill ones from Moonrop.
23. 0:56There a subcategory of open earbuds.
24. 0:59While are great in theory, have loads of
25. 1:02problems with poor bass, inconsistent
26. 1:04sound quality, and a strange fit like
27. 1:06these donut ones or these around the ear
28. 1:09ones and now clipons. So, in this video,
29. 1:12I'm testing a new pair of clip-on
30. 1:14earbuds that are supposed to solve many
31. 1:16if not all of those problems. With that
32. 1:19being said, these are not the end- all
33. 1:21beall only pair of earbuds you should
34. 1:23own if you want a hi-fi listening
35. 1:25experience A&C or good travel earbuds.
36. 1:28Let's just say open earbuds will never
37. 1:30work for that. But if you're living a
38. 1:31busy life or you want to be aware of
39. 1:33your surroundings, these could be the
40. 1:35ones. These are the new Sony Link Buds
41. 1:38Clip, which retail for $230, which while
42. 1:41being a hefty price tag, are actually on
43. 1:43par with other premium offerings on the
44. 1:46market. So, are these silly little
45. 1:48earbuds actually as game-changing as
46. 1:50they say, or are they going straight
47. 1:52into the storage bin after a couple
48. 1:54weeks? And as someone who's never tried
49. 1:56clipon earbuds before, there were so
50. 1:58many questions running through my head,
51. 2:00like, how good do these sound? Are they
52. 2:02even comfortable? And how do you put
53. 2:04them on? As a side note, Sony did send
54. 2:07these over as an early unit for testing,
55. 2:09but they did not sponsor this video. So,
56. 2:11before we can answer any of those
57. 2:13questions, let's get these unboxed. Like
58. 2:15most earbuds nowadays, I'm not expecting
59. 2:18much, especially since the box is so
60. 2:21tiny. These are the green versions, but
61. 2:22they also come in lavender, cream, and
62. 2:25black. Those probably aren't the
63. 2:26official names, but they're accurate
64. 2:28descriptor. Sony's opted for all
65. 2:31recyclable packaging, which is neato.
66. 2:33Once you're done unboxing it, you can
67. 2:34chuck it into the blue bin and move on
68. 2:36with your life. The box itself has the
69. 2:38charging case, the earbuds in them, and
70. 2:41then some documentation for next time
71. 2:43you're in the bathroom. these little
72. 2:44silicone pieces called air fitting
73. 2:46cushions. Supposedly, they're to tighten
74. 2:49up the fit for people with smaller ears,
75. 2:50and as someone with smaller ears, I sort
76. 2:53of appreciate it. No charging cable,
77. 2:55though, but that's to be expected. On
78. 2:56the carrying case itself, there is a
79. 2:59pairing button next to the USBC port.
80. 3:01Thanks, Sony, for keeping this. An
81. 3:03actual button just makes life easier and
82. 3:05more intuitive to use. The only downside
83. 3:08so far is that they're telling me to
84. 3:10download an app as the first step. Yeah.
85. 3:13No, I'll do without. So, I tried pairing
86. 3:15it straight to my phone, which would
87. 3:17have worked great, but pressing the pair
88. 3:19button did nothing. After floundering
89. 3:21out for a bit, I caved and I I
90. 3:23downloaded the app. [laughter] Turns out
91. 3:25I had to open the lid and hold the
92. 3:28pairing button at the same time. The app
93. 3:31probably does add in a lot of
94. 3:32functionality, but let's get into the
95. 3:34good stuff. How these bad boys sound.
96. 3:36That's why we're here. Ah, yes. Now for
97. 3:39the moment of truth. Except it wasn't as
98. 3:41easy as putting them in your ears and
99. 3:43pressing play. I mean, how do you even
100. 3:46put these on? They've got two solid
101. 3:48pieces with a bendable piece in between.
102. 3:50It can spread apart quite a bit, and it
103. 3:52bounces back into place easily. The
104. 3:54small side has the speakers that go on
105. 3:56the front of your ears, while the big
106. 3:58side has the batteries and the charging
107. 4:00pins. That side goes into the back. Now,
108. 4:02it took me a bit of finagling to clip
109. 4:03these around my ears the first couple of
110. 4:05times. Nothing pokes into your ears and
111. 4:08they really just they dangle there.
