Verdict
The Edifier NeoBuds S are true wireless earphones with active noise cancellation and gamey - quality streaming over the comparatively novel Snapdragon Sound standard . However , they share some flaw with the previous NeoBuds Pro twosome , and these are less easy to stomach at their higher toll .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Edifier NeoBuds S are a new version of theEdifier NeoBuds ProI reviewed in 2021 . They add new technical school include Snapdragon Sound , Bluetooth 5.2 and aptX Adaptive . But the price go up too . I reviewed the NeoBuds Pro at £ 100 , this brace costs £ 150 .
toll was always highly sensible for this serial publication . The NeoBuds Pro were mostly successful because they offered solid enough active noise cancellation , decent sound and fair barrage life for under £ 100 .
A high price means the NeoBuds S have to vie more directly with self-aggrandizing names from company like Sony and Jabra . And the Edifier NeoBuds S do n’t always come offthatwell in the comparing .
Some of the changes for this generation are n’t completely positive either . The Edifier NeoBuds S ’s shallow fit lead require re - seating pretty often , and a slight alteration to the sound touch that attempts to improve clarity can make for a more tiring listen with some content .
The Edifier NeoBuds S are solid true wireless earphone , but are a tough sell than the old set at £ 150 .
Design
The Edifier NeoBuds S are true wireless headphone with an all - round chunky style , just like the NeoBuds Pro .
Their earpieces have thick stalk that suck up attention off from the blob of credit card that curb the drivers . While the outdoor part of the stem look like they could be metal , the shell are plastic . This is sensible . have larger honest wireless earpieces is o.k. . But enceinte and heavy ones ? That can be a problem .
The Edifier NeoBuds S ’s prohibited conception takes the fashion of 2021 ’s NeoBuds Pro and simply makes it dark . This applies to both the earphones and the shelling case . portion that were silver are now black , and the Edifier logo is now gold to verify it still adhere out .
New colour scheme : fine , corking . However , Edifier has also changed the tip style , and it may make some problems .
As you could see , the phone aperture sits right at the surface of these silicone tips . It ’s the same organisation regardless of which of the seven duet you use .
Edifier strain intemperately to make certain all sizing of auricle canals are cater for , and this new bakshis style means the phone need to be shove less far into your ear . However , I find they need adapt far more often than the Edifier NeoBuds Pro did .
They do n’t fall out , but the sealing wax loses its integrity over time when you move about . labor them back in and you ’ll hear bass power improve . I noticed this when I used the Edifier NeoBuds S while running , which is course go to speed up this outgrowth .
As with any fit takings , you may not have the same job . I also have no issue with their ease level , but I would n’t strongly urge the Neobuds S to runner . Their piddle IP54 resistivity is low-spirited than most sports headphones , although is full enough to deal with sweat .
Features
The Edifier NeoBuds S haveactive noise cancellation , which uses six microphones to monitor and cancel out ambient dissonance . Edifier says the battery lasts around 5.5 hours with this feature throw on , or 6 hours using plainBluetoothstreaming .
After keeping an center on the shelling level over multiple longer hearing sessions , this seems perhaps a slimly challenging title at the volume level I use . The figures suggest the Edifier NeoBuds S will last nearer to 4 hours 25 hour to 4 hours 40 minutes with active noise cancellation — at least at the dot you “ lose ” your first earbud .
The left earpiece drains a little more quickly than the correct one .
You mate the Edifier NeoBuds S when they are in their charge case . A long - press of the button inside the grammatical case put them into pairing mode . This process go seamlessly , but as there are no strong-arm button on the earpiece themselves , leave them disconnected for long enough to enter their “ sleep ” Department of State and you ’ll have to put them back in the case to arouse them up .
It ’s a bit annoying if , like me , you draw near your wireless earphones in an entirely disorganized way .
Controls on the Edifier NeoBuds S are handled using signature tender parts on each stalking . duple taps on the odd one switch between noise cancellation and “ ambient sound ” , where away noise is played through the drivers .
Double water faucet on the ripe earphone play / intermission . And three-fold taps on the right skip to the next raceway . These motion work just all right . Accidental energizing are super - uncommon as there ’s no single - tap motion , and they make you grateful for the fairly extensive surface of the earpiece stalks .
Edifier does not come along to have made any progress with the effectiveness of its fighting randomness cancellation , though . To my ear it seems as effective as that hear in the NeoBuds Pro .
It take the sharpness off the audio of public transport . You ’re less likely to need to involve to advance medicine volume in noisier surroundings , but these earphones do n’t whip you off to an haven of calm like the most good ANC headphones .
sneak the Edifier NeoBuds S up to the Edifier app and you may switch between “ high ” and “ low ” active interference cancellation . The eminent mode is more effective , but also tweak the sound a bit in ways that may not necessarily be desirable . More on that after .
Brand new NeoBuds S techy feature are all about wireless transmission standard . They support aptX Adaptive andSnapdragon Sound .
Snapdragon Sound is a Qualcomm tech that can transmit at up to 24 - bit , 96kHz , while aptX Adaptive transmits at rate of between 280 - 420kbps based on the billet .
While it ’s nice to have the latest tech , do n’t concenter too much on these telling - sounding standard . heavy quality at this stratum is almost always determined more by driver tuning than the limit of your wireless flow — some of my favouritewireless headphonesand verbaliser only had “ crappy ” SBC . A head trip to Qualcomm ’s web site also shows how lightheaded some of this hooey is , gasconade about major improvements beyond about 22kHz . Human hearing taps out at around 20kHz . Or less if you ’re not that young .
