Product test

True Wireless Earphones at the IFA: The duel of the latest

5.9.2017

Translation: machine translated

Video: Dominik Bärlocher, Stephanie Tresch

Cables on headphones are here to stay, say some. Cables are out, say others. The latter include JBL and Bang & Olufsen. Both presented new earbuds at the IFA in Berlin that do not require any cables at all. We pitted them against each other.

The JBL Free have a combined battery life of 24 hours. In return, the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay E8 boast their extreme lightness. Both promise sound quality at its best, as well as high-quality workmanship and the best sound engineering ever. The two headphones were presented to the public at the IFA in Berlin and video producer Stephanie Tresch and I thought we would pit the headphones against each other.

The concept is simple: we pick a song that we both like and know well, then we listen to it on both earbuds and rate them. Surprisingly, we are joined by Fabio Endrich, Product Manager for audio devices. He is actually at IFA to secure delivery channels for the latest devices and discover the unexpected, but when he hears about our test, he spontaneously joins us. This is a good thing, as Fabio is not only an audiophile in his spare time, but also a musician.

We actually wanted to test the Sennheiser Momentum Free, but we were put off several times at the company's stand after we were allowed to listen to them briefly and were impressed. We'll catch up on the test later.

"Come on, let's disrupt the filming"

The shoot begins. Fabio and Stephanie stand behind the camera while I sit on a bench and familiarise myself with the Beoplay E8. The test track: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Two guys see Stephanie fiddling around with a camera and adjusting the sound. They decide to turn up a loudspeaker about three metres away from us so that the filming is disturbed as much as possible. I can see Fabio and Stephanie getting annoyed. She covers one ear while holding the camera on the monopod with the other. He turns round and casts angry glances in the direction of the young men, who are enjoying the noise.

Headphones

−50%

Used

CHF70.– currently CHF138.87 new

B&O Beoplay E8

4 h, Wireless

I only hear Kurt Cobain and his band with the cryptic lyrics, the meaning of which is still a mystery to this day. But I can feel the noise. I'm wearing an old, scuffed pair of Doc Martens that I've resoled at trade fairs. I can feel the bass of the Radaubrüder speaker through my boots. At first I think that the E8s have active noise cancelling. But they don't. The seal in my ear is so good that I don't care about the rest of the world acoustically. The stand worker who is supposed to help us with the testing and make sure we don't just take his 300 francs earplugs with us says that the E8s have a runtime of up to four hours when playing music at a moderate volume. That's where I see a problem. The sound is round and nice, but a bit quiet. I generally don't listen to music too loudly, but I have to turn the Beoplays up to full volume to get my preferred volume.

Stephanie is less impressed. She changes the attachments on the E8 and uses the smallest ones. Even then, the earplugs don't fit properly. She only hears nice music when she presses the E8 into her ears, like when you cover your ears. This is totally useless in everyday life. But with her fingers in her ears, the sound is very good, she reports. Her test is short, about half as long as the Nirvana song, but none of our group can see why the video producer should sit around with her fingers in her ears. Even a leather-covered charging case doesn't help.

Fabio is sceptical. Aren't the Beoplay E8 too expensive? Sure, the design and sound engineering are top-notch, he says. "Even if the snare drums bite a little," he says. But does that justify the price? He asks: Can the equalisers be adjusted by the user? The answer from our attendant, whose knowledge of English we are beginning to doubt: Yes and no. There is an app, but it's not ready yet. Or is still undergoing an update.

Fabio steals a private mobile phone. For testing purposes, of course

At the JBL stand, which is part of the Harman Kardon stand, we initially struggle to find the JBL Free. Headphones everywhere and they all look smart. But we are looking for the smallest headphones. The entire set weighs just 99 grams and promises 24 hours of combined battery life. By that, JBL's marketing department means that the Free earbuds have four hours of battery life, but the case holds five more full charges. Okay, JBL marketing department, we have to give you that point. We perk up at "24 hours of [vague word] runtime".

On a round table, we find a round case containing the JBL Free. They are paired with something and music is playing. Fabio puts them in his ear first. He wants to change the song. He wants Nirvana again. A smartphone lies near the case and he grabs it. A young woman looks at him questioningly. He looks back, somewhat confused. It dawns on him. "Is that your mobile," he asks. "Yes, it is," she says. Apologies follow, but the woman takes it with humour. She is used to it and the device is also the remote control for the earplugs. The test begins.

Headphones

JBL Free

4 h, Wireless

The involuntary mobile phone thief begins the test. "The high tones are a bit flat," he says. He is also not satisfied with the noise cancelling, which is only passive in the JBL Free. In a large crowd, the enjoyment of music is disturbed. With electronic music, it is also possible that the treble becomes a little scratchy. "But if you listen to metal or rock, this is less of a problem".

I'm not impressed with the JBLs. The main reason: the right earbud doesn't really want to stay in my ear. Left goes well. Right doesn't hold at all. Not that the JBL Free would seek its freedom in the direction of gravity, but it feels as if the earplug is just a bit on, but not snug. My ears are strange. But the sound in my left ear sounds okay, even if the left earbud is a bit thick. So it's not surprising that the sound insulation is rather modest. I can hear the conversation between Fabio and a man almost word for word.

Stephanie is committed to JBL. "I've already bought four JBL headphones. I've lost two and two have broken," she says. So the successor to the JBLs she recently broke by stepping on them is called JBL Free, right? "Well, I was quite sure about that, but then I tried the Sennheiser Momentum Free," she says. Nevertheless, Stephanie doesn't stop at Nirvana. She listens to the next track and when we want to go outside to film the conclusion, we wait until the song ends in Stephanie's ears. The woman from whom Fabio stole the phone finally gets her Samsung phone back and we sit down for the conclusion.

Two times Denmark

The reason we were grateful for the three votes in the tested is that then we don't have a stalemate and then end up on a "we don't want to piss anyone off here" statement like "no one can win, it's all your flavour". Because if three have to choose between two things, then something will have a two-thirds majority.

The video producer clearly opts for the JBL Free. Because the Beoplay E8 don't hold in her ears.
The journalist would buy the Beoplays immediately. Because when you can completely block out the world, it's sometimes much easier to write
The product manager speaks out in favour of the E8 with well-founded reservations. However, he clearly differentiates between the user's taste in music and criticises the lack of app support at launch. This means that a final expert judgement is not really possible

The advice from the editorial team and product management, however, is that you should always try out the headphones before you buy them
.

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Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.

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