112. 4:10After a couple times, you get pretty
113. 4:12good at putting them in with just one
114. 4:14hand. Look at that. No hands. And at
115. 4:16first, you think they'll just fall off,
116. 4:18but after a ton of head shaking and
117. 4:20nodding up and down, they stayed. I even
118. 4:22tried jumping up and down. They also
119. 4:25stayed. I did the most intense things I
120. 4:27could come up with, burpees, and they
121. 4:29stayed. I'll have to test them with a
122. 4:30real run later on, but for now, not bad.
123. 4:33While these new earbuds from Sony are
124. 4:35great, I want to share with you an
125. 4:37awesome product I found at CES from
126. 4:39today's sponsor, Epomaker. A special
127. 4:41keyboard called the Epomaker RT100 Pro.
128. 4:44[music] Well, what makes it so special,
129. 4:46you may be wondering. Beyond the stylish
130. 4:49retro design and being super easy to
131. 4:51pick up if you like [music] full-size
132. 4:52keyboards, it also has a screen and a
133. 4:55knob. Now, I know what you're thinking.
134. 4:57Screens and knobs? That's nothing new.
135. 4:59But wait, for starters, what if I told
136. 5:01you the screen was completely optional?
137. 5:03You can remove it and swap it in with
138. 5:06normal keys. The knob is also
139. 5:08interesting because instead of being
140. 5:10smooshed into the keys and taking up a
141. 5:12bunch of precious keyboard real estate,
142. 5:14it's tastefully sidemounted to the
143. 5:16keyboard. This makes it easy to adjust
144. 5:18the volume without losing any extra
145. 5:20keys. The RT100 Pro also comes with all
146. 5:22the other stuff you really want out of a
147. 5:25mechanical keyboard, like a gasket mount
148. 5:27for a soft and luxurious typing
149. 5:29experience along with a nice sound
150. 5:31that's a mix of thy and creamy. One
151. 5:33other thing that usually bothers me
152. 5:35about this size of keyboard is that they
153. 5:37typically have a small zero on the
154. 5:39numpad, [music] but not this one. It's
155. 5:41rocking a full thick zero. Speaking of
156. 5:44layout, I also like how the keys are
157. 5:46slightly spaced to reduce errors. The
158. 5:48arrow keys [music] have a small gap.
159. 5:49Same with the nav cluster and the
160. 5:51numpad. Why isn't every 96% [music]
161. 5:54layout designed like this? Eomakers
162. 5:55really brought out the big guns with
163. 5:57this one. So, if you want to upgrade
164. 5:58your typing experience, check out the
165. 6:00Ebomaker RT100 Pro in the description
166. 6:03below. The biggest problem I have with
167. 6:05earbuds and many others is that they
168. 6:08tend to slide out after a while. This
169. 6:09might be TMI, but I've got viscous ear
170. 6:12wax, which means it's like a slip and
171. 6:14slide in there. And since these don't go
172. 6:16in your ear at all, this problem is
173. 6:18virtually impossible. Even as someone
174. 6:20with glasses and earrings, link buds
175. 6:23don't bother me at all. They take
176. 6:24completely different real estate on the
177. 6:26ears in this weird middle ground.