Snapdragon Sound does not appear to alter reaction time . I could n’t tell any major difference between the meanwhile in the Edifier NeoBuds S and the earlier NeoBuds Pro . There ’s a very slight delay , which can be trimmed a little by interchange on the Game mode — Edifier says this reduces lag to 80ms , making YouTube lip - sync good enough to be watchable .
you may engage Game modality with a triple tap of the left over earphone , or in the Edifier app . This app also lets you use EQ . There ’s a Dynamic manner I ’d suggest avoid as it amps up the sound and take out its flaw . you may also make your own EQ profile , but the tools on offer are pretty bad .
They are unfriendly , and the default band neglect the mid - range alone — 100Hz , 2KHz , 4KHz and 8KHz . you’re able to customize these a little , but this stuff and nonsense is more punishing work than it should be .
Sound Quality
The Edifier NeoBuds S have a driver regalia similar , or perhaps the same as , the Edifier NeoBuds Pro . They use one Knowles balanced armature and a 10 mm dynamic driver .
These earphones can sound dandy , but as I get wind with the NeoBuds Pro , they sound good when you attempt to curb Edifier ’s house way a piddling . It like powerful bass and pronounced highs , creating a “ scooped ” strait where the mids do n’t get much attention at all .
The Dynamic sound mode has more of this effect , because it boosts the high frequencies for sparkier audio . Edifier ’s gamy dynamic noise cancellation setting does too , this clip by bumping up the sea bass by a twosome of dB .
While add up bass to deal with noisier environment does make a sort of common sense , as it ’s the part of speech sound that gets lost quickest on public transport , the Edifier NeoBuds S should n’t call for it if their ANC is safe enough . And despite not rave about the cancellation ’s effectiveness , I think itisgood enough .
Switch to the Classic phone mode and habituate the Low Noise Cancellation mode for the most well - balanced auditory sensation , with a performance that ’s piquant and vital , with muscular but not obviously overblown bass . Treble clarity is in force , and while these earphones do n’t have the classical finespun sensibility of the pure balanced armature pairs of honest-to-god , the two-fold number one wood here pulls some accurate and well - dissolve upper - mid - range point out of song .
Mid - range lovers should face elsewhere , though . Even in what I debate to be their most natural sound way , the Edifier NeoBuds mids want weight and message , which becomes light when I compared them to manakin from Klipsch’sT5 serial . Those sets put much more attention into a full coherent presentation of the mids .
The Edifier NeoBuds S and NeoBuds Pro show what a fine art headphone reconciliation is . Side - by - side they go very like , but the parts that stand out if you use the “ wrong ” manner are quite different .
In the NeoBuds Pro over - blow up bass is the most obvious issue in the High Noise Cancellation style . too label high frequence place upright out more in the Edifier NeoBuds S. This is in part because this new duad seems to have greater upper - mid - range and lower treble definition irrespective of the sound mode used .
As well as gamble overly coarse-grained or harsh soprano in some of the sound modes , this also helps to balance out the slight bass encouragement you hear on the High Noise Cancellation setting .
Vocals can often stick out out in the mix a bit advantageously in the Edifier NeoBuds S , but in the wrong style I do n’t like how speak content , like podcasts , is presented too much . All top and bottom , with little in - between , it ’s a reminder a flat signature is not really Edifier ’s object .
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Should you buy it?
These are lineament - rich earphones , offer ANC , a cutting - edge wireless audio stock and treble - forward sound recording contrive to max out contingent and clarity .
The NeoBuds S are n’t quite as good a deal as the honest-to-god NeoBuds Pro , and a Modern tip way have their fit less unchanging than before . You need to be measured with the software too , as some modes further derange the already non - neutral sound .
Final Thoughts
The Edifier NeoBuds S are interchangeable to the NeoBuds Pro , but be more . For the redundant cash , LDAC cyclosis support is swapped for Snapdragon Sound with aptX Adaptive . It ’s the latest in a moderately long line of wireless sound technology that promise to deliver unflawed audio frequency .
These earphones sound fairly similar to their predecessors , but have slight great definition in the upper mids . It can give vocals a little more presence in music . It can also make low bite - pace content like podcasts sound pretty big in the awry sound manner .
The Edifier NeoBuds S ’s main issue is they ’ve strayed out of the sub-£100 comfort zone . And while these earphones can sound good , Edifier ’s broad approach to audio processing stand out too much at £ 150 .
Trusted Score
How we test
We screen every headphones we review thoroughly over an drawn-out full point of fourth dimension . We use industriousness standard test to compare features properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , swallow money to review a product .
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FAQs
These earphones have canonical IP54 water electric resistance , which is enough to deal with sweat but below the ideal IP67 sports earphone standard .
Yes , they have ANC with two intensity point , and an ambient - aware mode . They utilize three mics in each earpiece for cancellation .
Snapdragon Sound offers wireless transmission of up to 24 - bit 96KHz , near enough to be call “ Hi - Res ” .
Full Specs
Sustainability
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We currently have n’t received answers to the questions on this ware , but will update this varlet the moment we do . you’re able to see a elaborate dislocation of the questions we ask and why in oursustainability information page .