178. 6:28Another concern I had is that they look
179. 6:30bulky, like weird earrings. But other
180. 6:33people didn't say much about them at
181. 6:35all. They did notice them though, but
182. 6:37that might be because I picked out the
183. 6:39green color instead of something more
184. 6:40subtle like black or white. One of the
185. 6:42things I don't like is that this bendy
186. 6:45part sticks out from my ears quite a
187. 6:47bit. Maybe it's because my ears are
188. 6:48small, but I mean that's a lot of extra
189. 6:51space. I can put my whole finger in
190. 6:53there. Now, looking at competitor
191. 6:54products, there are more subtle designs
192. 6:56that they could have modeled after. But
193. 6:58then I had another big question. How
194. 7:00comfortable are these to use daily? With
195. 7:02AirPods, I could keep them in for maybe
196. 7:0530 minutes to an hour at most before
197. 7:07they start getting uncomfortable or
198. 7:08slowly slide out and then you got to
199. 7:10reset. And it's a whole thing. You're
200. 7:12probably looking at these and thinking,
201. 7:14"Wow, having something heavy like that
202. 7:16dangle off your ears must be a real pain
203. 7:19in the butt." And although they look
204. 7:20that way, they're a mere 6 g a piece,
205. 7:23maybe even less. So each one of these
206. 7:25weigh the same as about a sheet of
207. 7:27paper. I've been able to keep these on
208. 7:29for an entire workday without
209. 7:31discomfort. That's because they don't
210. 7:33violate your ear canals at all, but they
211. 7:35also don't compress on your head either.
212. 7:38It's just being held there by some
213. 7:39friction [music] and gravity. Now,
214. 7:41everybody in the office so far has
215. 7:43deemed them quite comfortable to use,
216. 7:45despite us all having different ear
217. 7:47sizes. Throughout day after day of
218. 7:48wearing them, I was reminded about how I
219. 7:51actually do enjoy listening to music.
220. 7:54Now, because we have an open office
221. 7:55space with a small team, I don't put in
222. 7:57earbuds or headphones in case someone
223. 7:59wants to talk to me, which is often. So
224. 8:02music has been on the back burner. Heck,
225. 8:04even YouTube videos. With these, I keep
226. 8:06them on all day. And when someone talks
227. 8:08to me, I pause it. And when the
228. 8:09conversation is done, I press play
229. 8:11again. It's significantly changed my
230. 8:14entire listening experience. But
231. 8:15speaking of comfort, what about the gym?
232. 8:18They clearly can withstand a regular
233. 8:20workday, a normal day, even without
234. 8:22work. So I made sure to take these on a
235. 8:24gym day where I did some vigorous
236. 8:26activity. Who am I kidding? I don't do
237. 8:27anything vigorous. So I took them on a
238. 8:29run and did some exercises. I don't
239. 8:32usually do like jumping jacks, box
240. 8:34jumps, you know, highintensity stuff.
241. 8:36They stayed in well, but I found a huge
242. 8:38weakness of these earbuds. Loud ambient
243. 8:41sounds. I heard everything at the gym.
244. 8:43People lifting weights, treadmills
245. 8:45getting stomped on repeatedly and people
246. 8:47moaning while lifting weights. Because
247. 8:49they're open earbuds, there's nothing
248. 8:51blocking the outside from entering your
249. 8:53ears. And just to be clear, there is no
250. 8:56A&C, no noise cancelling. That's
251. 8:58physically impossible with open earbuds
252. 9:00unless some new great technology comes
253. 9:02out in the distant future.
254. 9:04Unfortunately, that means they can't be
255. 9:06your only pair of earbuds that you own.
256. 9:08They don't do good on a plane, they
257. 9:09don't do good at the gym. But is that
258. 9:11something people look for? Earbuds that
259. 9:13can do it all. Or is it more like
260. 9:15watches where you have one watch for the
261. 9:16gym, one for daily use, one for fancy
262. 9:19dinners? Or is that just blatant
263. 9:20consumerism? The world may never know.
264. 9:22Anyways, for the actual moment of truth,
265. 9:25music. I quickly opened up YouTube
266. 9:26music. Yes, I use YouTube music. Fight
267. 9:29me. It's included in YouTube Premium.
268. 9:31Why not? I opened up a random playlist.
269. 9:33Um, apparently I got dance hits. Nice.
270. 9:36So, there are a couple things that were
271. 9:38shocking. First, there was bass. Most
272. 9:41open earbuds, because of the lack of a
273. 9:43seal, can't handle bass very well, but
274. 9:45this definitely had a kick to it. I'd be
275. 9:48curious to see a graph of its sound
276. 9:49signature, but alas, I don't know how to
277. 9:51do measurements. Even the volume was
278. 9:53fairly impressive. For a regular quiet
279. 9:56room, I stayed between 25 to 30% of the
280. 9:58max volume. And at the gym, I'd go up to
281. 10:0150%. If anything, they actually had a
282. 10:03slightly weaker treble, where female
283. 10:05voices like Adele or Taylor Swift
284. 10:07wouldn't be as pronounced. But this was
285. 10:09in standard mode. The app has two other
286. 10:11modes. One called voice boost, which
287. 10:13instantly made the vocals shine, but it
288. 10:15also just made everything louder, so of
289. 10:17course I could hear it better. And the
290. 10:19last one is sound leakage reduction. And
291. 10:21that one appears to just turn the volume
292. 10:23down a bunch. So, I'm not sure why they
293. 10:25call it those. So, if you're listening
294. 10:26to something real embarrassing, I guess
295. 10:28that mode could be helpful. But
296. 10:29honestly, you have to be playing
297. 10:31something real obnoxious at a high
298. 10:33volume for someone near you to even know
299. 10:35what you're listening to. So, while
300. 10:37we're in the software, there's some more
301. 10:38pretty cool stuff to explore. The first
302. 10:40is the equalizer. There's a bunch of
303. 10:42presets. You've got heavy for more bass,
304. 10:44clear for more treble, hard for both.
305. 10:47There's soft that reduces the bass and
306. 10:49the treble, and then three custom
307. 10:50presets that you can tune to your
308. 10:52liking. There's a lot of customization
309. 10:54here. You get a lot of areas you can
310. 10:56slide up and down. For now, I'll stick
311. 10:58to off for the intended listening
312. 11:00experience. But when open earbuds first
313. 11:02came out, I thought they'd be similar to
314. 11:04open headphones where you feel
315. 11:06surrounded by the music or it's in the
316. 11:08same room as you with an open sound
317. 11:10stage. But with the Link Buds clip, uh,
318. 11:12it's sort of nothing like that. You hear
319. 11:14it, but it's not a oneperson concert.
320. 11:16It's more like a tiny speaker next to
321. 11:18your ear that's directing sound into it.
322. 11:20While that seems unimpressive, the sound
323. 11:22is pretty good. It's not hi-fi good, not
324. 11:25IM good, where you can hear and
325. 11:27distinguish every single instrument from
326. 11:29each other, but that's not really the
327. 11:30goal. In fact, as I wrote this, I was
328. 11:32listening to myself type, others in the
329. 11:35office type, and music. So, of course,
330. 11:37the music isn't the number one priority.
331. 11:39The goal is to have good enough sound
332. 11:41quality while being comfortable and
333. 11:43open. But, let's circle back to software
334. 11:45because there's a lot of quality of life
335. 11:46improvements here that I think you'd
336. 11:48love. There's this ability to connect to
337. 11:50two devices simultaneously. This isn't
338. 11:52new. I've seen this before in the
339. 11:54nothing ear opens, but this feels a lot
340. 11:56more seamless. When I pause something on
341. 11:58my iPhone, start it on my MacBook. It's
342. 12:00an automatic switch. I don't have to do
343. 12:01[clears throat] anything. Where it falls
344. 12:03apart is if you're trying to play two
345. 12:05things on two different devices, then
346. 12:07it's sort of just defaults to the thing
347. 12:08that played first. While exploring all
348. 12:10the settings, I found an interesting
349. 12:12one. An option that lets you prioritize
350. 12:14either sound quality or connection
351. 12:16stability. You might be thinking, why
352. 12:18not prioritize sound quality? I thought
353. 12:20the same. So, I pressed it right away
354. 12:22only to find myself ripping out my
355. 12:24earbuds and throwing them across the
356. 12:25room. It got really loud all of a
357. 12:27sudden, and I assure you, you would
358. 12:28panic, too. So, let's just say I like
359. 12:31the good, stable Bluetooth connection.
360. 12:33Onto the controls. They use a tap
361. 12:35function. So, you can press on the band
362. 12:37or the pill that sits behind your ear.
363. 12:40The taps start at two and go up to four.
364. 12:42But the strange thing is you can't edit
365. 12:44sound control to anything else on the
366. 12:46four tab. So that means to lower the
367. 12:48volume you tap the left buds four times.
368. 12:51And to raise the volume you tap the
369. 12:53right bud four times. Why? It's probably
370. 12:55the most common function I would use.
371. 12:57And it only goes one step or down for
372. 12:59each command. So in theory, you could
373. 13:02sit there quadruple tapping your earbuds
374. 13:03a ton of times to get it to your desired
375. 13:06volume. Why have you forsaken us? It
376. 13:08ended up being very annoying. and I
377. 13:10would go into my device to change my
378. 13:12volume rather than just mess with
379. 13:14tapping. On the bright side, you can
380. 13:15edit the other functions to control
381. 13:18pause, play, previous, next song, as
382. 13:20well as the listening mode. But there's
383. 13:21one more thing that if these earbuds
384. 13:23don't do well, then none of the other
385. 13:25things matter, and that's battery life.
386. 13:27I'll test this by starting the day with
387. 13:29everything charged at 100%, wear them
388. 13:31all day, and by the end give you an
389. 13:32update. Supposedly, each side lasts 9
390. 13:35hours, which is more than enough for a
391. 13:37full day. And if you add in the case
392. 13:39battery, you can get up to 28 more
393. 13:41listening hours. For reference, the
394. 13:43AirPods Pro 3s have 8 hours plus 24
395. 13:46hours with ANC enabled. Not really a
396. 13:48fair comparison since AirPods use more
397. 13:50energy to run. But here's what they are
398. 13:52at the end of the day. Not bad, huh?
399. 13:54Now, even with all the problems these
400. 13:56earbuds have solved, there's a couple
401. 13:58huge issues I have with these. And the
402. 14:00first is that they're easy to lose.
403. 14:02Despite the fact that these stay on
404. 14:03really good, I've accidentally flung
405. 14:05them in the air while taking off a
406. 14:07hoodie or when I forget that I have them
407. 14:08on, I've also dropped the case
408. 14:10accidentally and saw one of the earbuds
409. 14:12bounce its way under the bed. Sure,
410. 14:14other True Wireless earbuds get lost all
411. 14:16the time, but they have features that
412. 14:18help you find them. And after scouring
413. 14:20the app for 30 minutes, I couldn't find
414. 14:21a find my earbud feature anywhere. You
415. 14:24might be thinking, "Oh, well buddy, I
416. 14:26never lose my earbuds." Good for you.
417. 14:28This happens often to other people, not
418. 14:30you probably. The other day, I woke up
419. 14:32to a random AirPod on the other side of
420. 14:34the bed in a hotel room that I was
421. 14:36checking out that current morning. If
422. 14:38not for my find my earbuds feature, I
423. 14:40might have permanently lost a right
424. 14:42earbud. That's a fat Benjamin right
425. 14:44there. So, Sony, if you're listening,
426. 14:46please add in this feature. It will save
427. 14:47your customers a lot of anxiety,
428. 14:49frustration, and time. The second
429. 14:51problem is no wireless charging. Since
430. 14:53it's a premium product, I'd like to see
431. 14:55premium features like having them pause
432. 14:58if you take one side off. And the last,
433. 15:00the biggest one of all, might be the
434. 15:02hefty price tag at $230, I'm real
435. 15:05curious to see how the more budget
436. 15:07options compare. So, should you get
437. 15:09these? If you're someone who hates
438. 15:10things violating your ear canals, these
439. 15:12types of earbuds are perfect. They don't
440. 15:14touch the inside of your ears at all and
441. 15:16you don't experience the same issues
442. 15:18like falling out, tickling your ear, or
443. 15:20losing their seal because there there is
444. 15:22none. If you always want to be
445. 15:23approachable or be aware of your
446. 15:25surroundings, they're great. You don't
447. 15:27necessarily need to buy the Sony ones.
448. 15:29There are more budget options out there
449. 15:31and I really want to explore them. But
450. 15:33let me know what you think. I wish I
451. 15:34discovered these sooner because I have
452. 15:36struggled with my AirPods for so